charlie arp recalls how hall's marina/ boathouse got saved
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114 Gegia’s Lake Como Wallace. We have been that way for about seventeen years, and we have a wonderful relationship with the Wallace Oil Company. They will bring their tankers up here in the middle of the night, and they keep our tanks full during the wintertime. If we are low on cash, they let it ride. Jack Head has been great with the convenience store, and John Lundeen is our businessman. He’s given us the best advice on slip rentals, etc. So, that is where we are now. Last year, we purchased the Lake Rabun Beach Grocery (up in the Nar- rows). We are going to build six slips up there, and we already have half of those leased, thank goodness, because slips are what really carry the cost of these marinas. Rain, shine, winter, summer—that cash is coming in. You can’t run marinas on selling gas, peanuts, barbecue, and beer. So, the slips have been our lifeblood. Fortunately, there is a demand to be on Lake Rabun, and the cheapest way you can be on Lake Rabun is by renting one of these slips. I have enjoyed this venture immensely—getting to know Ben and these other guys. We have a real camaraderie. We respect each other, we trust each lot of money. Let me talk to my vice president, Stan Ashley.” “You can talk to him,” they agreed, “but we want to get this done.” “Okay,” was all I answered. So, I went back to Stan, and we started planning. “I think we can get this done,” I said. “Let’s see if we can raise the money.” So we called twenty-three of the oldest families on the lake—just cold calls—and said, “We need $25,000 from you, we are going to form a corpora- tion, and we are going to have to rebuild the marina or we are going to lose it. So, frankly, if you love the lake as much as we think you do, we expect a check.” Of the twenty-three families, twenty of them had a check in the mail. That just shows you the devotion of the families on this lake. Now, I will take that back. Among the families, we had a banker named C. B. Fair, who was with the Bank of Clayton. When I talked with him, he said, “If any of the families have trouble coming up with a $25,000, we will finance them.” A few of the families did finance it, but they paid it back, of course. And when we solicited the money, we added, “Don’t ever expect to see it again. We are going to rebuild that marina, and you are going to be proud of it. We are going to meet once a year, we will set up the officers, and we are just going to require that you come once a year and hear what we are doing.” And that’s what we did . . . and it turned out very well. The power company has turned out to be a wonderful, wonderful corporate partner. About fifteen years into this, about 1996 or 1997, I suddenly had about thirty stockholders because my first stockholders were starting to pass away, and they were leaving this Hall’s Boathouse stock to their children. The meet- ings were growing bigger and bigger and bigger, and we started having them at the Capital City Club. Henry Bowden was my secretary, and he couldn’t take notes fast enough ’cause everybody wanted to hold forth. We just got too big; we had thirty-seven partners. We all recognized that, so John Lundeen and I were asked to form a smaller group and to buy out everybody’s stock at what they put in—$25,000. So, back we go; back we go to the well. John and I called Chuck Wallis because he is our gas and well man. We called Jack Head, because Jack had a lot of experience in running convenience stores—stocking them, employing them, securing them. And we talked to Ben McCracken, saying, “Ben, we want you to become a partner.” I think we let Ben in for a smaller amount of money, but we said, “We really need your liaison with the lake community. You get along beautifully with the people who are up here during summers, and you, of course, are admired and respected by all the local people. The McCracken name just rings true in Rabun County.” So, there is our new group, Ben McCracken, myself, John Lundeen, Jack Head, and Chuck Threats Encountered and Battles Won charlie arp recalls how hall’s marina/ boathouse got saved I was president of the Lake Rabun Association, and Fred Stewart was head of the Mountain Patrol. On a Sunday morning in fall of 1981, Fred called me. “I want you to come over to Hall’s. There are some men who want to meet you up at the hatchery on Lake Burton.” It sounded very mysterious, even for Fred who had a propensity for the theatrical, so I pressed, “Would you mind telling me who I am meeting?” “Your landlords,” he responded. My landlords: some brass at the power company. “I’ll be there,” I said. Fred didn’t say much on the way up there, keeping me in the dark. When we got