Businesses see decline during swine flu scare - News
This is my second story that I got published at college's newspaper. Enjoy!
The swine flu outbreak affected not only Newark residents, but also the businesses surrounding the university.
From April 26 to May 2, many restaurants near campus experienced a decline in customers.
Bill Galbraith, general manager of The Stone Balloon Winehouse, said the restaurant experienced some decline, presumably due to swine flu.
"We had a 20 percent decrease in customers during that weekend," Galbraith said.
Iron Hill Brewery closed for the afternoon on April 30 and re-opened May 1 in the afternoon because of the illness, General Manager Christina Matarese said.
Matarese said the decision to close was made between the general managers, regional managers and owners of the restaurant. The restaurant received positive responses regarding closing down from the e-mail sent out to customers of the brewery. As a result of closing, the establishment experienced some loss of profit that week, she said.
"We really wanted to make sure everyone was safe, including the employees and customers," Matarese said.
Unlike Iron Hill Brewery, The Stone Balloon Winehouse stayed open the whole week, Galbraith said. He said the incident seemed more as though the media were looking for news. However, The Stone Balloon Winehouse employees made sure to increase their cleaning procedures such as washing their hands more than usual.
"We didn't really see the point of closing down during that week because none of the employees or anyone they knew was sick at the time," Galbraith said.
Unlike the restaurants on Main Street, gyms near the university, such as Fusion Fitness Center and 1614, profited from the incident.
Fusion Fitness Center owner Nic DeCaire said because the Carpenter Sports Building closed down for the possible swine flu victims, Fusion Fitness Center gained more customers.
"This event gave us more possible customers and gained us new customers who signed up," Decaire said.
At the Fusion Fitness Center, there was a change in the crowd because of the incident, he said. The gym dropped in attendance, but would still make a profit because of the monthly payments for membership at the gym.
"We usually get between 200 to 250 people coming to the gym every day, but about 50 people were absent that week," Decaire said.
Fusion Fitness Center stayed open because its managers knew people would be concerned with their health and their thorough cleaning habits would attract new customers, he said.
He said its employees' main response method to the incident was to increase their cleaning habits.
At 1614, the gym didn't experience any changes, owner Mike Womer said.
He said the week seemed to be a normal week and approximately had 15 to 20 less visits because of the swine flu. On average, the gym has 150 visits per day.
"The first day was actually pretty light, but the next day was like any other regular day for us," Womer said.
Just like Fusion Fitness Center, 1614 gained two new members to the gym, which is average for a week, Womer said. He said employees made sure to be extra clean to ensure to their customers that there could be no possibility that they could catch the swine flu at the gym.
"It was a positive in business sense, but I really can't see it as a positive since I can't wish someone getting sick," Womer said.
All the general managers believed the swine flu epidemic was blown out of proportion.
Even though the general managers didn't agree with the way the media covered the outbreak, they did agree with the university's response to the swine flu epidemic.
"I believe the university did a great job to make sure the virus couldn't spread and took the correct precautionary methods to use in order to face the problem," Matarese said.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Engineering professor fuels passion for Porsches - News
This is the first story that got published at my college's newspaper. Enjoy
In room 35 of Smith Hall, alumnus Steven Timmins , an owner of 20 Porsches and professor of mechanical engineering at the university, discusses his deep passion for high-performance cars, a love he has had since he attended St. Marks High School in Wilmington.
"I was fixing cars at Nick's Foreign Cars when I was 15 in high school as a mechanic and gained my passion for high-performance cars while racing hot rods at the time," Timmins said.
After high school, he attended the university, double majoring in accounting and finance. After graduating in 1984, Timmins worked as an accountant for three years before going back to the university to major in mechanical engineering.
"I actually declared myself as an undergrad of mechanical engineering, but at the time, I wasn't focused," he said. "I switched over to business because it was easy."
While at the university, Timmins started having trouble with his British sports car so he decided to look for a more reliable sports car instead. His search for a new car led him to his first test drive in a '84 Porsche 944. Timmins said he completely fell in love with the car.
"That single test drive made me a fan of Porsche," he said. "After my test drive, I immediately called my mother to help me with the loan for a car. If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't have become a fan of Porsche."
Within the year he bought his first Porsche, Timmins joined the Porsche Club of America. Throughout years of accomplishments in the PCA, his love for Porsches grew dramatically. He now owns 20 modified Porsches including a 1970 911 with a 3.8 liter and 375 horsepower that weighs in at 2,100 pounds, and a stock 2004 Cayenne Turbo. Timmins said he has sold at least 20 of his own modified cars to purchase more.
His love for Porsches became so strong he even used his 1983 Porsche 911 at his wedding.
"We took pictures of my wife and I driving in the Porsche, and my wife had her veil blowing in the wind," Timmins said.
Among his 20 modified high-performance cars, his favorite car is the car he used at his wedding. Years later, Timmins modified the car into a street-legal high-performance car. The vehicle has a 425 horsepower, 3.5 liter non-turbo engine running at 8000 revolutions per minute. He deemed it the Tealamonstre.
"The Tealamonstre is the fastest car I have, and the fastest I've gone in it was 170 miles per hour," Timmins said.
Over the years, his love of high-performance cars has garnered him many awards from the PCA. In 1988 Timmins was named Driver of the Year. After his first accomplishment in the club, he went on to become a two-time Delaware Region vice president, president and treasurer. Timmins has also been a classroom instructor of High Performance and Vehicle Dynamics and an event chairman of Virginia Internationaal Raceway Driver's Education. In 2007 he received a National Instructor's Certification and became Chief Classroom Instructor.
Every Porsche Timmins owns, except for the Cayenne Turbo, has an engine that he has built from scratch and fully modified. When Timmins is working on the cars, he said he feels like he is Dr. Frankenstein creating a monster.
"Right now, I'm working on making a GT3 from a 2001 Porsche 996," he said.
Apart from his achievements in PCA and his love for Porsches, Timmins is the adviser for the Society of Automotive Engineering and an IT/user services and information resource consultant. As a result of his busy schedule, Timmins cannot spend as much time on his vehicles as he did years ago.
"Between my job, the PCA and the family, I don't have the usual amount of time to work on the cars in my shop like I used to," he said.
Engineering professor fuels passion for Porsches - News
I Am Wiley aka Tj
And I'm probably the most complex person you may ever meet or follow their blog. I see the world and reality on a thin line of what is right or wrong. I'm rather blunt on telling the truth to people and my honesty tends to make some people mad. To be honest, I could care less if I make someone mad because I didn’t agree with them or say something they wanted me to say. I believe everyone needs to hear the truth about themselves and their flaws everyone once in the while because it allows them to look at their flaws and create. Even I have COUNTLESS flaws, but I would be grateful for someone to point it out or let me know about my flaws every now and then.
Through out my life, I have had many crazy adventures and met A LOT of very, well, different people. From the time I've been on this crazy world, I've come to the understanding that people are different and one's logic is highly different to their counterparts or that person sitting next to them on the bus. I love to meet new people and love getting into debates. At the same time, I'm very outgoing and somewhat outrageous at times. I have a habit of taking risks and the risks I have acted upon have gotten me very far in life.
At the moment, I'm single without any kids and currently attending the
So I say welcome....to my way of creating clarity.
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