Public hearing set on proposed food safety training

Attention restaurant owners: The public hearing on the Cape Girardeau County Health Department's proposed food ordinance will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday before the county commission at the County Administration Building in Jackson.

The ordinance gives the health department authority to shut down an establishment with severe violations of sanititation rules and imposes a new requirement that all employees who handle food take a two-hour course in food safety. Management employees would be required to take a more extensive training course equivalent to the ServSafe training program developed by the National Restaurant Association.

The employee training course would cost $10 and be offered by the health department regularly. Anyone hired by a restaurant would have 45 days to complete the course and receive a certificate good for three years.

In a letter to Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones, Joel A. Neikirk of Midamerica Hotels Corp./Drury Restaurants, said he supported the "drive and passion of the health department on focusing on insuring that management and staff are trained and aware of why food safety is so important."

But, he said, his company prefers an alternative to the safety class and considers many of the requirements burdensome and impediments to finding and hiring new employees. Neikirk wrote that the training should be part of the hiring process.

Requiring entry-level employees to attend the two-hour course at the health department offices would create serious logistical problems and he anticipates language barriers for many prospective workers. And the extra paperwork of keeping track of when an employee was hired and ensuring they take the class "will be excessive and create a burden on managers of the locations that will take significant focus from the cleanliness and safety of the restaurant," Neikirk wrote.

Instead, he suggested that restaurants be required to have employees, prior to handling food, read a National Restaurant Association self-study guide, watch a video on Food Safety Training and take a self-administered test on the materials. A passing grade, he writes, would give the employee a certificate that would be filed at the health department. The proposal, Neikirk wrote, would keep employers in control of employee training and orientation, make sure employees are trained before they handle food and standardize county training with a nationally recognized system.

In addition to food safety training standards, the ordinance would impose annual permit fees based on the type of establishment. The fees range from $60 for a temporary food stand to $270 for a grocery store with a deli, bakery, meat department, produce and seafood. Most restaurants serving food prepared from raw ingredients would pay $165 a year. Not-for-profit operations, including schools, hospitals, nursing homes and senior centers, would be exempt from the fee.

• New diner in Jackson: Speaking of restaurants, by the time the public hearing is held on the food ordinance, Jackson's latest restaurant offering should be in business.

Jackson native Krissty Foster and her fiance, Bobby Steers, have taken over the old Skinny's Diner location at 3125 E. Jackson Blvd., given it a makeover and plan to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with hours from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

Foster said the restaurant, renamed the Jackson Diner, will offer homestyle food with a family atmosphere, including freshly made soups, an extensive breakfast menu and big portions.

The couple moved from southeast Michigan, where Steers operated four restaurants. They saw the 70-seat diner, which has been listed for $990,000 by ERA CapeRealty, while on a visit to Foster's parents.

"The location is just absolutely wonderful," Foster said.

The diner would already be open, Foster said, but just before the deal was closed there was a break-in by thieves after copper electrical wire. Steers' brother has experience in the alarm business, Foster noted and said, "there will be no more of that."

They expect to open for business today, Foster said.

Foster had high praise for real estate agent Ralph Hendrickson, saying he was "absolutely pivotal" in putting the deal together and helped after hours in getting the restaurant ready for opening.

The menu is eight pages long. There will be daily specials and a Friday night all-you-can-eat fish fry, Foster said.

There are two other former Skinny's on the market, one in Perryville, Mo., and one in Miner, Mo. It's too early to say what the future holds, Foster said, but "we have high hopes. Maybe in six months we'll take on another one."

• Cable rates: Charter Communications will increase the price of many of its cable television offerings effective Dec. 1, Eddie Trower, government relations manager for the company's Central States region, reported in a recent letter to the Cape Girardeau County Commission.

The changes will be announced in bills arriving this month, Trower wrote. Among the changes is an increase in the price of basic analog service, from $12.92 to $19.99 per month. The cost of the expanded package will be cut from $39.07 per month to $33. The result for customers who buy both will be a $1 increase.

All the premium packages, for which Charter uses names such as "Big Standard," "Big Premium," "Bigger Standard," etc. will increase by $3 or $6 per month.

Most equipment and service charges will change as well. For example, an HD receiver will increase by 15 cents a month, to $7, while the cost of having a standard digital receiver will fall from $3.85 to $2.

Internet customers have some changes in store as well. Charter will phase out 383 Kbps service Dec. 1, and 3 Mbps service Feb. 1. Every Internet customer will be switched over to 5 Mbps service, and the charge will be $54.99 per month.

• New bank: The Bank of Missouri's newest branch at 2492 E. Main St. in Jackson is open for business. The bank is the first business to open along what Jackson leaders hope will become a commercial corridor from the new Interstate 55 interchange to Shawnee Boulevard. The 3,900-square-foot facility will have an official ribbon-cutting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and will be led by branch operations officer Christy Bock.
• Construction award: Penzel Construction Co. won the 2007 Varco Pruden Buildings Hall of Fame award in the church category for the new building the company constructed for the First Baptist Church of Cape Girardeau. The annual competition recognizes outstanding facilities by VP authorized builders based on the criteria of excellence in design, quality and construction. The building also recently won the National Honor Award from the National Association of Church Design Builders.

Rudi Keller is the business editor for the Southeast Missourian. Contact him at 335-6611, extension 126