there, we met with a man named Wade Manning. Wade was the vice president in charge of the lakes in north Georgia. As we sat down, Fred started chomping on that cigar, and Wade had a very serious look on his face. “Oh, boy!” I thought. “What have I done? They’ve caught me racing. They’re going to cancel my lease. I am going to be the embarrassment of the Lake Rabun Association, the first president ever asked to leave the lake.” My mind was spinning . . . Finally they smiled. “Charlie,” they said. “We called you up here because there’s a threat to our lake, Lake Rabun, the marina there. Hall’s Boathouse is for sale by the Whites [the owners at the time]. Now we have a license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be able to produce power from that lake. Part of that license requires that we have public facilities, that we have docking facilities, that we have launching facilities. If suddenly that ma- rina becomes private, we are going to lose our public access, so we propose to become partners. What do you say?” “Fine with me. What do I need to do to become a partner?” He said, “That marina is about to fall in and our license is up for renewal in about a year. We’re just frankly quite embarrassed about how it looks. Peo- ple are going to fall through those floors when they are dancing.” “I know,” I answered. “We don’t let our kids dance without big life pre- servers on for that very reason.” “Then we’re going to do this,” Wade continued. “We are going to buy it, and we want to enter into a lease with you. But this is your part: You are going to tear it down and you are going to build it back, and we estimate this is going to take half a million dollars to do it. Can you raise that?” “Well, I just don’t know,” I said. “This is 1981. A half million dollars is a other. And, ya know, people on the lake understand that we are not making money on this; it has been solely a community service, but it also has helped to secure our investments on the lake knowing that we have a marina that is run by people who have a vested interest. People ask “What is your exit strategy?” Well, I don’t have a clue. I do know that if we ever sell it, we have crafted an agreement with the power com- pany that says both they and the Lake Rabun Association have to approve the owners. I even think that in our contract it says the Lake Rabun Association has first right of refusal to purchase the marina, so we are trying to keep it in the family in perpetuity. And that is where we are. —CHARLIE ARP O Special Lakemont Sties 115
Transcript of charlie arp recalls how hall's marina/ boathouse got saved
114 Georgia’s Lake Como
Wallace. We have been that way for about seventeen years, and we have a wonderful relationship with the Wallace Oil Company. They will bring their tankers up here in the middle of the night, and they keep our tanks full during the wintertime. If we are low on cash, they let it ride. Jack Head has been great with the convenience store, and John Lundeen is our businessman. He’s given us the best advice on slip rentals, etc. So, that is where we are now. Last year, we purchased the Lake Rabun Beach Grocery (up in the Nar-rows). We are going to build six slips up there, and we already have half of those leased, thank goodness, because slips are what really carry the cost of these marinas. Rain, shine, winter, summer—that cash is coming in. You can’t run marinas on selling gas, peanuts, barbecue, and beer. So, the slips have been our lifeblood. Fortunately, there is a demand to be on Lake Rabun, and the cheapest way you can be on Lake Rabun is by renting one of these slips. I have enjoyed this venture immensely—getting to know Ben and these other guys. We have a real camaraderie. We respect each other, we trust each
lot of money. Let me talk to my vice president, Stan Ashley.” “You can talk to him,” they agreed, “but we want to get this done.” “Okay,” was all I answered. So, I went back to Stan, and we started planning. “I think we can get this done,” I said. “Let’s see if we can raise the money.” So we called twenty-three of the oldest families on the lake—just cold calls—and said, “We need $25,000 from you, we are going to form a corpora-tion, and we are going to have to rebuild the marina or we are going to lose it. So, frankly, if you love the lake as much as we think you do, we expect a check.” Of the twenty-three families, twenty of them had a check in the mail. That just shows you the devotion of the families on this lake. Now, I will take that back. Among the families, we had a banker named C. B. Fair, who was with the Bank of Clayton. When I talked with him, he said, “If any of the families have trouble coming up with a $25,000, we will finance them.” A few of the families did finance it, but they