Restaurant May Never Open Again Salmonella Outbreak Closed Diana Lee’S

Owners of a Colfax restaurant were wondering Thursday if they would ever reopen after Whitman County health officials, citing plumbing problems and repeated health violations, asked them to close for a second time.

“This kind of thing is every restaurant’s worst nightmare,” said Donna Holberg, who owns Diana Lee’s Restaurant with her husband, Steve.

A permanent closure would mean the end of the town’s largest full-service restaurant. It also would cost about two dozen people their jobs, Holberg said.

Health officials first asked the restaurant to shut down a week ago after an outbreak of salmonella among people who had eaten there from July 25 to Aug. 4.

Nearly 125 people reported being affected as of Thursday, with 32 having a confirmed salmonella infection. In three cases, family members had become ill as well, raising concerns about the outbreak spreading beyond those people who had eaten at the restaurant.

Symptoms included fever, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache and muscle pain from 12 to 36 hours after eating contaminated food. About 10 diners, some elderly, visited a hospital or were hospitalized overnight.

The restaurant reopened Saturday after surfaces and equipment were sanitized and previously opened or prepared food was thrown out. Business was down to about onethird of usual, the Holbergs said.

No new illnesses were reported by people who ate after the restaurant reopened.

But on Thursday, the health department asked the Holbergs to close again after officials saw a drain was continuing to back up onto a floor. The drain was connected to a sewage system and the water could be contaminated, said Health Officer Tim Moody.

Officials also saw food being stored on a cooler floor in violation of safe food-handling practices, Moody said.

“We had a serious problem that was going on that affected at least 125 people,” Moody said. “We want to make absolutely sure that this doesn’t happen again and I’m sure the restaurant owners feel that way.”

“We agree with them that we don’t want to risk being a problem,” said Donna Holberg.

The Holbergs are looking at what needs to be fixed to reopen, but Donna Holberg said she could not say how long it will take.

“We might not ever reopen again,” she said.

Holberg described the closure as her most frustrating moment in 30 years of restaurant work, which includes stints at Seattle’s Space Needle and operations in Hawaii and Boyer Park on the Snake River. The couple continues to operate the Hill Ray Food Service in Colfax.

“I just wish they could come up with some answers so we don’t have to put these people out of work,” she said.

Among their employees, she said, are two families as well as single parents who rely on the restaurant for their only employment.