Kiger's Notebook

Roch. racer - 'Green speed demon' in Reader's Digest

Rochester's favorite professional female race car driver – Leilani Munter - made it into the "10 Reasons to Love Our Country" list in the July issue of Reader's Digest.

Why?

Because of her philosophy, "Life is short. Race Hard. Live Green."   "You can care about the earth and love fast cars, too."

Here's some from the item:

Münter, 33, who's both a stock-car and open-wheel driver, has made it her mission to "green" big-time auto racing—which, at 100 million strong, may have the most enthusiastic fan base on the planet. Her goals: renewable biofuels and recycled tires for the cars and recycling programs at the tracks. For doubters, she has a message: "Never underestimate a vegetarian hippie chick with a race car."

Not at 200 mph, certainly. 

Münter raced horses as a kid in Minnesota. "I've gone from one horsepower to 800," she jokes. She studied biology at the University of California, San Diego, where after class she'd drift down to an old stock-car track and a friendly team owner who encouraged her to drive.

She began her racing career in 2001 and has racked up 28 top-ten finishes.

Before every contest, she buys an acre of rain forest ($100 from the World Land Trust) to compensate for the 22 gallons of fuel she uses per race. She has also climbed a 252-foot windmill in Abilene, Texas, to push for alternative energies and spoken to the Cleantech conference in Washington, D.C.

If she wins her points on biofuels and recycling, she says, she'll pursue another dream: to speed around the track in an electric car, currently not allowed.

Crazy? "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world," she says, "are the ones who end up doing it."

Used cars + ex-Pump and Munch

Cars are coming back to the closed BP Pump and Munch at 6650 East U.S. 14.

A used car dealership is leasing the space, taking it over from owner Kato Inc.

After closing multiple Pump and Munches, Kato has only one left in Rochester: the one at 1607 S. Broadway.

For now, that is.

More on DoubleTree switch

After many months of work at a cost of more than $10 million, the hotel looming over Broadway in downtown Rochester is now a DoubleTree.

Previously a Radisson Hotel, it is still owned by Rochester’s Chafoulias family.

Since DoubleTree is a Hilton brand, this switch gives the Chafouliases two Hilton hotels – Hilton Garden Inn and DoubleTree – in downtown.

Michael Smith, the director of operations for Chafoulias’ hotel management company called Titan Hospitality, says that means the sister hotels can work together more smoothly and better serve guests.

He stresses that the change is much more than a new name or even the addition of DoubleTree’s famous chocolate chip and walnut cookies given to guests at check-in.

“What we’re trying to do is to create a more metropolitan feel to the hotel,” he says. “That helps us stay up-to-date with the downtown, which I think is really ramping up.”

But is a $10 million upgrade during slow economic times worth it?

“Customers want fresh facilities. This is the cost of doing business,” Smith said.

Part of the hotel’s “ramping up” has been the addition of Pescara, a new restaurant off the lobby owned and run by the culinary minds behind the successful Chester’s Kitchen and Bar across Broadway and as well as the opening of BluH20 Salon and Spa on the skyway level by Starbucks Coffee.

The salon, in particular, is “huge” for wedding parties, he said.

“Not too long ago, a bridal party went out of the hotel to have their hair done and it rained on their way back,” says Sam Anderson, special hotel consultant for the Chafoulias family. “It was a disaster.”

The immediate change that anyone familiar with the 21-year-old hotel will notice is the dramatic transformation of the lobby.

Gone is the dark wood, lush furnishings and sedate atmosphere with the check-in desk as the main focus.

Now a bright, open space in the lobby is dominated by a wall-sized electronic artwork that constantly changes. Guests can interact with it. It is also linked to the hotel entrance, which creates musical sounds based on the movement of people through the door.

Another artwork features metal pipes with electronic lighting on top. A glass entryway leads into the Pescara restaurant.

While many of the changes were to bring the hotel in line with the DoubleTree format, the lobby alteration was the decision of the local management.

“The lobby was simply a design we chose. We chose a more modern, progressive look over the classic style we formerly had,” says Smith.

However nice a lobby looks or however good a connected restaurant or salon is, the real point for guests is the room.

“They are very well appointed. They each have a microwave, refrigerator, special Wolfgang Puck coffee as well as many other amenities,” says Smith.

