TOWN OF MASHPEE
BOARD OF HEALTH – PUBLIC MEETING
Minutes of the Meeting of July 14, 2005
Board Members Present: Also Present:
Glenn Santos, Chairman Glen Harrington, Health Agent
Steven Ball, Co-Chairman
Lucy Burton, Clerk
Chairman Glenn Santos called the meeting to order at 7:01 PM.
APPOINTMENTS
Persy’s Restaurant – Newton Heston
Glenn Santos: Please state your name for the record.
Newton Heston: Newton Heston.
Glen Harrington: Back on July 1, sorry, June 30th, Persy’s Restaurant had a small grease fire on one of their stoves at the end of the cooking line right next to their side door, and the Fire Department came and put the fire out and I was called to make an inspection to check the facility out as was the Building and the Gas Inspector. Stan Eldredge, the plumbing inspector as the gas inspector, required that each of the gas appliances be certified by a licensed gas fitter and that each of the units be cleaned because of the buildup of grease within each of the units. I also had my requirements, too, to get the grease cleaned because the Fire Dept. made a mess of things by spilling the grease all over the side of the kitchen and across the kitchen. So it was just a matter of cleaning the grease because
there was very little damage done by the fire because it was just the grease that was on fire and one handle of a cart. So the gas inspector and myself gave requirements that had to be done to them in order to be open. So the Health Agent and myself returned the next day and performed a full inspection to see if they were open and available to get them to see if they could open full time. There were still several items that needed to be done and we went through both the dining area and the remainder of the kitchen beyond the areas that were burned or affected by the fire and came up with some critical violations and noncritical violations and we returned again at 9:15 in the morning, and stopped by at noon and there were some things that were not done and we stopped by again at 4 o’clock and by 4 o’clock each of the items had been corrected so that they were available to be open for the 4th of July weekend. They had addressed
everything, they had cleaned everything, but it took them the day of the 1st to do that. There were critical and noncritical violations noted, and through the Board’s previous decision of Oct. 13, 2004 on a previous inspection when Mr. Heston and the restaurant facility was brought before the Board for repeated sanitary violations, the Board had issued a fine and also a decision stating that any critical food violations found during a one year period from receipt of the Oct. 13th decision letter then a summary suspension of the food establishment for a specified period by the Board would have to be made. So, that’s why Mr. Heston is brought back before the Board tonight.
Steven Ball: How many critical violations on this last inspection?
Glen Harrington: It was basically one type. There were 5 violations, but there were food contact surfaces in different locations that needed to be cleaned.
Steven Ball: So 1 critical and 4 noncritical?
Glen Harrington: No, there were 5 critical. There was just that one type in five different locations.
Michele: I have a question. I got the write-ups right here, and not one thing was listed critical under the critical item list. I’m a little confused as to which ones were critical.
Glen: Right, and we don’t usually determine that in the field. I went back afterwards and looked through the code to see essentially what would be critical and what would be non-critical. I don’t take the time to do that in the field. The criticals that were found on the 7/01/05 inspection report, the 9:15 to 9:45, the first Section 25 was critical, the second was not, the third was critical, the code reference 27 was not critical, the next code reference 25 was critical, and code reference 8 was a critical, the food uncovered in the walk-in, and the last number 25 oven racks and catch pans needed to be cleaned was a critical. So there are 5 criticals.
Lucy: Can you tell me again back in October, since I wasn’t here, on the Board, the Board issued a fine and stated any further violations within a one-year period.
Glen: The Board voted the above-referenced food facility has been placed on probation for a period of one year from receipt of this letter. Further ensuing violations found during this time by the Board or its agents will result in immediate summary suspension of the food establishment permit for a time specified by the Board. And the Board ordered reinspection by the Agent by Nov. 18th that they were in compliance with any violations that were seen on October 15th 2004 which we had done and they were okay, and they reopened per the Board’s decision.
