Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

March 6, 2008 issue

 

The Price and the Faces of Progress: High Country Cleaners

Story by Kathleen McFadden

Editor’s note: In the coming weeks, High Country Press will feature the stories of the people being displaced by the Highway 421 widening project.

What is the value to a community of a three-generation family-owned business? And what does it mean to that family to decide to close that business?

The first question is one for everyone in Boone to ponder. The second is one that Pam Stapleton and her brother Jeff Younce are answering for themselves.

Stapleton and Younce own and operate High Country Cleaners, located at the corner of Highway 421 and Horn in the West Drive. The building will be demolished as part of the Highway 421 widening project.

Stapleton has worked at High Country Cleaners since she was in high school. She remembers her dad picking her up after school and driving her to the cleaners where she handled the counter work. The job was a good deal for Stapleton, giving her an income when jobs for teens weren’t easy to find and then growing into a flexible way to make a living when she started having children. “Dad was so good to work with me,” she said, arranging for babysitting and helping with the costs. But Stapleton more than handled her end of the bargain. “Dad was very dependent on us,” she said, speaking of her work and her sister Paula Ward’s employment at the cleaners. “We all had to chip in,” Stapleton said. Her aunt and uncle also worked in the business “through thick and thin.”

And that’s the traditional way family businesses have been built, with family members supporting family members and creating a livelihood together. In time, Stapleton realized that she was part of something bigger than simply a job. “After awhile, it was special to work in the family business,” she said.

Aside from the family connection, a big part of the specialness that Stapleton appreciates is the customers. “We have many customers that Dad cultivated,” Stapleton said. “We have a lot of loyal people who say they watched Jeff and me grow up.”

Stapleton and Younce have known for five or six years that they were likely to be displaced, but the reality hit home when the NC DOT held an informational meeting at the Broyhill in March 2007.

“I went [to the meeting] with Mom,” Younce said, “and realized it was definite. It’s sad to see another piece of Boone plowed over in the name of progress.”

After that meeting, the brother and sister looked at their options. “The next day I was out looking at property,” Younce said, “but I got discouraged when I looked at the prices and all the hoops you have to run through with the town. And dry cleaning trends have changed so much. It has declined for several years.”

Stapleton added, “We looked, we talked to people and we decided it’s time to do something different.”

The two have decided to close the business and are informing their long-term customers one by one of their decision.

“People say, ‘What are we going to do?’” Stapleton said. “They love it when you know their name. The interaction with people—that will be the hardest thing, the thing I’ll miss the most. We’ve been blessed to know as many people as we have.”

Younce said, “It’s bittersweet, the ending of an era. If business were booming, we’d look at continuing, but I’m 34 and ready for a career change.” Younce plans to establish a landscaping business.

Stapleton, however, has a different view. “I’m not as anxious to give it up as Jeff. I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” she said.

Stapleton and Younce own the building, and Younce said, “The price for the real estate, that’s something you can agree on. But how are you going to put a price on sweat equity—the blood, sweat and tears we’ve put into this place? If we were selling to another businessman, then the goodwill, the name, the clientele are figured in, but the DOT is basically concerned with brick and mortar.

“It’s got to be right here,” Younce said, pointing to his heart. “The business will be hard to price. I don’t know how the process will go; you hope it’s fair.”

All the business owners and property owners along the roadway are dealing with that uncertainty. “The DOT is slow and there’s poor communication between them and the business owners,” Younce said. “They don’t tell you anything. That’s the upsetting thing.”

Younce said that his building is scheduled for an appraisal in mid-March. After that come negotiations with the DOT.

In the meantime, the brother and sister team are coping with their sadness.

“I’m just beginning to think now when I drive by, ‘That’s going to be gone,’” Younce said.

“In the last few weeks it has been keeping me up at night,” Stapleton said, “after seeing these guys come by with clipboards.

“It brings tears to my eyes every time we talk about it,” Stapleton added.

 

The DOT Right of Way Acquisition Process

According to Judy Joines of the NC DOT Right of Way Division in Raleigh, the DOT cannot provide timelines for when businesses will be displaced in the Highway 421 widening project because of so many variables, including the timing of the appraisals and the negotiations with property owners. That uncertainty most affects business owners who rent their locations.

Joines said DOT employs its own board-certified appraisers, but sometimes hires local fee appraisers to help with projects if the DOT appraisers are unavailable.

In addition to purchasing property to make way for the highway widening, DOT will also reimburse business owners for relocation and reestablishment.

Business relocation is the actual moving of the business assets to a new location. DOT obtains bids for moving the business property and then awards the job to the lowest bidder.

Business reestablishment is the cost of acquiring a new business location, but reimbursement is capped at $10,000. Joines admitted that the figure is low and has not been increased in several years. Increasing the amount would require an act by the NC General Assembly.

Business owners can opt to take a one-time payment that combines relocation and reestablishment expenses by submitting two years of tax returns to the DOT, but that one-time payment is capped at $20,000.

The DOT pays nothing for a businesses name, customer base and community goodwill. “Intangibles are not compensable,” Joines said.