At this point, eight of the 13 floors of rooms have been revamped to the new look. Smith expects the changeover of all 212 rooms to be complete by 2010.

Attracting travelers

Lock and load - indoor gun range coming

Looking for a local spot to empty a clip into a target without worrying about the weather?

A Rochester gun shop owner is taking a shot at creating an indoor shooting range.

Gary Schoenmann, who owns American Gunsmith & Gun Shop in northeast Rochester, is building a 5,700-square-foot facility with seven shooting lanes and a retail area in the Elgin Industrial Park.

“There is a great demand for it,” he says. “We think it will be a pretty big hit.”

Construction of the new Patriot Indoor Range & Gun Shop is under way. The hope is for it to be finished between late August and early September.

Schoenmann and his wife, Kristi, are teaming up with Frank and Julene Horstman of Plainview in the new project.

“Frank brings to the table his military experience as a gun trainer, and Julene also does training, particularly in self-defense courses for women,” Schoenmann says.

The plan is to make training a big part of the Patriot range, offering classes for youth and adults with skill levels ranging from novice to advanced.

He also hopes to strike group-plan agreements with area law enforcement agencies for their officers to use the range.

Right now, Schoenmann plans on keeping his American gun shop in Rochester open even after the Patriot range fires up. However, he expects to eventually shift all of the retail to the Elgin site, though the gunsmithing will remain in Rochester.

Once all chambers are firing at the range, Schoenmann estimates about six to seven people will staff it. He expects to attract customers from an 85-mile radius, if the Patriot Indoor Range hits the bullseye he is aiming for.

Mayo Clinic model is hot topic, but is it sustainable?

It all comes down to sustainability.

Most people in the feverish national debate about the cost of health care, from the president of the United States to experts and pundits in magazines and on television, agree that Mayo Clinic offers  “fantastically high levels of technological capability and quality.”

But can even Mayo continue to use the Mayo model?

Dr. Atul Gawande wrote recent article in The New Yorker comparing health care at Mayo Clinic to that provided by hospitals in the community of McAllen, Texas. He pointed out the level of quality at Mayo with its payment method that does not rely on how many  surgeries a doctor performs.

He compared that to how the pay-per-service McAllen model has apparently driven up costs with pricey scans, and surgeries without  improving care.

In his article, “The Cost Conundrum,” Gawande wrote,  “In the war over the culture of medicine—the war over whether our country’s anchor model will be Mayo or McAllen—the Mayo model is losing.”

That was echoed in a Time magazine article on the Mayo model that was written soon after Gawande’s.

Dr. Dawn Milliner of Mayo Clinic was quoted as saying, “We've been able to buffer our staff from the harsh realities of the system, so they can concentrate on patient needs, But it’s not clear how long we can keep doing that.”

In an interview this week, Gawande explained his conclusion about how to provide Mayo Clinic-like care.

“Their (Mayo’s) practice model is closer to the quality and cost we want, though we have a financing system that doesn't make it sustainable,” wrote Gawande in an e-mail. “My conclusion is that it’s the financing system that has to change, not the medical system.”

Mayo Clinic, which lost $840 million on $1.7 billion in Medicare treatment last year, agrees.

“That’s the underlying reason we are involved in health care reform,” says Josh Derr of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center. “The Medicare system is a fee for care system. We want to that shifted to value.”

With the Baby Boomer wave aging fast, Derr says a “perfect storm” is coming. 

How should the shift from per service to payment for value be done?

Derr says the health policy center sees a short term fix and a long term one.

The short term one stays with the per service model, but it adds a “value index” calculation to different Medicare reimbursement level for each region. 

The long-term proposal, tosses out the pay-per-service plan completely to be replaced with something like a bundled care method. That means a heart attack would be covered with one fee for all related treatment and that encourages a hospital “to do things right the first time,” he said.

Of course, it will the politicians in Washington, D.C. to make any sort of change and Mayo Clinic knows that might take a long while, even if Barack Obama admires Mayo’s methods.

Does that mean Mayo might need to change its focus to more profitable actions, since its current model is “unsustainable.”?

“Mayo will still find way to stick with its model of care going forward,” he says “We’ll just have find different ways to do that.”

