State Inspection Scheduling

I haven't had the pleasure of the health inspectors yet, but, I built cell towers for a year while between jobs that I liked and all the inspectors seem to be like that one. They ride you like a nickel ride at wal-mart and don't have a clue what they are talking about.

Good luck on your inspection, I would make sure that both of you are there for that one and document the heck out of it, that way you have a leg to stand on if you have to complain.

That guy sounds like a jerk.

Our Mn Dept of Health inspection was done by our county guy. He's a great guy. Had a big smile the whole time. Happy to get out of the office; happy for us.

I ran into him at our local Ribfest, sneaking around, so I had a beer with him. Small town stuff.

Our MN Dept of Ag Inspector is the same way. An ex small town butcher shop owner, he really offers common sense. I call him regularly at his home to pick his brain.

Good Luck! Roger

peg,
hang tuff!!!!!
remember my 2nd favorite quote is "nothing of any lasting greatness is ever accomplished by reasonable men"
if that fails remember my favorite quote "what men call social vitrue,good fellowship,is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter which lie close together to keep each other warm"
also keep in mind that every sharp shooter is down here for the stinking superbowl.
you know how our thefts have gone up from jacksonville running there winos down here well i got an idea that the inspectors are maxxed out!!! keep fighting the good fight!!! see you friday!!!!
god i hate football(bunch of little girly men with helmets. whats up with that?? rugby players dont wear helmets)
darn shame the world finals for rugby cant be here. we could watch a real mans game and watch the springboks tear up the new zealand all blacks!!!
you are doing a great job!!!
welcome to food service
jack

Roger, I was in Mankato in early August for Training Camp and went to the Ribfest. That is where I saw my first Cookshack and now I am the owner of a SM150. A vendor from Texas was using an FE and showed me how they work. That got me hooked so I called to order one but ended up with an electric since I don't do comps. Mankato is really a nice town.
wbear

Bear- Was that the Texas Rib Rangers at Ribfest?

I saw a So. Pride there. Unless they had Tom W's pellet smoker. Was it older with a garage style door?

My son Paul worked with the Carolina Rib Kings. They are great guys. They want him to go on the road with them. Paul thought we should be venders; I said he should work with them before we do that. He now sees my point: We don't own enough equiptment for that type of venue.

If you are back for the Vikings Training camp next year, give me a call.

Roger

I called sweet little Renaldo (aka MR RUDE) and started off with, "Are you driving right now? Because I am so sorry if I called you back yesterday at a bad time for you. I understand you are probably very busy right now, with the Superbowl coming soon and I'm in no big hurry, so you can take your time, la, la, la, la..."
His reply, "I talked to my boss yesterday. He said you'll have to park the trailer by your comissary for the inspection since I don't know where anything is in St. Augustine." I said in order for him to test our equipment, we needed to have power on for a while to get temperatures down in the refrigerator and freezer and the location of our comissary won't permit long term parking. In barely understandable English he replies, "Lady, that is what my boss says. That's your problem." I also asked if I could email him a list of everything we had ready for him so he could see at his leisure that we had prepared for this. "Absolutely not! My boss won't allow that." "And what is your supervisor's name?" "Steve ....(indecipherable gibberish)" "Could you spell his last name, please?" "NO!"

OK, guys, knowing I'm beat, I told him to have a good day, waited 2 hours for my stomach to calm down, called the state and requested to be assigned a different inspector. I told them I think the language problem might be the cause of all the misunderstanding, and that I sure didn't want to antagonize my inspector by speaking English. Of course, the person I spoke with was very nice indeed and said she'd forward my request.

If the next inspector is named Osama, I'll call them back and request Renaldo again.
Peggy

hang tuff peg!!!!
the request for diff inspect was good
you are doing great!!!!
isn't the superbowl wonderful
just think if this was los angles we could see the 7's
pool c is south africa springboks, australia, canada and usa. ez walk for springboks.
pool a has the whinny limeys so final game should be great.
see ya friday!!!
jack
ps. don't forget you are related to william the conquerer!!!!

Notice!
Would the last AMERICAN to leave Florida please turn off the lights and take down the AMERICAN flag.

This is so sad...

Don't give up, you did the right thing asking for a new inspector. But, you don't know if you'll get one.

You could always call the local TV investigative reporter and get them on the story

Roger, I went to the vendor that was all the way at the end(I think it was rib kings?)and started talking to the black guy who was the head cook. When I told him I was a judge at contests in Ill he gave me a sample of his ribs and took me over to Texas Rib Rangers to show me a cooker he thought I would like. He introduced me to Barb Milroy and she proceeded to show me the FE pellet burner she was using to cook some of the ribs she was selling. I think it was a FE100 but it may have been a 200. She opened it up and explained how it worked. It was defiantly a FE. They had a guy putting the ribs on a open grill to finish them up. They were trying to cook as many as they could as fast as they could. I had never seen a Cookshack or a pellet burner before at any contest in Ill.
I may come back up next year but it will take a year to get the rotten taste of these Vikings out of my mouth. Right now I wouldn't cross the street to see one of their practices!
wbear

