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featured

Bill Plumb spent more than 20 years in the health care indus-try as CEO of North Country

Home Services in the Saranac Lake area. But in 2001, in his early 50s, he decided it was time for a change and he began look-ing around to discover what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

“I knew I wanted to stay in the Ad-irondacks and I was looking for something

where I could use some of my construction skills to work in a way that would take me through to retirement,” he said.

He found it in the mountains of Ten-nessee.

‘It’ was a group of little wooden cabins in a campground. “Each was unique, but they were similar to each other in some ways,” he recalled. “I was smitten by the idea of these cabins. They were made

of Adirondack white pine and I thought they’d be great for our area. They looked like they really belonged in the Adiron-dacks.”

Looking closer, he found a real sur-prise underneath the cabins wheels.

“They were actually recreational vehicles (RVs),” Plumb said, “although you would never know it from looking at them.”

by Carolee Smith

A Cabin Woods IN THE

December 2007 27

Plumb met the owner who was manu-facturing the cabins on a limited basis and thought he might like to distribute them in the North Country. But the idea soon went further than that.

To make a long story short, Plumb decided to get into the manufacturing end (joined the Recreational Park Trail-er Industry Association (RPTIA), the Georgia-based trade association that rep-

resents recreational park trailer manu-facturers and ensures their compliance with federally approved construction codes) studied how to build them and wrote a business plan. His son, Joe, who has a business degree from SUNY Oswego, joined him in the business. They hired a third person, put up a building on Route 3 just outside Saranac Lake, and went to work.

Today Adirondack White Pine Cabins is a young, but ourishing business and Bill Plumb, in his own words, is “having a great time!”

These small cabins, rated as recre-ational park trailers, evolved in the 1970s, Plumb explained, as a result of the rst big energy crisis. At that time, lots of people were hauling their RVs all over the country behind large vehicles. As the prices of gas

As printed in the December 2007 issue of Strictly Business magazine

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been very successful, with sales for this year 35 percent ahead of last year.

“We recognized there was a void for this type of thing here,” he said.

One of the things Dave, Jennifer and Judy said they enjoy most about work-ing in Lake Placid is being able to bring the newest technologies and merchandise to people in a rural area, while educating them at the same time. Dave said he has encountered some business owners who offer what he calls “B-grade merchandise” because of their presumption that Adiron-dack customers don’t want or can’t afford top-quality, high-grade items.

“Just because we are up here in rural New York, doesn’t mean we can’t have the same things that are available in Manhat-tan,” Dave said.

“We’ve been really happy to let people know about something they never knew existed,” Jennifer added.

Eye Peek also offers the basics that you would expect to nd at the eye doctor’s of ce like exams, contact lens tting and tests for glaucoma. Jennifer, who gradu-ated from the Pennsylvania College of Op-tometry in 1996, said an unexpected perk of practicing in a small, rural setting is that she gets the opportunity to utilize her full range of skills and knowledge more than she did in the city.

“You really have to be a primary care physician,” she said. “It’s not easy to refer people here. I’ve enjoyed the challenge and using my scope of practice. I end up man-aging a lot more things than in D.C. Pro-fessionally for me, it’s been really nice.”

Another staple of the Eye Peek experi-ence is customer service. Dave, Judy and Jennifer have learned that building rela-tionships with patients and customers is another requirement of doing business in a small town.

“There’s a smaller patient base,” Dave said. “In D.C., everyone is totally anony-mous. Here you see everybody almost daily.”

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include a full refrigerator, four-burner stove with oven, microwave and full sink.

The rest of the interior is taken up with a living/dining room, which usually has a sliding glass door that opens to a screened-in porch. (The porch is optional.)

The cabins have numerous windows and are very well insulated. “They have an R21 envelope,” Plumb said, “and are very comfortable right here in the Adirondacks with our low winter temperatures.” Ad-ditionally, the roofs are pitched and can handle the Adirondack snow load.

If someone wants a bit more room, they can opt for a small loft a small low-ceilinged area with windows that open that can be used as an extra sleeping area or storage space. “It’s not a big enough area for adults,” Plumb said, “but kids just love them!”