Newton Heston: I have prepared some sheets I would like to pass out to you folks to show you what this problem has caused us to do and hopefully you’ll see that we think we have it totally under control. I’m not here to make excuses, but we did have our inspection last winter, after this problem, and the inspection looked quite good. There were no critical violations at that time. Since that time we have lost a couple of long term employees in the kitchen. We lost our head manager to maternity leave and up until recently we were able to replace those people so we were functioning with a staff that was not what we normally have. That’s why we brought the team that we have here now because everyone here although new to this restaurant, but most of them have served our company for a
long time at other locations. They have a lot of experience. And so I think if I can pass this out to you, it kind of breaks down where we are and the next page shows you what we have done to make certain that this cannot happen again. A lot of reading here but I guess it shows that we put a lot of time into it, and as I said we were functioning with only one manager because of this personnel problem, and now we have four, two in the dining room and two in the kitchen. The new managers come from our Kingston restaurant where as you might know had an unfortunate fire and lost the restaurant. That was a tough one for us because that was the first restaurant where we all learned the business. And not that that is an excuse for us, but it was a difficult loss. But Michelle was the manager of the kitchen in Kingston and she also was the manager of the kitchen down in Dartmouth. Bridgette has been our dining room manager in Hyannis up until
a short time ago and then she left the company and came back to work in Mashpee. If you were to talk to anybody in the restaurant about Bridgette they would say that she is probably the toughest dame we ever had. So that I am sure that anyone who trains with her in charge of the dining room is her own effort to Andy was in Kingston also as dining room manager. So we have brought down 3 people from the Kingston restaurant.
On top of this, we have hired a professional cleaning company who comes in every week, not that we shouldn’t be doing it ourselves, but to do the real deep cleaning. That has started, they came in for the first time last night and they are coming back Monday night and every Monday.
Glenn Santos: Do you have a contract with them?
Newton Heston: We have a verbal contract, but not a written one. But I did put right here on this sheet who they are.
Glenn: That name doesn’t mean too much to me.
Newton Heston: And then we had a problem with a hood system being more greasy than it should be even though we’ve been on a contract with the same company for years with all the restaurants and I guess the state code is every six months to have that system cleaned and we were on that schedule and it wasn’t due for cleaning until August, next month. But for some reason, I don’t know why, because we do very little frying there, French fries only, but for some reason the hoods were greasier than they should be so we, you’ll find a letter from the hood company there, that we have contacted them and they have cleaned the system since Glen was there and they have also agreed to change our schedule and will clean us every 3 months during the busy season instead of every 6 months, every 4 months.
Michelle and Josh are both certified. Michelle just got her certification and got 95 on the test, did very well in the sanitary and maintenance department.
Glenn Santos: Anyone want to say anything?
Steven Ball: Glen, on your reinspection, everything’s okay now?
Glen Harrington: Yes, everything seemed fine.
Steven Ball: And they were shut down:
Glen Harrington: Yes.
Steven Ball: And for how long?
Glen Harrington: For a day. Each time we were shooting for noontime and that didn’t happen, and then later in the afternoon and that didn’t happen, and then we went for 4 o’clock.
Steven Ball: Well, they’ve been on notice since Oct. 13, 2004 and they had one year and they do have critical violations and I think we should address those issues. And also, consider to continue probation for another year. And on the critical violations, my thought to the Board is fines. We’ve already been here once. How many times are we going to do it?
Lucy Burton: Well, I wasn’t here, but I think that I would feel that the Board decided in the past that if any more of the violations within the time frame of 1 year occurred then take it to the next step. I also am wondering about the cleanings during the peak season. The peak season is about 3 months.
Newton Heston: It’s more than that, it’s 6 months. But that’s not the thing. The normal time frame is 6 months, and we are going to 4 months during the very slow season, and 3 months during half of the year. We can do that every 3 months if it makes you feel better about it. We’d like to have you view the one day that we were closed which was the Friday before the July 4th, which was probably the busiest Friday of the year as satisfying in that situation. I am hoping that what I’m showing you here is that we now have the situation under control. We have a real strong team with a lot of experience, a lot of numbers, I mean we are going to have a manager on duty in the dining room all the time and all the time in the kitchen.
On top of that we have a cleaning company coming in and changed all the schedules of these people.
Lucy Burton: That’s a very good step in the right direction.
