CAMPUS/AREA
UN I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
Friday, October 6, 1995
3A
Has your meal been inspected?
It's been years since some restaurants have been evaluated
By Tara Trenary Kansan staff writer
Finding out how clean and healthy a restaurant is now may be left up to the customer, not the health department.
But how often it inspects a restaurant is not a policy — it is left up to the inspector.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment in Topeka inspects restaurants in Lawrence.
It has been as long ago as 1989 since some Lawrence restaurants have been inspected.
"The government does not devote a lot of resources for these things," said Mike O'Donnell, director of the KU Small Business Development
Jason Leigh, manager of Tin Pan Alley, 1105 Massachusetts St., said that there had been a number of improvements in the restaurant since its last inspection in 1991, when the restaurant received a 75 out of 100 points
states are more thorough than Kansas is."
RU Small Business Development Center, 734 Vermont St. 'Other
Is your favorite restaurant safe?
Out of 25 restaurants in Lawrence, the 10 low- to Department of Health ratings (worst at top):
Restaurant Address Rating Date Inspected
Panda Garden 1500 W. Sixth St. 67 March 19, 1991
Full Moon Cafe 803 Massachusetts St. 71 Sept. 14, 1993
Dos Hombres 815 New Hampshire St. 72 Sept. 29, 1993
Amigos 1819 W. 23rd St. 74 April 2, 1991
Perkins 1711 W. 23rd St. 74 July 11, 1994
Tin Pan Alley 1105 Massachusetts St. 75 March 12, 1991
Wagon Wheel Cafe 1401 Ohio St. 78 March 19, 1991
Yacht Club 530 Wisconsin St. 78 March 13, 1991
Hardee's 1313 W. sixth St. 78 Feb. 25, 1991
Taco Bell 1220 W. sixth St. 81 Aug. 14, 1990
source: Kansas Dept. of, Health and Environment Food
establishment, Josephine Revert
Andy Rohrback/KANSAN
"We would probably score a lot higher now," Leigh said.
"If it's known to have a good record, we won't go back for awhile."
Taco Bell, 1220 W. Sixth St., which was last inspected in 1990 and received a score of 81. He ordered a burrito supreme and a soft taco supreme. When he took a bite out of the burrito, he got a shock he will never forget.
"I'd like to see it happen more often," Leigh said.
Could some restaurants be healthier, and some unhealthier, than their last inspection reflects?
But he also said that when restaurants ask for an inspection, it can take months until the Health Department complies.
Daily Webb, Springfield, Mo.
junior, thinks so.
Roger Ozias
Lawrence inspector
Last week Webb drove through
"A spider fell out of the bottom of the burrito," he said. "It had weaved an inside web in the burrito."
Webb opened the burrito only to find the spider, the web, two live ants and a cigarette butt.
"I was pretty upset," he said. "I've eaten fast food since this, but I've been
wary about what I've bitten into."
Scott Taylor, Taco Bell relief manager on duty the night Webb went in, said that he took back Webb's burrito but did not look in the bag.
"The guy is obviously looking for attention," he said. "This is a well-run store. Sometimes we make mistakes, but we don't put bugs in our food."
Of the 25 Lawrence restaurant inspections studied by the Kansan, 10 scored below 81.
Points were deleted for violations
in these categories: food protection, personnel cleanliness, food-equipment cleanliness, water, sewage, plumbing, garbage disposal, insect, rodent and animal control, and properly maintained premises.
Roger Ozias, Lawrence inspector, said that the inspections were done primarily when the Health Department had received complaints or when a restaurant had just opened or had changed ownership.
Ozias also said that inspections depended on reputation.
"If it's known to have a good record, we won't go back for awhile," he said.
He said that as of late 1994, restaurants were no longer given scores and that they now concentrated on temperatures, hygiene, water availability and violations that could cause illness.
Restaurants that repeatedly violate the inspections are fined up to $500, Ozias said.
Ozias said that closing a restaurant with repeat violations was too time-consuming and that having to do repeat inspections on those restaurants took away from routine inspections.
"After you've been in your territory for a while, you get a feel for how long it's been," Ozias said.
But is six years too long?
"You'd hope someone would keep up with these things," Mike O'Donnell said.
Parking lots plagued by frequent burglaries
- THE PROBLEM: Parking lots are hot spots for crime
Unattended cars provide opportunities for thieves
By Scott Worthington Kansan staff writer
Here's the story of a KU student who parked.
It's almost 1 p.m. Tuesday when she pulls into Lot 117, the Watkins Memorial Health Center parking lot. She just wants to drop off a paper. It's a nice day, so she leaves the sunroof open and the windows down on her Volkswagen Jetta. Two minutes later, she returns to her car. She sees a man inside that she has never seen before. Her Alpine car stereo has his attention.
After she confronts him, he walks away. She calls the police.