Owners frequently add decking after the cabin is installed on a property.

The cabins come with simple connec-tions to water, sewer and electrical service. Just as an RV owner pulls into a site and hooks up, so a cabin owner will connect in the same way.

Built with white pine lumber milled at Ward Lumber Company, Plumb stressed that there is no paneling within the cabins. As a result, there is no formaldehyde, no paneling glue, or other potentially toxic materials.

“The customer gets to choose the ooring carpeting, vinyl or laminate

and the colors of the stains used inside and out,” Plumb said, “as well as the appli-ances. In fact, we nd that most customers choose high-end models.”

One of the nicest parts about having a cabin built, Plumb suggested, is that it’s all done in a controlled atmosphere. “Since we build them inside,” he said “nothing is exposed to the elements.” Another positive resulting from that is “our customers fre-quently stop in and watch their unit being built. It’s fun for them.”

And what does an Adirondack White Pine Cabin cost? “The minimum is about $55,000,” Plumb said, “but depending on what the customer wants to include, they can run up to $65,000.” Part of the custom-er’s overhead, he noted, is the mileage cost of moving the unit to its permanent site.

Plumb said that, in the last ten years, there has been a 46 percent increase

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in sales of this type of unit. More than 10,000 are produced in the United States each year and it’s estimated that well over 100,000 units are currently in campgrounds in the United States and Canada.

Who buys them? It’s a wide open mar-ket. Some people put them on private prop-erty. “I have one in my backyard,” Plumb laughed. “My 89-year-old mother-in-law lives in it and loves it. It’s perfect for an elderly parent as an alternative to senior housing. They can maintain their indepen-dence, but still be close to family.”

Some people want a little retreat or second home. “One family I know,” Plumb said, “has three, one in Boon-ville, one in South Dakota, and one in Arizona, all in campgrounds They have three homes in three parts of the country, but only have about $160,000 invested and don’t pay any property tax-es!”

Plumb built and sold one cabin with an interior customized to serve as a small commercial bakery. “They can be unique business properties,” he said.

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rose, the costs of moving regularly from, for instance, the North Country to Florida and back every year, or just from camp-ground to campground during the sum-mer, were skyrocketing.

“People began trying to nd a resort they liked and negotiating a year-round fee to leave their RVs on that site on a more permanent basis,” Plumb said. “As a result, since they were no longer towing their RVs regularly, the limits on what an RV could look like began changing.”

RVs are regulated by federal policies, according to Plumb, and the cabins con-form. They cannot, for instance, measure more than 400 square feet in oor space. In his new building, Plumb and his staff can work on the construction of two cabins at a time and each typically takes six to seven weeks to build.

The cabins are built on a heavy duty chassis which has four axles and eight wheels. “We buy the chassis,” he said, “then do all the rest of the construction. And, he stressed, “this is not a mobile home on wheels. It is stick-built construc-tion and is custom built to the purchaser’s speci cations.”

Make no mistake, the cabins are small. But people are genuinely sur-prised when they enter one for the rst time. Typically there is one bedroom with built-in dressers and closet and room for a queen-size bed. A full bath can accommodate a jetted tub or large shower stall, a stacked washer and dryer, plus a custom vanity and mirror. The kitch-en is generally fairly compact, but will

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“You have to be here to take care of people,” Jennifer added. “If we aren’t here, we aren’t open.”

Dave said Eye Peek makes a commit-ment to stay open the hours it reads on the door, even during the “slow season,” to ac-commodate customers.

So while Eye Peek is about two de-cades too late to spare me the childhood trauma of being branded a nerd with un-cool glasses, it’s nice to know I can now revel in my myopia and wear my hip new spectacles with pride.

“You want people to have fun wearing glasses,” Judy said. “If you have to wear glasses, you might as well look nice.”

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featured

An Adirondack “Peak” by Heather Sackett

When I was seven years old, I experienced every kid’s worst nightmare. I was

told I needed glasses. The only thing more dreaded when you are in grade school is being told you need braces. For the next few years, until I was old enough to get contact lenses, every day of my life I wore glasses glasses so ugly that looking back on school pictures makes me cringe. If only Eye Peek had been around when I was in

elementary school, eyeglasses might have been my opportunity to get ahead of the fashion curve instead of a social death-sentence.

