The Parkway West Career and Technology Center has cooked up a plan to remodel its Culinary Arts department this summer, installing new equipment to bring the kitchen up to industry standards.

The renovations will update approximately half of the cookerys machinery, culinary instructor Michael Thimcheck said. Construction began May 1 and will continue through August.

The construction will cost about $650,000 and will be funded by the 12 school districts that send 9th- through 12th-grade students to Parkway Wests vocational and technical programs. This is the kitchens first update since it was constructed in 1978.

Mr. Thimcheck said the new equipment will align with Pennsylvanias standards for Culinary Arts and will better prepare students for the professional culinary world.

Well be able to teach differently, he said. Instead of it being more of a kitchen built for catering and buffet work, we can do what we callla carte work.

Unlike the old kitchens format, which was best suited to large-volume cooking, the new arrangement, which uses a line structure, will enable chefs to prepare food to order.

You would have broilers, fryers, steamers and ovens right there at the cooks fingertips so that the food can go right out, Mr. Thimcheck said.We didnt have that before. We just had the equipment scattered throughout the kitchen.

The renovations also will permit the department to teach a waiter and waitress system that is analogous to ones used in restaurants.

Students will be able to take orders and place [them] in the point-of-sales register, which have all of the menu items pre-set, just like any other food service operation, Mr. Thimcheck said. The order goes into the kitchen on a small printer, and the chefs or cooks prepare the order.

The Culinary Arts program typically enrolls 80 to 90 students at the start of each school year, but Mr. Thimcheck said the new facilities might prompt more students to register.

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Parkway West remodels Culinary Arts department

Jennifer Adams

Q: Weve been saving for three years and finally have enough to remodel our kitchen! My contractor says it will take two to three months. I went from very excited to now feeling a little let down. I watch all the design shows on TV and they get major remodels finished in just a couple of days. Some even get it done while youre at dinner. What is a realistic time frame?

Deanna

A: I also love watching design shows! And, having been on HGTV, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Hallmark Channels The Better Show myself, Ill share some inside secrets. Unfortunately, it wont help your time frame get shorter.

Behind the scenes, these shows have so many people swarming all over the houses being remodeled. And, they work around the clock! Each person has a carefully orchestrated job, the decisions are made long before starting, and all the materials are pre-ordered and staged on site. Its quite a production and amazing to be a part of.

On screen, however, you wont see that army. And, through the magic of editing, what might seem to be a couple days may be two or three weeks. There might even be a few tasks the team finishes after the shooting stops!

In real life, most licensed contractors have a team of just two or three people, if that, plus their subcontractors. Add up the labor done by an army in three weeks, and that can easily turn into several months when done by a smaller team. It will help if youre organized and plan ahead with your decisions, however.

And, each project is different. Even if your kitchen remodel is just replacing the cabinets, appliances, finishes and flooring, there could be unknown problems that require fixing or working around.

Living through any remodel, particularly a kitchen, is hard. But patience will pay off when you get your own big reveal. Let me know how it goes and send pictures!

Jennifer Adams is an award-winning designer, writer and TV personality who can answer your design and lifestyle questions. Send your questions to AskJennifer@JenniferAdams.com http://www.jenniferadams.com

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TV paints unrealistic idea of remodel time

In recent years, Half Moon Bay leaders, girding themselves for a shoestring budget, had to decide to make do with much less. That meant the city delayed infrastructure projects, pulled back services and generally tried to keep the town running with a skeleton crew.

One lesser-known consequence of those lean years was a backlog of hundreds of incomplete, expired building permits. These permits ranged from simple bathroom or kitchen remodels to the construction of entire new buildings. In most of the cases, the property owner applied for permits, but never called the citys Building Department to close out the project. Meanwhile, the city wasnt taking an active role and was waiting for homeowners to make contact.

City officials believe that in many cases property owners were deliberately closing out their projects. Property owners did so to avoid higher property taxes, said Community Development Director Dante Hall.

They feel that somewhere, somehow, some way the state will call for a reassignment of taxes, he said. People didnt want to call for a final because they felt their property will be reassessed.

