The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 31

3fi Inquirer Phlladetohia Monday, January 25, 1993 Section Offbeat games A retail revival at 30th Street for bars This firm's work is to bowl over patrons v- ,11,1. The neoclassical architecture of the 60-year-old station can be seen in its massive windows. A $100 million overhaul is almost done more than 10 years after Amtrak first promised it. sr. The Philadelphia Inquirer J.

KYLE KEENER ByTomBelden INQI'IKKRSTAKF WHITER Like the thousands of Amtrak passengers who file through 30th Street Station every day, Sheila Popky waited a long time for the good things now coming her way. Popky labored for years in other people's bakeries, managing and learning to make scrumptious pastries. Today, she's the proud owner of Sheila's Muffins, one of 23 food and merchandise vendors that are or soon will be operating in 30th Street's elegantly renovated South Concourse. For rail passengers and workers in nearby offices, Popky and the other merchants are providing a public service in a place that badly needed it, where, at times over the last five years, McDonald's had a monopoly on prepared food. For the first time in recent memory, the retailers are making the venerable station a pleasurable place to By Jeff Swimmer FORTHE1NIJIUHER "When tavern patrons get tired of hurling themselves against walls, they'll no doubt want to get their kicks by strapping themselves into a metal cage and tumbling along the floor upside down and over.

The above proposal may sound a bit far-fetched, but it could easily be a business prospectus for a most unusual Pennsylvania firm, M.T. Entertainment Specialties, based in Mountain Top, Luzerne County. Almost singlehandedly, M.T. has created, and come to dominate, the rapidly growing market in wacky and offbeat bar games. Across the country, drinking revelers participate in M.T.

creations such as the now-famous sport of Velcro Wall-Jumping, and the company's latest innovation, Human Bowling. In Human Bowling, bar-goers don motorcycle helmets for protection, and are strapped at the feet and wrists into a 110-pound round steel cage. Then, a couple of brawny handlers, usually bar employees, lock the cage, turn it upside down and give it a jolt to make sure the "bowler" is securely in place and not having queasy second thoughts. He or she is then rolled at a loping See BAR GAMES on D6 The Market at 30th Street Station Shops listed in boldface Manv npw imger wnue many new waitinB for a eateries and shops have climbed aboard at the depot. train.

"I'm out here to feed the world," the smiling, energetic Popky said recently during a break in a hectic daily routine, A marriage of computers and musical instruments York firm hits top of the charts VA CandyWorld fAX County MTVj temporary imtmMMX BraddAlan Coffee fVH rV Bookstore trak Stairway 8 Stairway 6 SEPTA Concourse and MAC machine Tirbntc Stairway 4 IIIIUIIIIdLIUH MP1' "upr The Philadelphia Inquirer ROGER HASLER which starts in the middle of the night with the baking of muffins, cookies and other delights for the first wave of Amtrak commuters headed for New York at 5:40 a.m. By its formal grand opening at the end of April, the Market at 30th Street Station is expected to have three bakeries, six restaurants, a bar, a French butcher, a produce vendor, a soul-food specialist, a fresh-seafood shop, a gourmet-coffee stand and a pasta purveyor. The new retail shops are part of the $100 million overhaul of 30th Street Station, which is nearing completion more than 10 years after Amtrak first promised to restore the 60-year-old neoclassical station to its original grandeur. A combination of federal, state, local and private funds has paid for the restoration. The project has meant polishing every light fixture, scrubbing of the 90-foot-high coffered ceiling and other surfaces inside and out, bathing the station's exterior in soft light at night, building an underground parking garage, overhauling me- chanical systems the public doesn't see, and renovating 250,000 square feet of office space for 1,500 Amtrak employees.

Amtrak's ticket counters, its plush lounge for first-class passengers and its other passenger services are clustered on the north side of the main concourse. A MAC automated teller machine opened recently near SEPTA'S ticket counters. SEPTA'S main concourse, in the northwest corner of the station the only public area heavily damaged in a fire Dec. 23, SOURCE: Amtrak i ni By Beth Arburn Davis FOR THE INQUIRER YORK, Pa. Turtle Beach Systems' products may be music to the ears of musicians and computer aficionados, but whether the young company can turn its first few entrepreneurial flourishes into a symphony remains to be seen.

The walls and shelves of the company's cavernous, warehouselike space in the local business incubator boast numerous awards, including a Best Exhibitor citation from the 1992 Philadelphia-MidAtlantic Venture Fair in September. The award was particularly satisfying because the people who voted on it were the prospective investors attending the event, which is sponsored by the Delaware Valley Venture Group in Philadelphia and the MidAtlantic Venture Association in Baltimore. Those who review music-related computer software and hardware rave about Turtle Beach's products, which include software that can turn a personal computer into a sound studio. "Their product sounds great. Their See TURTLE BEACH on D12 1991 is the only section awaiting renovation.

