Published in the August 2, 2018 edition

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING — Health Director Bob Bracey is pleased with the progress being made to date by two local restaurants shut down for different reasons this summer as both work toward addressing the issues that will enable them to re-open.

As of Tuesday afternoon, exact dates for when either Kitty’s at 123 Main St. or Sports, Spirits and Steaks at 178 Main St. would be re-opening could not be pinpointed given the many variables in play at each establishment, he said.

Kitty’s

“The Board of Health is working with Kitty’s and their hired, independent consultant, and things are going great. We’re working in the right direction and we foresee Kitty’s opening up soon,” Bracey told the Transcript.

Bracey added that Kitty’s would be putting out a statement in the next couple of days with regard to “proactive steps” they’ve undertaken. “They’re doing a tremendous amount of work,” he said.

Kitty’s has been closed since early July after reports to the state Department of Public Health traced a likely Salmonella outbreak in late June and early July to the restaurant, potentially to antipasto salad and/or salad dressing.

“As far as I know it was 19 confirmed cases, three of those being employees,” Bracey said. State health codes require employees who test positive for Salmonella to have two negative testing results taken within 24 hours of each other confirmed by the state lab before they can return to work. As of Tuesday, two of the employees were in the clear per that protocol. He had not yet seen information on the third employee, who was on vacation, he said.

Sports, Spirits & Steaks

Sports, Spirits & Steaks voluntarily shut down in early July due to ongoing issues with its HVAC system during the heat wave. This matter was compounded by ongoing issues with a failed septic system that the business was working toward resolving.

“They’ve had a failed system for about year,” Bracey said, which had resulted in some sewage backing up into the basement on two occasions. “A local installer determined that the field had failed due to a rotted D box,” he said, which was fixed.

At that point it was already winter, so given the extenuating circumstances Bracey explained that under Title 5 “we can put a specific timeframe in place based on the situation.”

Sports, Spirits and Steaks was allowed to stay open while plans were being engineered and approved per a set timeline. For example, invoices were required to be submitted every two weeks indicating it was being pumped out, which was done, he said. The caveat was if at any time “sewage goes back into the building all bets are off,” Bracey said.

A new septic plan was approved by the Board of Health, with revisions, in March, and the restaurant met the deadline to take the deep hole test “in the spring,” he said, and was apparently back on track to meet the June 1 installation deadline. A 30-day extension, to July 1, was subsequently granted, but after the HVAC system also went south, Bracey said “we issued an order for them to close. It was a voluntary order.” This closure also affected the take-out pizza shop which occupies another part of the building with its own entrance but shares the septic system.

Throughout the rest of July the new septic system was being installed. It is set on the back end of the property, much farther away from the building. The old system was very close to the building. Bracey conducted a final grading inspection of the septic system Tuesday. Additional health and safety site inspections at Sports, Spirits and Steaks and the pizza shop are planned for Thursday, Aug. 2 by himself and other town departments.