Carbo’s Bar & Grille was closed by the Mashpee Board of Health on Wednesday, after inspections in response to a leaky gas line found a host of critical health code violations.
The restaurant was cited for 40 instances of more than 20 different critical violations, marking what Health Agent Glen E. Harrington said was the most actual violations he has ever seen issued.
“It was just really dirty,” Mr. Harrington said in a telephone interview yesterday morning. “Let’s just say I’ve seen other facilities that dirty that we could have written that much up on. But we didn’t. We just had them close and clean it up, and that’s basically where we are with them.”
The temperatures and food covering were all acceptable, Lucy B. Burton, chairman of the board of health, said during the board’s meeting Wednesday night.
But Mr. Harrington said most of the surfaces around the kitchen were covered with grease and dust. For example, the hood above the stove, where pots and pans are stored, was dirty, he said.
“Every storage container was dirty,” he said.
Mr. Harrington said it looked as though there was no regular cleaning and maintenance of the kitchen.
The board of health, during its meeting Wednesday night, gave the restaurant 24 hours to fix the critical violations and 10 days to rectify the others.
The restaurant was slated for a follow-up inspection yesterday, after the Enterprise went to press, to investigate whether the kitchen had been cleaned.
If the kitchen were to pass the reinspection, it could have opened as early as yesterday afternoon.
A telephone call to Carbo’s placed yesterday morning was not answered.
Veronica Warden, assistant health agent, said the staff was cooperative throughout the inspection process, and she came away with the sense that a new operations manager for the restaurant, whose first day was just on Monday, would take cleanliness more seriously.
“They already started to, hopefully, get the place back to where it should be,” she said.
Ms. Burton said, “I think this is a wake-up call.”
Kennel Warned, But Allowed To Stay Open
A dog breeder in Mashpee who allegedly sold at least two puppies with liver disease and a third that died two days after it was purchased will be subject to a strict inspection and certification regimen but will be allowed to stay open.
Seashore Kennels, operated by Charlene L. and Richard S. Pelley out of their home on Falmouth-Sandwich Road, in a rural area between Ashumet Pond and the Massachusetts Military Reservation, will be required to provide certification by a veterinary doctor that its puppies are healthy and be subject to quarterly inspections for the next 18 months.
The Pelleys will also have to bring the total number of dogs down under 10, a regulation already in the board’s kennel bylaw that the Pelleys are in violation of.
Mr. Pelley said he did not have an exact count of the total number of dogs they currently have. Through the course of the hourlong hearing, though, the two said they have about a dozen dogs, ages three months or older, plus about 11 younger dogs, which do not count toward the overall count under the board’s regulation. The couple used to have about 25 adult dogs, Ms. Pelley said.
The sick puppies, some of whom have also been diagnosed with ringworm, hookworm, and whipworm, as well as other illnesses, came to light after two complaints to the board of health by customers of the kennel.
One of the former customers, Kimberly Daley of Rockland, was at the board’s meeting Wednesday. Ms. Daley said a Yorkshire terrier puppy she bought from Ms. Pelley immediately became sick after she brought it home in April. After an ordeal involving whether the puppy had been taken to see a veterinarian or not, Ms. Daley ended up keeping the dog, which was diagnosed with liver disease, hookworm, and ringworm.
She said she was forced to euthanize it about two weeks later.
Ms. Daley said she has spent more than $6,000 on the dog and its healthcare, none of which has been repaid or shared by the Pelleys.
Mr. and Ms. Pelley said they have been breeding dogs for two decades and have had very few problems like this.
“We’ve passed every inspection that comes our way, but that doesn’t seem to matter,” Mr. Pelley said. “We’ve done everything we’re supposed to do.”
Kalliope E. Egloff, a board of health member, said she was particularly concerned about the hookworm and ringworm, which are contagious and can be transmitted to people.
Board member Burton Kaplan also expressed concerns that the Pelleys are operating a business out of their residentially zoned home, but under the board’s regulation, as long as a kennel has under 10 dogs, it is considered a “hobby breeder” and is allowed to operate in residential areas.
Asked what she does with the dogs’ excrement, Ms. Pelley said she mostly dumps it in woods on the back of the property. “No one goes back there,” she said.
The land behind the Pelleys is owned by the Orenda Wildlife Land Trust.
Continued Fines For Lakeside
The board continued its fines against MEZ Realty, charging the owners of the Lakeside Estates mobile home park $500 a day for noncompliance with several orders issued by the board more than two months ago.
William Haney, owner of the development, did not attend the hearing Wednesday night, despite having previously hired an attorney to send a letter to the board appealing their decision.
Board members and Mr. Harrington seemed resigned to the notion that the issue will end up in court.
The board has accused Mr. Haney of fully complying with only one of five orders given regarding the garbage area at the development off Route 151 and Old Barnstable Road.
He moved the dumpsters onto a concrete platform, meeting the first criteria. But he built only three sides of fencing instead of fully enclosing the area, has not provided proof of increasing the number of dumpsters or regularity of pickup service, has not provided proof of hiring a licensed pest control contractor, and provided two household-size recycling bins instead of a sufficient amount for the more than 100 units in the development.
Mr. Harrington said he received a call from Mr. Haney’s son, Matthew Haney, at 4 PM on Wednesday inquiring whether there was a meeting that evening. He then asked for it to be postponed.
When Mr. Harrington asked him to provide proof that a pest control specialist possibly contracted to set up traps at the site is in possession of a license, Matthew Haney faxed over a copy of the contractor’s business card.
“We’re nowhere with him. The problem started in February,” Ms. Burton said.
A message left on the Lakeside office voicemail Thursday morning was not returned.