Here we are. This will wrap up September for us today on The Business Bus. It was July 4th only last week to me. I have some news for you from several locations, so let’s get going together.

Talk to me

The special election for mayor is only 10 days away. If you live in the city limits of Columbus and are registered to vote, then Oct. 10 is the day. The four men running for mayor want you to vote for someone.

This coming Tuesday at 3 p.m. we will broadcast the mayor’s forum on Channel 3 on CableOne. The plan is to have each candidate answer questions relating to the job which they seek.

The forum was originally scheduled for Thursday night, but two candidates could not attend, so we moved it to Tuesday. The program will be recorded and will be rerun Tuesday evening and then again on Sunday afternoon. You will have plenty of opportunity to see it.

I am also working with Thom Geiger, one of the candidates, to get a copy of the program on the Internet on his Web site at ColumbusTalks.com and also on the city’s new Web site. If anyone can do it, Thom can and I will let you know about it here next week.

One last election note.

The ballots for the election will be hand-counted. That means a long evening of counting. The ballot boxes will be brought to the Municipal Complex and tallied there. We will broadcast it live until we have a winner or until we have a determination of a run-off. It will be live television at its best and I promise you a front-row seat.

Deli news

There is a new deli in town that has amazing wonderful food. United Deli at the intersection of Gardner Boulevard and Tuscaloosa Road is now open in the Citgo Station there. I have eaten several items from there and all remind me of the great sandwiches I used to get when Pasquale’s Pizza was open on Highway 45 North.

Everything from roast beef to tuna salad to Italian meatball and more are piled high on bread that I have never seen in our area. I can’t even finish the six-inch sandwiches because of the amount of food on them.

Go in and see for yourself how good it is. They even have a three-inch sandwich for that special snack time. Welcome to Columbus United Deli.

Well-done steaks

You might have read the story in this paper on Monday about the big fire at Martie’s Steak and Catfish House last Friday night. The fire started in the back of the cooking area when a commercial coffee maker caught fire in the electrical cord.

I visited the restaurant early Monday morning and the owners, Bobby and Martie Bowen gave me a tour.

The fire was intense. The air conditioners mounted in the walls actually looked like art - surreal as that could be. The plastic controls and covers on the front of the air conditioners had melted and long flowing stretched plastic hung down over three feet toward the floor. The heat from the fire had caused the plastic drinking cups in the front dining area to melt together into a large black bumpy single piece of plastic.

The walls were solid black from the smoke. Picture frames on the wall were still framed themselves in white where the smoke did not hit the wall there in a fraction of an inch around each frame. Each picture frame smoke outline was perfectly matched to the one next to it. The row was 25 feet long and each the same, again like art work from fire out of control.

The hands on the clock near the front door had melted and dripped like a candle onto the wall. The telephone handset had melted into one blob of phone. If you picked up the phone, you picked up the phone.

In the kitchen, stainless steel reach-in refrigerator doors were welded shut when the frames of the glass doors became part of the refrigerator around it. The glass that was in those doors exploded early in the fire and then melted.

With no electricity and no windows in that part of the kitchen, the building was dark. A small hole in the wall let in the only light. Bright white clean piercing sunlight poured into the small opening not much bigger than a couple of loaves of bread.

Black, white, smoky, clean. Happy, sad.

Happy no one was hurt. Sad that the business suffers.

Bobby and Martie had good spirits considering what had just happened. “We will be back,” Martie told me.

Good fire news

And just like so many bad things that happen in our area, this story too has a good side.

First, the Columbus Fire and Rescue Department. “I can’t thank them enough,” Martie told me Monday morning. “They got the fire out in a hurry, but more than that, they were very kind to us,” she said. “They stayed here until middle of the next morning to make sure that everything was safe and to help us through this. They went beyond the call of duty.

“They actually cared about us. They didn’t just come in and put out the fire and leave. They are good people.”

Second, two competitors in the restaurant business.

“I tell you what, you tell everyone how great the people are at Frank’s Market Street Grill and Reuben’s Fish and Steak House,” Bobby Bowen told me.

“The fire was Friday night after we closed. We have 15 people that work here and they have car payments and house payments and have to buy food and clothes. By Saturday night, less than one day after the fire, these two restaurants had hired every one of our employees that wanted to work. They hired waitresses, cooks and everyone that came to them. That is two great businesses that would take our employees in like that.”

The other neat part of the story is that those two restaurants know Martie’s will need the employees back when it reopens. “Oh yeah, they told the employees they know that the work is temporary and they will be leaving to come back and help us,” Bobby said.

Insurance investigators visited the restaurant Monday and the building owner told me the plans are to repair the building and get it reopened. I clearly remember when that building was built as Dowdle Grocery when I was a child. It was a combination curb market, grocery store and gathering place. It later became Shelton’s Grocery before closing and becoming Martie’s.

Bobby and Martie told me it will likely take four to six weeks to rebuild the restaurant. All the ceiling and insulation has to be removed. The walls will be painted and work done to get rid of the smoke smell.

They are working to again make fire their friend.

Furniture news

Goose Hollow has completed their move into the old location of Big Lots on Highway 45 North. The location is in Jackson Square next door to Pepper’s Deli. I have not yet visited the location, but friends that have been there told me the new store is beautiful and is a new design concept for Goose Hollow.

I will visit it before the next column and give you an update.

I am also told that another new retail store will come in and be part of that building, too.

The old location of Goose Hollow will also be used for furniture needs too, I am told.

And if you have not been by there lately, check out the old Wal-Mart store on Highway 45 North.

Ashley Home Store is moving into that location and the new front of the building is in place. Mark Castleberry bought the building and he told me six months ago that the store would not look like an old Wal-Mart. I have to admit I was skeptical since every old Wal-Mart I had seen still looked the same.

