Top Stories

POSTED: Saturday, Dec. 06, 2008

Health department ruling puts Whatcom County coffee stand in doubt

A coffee stand owner says the county health department is being unreasonable by requiring him to connect to a well and septic system if he wants to serve smoothies and milkshakes. If he doesn't, officials could force him out of business.

Larry Call, who owns Rocket Coffee at East Smith and Everson-Goshen roads, says sales have decreased between $900 and $1,100 a week and he's laid off one employee because health officials in October forced him to stop serving his popular smoothies and milkshakes.

Tom Kunesh, an environmental health supervisor at Whatcom County Health Department, says the department is looking out for public health by requiring on-site water and septic to serve potentially hazardous foods. Legally, every four hours the blender head and utensils must be washed and sanitized, he said.

To get water to fill the espresso cart's water tank, Call must bring it from his approved water source about six miles away, Kunesh said. Even if Call added more tanks, that's still too far away.

"If your water and waste capacity is limited, the incentive is to conserve, rather than comply with health code requirements," Kunesh said.

Kunesh's decision is stricter than any Dan Engle has seen. Engle is the general manager of Seattle-based Bridge Industries II, which manufactures the cart Call uses.

"The design that he's got in his espresso cart right now really is pretty much nationwide accepted, and people are really happy with it," he said. "I've never run into a situation where it's been this rigid."

At the coffee stand, customers have cussed at employees and squealed away because they were angry they couldn't get a blended drink, Call said. It's having a ripple effect and reducing sales for other drinks, and eventually he'll probably have to close the stand.

"I had no idea that we were in the wrong all this time," he said. "We've passed inspections. We've never had a complaint. Nobody's ever been sick."

Call said he simply can't get a loan for roughly $50,000 to install a well and septic tank. But he is willing to spend about $5,000 to buy a larger-capacity sink system from Bridge Industries II.

Kunesh said that won't be acceptable and says Call has to get water on site.

The dispute has County Council member Barbara Brenner livid to the point of tears, claiming an arrogant department is beating up a small business. She'd like to find a lawyer to help Call, she said.

"I just feel like there is a point where government does step over the line. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you always should," Brenner said.

"If our Health Department can't find a way to make it work when it's legally working on other places without special treatment ... then they don't want to make it work."