Besides new offerings of food, the station has added a card shop, a CD and tape store and a flower shop, and has renovated its bookstorenewsstand. Except for the flower shop, the stores face 30th Street's soaring main concourse and waiting room. None of those retail establishments is in the main concourse, however. The only store in the concourse will be one selling items such as T-shirts and tote bags stamped with Amtrak's logo. Throughout the project, Amtrak and its architect, Dan Peter Kopple Associates, of Philadelphia, strove to preserve the character of the monu-See 30TH STREET on D4 I ft Wac A4 -i- ill i Passengers arriving at 30th Street now have more than McDonald's to greet them.

Among the station's new attractions are a card and gift shop and an Au Bon Pain bakery. if ui Metropolitan Business Report Experience-on-Tap's stable includes 600 professionals in all management disciplines, most with a minimum of 20 years' experience in business. More information is available from 215-825-7416. Conran's takes Manhattan Conran's Habitat, which will close its Center City store next week, has training related to inadequate or unavailable child care." Help for small firms Usually, the management consultants who work through Experience-On-Tap charge for their services. But they will perform free assessments of growth and profit opportunities for small companies.

Penn Award, which is given annually by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the Pen-jerdel Council. Harris was cited for his commitment to civic and charitable organizations, particularly the Allegheny West Foundation, a nonprofit group that helps to revitalize neighborhoods in North Philadelphia. Harris will receive the award at a gala on May 7. $50 $45.7 Industry-Sponsored at Universities and Colleges Fiscal year 1991, in millions of dollars: 40 announced yet another change: The company will move its headquarters from White Plains, N.Y., back to Manhattan, its original home. The offices will be in the original Conran's headquarters at 61 E.

Eighth St. Conran's Habitat's remaining store in the Philadelphia area is in King of Prussia. Dollars for research For the fourth year in a row, Penn State ranked second among U.S. colleges and universities in industry-sponsored science and engineering research and development. Penn State received $37.59 million from industrial sources during the 12 months ended Sept.

30, 1991, the latest period for which data were available. "That Penn State has remained second in industrial support for four years indicates the strength of our research contacts with the private sector," said David A. Shirley, Penn State's senior vice president for research. "In light of changes in the federal defense budget and other budgetary considerations, it is imperative that the university look to industry to continue research and development efforts." The envelope please From the awards file: Nelson G. Harris, chairman of the Tasty Baking executive committee, will receive the 1992 William INDEX Arnold Beckman turned a love of chemistry into a major corporation.

Binzen on Business, D3. The U.S. is losing ground on travel and tourism, the industry tells President Clinton. Business Travel, D4. A Cherry Hill school teaches animation to Disney wannabes.

D5. to your company and what records to keep. The IRS offers help in the form of free tax workshops for small businesses. Information on dates, times and locations is available from the IRS at 215-597-0512. Stressing day care Four in 10 Pennsylvanians believe society should place a higher priority on providing adequate day care for the children of working parents, according to a recent survey conducted by Pennsylvania State University.

About 3,600 state residents participated in the survey, conducted by Fern Willits and Donald Crider, rural sociologists at Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, and graduate student Jeanette Janota. Respondents were asked what priority should be given to day-care centers and nursery schools in the future, compared with what was being done at the time. About 40 percent of the participants said day care should be given higher priority. Only 5 percent favored a lower priority. Women, people younger than 40, those with children under 18 and city residents were most likely to favor more emphasis on day care.

"The issue of child care is not just a concern of parents," Willits said. "It has been estimated that business and industry annually lose billions of dollars to worker turnover and 30.8 A constructive forecast Those in the region's construction industry increasingly believe that the worst of the recession is behind them, according to a survey by CIT GroupIndustrial Financing an equipment-financing company. Equipment distributors and contractors in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York "are among the most optimistic in the U.S. when it comes to projecting construction activity in 1993," said CIT, which is based in Livingston, N.J. A slim majority of the distributors and half the contractors said they expected activity to be unchanged from 1992.

But far more contractors and distributors anticipated increases in business than predicted decreases. CIT said the predictions in its surveys, which it has conducted for 17 years, have "closely matched" actual performances in following years. Contractors and distributors in the mid-Atlantic states are more optimistic than they have been since 1986. More than 900 contractors and distributors participated in the survey nationally; 50 of each were from the mid-Atlantic states. Free tax workshops Taxes, taxes, taxes.

If you own, manage or keep books for a small business, forking over the money is the simple part. The thornier issues are things such as which taxes apply 30 26.0 24.4 23.1 22.9 22.5 21.0 2o.4 20 Bankruptcies D4 D5 D9 Bestsellers Calendar 10 Economic Tronrls Insider Transactions Money Market Funds D5 D8 D8 D8 DIP D2 09 Mutual Fund Performance New Businesses MIT Michigan i Illinois- Urbana Penn Washington Texas State SOURCE: Pennsylvania Stats University People in the News Duke N.C. State-! Raleigh Georgia Carnegie-Tech Mellon The Philadelphia Inquirer F. Campbell Selected Stocks D8 Ship Arrivals.