Spring Grove eatery to re-open

Here's a tidbit I noticed in the Spring Grove Herald written by Marlene Deschler:

Soon the taste buds of Spring Grove will again be tempted with homemade foods at the new Temptations at 131 W. Main St. in downtown Spring Grove.

Jimi Bajrami and his fiancée Brittany Pistono plan to open their restaurant in the Temptations building in early July. They are planning a full lunch and dinner menu with a wide variety of items.

"We are really excited about the food we have to offer the people of Spring Grove and the area," remarked Pistono. "We make a lot of homemade items from gravies to soups to beer-breaded appetizers; a lot of time goes into the food we prepare."

At this time, Temptations will not be open for breakfast; however, they will have breakfast options on their menu that will be available all day. 

The couple will be serving sandwiches, pork tenderloins, beer-breaded cauliflower and mushrooms, soups, steaks, and pastas, as well as many other items in their family-friendly restaurant.

New Roch. biz - Turd Herders - digs in

When Josh Valentino was trying to round up a business plan, he smelled success in Rochester’s backyards. 

And the name for this new Rochester-based, waste management operation is? Turd Herders.

Yes, he plans to clean up pet waste.

“I just wanted to work on my own and was looking for a low-cost, start-up,” he says. 

Turd Herders gives this one-man operation a chance to dig in and build from the ground up.

“I think Rochester is kind of an untapped market,” he said.

For social networkers who admire his intestinal fortitude, check out his Facebook page as well as his Twitter posts for the real poop.

Last day for Lewiston grocery

Here's some from a good piece by my colleague John Weiss about the last day of Lewiston's only grocery store. Find the full story here.

Nearly all the 24 Malt-O-Meal bins were empty, refrigerated dairy cases had but a few gallons of milk, many shelves of Wiens Food Center were bare Friday.

At 6 p.m. Saturday, the only grocery store in Lewiston will close. Scott Wiens, who owns it with his wife LouAnn, said he can’t get enough business with the store its present size and can’t afford to expand to compete with bigger stores nearby. 

Any remaining food will be sold to Mike’s, another independent grocery store, in St. Charles.

It means people will have to drive at least 12 miles or more for most of their groceries.

But three people at the store Friday said the closing means more than extra driving time. It means a harder time to raise money for FFA, fewer jobs and a harder time for Vickie Luehmann to bake Christmas cookies.

For Natalie Schumann, the closing means she will have more time on her hands this summer. She will be a senior at Lewiston-Altura High School next year and planned to work at Wiens again this summer. 

Vickie Luehmann said she began shopping there since it opened 18 years ago. “Certainly it’s a loss to our community,” she said. “Scott really bent over backwards to get things.”

A new player in the Roch. retail game

A new retailer to the area — Home Choice — plans to open its doors in early July.

The Plano, Texas-based chain sells furniture, electronics, computers and appliances. It is setting up shop in a 6,900-square-foot space at 3450 55th St. N.W.

What makes this store different is that while items can be purchased outright, Home Choice can also set up financing.

“You don’t have to have a credit card,” said Home Choice spokesman Xavier Dominicis.

With six other stores in Minnesota, why come to Rochester?

“We go where there is demand, where there is interest,” he said.

Look for six employees to staff the new store.

Laid off IBMers + federal and state grants

Here's some from a piece in today's print edition about help for laid off Minnesota workers including 68 from Rochester's IBM campus. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Ex-IBM employees in Rochester are among the laid off Minnesota workers slated to be helped by a $4.8 million federal grant.

Though the U.S. Department of Labor announced the grant today, 68 IBM workers were already aided with $247,000 from the state of Minnesota in May.

Today’s $4.8 million National Emergency Grant will cover that earlier cost, says Bill Hahn of Rochester’s Workforce Development Inc. office.

“They won’t notice one thing different. It is just that state can get their money back,” says Hahn.

How did Hahn and Workforce Development discover the 68 employees, since IBM did not release any information about its rounds of job cuts this past spring?

“We have a Rapid Response team that goes to companies when we hear about a layoff. IBM let us have a meeting and 68 people attended the meeting,” he said. 

“I actually have no numbers of how many people were laid off at IBM, I only know how many people attended the meeting.”

Former workers cut from  Celestica, Hutchinson Technology Inc., Seagate Technology Inc. and Target are also targeted to aided by this morning’s grant.