The following is a news article posted on April 18th, 2007 in The Port St. Lucie News. Before I get to it though, I'd like to provide some background on the situation.
On April 12, 2007 I was spending some leisure time since it was one of those rare occassions at Club Med: A Day Off. When I returned in the evening I noticed that there had been a meeting called for ALL employees. Something big was up.
I found out the next day that our beloved leader, Tom, had called all employees in to tell them what they were going to tell the guests regarding the restaurant. Tom wanted us to tell the guests that the restaurant was closed for 2 days due to a gas leak. All meals were to be served in the Florida Ballroom for the duration.
What really happened was that someone had tipped off the health inspectors (it wasn't me, I swear!) and they paid Sandydiaper a surprise visit. It didn't go well. The day before (despite what Club Med wants you to believe) we had a LARGE number of guests and employees calling in sick. People vomiting all over the village was the order of the day. Kids were throwing up all over the place, guests were calling for new sheets, toilet paper, bottles of water and the nurse all though the night. I counted 22 guests calling in sick that night. Employees ranked around 19. Yes, I did count.
On Wednesday April 17th, Tom sent out a 6 page letter to all employees thanking them for a memorable experience and praising us for the good job we did covering up for the restaurant problem.
The next day I go to work early in the morning. One of the girls from Boutique shows up to pick up the daily papers and asks me if I had seen the headlines. I took one look at the front page and nearly pissed myself laughing. I immediately bought a copy. Lucky I did, since Tom had the papers removed from the stands before the guests could buy them. Not that it did any good. We made photocopies galore.
(I had the only newspaper in the village) The news also came out over local radio and TV.
The best laid plans of Tom Keidel seemed to have exploded in his face. Before I went home for the day, we had about 8 dinner cancellations due to the report. One of them was a man who personally came in demanding a refund on his gift certificate. Lord knows how many more cancellations they had after I left.
All in all, it was the best good-bye present I could have gotten on my last day at Club Dread. Granted, I am still waiting for the lab results to come in. I still have abdominal pains and lack of appetite. My doctor suspects Salmonella. We'll see.
Here's the full version of the article posted on the Internet. The article in the newspaper didn't list the violations.
Violations briefly shut Club Med dining room in PSL
By CHRIS YOUNG
chris.young@scripps.com
April 18, 2007
PORT ST. LUCIE — State health inspectors briefly closed the main dining room at Club Med in Sandpiper Bay last week after a surprise inspection found numerous infractions, including live cockroaches around the facility.
As workers served breakfast at the resort on Thursday, a state Department of Business and Professional Regulation inspector found numerous health violations, including dozens of live cockroaches around the kitchen area, slime build-up inside the ice machine, and cooks touching cut fruit and sliced deli meat with their bare hands.
The inspector suspended Club Med's license and immediately shut the restaurant down. On a reinspection Friday morning, the violations were fixed and the facility reopened, said Alexis Antonacci, press secretary for the DBPR.
"We thought it was serious enough they needed to close down for a period of time," she said. The department typically follows up on closures the following day, she added.
Kate Moeller, a spokeswoman for Club Med who did not return calls for comment, responded by e-mail Friday that the restaurant had a "brief closure" on Thursday for "maintenance," but "guests were not affected."
"Guests enjoyed their usual high level of services and all community events went forward as scheduled," she wrote.
Last May, the Club Med site was listed for sale by a real estate firm, but resort officials said they only wanted to redevelop its existing 337-room facility at the southern end of
Club Med has owned the site since 1982, when it purchased the
In the last year, several prospective buyers have contacted city officials and the homeowners associations in the area with plans to redevelop Club Med, but to date a sale hasn't happened. Moeller said that the company has had initial talks to sell the land with Club Med continuing to operate at the site.
"Under such arrangement, Club Med would continue to operate the resort as Club Med Sandpiper," she wrote in a Tuesday e-mail.
During the closure Thursday, the resort appeared to operate normally, even hosting an annual banquet in a separate facility with local law enforcement, the Hundred Club of St. Lucie County, which raises money for law enforcement officers and firefighters killed or injured in the line of duty.
Jane Rowley, president of the club, said that the food was "great and presented nicely."
"No one got sick," she said.
Jim Moses, county environmental health director, said on Friday that he heard no reports of problems with Club Med's food facilities.
Vice Mayor Jack Kelly, touring the facilities recently, said he had "mixed emotions" about Club Med, saying it was an asset to the city, but has not aged well over the years.
Club Med's pool bar, inspected the same day, had six critical violations, including:
• Live cockroaches in the kitchen, including six in ovens, one in a light switch, four dozen in a molding and on the wall, two on clean dish racks holding clean dishes, and three baby roaches on the floor under a bulk rice bin.
• Repeat violation: wine/produce storage room had overhead lights missing the proper shield or cover.
• Repeat violation: chemical storage room door with its exit door with a hasp-style locking device that doesn't allow door to simply be pushed open.
• Cooks handling cut fruit and sliced deli meats with bare hands.
• Buildup of slime in the interior of the ice machine.
• Displayed hotel and restaurant license expired even though it was recently renewed.
• No sneezeguards/protection from contamination at the salad bar for cut oranges, ice cream cones and bagels.
• The salad bar lacked adequate sneezeguards/protection from contamination for apples, danish, and cut vegetables, as well as lacking proper dispensing utensils
• Black ants on the wall near the dish machine
• No handwashing sign by the sink used by employees.
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