Michelle Barnacoat: I’m one of the managers that came from Kingston. I would just like to say that I was there on that Friday and didn’t realize that some of these issues were critical, and would have tried to make sure to put all my time and effort to make sure those things were done before you were called back. But I would like to say for all the team that this isn’t just a job for us. It is our life, I included, and it is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Glenn Santos: Okay, I have a question for Michelle. Were you the person in charge?
Michelle: I was the one there on Friday. I was not in charge.
Glenn Santos: You are ServSafe Certified.
Michelle: I just passed that.
Glenn Santos: Prior to the fire, you took the test, did the course, okay, and the point I am trying to make, and I’m not trying to single you out on this, but you just got through saying to me and it concerns me, is that just because you have certification, you are not aware of the rules and regulations of the
ServSafe program because if these are serious violations that’s what you are taught in class. I’ve gone through the class, I know the class. That’s a concern. We have a lot of people out there that have the certificate but they don’t know have a clue what they’re supposed to be looking for and what they’re not looking for. So that’s a concern. Mr. Heston, we had the same conversation back in October. You basically did the same thing back in October. We basically had to send you a letter saying your permit to serve was going to be revoked unless you came in front of the Board and explained the violations and what the remedy was to the problem. And then you came in and I believe we had a lot of the same stuff, this is what we’re going to do, we’ve
got everything in hand now, and here we are back again with very similar violations to what happened back in October. Uncovered stuff in the cooler, stuff now cleaned, everything. I appreciate what you brought here, but in all due fairness to you, if you came in here and said, “Here’s my contract with Diamond Touch, I contracted them for the next year, and this is how often they are going to come in and clean”, I would feel better about that. But showing me this, that you have a verbal agreement, that doesn’t mean nothing because when you leave here, the verbal agreement can be over with. Evidently your staff on hand
Newton Heston: I don’t operate that way. If I tell you that we’re going to do that, everyone who has known me all my life knows I am nothing off my word because my word is solid. Please don’t imply that.
I tell you that is better than a written agreement because it’s my word.
Glenn Santos: But you also understand my concern. My concern is for the welfare of the people that are eating in your establishment and if you are not standing up to the rules and regulations stated by this Health Department and the State. And we are supposed to allow you a food service permit? Pardon me, Board Members but this really irks me. Because the point I am trying to make is, here we go again, the same thing we did in October, and we are discussing the same issues. I appreciate it, but if someone came in here with something more concrete, and you’re saying your word is the law, well we were promised a lot of the same stuff last October, and here we are again in July having a lot of the same problems. I’m not happy and I’m not satisfied with what you’ve done. That’s my own personal opinion.
Newton Heston: What is there about this that I am not addressing that I should be addressing right now?
Glenn Santos: What you should be addressing is that the food establishment should be up to code. If you had a fire, we went in there and did an inspection, there should not be all these violations. I agree with you, Steve, if we do allow him to stay open, that we extend the probation period. I believe back in October, and I believe that you and I had the same conversation at that time, that probation and suspension of your food service permit for 6 months, I believe I did say that back then. I don’t know. I’m really not satisfied. I appreciate what you are doing here, but you’re doing it basically to stay open. And that’s what happened back in October. I can’t understand why this same level of cleanliness and doing it by the book can’t be done year
round. Because if it can’t be done year round you don’t need to be serving food in this town. I’m sorry, that’s my own opinion. I also understand about change of hands but you also understand the ServSafe food code states that you will have a person in charge who knows the rules and regulations that knows temperatures and monitoring of the coolers and what’s to be covered and how to put the food in the coolers, and everything else. I understand that, personnel do change. But it is your responsibility to make sure you have somebody there that knows the regulations so that people don’t get sick and you have grease fires and everything else.
Newton Heston: Well, I’m sure that the team we have now has got that under control. I understand what you are saying 100%. But I just feel I have 100% confidence in these four people that the four managers in a restaurant of that size is a very heavy management staff and they have a lot of experience so that I think that we are hoping Glen would stop by because I think he would have left with a smiling face, I hope he would.
