Up & Coming Weekly

June 16, 2020

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 14 UCW JUNE 17-23, 2020 EARL VAUGHAN JR., Senior Staff Writer. COMMENTS? EarlUCWS- ports@gmail.com. 910-364-6638. Hope Mills News & Views NEWS Chef Glenn Garner had planned for an April open- ing of his new location of The Diner by Chef Glenn and Company on Camden Road. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed things down, mainly because of the restrictions in place that made the idea of rolling the restaurant out earlier imprac- tical, since it would not be open to sit-down customers. But Garner promoted interest in the new business by parking his food truck out front while work continued on the new location, serving customers to-go meals from the truck. Now that the state of North Carolina is gradually reopening and restrictions have been loosened on restau- rants, Garner held his official opening of the new location last week. Of course, there will still be limits on how much he can do, the main one being occupancy is limited to half capacity, which in his case will be no more than a maximum of 113 customers inside at one time. "It's for a good reason and I understand that,'' Garner said of the restrictions. "But I don't think a lot of places are going to open until Phase 3 starts off.'' Phase 3 is the next stage of reopening under the limits set down by Gov. Roy Cooper that will allow businesses like restaurants to return to more normal operations. Although they aren't required, Garner will promote the wearing of masks in his new business. He will also be required to sanitize the tables after each group of custom- ers leave. To comply with social distancing, no custom- ers will be seated at adjacent tables or booths, leaving unoccupied spaces as a buffer to allow proper spacing between everyone. Garner admitted he's concerned if he'll be able to even reach 50% occupancy with any regularity. He has visited other restaurants in anticipation of opening his and said many of them are not half full. "I think they are shell- shocked,'' he said of potential customers. Garner has set his hours for Tuesday through Thursday from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday he'll be open 7 a.m. until 11 p.m., closing on Sundays and Mondays. His aim with the new restaurant is to give Hope Mills diners the most varied and upscale menu available anywhere in town, and he thinks it will rival or exceed offerings they can get from specialty restaurants along Fayetteville's McPherson Church Road, the town's unof- ficial restaurant row. Just a sampling of what Garner will be serving includes seafood, steak, prime rib, chicken and oysters. The decor and theme of The Diner is '50s and '60s. Both the inside and outside of the building are decorated with signs and displays highlighting that era. In addition to the main seating area, Glenn will offer a private dining room for any group of 10 or more people that can seat up to 100. It will be available for parties or any kind of group meeting. Anyone interested in using it needs to make a reservation at least 48 hours in advance. As for Garner's old location in downtown Hope Mills, it will close temporarily while he's getting the new busi- ness open, with plans to reopen the downtown business sometime over the next quarter. For further information on either location, Garner can be contacted at 910-705-2664. Chef Glenn opens new location despite pandemic delays by EARL VAUGHAN JR. The opening of The Diner by Chef Glenn and Company was held last week after being postponed from the original planned date in April due to COVID-19. Few things are more important in the world we cur- rently live in than being able to articulate individual wants and needs. It's in times like these that the job of someone like Deana Kahlenberg is so important. Kahlenberg, who is a speech language pathologist at Gallberry Farm Elementary School in Cumberland County, was recently honored by her peers as the Cumberland County Schools speech language patholo- gist of the year. Kahlenberg said she was "blown away" to be recog- nized after being in the profession for only six years. She was inspired to pursue her career by an elemen- tary school teacher who created a love of working with children in her. Kahlenberg said there is also a history of stuttering in her family that sparked a personal interest in the profession. While some speech pathologists work at multiple schools, Kahlenberg does all of her work with students at Gallberry Farm. Her focus is on students in preschool through fifth grade who have communication disorders. These can range from having difficulty making certain sounds to problems understanding or using language. A graduate of Radford, Kahlenberg was an elemen- tary classroom teacher for seven years before she and her husband Mark, who is also a speech pathologist in Cumberland County, went back to get their masters degrees in communication disorders. Although this year changed things because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kahlenberg normally works with 50 to 60 students per year in both individual and group sessions, depending on the needs of each child. Kahlenberg is part of a team approach that includes teachers, teacher assistants, parents and entire families in working with students who need communication help. "The goal of what we do is to give everybody a voice,'' she said of the students she works with. "I think it's more critical than ever,'' she said. "Making sure everyone has that voice and fair opportunity to get an education is our goal.'' Because a lot of Kahlenberg's work involves one-on- one interaction with students, the pandemic complicated things, especially when school was closed. "We moved to teletherapy,'' she said. "We rely heavily on caregivers and family members to help go through the therapy process. There is a lot of caregiver training and counseling involved.'' Dawn Collins, the principal at Gallberry Farm, said Kahlenberg did everything in her power to make sure no students fell through the cracks because of the lack of face-to-face teaching this year once school closed. "She used all the resources possible,'' Collins said. "She would meet with students in small groups virtually and one-on-one. She considered it a personal goal to contact the students with the best resources she had.'' Kahlenberg said her primary hope for any recognition she receives from being honored is to increase interest in the speech pathology profession and hopefully draw oth- ers to pursue it as a career. "We are always needing more speech therapists,'' she said. "I hope it will bring light to the profession and draw younger people to enter it.'' Kahlenberg's crucial role helping young people communicate by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Deana Kahlenberg

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