everyone,
here is where it stands now
renaldo's supervisor has been in contact with peggy. has assured her that what ever inspector comes he WILL BE CURTIOUS.
was picking up odds and ends this morning at our local resturant supply place to exceed what the state wants and found out two things
1- from the owner she has had dealings with this person and from the sounds of it it sure looks like the same guy. he has no grasp of the english language and doesn't like dealing with women and is highly arrogant and apparently is phillipino. if that's true then he is retired us navy since they get their citzenship that way. (hmmm, this might explain something. my dad was vet of south pacific. never once heard him bad mouth japanese soldiers but when he went from guadacanal to manila he despised the locals. seems while the battle of the walled city was going on they were all in the cockfighting arena and then he found out what it meant when you walked by and they spit on your path but that was his war and i am off subject)
ok even though the final check list does not require this they are demanding that rig be at comissary when inspection is done. peg is in contact with them to be sure we are not violating zoning as downtown st augustine does not allow overnight parking of trailers and we need to do that to bring freezer and reefer down to temps. of course due to the wonderful sooperbowl being here(and jacksonville running their winos down here with the resulting increase in crime) that is making the inspectors strechted thin and frankly i dont blame them for being irriatable but we have to have a full day to get temps so guess who has guard duty if we can get city approval for that on my two honda eu3000is gennies?
2-on a much happier note you should really like this and it is another reason to buy cookshack. while at the supply house there was a rep from south bend stoves and another rep from a different manufacturer. while i was explaining our problem both of them said in unison "good for your wife and by the way hit the inspector with this. florida is not an nsf requirement state so you are exceeding those items required with freezer, reefer and we never heard of nsf smokers!!! go for their throats!!!!
and that was my day at camp so far
jack
raiderbill----- i thought the same as you!!!! but i aint leaving florida and sure will support any one who wants free trade with cuba. heck uncle fidel would be ez'er to deal with then this guy lol
just had to
but the really nice part is cookshack far exceeds florida's requirements and if someone knows mr shifflet please tell him peg and i are most appreciative of him and the whole cookshack manufacturing force

almost forgot
we would like to thank everyone for being so supportive of us!!!! it really means a lot to us!!!! we are just so thankful that we went to the national bbq association convention in atlanta and found not only our dream smokers but this forum!!!!!!
again thanks everyone
jack percifield

Jack,

You can alway park the trailer off-street away from the commisary and get it to temp and then move it a short distance to the commisary the morning of the inspection, then you would not have very far to go to re-cool the refer/freezer.

tom
downtown st augustine has the same restrictive provisions that williamsburg virgina has so without a zoning varience from our comissary kitchen that is a no can do.
but i have been in contact with my friends at the local welding gas shop.
we are trying to figure out how much dry ice it would take for both the reefer and freezer. also a lot of it will have to do with how much co2 could be evacuated by the 5 foot hood in our rig.
peg is checking with our commissary people to see how there zoning is.
i dont mind doing the guard duty on our gennies and really dont think our local police would be a problem.
thanks for the idea!!!!
jack

Jack,
by your health code how often do you have to go to your commissary? What kind of logs do you have to keep?

I was just reading in the Maricopa County code (AZ does everything per county instead of statewide) that you have to go to your commissary every day and log your visits and also log all the locations that your rig has been parked and for how long.

finally got our inspection date
monday january 24th at 1.30pm
inspector problem has been resolved after a discussion with the state expressing our concerns.

parking overnite is no problem with our commissary or the city authorities

chef tom
as we are only doing contracted catering and not mobile food sales daily visits are not a requirement. this is also due to the fact that we will not being storing any food prior to events as we are using a small local food service that will deliever anywhere within the county on friday nights or saturday morning
additionally we have gone on written record that all left overs become the contractors property however if they desired their property would be donated to the local soup kitchen

logs and records we have always kept in our personal lives so those are a given in any professional endevour

keep your fingers crossed for us and thanks for the support

jack

Is your inspection certificate good for the entire state of Florida or only your county?

chef tom,
the inspection is good for the entire state.
however (and this gets good) since the address for our chapter s has a saint augustine address the city might want to duplicate the liscense that thae county wants.
county has been been great to deal with just like the state up to the last guy lol.
will cross the county /city bridge when we get there since city will not permit storage of trailer within it's limits
jack

Love the politics. We just wanna Q! Don't they get it.

I worked on a railraod park project, the land was in Phoenix city limits, on county land controled by the flood district. Try getting them to all work together to approve a building permit.

Congrats on getting the date and being able to park at the commissary overnight. That must be a huge load off.

Sounds like St. Augustine is as much fun as Missoula. The health dep't there is crazy! They don't allow any cooking with wood or charcoal at all. They seem to have forgotten that their reason for existence is to serve the public, and not to act as master.

Fortunately I am in the next county; our sanitarian (health inspector) is a real nice fella.

Best of luck to youse guys, and as always, Keep Us Posted!

Well....I don't get assigned a new inspector, but his boss tells me that if at any time during the inspection, he becomes discourteous or we have trouble communicating, I am to step back, call him on his cell phone, and he will talk to him and take care of it. This sounds like a problem child that everyone is fond of. He probably brings them all doughnuts in the morning or something. The director tells me, "Let me explain about Renaldo. He's done 1200 inspections and he's really a sweet guy, but he's retired from the military and can be a little sharp at times."
Anyway, the director at our commissary is helping and told me a time that would work well for them to not disrupt their business. The state director said Renaldo would be there at that time.
Thanks for all the support. I don't think it's very easy in the best of circumstances, but this little bit has been a big pain in my behind. Jack is scurrying around getting all the pieces together on fire extinguishers and stuff.
I'm sure this will make me a wiser person!


Peggy

Peggy,
what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger.
maybe.