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By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
News editor
October 7,
2006
In a way, Ernie and Mary Lees’ business has gone hot and cold
for 29 years.
The owners of Mid-Columbia Pools and Spas, Hood River’s
purveyors of spas, pools, and stoves, also sold ski goods as
part of a business odyssey that started in March 1977.
Now, the Lees are preparing to retire, and close the shop that
is familiar to 3,000 or more customers from west of Portland to
Arlington and both sides of the river for which the store is
named. Oct. 21 will be the store’s final day.
“It’s a little sad. You really get attached to your customers,”
Mary said. “The thing I’ll miss is seeing the customers come
into the store.”
Mid-Columbia started on the Heights in the building now occupied
by 12th Street Drycleaners. Ernie worked at the fuel company
across Union Street.
“Mary started the store and I ran back and forth across the
street to help keep things moving,” Ernie recalls.
They opened a second store in The Dalles on 1983, and closed it
in 2001 in the then-downturn in the economy in the Wasco County
seat. But they still have many customers from The Dalles and
environs.
The current store on busy West Cascade, home to the business
since 1993, is 7,665 feet square. The Lees said they have sold
the building to an investor team that is developing plans for
the property.
Mid Columbia builds or installs in-ground and above-ground
pools, and sells spas, stoves, and supplies and equipment for
pools and spas.
Says Mary, “I like working with the people, and getting the
sale. It gives you kind of a high.”
Repairs have also been a major part of their business. But they
also sell billiards equipment, a vestige of the company’s former
days when it handled pools and pool tables.
“Billiards were more popular then,” Ernie said.
“We started off with just pools, but we were one of the first
(in the area) with spas when they first got to be big,” he said.
“Spas are year-round. We added spas to supplement the business,”
said Mary.
In the early 1980s, the Lees bought The Ski Mart, downtown near
Second and Oak. They consolidated The Ski Mart and the pool-spa
store downtown.
“It was a big business, but then we had two no-snow years in a
row,” Ernie recalled.
The pool and spa business kept them going but the location was
not ideal, as they had to move large spas in and out of the
narrow street. It was a tight squeeze.
Combined with the traffic, it was difficult at times, even
though, as Mary put it, “When we were downtown it was dead down
there.”
“You could shoot a gun up Oak Street at five o’clock and not hit
anything,” joked Ernie. “Well, maybe six o’clock.”
And after a few years, things began to get busier downtown,
making it tough for Mid-Columbia’s trucks to maneuver in and out
of the store.
Sometime in the early 1980s they purchased a downtown business,
Top Hat Stove Works, from Stewart Snyder, who worked for them
for many years after.
“The percentage of spas and pools goes up and down; a lot of it
is seasonal,” said Mary. “They cross over between fall and
spring.”
The only slow month was January; a few years ago, the Lees found
themselves finally able to take the month off.
“We have a great staff,” Ernie said. “We have some people who
have been with us for as long as 25 years.”
And then there are the customers, “Some of our customers have
been with us since 1977. They’re really loyal. Many of them are
great friends,” she said.
Mary has always handled floor sales and bookkeeping and billing,
earning her the status of “the inside woman” while Ernie is “the
outside guy.”
“I enjoyed building pools,” he said. “A lot of it is custom
work. I work really hard to make sure we provide just what it is
the customer wants.”
One of Ernie’s fondest memories was a special request to go to
Fairbanks, Alaska, to repair an indoor pool for a successful
local businessman.
The repairs took four days, part of which was spent knee-deep in
water. It came out of the taps at 33 degrees (compared to the
typical 45 to 48-degree temperature in Hood River).
Ernie asked the man if he had wool socks he could borrow and the
man took him the length of the house and brought out several
pairs. They were wool, all right — wool dress socks.
Ernie put on several pair and covered them with plastic bags,
and finished the job.
The job was both fun and challenging, just what Ernie likes.
“I hired a guy to teach me,” he said of the installation and
repair business. He gained some factory training from suppliers,
took courses, and learned as he went.
“We started from scratch, learning as we grew,” Mary said. They
periodically adapted to new technology, new products, and new
computer systems. The Lees also had to get to know the differing
regulations — and fees — in both Washington and Oregon.
“If you stepped into it today it would be too tough; there is so
much more that goes into it, and we’ve diversified so much,”
Ernie said.
“We grew up with this. That makes a big difference,” Mary said.
The Lees admitted they are disappointed that none of their three
children wanted to take on the business, but they understand
that lives with jobs and children have led them in other
directions.
Though they will miss the business and the people that come with
it, the Lees bubble like the spa in the showroom when they speak
of retiring and spending time with their grandchildren. |