I was wrong. This new front of the building is beautiful. It looks like an entrance to a palace with the arches and the glass. The inside is not complete, but is getting close. I will check on that too and give you an update.

Not any more

I have burned through 1,422 words. (Get it? I have burned through the words?) So, I must stop and make room for the other news of the day on this page. Thanks for coming along and going with me for another Thursday. I appreciate your time this week and look forward to seeing you again next Thursday. Same time, same station, same newspaper.

Joe Dillon owns and operates Sign and Banner Express. Contact him by phone at 327-7446, by fax at 327-2799 or by e-mail at businessbus@cableone.net. He welcomes your comments and suggestions.

Everything from roast beef to tuna salad to Italian meatball and more are piled high on bread that I have never seen in our area. I can’t even finish the six-inch sandwiches because of the amount of food on them.

Go in and see for yourself how good it is. They even have a three-inch sandwich for that special snack time. Welcome to Columbus United Deli.

Well-done steaks

You might have read the story in this paper on Monday about the big fire at Martie’s Steak and Catfish House last Friday night. The fire started in the back of the cooking area when a commercial coffee maker caught fire in the electrical cord.

I visited the restaurant early Monday morning and the owners, Bobby and Martie Bowen gave me a tour.

The fire was intense. The air conditioners mounted in the walls actually looked like art - surreal as that could be. The plastic controls and covers on the front of the air conditioners had melted and long flowing stretched plastic hung down over three feet toward the floor. The heat from the fire had caused the plastic drinking cups in the front dining area to melt together into a large black bumpy single piece of plastic.

The walls were solid black from the smoke. Picture frames on the wall were still framed themselves in white where the smoke did not hit the wall there in a fraction of an inch around each frame. Each picture frame smoke outline was perfectly matched to the one next to it. The row was 25 feet long and each the same, again like art work from fire out of control.

The hands on the clock near the front door had melted and dripped like a candle onto the wall. The telephone handset had melted into one blob of phone. If you picked up the phone, you picked up the phone.

In the kitchen, stainless steel reach-in refrigerator doors were welded shut when the frames of the glass doors became part of the refrigerator around it. The glass that was in those doors exploded early in the fire and then melted.

With no electricity and no windows in that part of the kitchen, the building was dark. A small hole in the wall let in the only light. Bright white clean piercing sunlight poured into the small opening not much bigger than a couple of loaves of bread.

Black, white, smoky, clean. Happy, sad.

Happy no one was hurt. Sad that the business suffers.

Bobby and Martie had good spirits considering what had just happened. “We will be back,” Martie told me.

Good fire news

And just like so many bad things that happen in our area, this story too has a good side.

First, the Columbus Fire and Rescue Department. “I can’t thank them enough,” Martie told me Monday morning. “They got the fire out in a hurry, but more than that, they were very kind to us,” she said. “They stayed here until middle of the next morning to make sure that everything was safe and to help us through this. They went beyond the call of duty.

“They actually cared about us. They didn’t just come in and put out the fire and leave. They are good people.”

Second, two competitors in the restaurant business.

“I tell you what, you tell everyone how great the people are at Frank’s Market Street Grill and Reuben’s Fish and Steak House,” Bobby Bowen told me.

“The fire was Friday night after we closed. We have 15 people that work here and they have car payments and house payments and have to buy food and clothes. By Saturday night, less than one day after the fire, these two restaurants had hired every one of our employees that wanted to work. They hired waitresses, cooks and everyone that came to them. That is two great businesses that would take our employees in like that.”

The other neat part of the story is that those two restaurants know Martie’s will need the employees back when it reopens. “Oh yeah, they told the employees they know that the work is temporary and they will be leaving to come back and help us,” Bobby said.

Insurance investigators visited the restaurant Monday and the building owner told me the plans are to repair the building and get it reopened. I clearly remember when that building was built as Dowdle Grocery when I was a child. It was a combination curb market, grocery store and gathering place. It later became Shelton’s Grocery before closing and becoming Martie’s.

Bobby and Martie told me it will likely take four to six weeks to rebuild the restaurant. All the ceiling and insulation has to be removed. The walls will be painted and work done to get rid of the smoke smell.

They are working to again make fire their friend.

Furniture news

Goose Hollow has completed their move into the old location of Big Lots on Highway 45 North. The location is in Jackson Square next door to Pepper’s Deli. I have not yet visited the location, but friends that have been there told me the new store is beautiful and is a new design concept for Goose Hollow.

I will visit it before the next column and give you an update.

I am also told that another new retail store will come in and be part of that building, too.

The old location of Goose Hollow will also be used for furniture needs too, I am told.

And if you have not been by there lately, check out the old Wal-Mart store on Highway 45 North.

Ashley Home Store is moving into that location and the new front of the building is in place. Mark Castleberry bought the building and he told me six months ago that the store would not look like an old Wal-Mart. I have to admit I was skeptical since every old Wal-Mart I had seen still looked the same.

I was wrong. This new front of the building is beautiful. It looks like an entrance to a palace with the arches and the glass. The inside is not complete, but is getting close. I will check on that too and give you an update.

Not any more

I have burned through 1,422 words. (Get it? I have burned through the words?) So, I must stop and make room for the other news of the day on this page. Thanks for coming along and going with me for another Thursday. I appreciate your time this week and look forward to seeing you again next Thursday. Same time, same station, same newspaper.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Furniture. Tags: Area, Ashley, Big Lots, Columbus, Design, electricity, food, Friends, Furniture, Home Store, insurance, Internet, Location, Opening, paint, retail, retail store, Set, Small, stainless steel, steel, Today, Wal-Mart, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.