Dairy Queen ready for its grand re-opening Friday

At noon on Friday, Aug. 31, the Dairy Queen in Homewood will again be serving its specialty ice cream treats.
 

The store has been closed since July 17 when a driver lost control in the early morning hours and slammed into the southeast corner of the building at Ridge Road and Gottschalk Avenue. He died a week later.
 

The impact of the accident damaged the south wall where patrons stand in line to place their orders. The east wall took a direct hit and the roof had serious damage.
 

From the outside, residents won’t notice a difference. A new, but identical distinctive red roof is in place now. It required extra support beams in the ceiling to take some of the weight off the walls. Patrons will still have two windows at which to place their orders.
 

But inside, the store has been rebuilt. Owner Kevin Welsh said the only things he was able to salvage were a few cabinets and the sinks. 
 

“Everything else was damaged,” he said Monday. The accident pushed everything inside into the west wall. That includes all the machinery for making the ice cream, storage racks and supplies.
 

The store now has a colorful red, white and blue non-skid floor. The new ice cream machines are larger and have new health and safety mechanisms, he said. To accommodate them, the front of the Dairy Queen has been extended 16 inches on both sides to give staff the room they will need to maneuver around in tight quarters.
 

Kelly Welsh, the store manager, said most of her staff will be returning to serve customers until the store’s fall closing. “I had four employees leave to go to school (three are college freshmen), but the rest (more than a dozen) are high schoolers and are all staying,” she said.