“A lot of doctors’ of ces treat glasses as a prosthetic device,” owner and optician of Eye Peek, David Doebler said. “We treat them as an accessory.”

Indeed, Eye Peek has made wearing glasses cool again. Dave and Judy Doe-bler own and operate the of ce on Sara-

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Eye Peek offers a huge array of spec-tacles in cool colors and original designs to t any face, shape or budget. And you can almost bet that whichever you pick from the hundreds of choices, no one you know

Dave and Judy Doebler with daughter Jennifer Small

December 2007 31

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Others use them for rental properties. Private owners have ordered two for the Lake Placid area to replace deteriorating rental cabins.

Who else? “Disney World actu-ally uses this type of unit on part of their property,” Plumb said. “Every four or ve years, they auction them off and buy brand new ones. It’s good business. They don’t have to do major renovations and the resale market is strong. ”

Plumb said, “One strong selling point is that they are, after all, mobile. They give an owner the exibility to relocate. If someone buys ten to rent and then the market drops off in that area, they can be packed up, moved to a new location and set up again!”

How does Plumb see the future? Very optimistically, as it turns out. “These have been very popular in the south and south-west,” he said, “but the ones built there aren’t appropriate for a cold and snowy area like ours. I think there is terri c mar-ket potential, both here and in Canada, for the better insulated ones we’re building.”

Plumb commented that he buys as many of his materials as possible from Ad-irondack-based businesses. “It’s important to do business locally,” he said.

Plumb is considering doubling his three person workforce in the near future. But, he was quick to add, “I’ve learned not to over-expand. So far, all of our units have been pre-sold. But I’d like to hook up with a resort or campground in this area where they, as developers, put in the cabins and sell them as a package. They would be great for snowbirds who spend a lot of the year in Florida, but would like to be here for the summer months.”

In the meantime, Plumb enjoys going to work every day, especially when some-one sees his cabins next to Route 3, pulls in and says, “Wow! I’d like to have a cabin like that!”

Carolee SmithStrictly Business Editor

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will have a pair like them. You won’t nd any plain old wire frames or basic horn-rimmed glasses here. Better yet, the folks at Eye Peek believe in the quality of the product they are selling. Both Dave and Judy sport a pair of chic, stylish eyeglasses that seem selected to t their personalities.

“Most eyewear providers are catering to the masses,” Dave said. “The inventory selection is very conservative; it’s very safe. They offer tons and tons and tons of vanilla. We are pretty much a vanilla-free zone.”

“Whenever anyone is wearing inter-esting-looking glasses people know they got them here,” Jennifer added. “A perfect stranger will say, ‘You got your glasses at Eye Peek, didn’t you?’”

Word of the unique selection at Eye Peek has spread throughout the entire North Country region with people coming from as far away as Watertown.

“There’s nowhere you can purchase the product we have between Montreal and Albany,” Dave said. “For what we have, there’s very little competition here.”

The family works as a team, with Jen-nifer as the doctor, diagnosing and correct-ing ocular conditions, Dave as the optician, who lls prescriptions and assists custom-ers in choosing the right frame, and Judy as the of ce manager, doing anything and everything to make sure the business runs smoothly. All three live in Saranac Lake, Jennifer with her husband and three kids.

The three are originally from west-ern New York, near Buffalo, but relocated to the Adirondacks for the same reason many people do the quality of life. After a few years running an optician business in Washington D.C., the family decided to move the business to Lake Placid.

“We vacationed here in the ‘70s,” Dave said. “We’d come for the summer and for skiing. We always wanted to live here, but when you move up to the Adirondacks, you need a plan.”

That plan was to sell the business in D.C. in 2003 and open a new one just like it inside the blue line.

“We took the model of what we were doing in an urban setting and moved it to a rural setting,” Jennifer said.

Eye Peek hasn’t even passed its two-year anniversary of its opening in Lake Placid and yet Dave said the business has

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As printed in the December 2007 issue of Strictly Business magazine