Glen Harrinton: I was satisfied when I left, before you opened. Glenn, if I could just offer some recommendations after going through this. We’ve been through this before with other facilities and ran into at Great Wall with similar violations and what we ended up doing, and also what we did with Mobil so this is nothing new as far as having ServSafe people for all the establishment employees, and also having in-house training for a period of time. And also the cleaning company was something else that I was going to recommend. As far as it could be done after hours, I don’t know if once a week is going to do it because once a week is fine for the facility but it’s not going to do it for the daily cleaning that needs to be done in the kitchen because that was not being done and it was
obvious from the amount of the buildup of the grease there. I don’t know if it was explained to you but at the time of the fire and Michelle was there, the hood and the amount of grease coming off there, into a catch pan that the grease goes into and then comes down and by gravity flows into catch pans. The catch pan at the right end where the fire was, was overflowing with grease.
Josh: It was actually water. The Fire Dept. was actually spraying water. He actually stuck his hand in, and it was actually water from the hose.
Glen Harrington: We did empty it but there was no catch pan at the other end and the grease was on the floor, and the catch pan on the right end, granted it may have been water from the fire, but there was grease also on the floor. So there is a reasonable amount of grease buildup on the hood and so I think the daily cleaning was not being done. I don’t know who this Diamond Cleaning is, and I don’t know what they’re good at, but I think it should be someone who was familiar with a kitchen and do the actual facilities in the kitchen. Just doing the floors and the walls, I don’t know if they are aware of the sanitizers necessary and if they are going to be putting other harmful detergents on the equipment, I don’t know these people at all. The other items were the review of
personnel, and actually to change their protocol as far as their shifts so that there are additional people there at 11 after hours to do the cleaning, whether that had been looked at as far as where the shifts can be alternated or staggered so that some people are left after hours to do the cleaning.
Steven Ball: But we’re running into management now. If they don’t do it, we’ll just go in and inspect them and that’s their problem, not ours.
Glenn Santos: Last time he did come in with a plan with his staff because there was an issue about the freqiuency of checking the temperatures in the coolers. Mr. Heston, wasn’t there an issue about that?
Newton Heston: I don’t remember that.
Glenn Santos: I believe that was Persy’s. But he did come in with a very good plan about, I don’t know if you remember it, but they had a better plan for record keeping of temperatures at times during the day because that was one of the violations back in October. I’m trying to remember it, Glen.
Newton Heston: Part of our problem with that part of the thing was the problem with personnel.
OLD BUSINESS
NEW BUSINESS
Warrants
Warrants were signed by the Board members.
Approval of Minutes
January 20, 2005 corrected minutes. Steven Ball moved that the minutes be approved as corrected. Glenn Santos seconded the motion. All agreed.
February 17, 2005 corrected minutes. Glenn Santos ;moved that the minutes be approved as corrected. Steven Ball seconded the motion. All agreed.
June 16, 2005 minutes. Corrections: on page 1, under APPOINTMENTS, paragraph 4, line 1, change Mandy to Manny. On page 5, under OLD BUSINESS, paragraph 2, line 1, change Deerfield to Deer.
Steven Ball moved that the 6/16/05 minutes be approved as corrected. Lucy Burton seconded the motion. All agreed.
June 30, 2005 minutes. Steven Ball moved that the minutes be approved as submitted. Lucy Burton seconded the motion. All agreed.
Review and Sign BOH Support for BCDH & E
Glen Harrington commented that right now the County is trying to take over the entire septic loan program and they have legislation that has been approved from the State legislature in order to do that. Because the loan program was initially written as a contract between the State Wastewater Fund and Trust to the Board of Health, that the Board of Health also had to sign off on it. Selectmen from each of the 15 towns on the Cape have already signed off; now the Boards of Health involved in the initial contract must sign off on it as well.
Lucy Burton moved that the Board of Health give Glenn Santos authorization to sign off on the document. Steven Ball seconded the motion. All agreed.
Review & Approve: Landfill Monitoring & Engineering Consultant Contract, Woodard & Curran
Glen Harrington commented that this is the annual contract for monitoring of the landfill for the gas and ground fill and water sampling. There are no major changes to the contract. However, there has been no monitoring of sediment since 2002. Glen Harrington will send a letter to Ron St. Michel requesting testing of the sediment.
Glenn Santos moved that the BOH approve the consulting contract with Woodard & Curran, dated 6/27/05. Steven Ball seconded the motion. All agreed.
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