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.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1007462
JULY 25-31, 2018 UCW 23 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Hope Mills News & Views Need a Helping Hand? by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Got a simple house cleaning or a real homeowner disaster on your hands? Big or small, Aprilmarie Fields of Fields Helping Hands in Hope Mills is ready to take on the challenge. Fields, who relocated to Hope Mills from Kentucky about four years ago, brought her Fields Helping Hands cleaning business with her and has many satisfied clients in and around Cumberland County. Fields and her crew will tackle just about any- thing, from standard vacancy and residential clean- ing, some commercial cleaning, all the way up to what she calls hoarding situations. "That's when you walk into the house and you can't walk because there's garbage on the floor,'' she said. "It's just piled up knee-high through the whole house. There are people that live like that.'' When tackling that kind of situation, Fields has a simple solution. "You take it one room at a time,'' she said. She's only had to deal with three hoarding situ- ations in her years in Hope Mills and Cumberland County, she said. The typical job is a residential cleaning. "You go in the house and dust everything, vacuum, mop, like you would clean your own home,'' she said. A vacancy cleaning involves scrubbing down the walls and baseboards along with the mini-blinds, as well as pulling out the refrigerator to clean behind it. "Every surface gets wiped clean,'' she said. Fields also has a lot of requests from people who are connected to the military for what she calls a PCS clean. PCS stands for permanent change of station for someone who's gotten orders to move out and relocate to a new assignment. "We do a vacancy clean so they can leave for their next sta- tion,'' she said. Fields said she normally books about three weeks to a month ahead, but in emergencies like PCS situations, she can try to work a case into the schedule. She normally works with her crew of 10 assis- tants from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. They will rarely work on Saturday but always take Sunday off. Fields said she's willing to do cleaning outside of Cumberland County, but for extended trips there need to be at least two or three homes or places to clean. She provides free cleaning estimates. The cost isn't based on the size of the area to be cleaned, it's determined by just how big a mess the owner or tenant has left. "One person's house could be the same size as another person's, but the other person isn't as clean as the next person,'' she said. "It's by the job.'' Fields said she's never come across a hazardous waste situation during a cleaning job, but she's even equipped to handle that up to a point, with protec- tive clothing, masks and gloves as part of her travel- ing equipment. If you're interested in talking to Fields about a cleaning job, check her Facebook page at Fields Helping Hands. She's also listed in the Yellow Pages. Her phone number is 606-425-6117. The rumors about whether or not the popular Hope Mills restaurant Robin's on Main is mov- ing have finally been put to rest, said owner Robin Burnum. "Robin's is staying,'' she said, referring to the res- taurant's current location on North Main Street. Burnum said she'll be signing a five-year lease with property owner John Beasley on Aug. 1, at the same time she'll be announcing some changes to her weekly hours and the restaurant's menu. Burnum thanked Beasley for offering the extended lease after he had originally consid- ered selling the business. "I would have hated to leave Hope Mills,'' Burnum said. "Hope Mills has been my fam- ily for eight years, and I've grown a great business here." Now, with the new five-year commitment, Burnum said she's ready to begin work on some much-needed upgrades to the restaurant. The first and most important will be converting to gas for her grilling and replacing her under- sized 24-inch grill with a larger model. She's currently getting estimates on the cost for the work to add the new grill and said they are running between $10,000 and $15,000. She's hopeful the process to install the new grill will only take a few days and that the work can take place during normal closings and outside of regular restaurant hours so she won't have to close while the grill is being added. She'd love for it to be up and running when the new lease is signed on Aug. 1 but said the work may extend into September or October. The larger grill will allow her to turn orders around much quicker and get larger food orders prepared faster. Robin's can handle as many as 80 customers at one time, and during the busiest periods, Burnum said, people have to wait in excess of an hour for their food. The business caters to the break- fast and lunch trade. Burnum said she's tried to add evening hours, but customers just haven't responded, so she'll stick with what's working. But, she's planning a change in hours. Come Aug. 1, the restaurant will close on Sunday and only be open Tuesday through Saturday from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. Currently, the restaurant is closed Monday, open weekdays 6-2, Saturday 6-1 and Sunday 8-1. Burnum said she'll continue her special Thanksgiving dinner for first responders, and, once the larger grill is installed, hopes to provide other charitable meals for the community. Those plans have yet to be confirmed, she said. Robin's on Main staying put by EARL VAUGHAN JR. NEWS Burnum said she'll be signing a five-year lease with the prop- erty owner on Aug. 1. Robin Burnum Aprilmarie Fields and husband Larry