By Pete Soyer
About three weeks after closing the Park restaurant, a Havre couple has closed two other local businesses.
The Park Hotel and the Taco Time fast-food restaurant closed this week.
The owners, Ron and Betty Knudson, could not be located for comment.
Andy Long, an employee of Taco Time, said he worked the closing shift at Taco Time on Sunday, its last day of operation. After Long and another employee were done closing, Ron Knudson told them Taco Time would be shutting its doors.
"That's the last time I talked to him," Long said.
Long said he had suspected that Taco Time was going to close after the Park restaurant closed July 31. He said Knudson didn't give him advance notice that he'd be losing his job.
Long, who will be a senior at Havre High School, worked at Taco Time for about seven months, working the counter and cooking. The couple operated the restaurant for at least six years.
The Park Hotel also closed this week. The Knudsons signed the deed back to the previous owners, Rod and Debbie Morse of Billings, on Tuesday, according to records at the Hill County Clerk and Recorder's Office.
The Knudsons had agreed to purchase the Park Hotel from the Morses on June 30, 2000.
Ron Knudson said in a previous interview that he was forced to close the Park restaurant because of a flat economy in Havre.
He said he tried to keep it open through the summer, but thought rumors of high gas prices kept tourists away. He added that the drought also hurt business.
He said the hotel wasn't going to be affected by the restaurant closure and would be staying open.