Police arrest the would-be thief on the Allen Field House Service Drive. He tells the police he thought he saw something inside the car that belonged to him.
Had the student's trip taken longer than two minutes, something inside the car probably would have belonged to him.
The student, a St Louis sophomore who, fearful the burglar would seek her out, wished not to be identified. She is one of the fortunate. She lost nothing. But many KU students have items ranging from parking passes to car stereos stolen in campus parking lots each year.
"It makes a good shopping location for burglars," said Sgt. Rose Rozmiarek of the KU police.
From Aug.15 to the end of September, 56 parking lot crimes were reported. Forty-three were burglaries, which means the car was physically entered, and items were removed. Last year, of 1,396 total crimes reported on campus, 531 occurred in parking lots.
About half of this year's crimes
it's kind of odd that the only things they are taking are parking passes," she said.
Students faced with having to pay another $53 for a yellow parking pass may claim a lost pass is stolen, Hultine said.
The parking department's policy is: If you lose a parking pass, you pay full price for a replacement. If it is stolen, you can get a new one for $3 if you fill out a police report.
Most parking lot crimes this year were committed without force; in other words, the cars were not locked.
Megan Norris, Kansas City, Kan., sophomore, left her locked car in Lot 50, east of Joseph R. Pearson Hall, for three days. She left her windows just slightly cracked. Her new yellow pass pass never stood a chance.
"I think we may create that situation ourselves with our policy," she said.
Parking lots everywhere attract crime, Rozmiarek said. The best thing a student can do is make the burglar work harder.
The following are the KU parking lots with the highest number of primes:
Sticky Fingers
"If people are breaking into cars to steal things, I think
Lot 90 (south of Robinson Center)—8
The big thing we try to tell people is to keep the doors locked.
About half of this year's crimes have been parking-pass thefts, which has Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking services, a bit skeptical.
Lot 114 (Stouffer Place) — 5
Lot 111 (Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall) — 5
Lot 112 — Oliver Hall
Lot 50 (east of Joseph R. Pearson Hall) — 3
Lot 105 (southwest of McCollum Hall) — 3
locked and the windows locked up," she said. "We don't have a lot of people breaking windows to steal things."
But it does happen.
John Schroeber, Olathe senior, left his locked car in Lot 123, north of Stouffer Place, for a day and a half. When he returned, the $500 passenger-side window had been smashed and a $300 CD player had been removed.
Police regularly patrol parking lots and occasionally set up surveillance, but they don't have enough officers to watch them all the time, Rozmiarek said.
Parking services enters stolen parking-pass numbers into the hand-held computers its ticket writers use so that it can do random checks. Student caught with stolen passes, will be fined and reported to police and their cars will be to.
and their cars will be towed. But stolen passes are elusive.
"We're not finding them," Hutline said. "It's probably because this campus is so huge, plus it's a fairly random process."
AIDS education
Denise and Spencer Brown, Smithville, Mo., residents, are battling HIV. They were two of the five participants in a panel discussion about AIDS and HIV last night in the Hashington Hall Theater.
Pam Dishman / KANSAN
Panel tells students about life with HIV
Members advise students to be wary, get tested often
By Joann Birk Kansan staff writer
About 50 University of Kansas students donned red ribbons last night and listened to the words and saw the faces of four people living with HIV.
The students gathered at 7 p.m. in Hashinger Hall Theater as part of the residence hall's effort to increase AIDS awareness.
The panel, which included one HIV-positive KU student, an HIV-positive couple, an HIV-positive man and an AIDS educator from Watkins Memorial Health Center, stressed the importance of educating everyone about the realities of AIDS.
After a period of shock, he decided to continue his education and live his dream of becoming an architect. I realized that I was not going to live my life
Jim West, Oklahoma City, Okla., senior said he found out he was HIV-positive in 1992.
in regret, just feeling sorry for myself." West said.
As chairman of the Douglas County AIDS project, West speaks in classes and throughout the community about the disease.
Spencer Brown, 28, and Denise Brown, 27, spoke about living with HIV in a small town. The husband and wife, who live in Smithville, Mo., said that they and their 4-year-old son, who is not HIV-positive, had encountered discrimination.
"If the same behaviors are going on here now as there were then, then this AIDS awareness program is a good thing." he said.
when he attended the University almost a decade ago.
Janine Gracy Watkins health educator
"I just want people to treat me normal and not tiptoe around me," Denise Brown said.
Spencer Brown said the discussion in Hashinger had a special significance for him because he lived in Hashinger
Both Denise Brown and Jim West contracted HIV from long-term partners who knew they had the virus but didn't tell their partners. The panel said students shouldn't trust anyone's word and should be tested every three months if they are sexually active.
Janine Gracy, health educator at Watkins, said that people needed to ignore HIV stereotypes. Statistics show that one in 500 college students are HIV-positive, meaning that approximately 50 KU students probably have the virus, she said.
"It is here, and it has been here for quite a while," she said.
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