Any construction or improvements on a property can trigger new assessed property taxes, according to rules established by the state Board of Equalization. However, most homeowners who took out building permits had already paid all the citys fees. The only way they would be charged more by the city was if their work was incomplete and the city needed to do an extra inspection, Hall said.

For its part, the city didnt have the staff to enforce its own rules. The Building Department is almost entirely contracted labor. Resolving expired permits wasnt made a priority for more than a year, so the problem continued to grow, Hall said.

As part of the city budget, Public Works officials reported earlier this month they had a backlog of more than 400 expired building permits. Most projects on the list were minor fix-ups for single-family homes like roof replacements, new windows or installing water heaters.

City officials say they are already on top of the problem and have whittled down this number. Over the last three months, Building Department staff have been calling up property owners to warn them their permits were expired. Most, if not all, of the permits have been brought into compliance, Hall said.

Steps were being taken to ensure the problem didnt return during the next economic lull, he said. The city has been implementing a permit-tracking system for the Planning and Building Departments that would alert staff when a project was due to expire. That system would be fully integrated in the coming months, Hall said.

We dont anticipate this happening again, he said. When it gets near for a permit to expire, were on it.

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HMB whittles down permit backlog

CHANNEL DISTRICT Two different restaurant-bar concepts separated by a soundproof wall add variety to the Channel District dining and drinking scene. Maloney's Local Irish Pub will open June 23, and the Hideaway lounge will open about a month later, in Grand Central at Kennedy, on the corner of Meridian and Madison streets.

Co-owners Brian Pfeiffer and Todd Wingard also operate Maloney's in Westchase (since 2009) and the Hideaway in Clearwater (since 2010).

"It's hard to find the right place," Pfeiffer said. "We've been looking for a long time."

The restaurants are completely different entities but do share a kitchen and two large bathrooms.

Maloney's will serve Irish fare shepherd's pie, fish and chips, bangers and mash, and more "in time to watch the World Cup," Wingard said, looking at a dozen TVs suspended over shamrock green walls and a mahogany-stained bar running the length of the room. The sports pub will offer 32 beers on tap. An overhead rollup wall opens to an outside bar and patio.

Cash out your tab before you slide next door to the Hideaway, an upscale club expected to open by Aug. 1. Sushi chefs will roll fresh favorites as mixologists craft specialty cocktails. Rollup doors access an 80-foot canopy area for outdoor guests

Both restaurants will be open seven days a week at Grand Central at 1120 E Kennedy Blvd. Visit maloneyslocalirishpub.com and thehdwy.com for hours.

TooJay's headed to SunTrust building

What color will the lights blaze atop the SunTrust Financial Center to herald the June 23 opening of TooJay's Restaurant and Deli?

How about corned beef red and dill pickle green?.

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Restaurants and kitchen design company to open bay locations

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The Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corp. says it will fix some drywall in Veronica Butlers Buckmasters Circle home, replace carpeting, repair flashing and caulk around the outside of windows to address leaking.

This summer and fall, Newfoundland and Labrador Housing will spend $500,000 in Buckmasters Circle to re-shingle or repair roofs, in preparation for a spring 2015 replacement of windows, doors and siding.

Butlers unit is included in that overhaul work.

Butler was frustrated with the condition of her townhouse and appealed to St. Johns South Liberal MHA Tom Osborne, who looked over the situation with TheTelegram last month. In addition to leaks and damaged drywall, Butler had a major mouse infestation.

Since then, pest control officers have been in to set traps, and housing has assessed the issues and told The Telegram this week about the work it plans.

Butler said shes good with getting new windows next year as long as the other repairs start soon and the leaks are fixed in the meantime.

Osborne also said it sounds like some progress is being made.

Meanwhile, Butler remains unconvinced insulation around a pipe in her basement is not disturbed asbestos and is planning on getting it tested herself. NLHC has said its another type of insulation.

telegram@thetelegram.com

Organizations: Newfoundland and Labrador Housing, The Telegram

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Work scheduled for womans NLHC home following complaints

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