paid it back, of course. And when we solicited the money, we added, “Don’t ever expect to see it again. We are going to rebuild that marina, and you are going to be proud of it. We are going to meet once a year, we will set up the officers, and we are just going to require that you come once a year and hear what we are doing.” And that’s what we did . . . and it turned out very well. The power company has turned out to be a wonderful, wonderful corporate partner. About fifteen years into this, about 1996 or 1997, I suddenly had about thirty stockholders because my first stockholders were starting to pass away, and they were leaving this Hall’s Boathouse stock to their children. The meet-ings were growing bigger and bigger and bigger, and we started having them at the Capital City Club. Henry Bowden was my secretary, and he couldn’t take notes fast enough ’cause everybody wanted to hold forth. We just got too big; we had thirty-seven partners. We all recognized that, so John Lundeen and I were asked to form a smaller group and to buy out everybody’s stock at what they put in—$25,000. So, back we go; back we go to the well. John and I called Chuck Wallis because he is our gas and well man. We called Jack Head, because Jack had a lot of experience in running convenience stores—stocking them, employing them, securing them. And we talked to Ben McCracken, saying, “Ben, we want you to become a partner.” I think we let Ben in for a smaller amount of money, but we said, “We really need your liaison with the lake community. You get along beautifully with the people who are up here during summers, and you, of course, are admired and respected by all the local people. The McCracken name just rings true in Rabun County.” So, there is our new group, Ben McCracken, myself, John Lundeen, Jack Head, and Chuck
Threats Encountered and Battles Won
charlie arp recalls how hall’s marina/boathouse got savedI was president of the Lake Rabun Association, and Fred Stewart was head of the Mountain Patrol. On a Sunday morning in fall of 1981, Fred called me. “I want you to come over to Hall’s. There are some men who want to meet you up at the hatchery on Lake Burton.” It sounded very mysterious, even for Fred who had a propensity for the theatrical, so I pressed, “Would you mind telling me who I am meeting?” “Your landlords,” he responded. My landlords: some brass at the power company. “I’ll be there,” I said. Fred didn’t say much on the way up there, keeping me in the dark. When we got there, we met with a man named Wade Manning. Wade was the vice president in charge of the lakes in north Georgia. As we sat down, Fred started chomping on that cigar, and Wade had a very serious look on his face. “Oh, boy!” I thought. “What have I done? They’ve caught me racing. They’re going to cancel my lease. I am going to be the embarrassment of the Lake Rabun Association, the first president ever asked to leave the lake.” My mind was spinning . . . Finally they smiled. “Charlie,” they said. “We called you up here because there’s a threat to our lake, Lake Rabun, the marina there. Hall’s Boathouse is for sale by the Whites [the owners at the time]. Now we have a license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be able to produce power from that lake. Part of that license requires that we have public facilities, that we have docking facilities, that we have launching facilities. If suddenly that ma-rina becomes private, we are going to lose our public access, so we propose to become partners. What do you say?” “Fine with me. What do I need to do to become a partner?” He said, “That marina is about to fall in and our license is up for renewal in about a year. We’re just frankly quite embarrassed about how it looks. Peo-ple are going to fall through those floors when they are dancing.” “I know,” I answered. “We don’t let our kids dance without big life pre-servers on for that very reason.” “Then we’re going to do this,” Wade continued. “We are going to buy it, and we want to enter into a lease with you. But this is your part: You are going to tear it down and you are going to build it back, and we estimate this is going to take half a million dollars to do it. Can you raise that?” “Well, I just don’t know,” I said. “This is 1981. A half million dollars is a
other. And, ya know, people on the lake understand that we are not making money on this; it has been solely a community service, but it also has helped to secure our investments on the lake knowing that we have a marina that is run by people who have a vested interest. People ask “What is your exit strategy?” Well, I don’t have a clue. I do know that if we ever sell it, we have crafted an agreement with the power com-pany that says both they and the Lake Rabun Association have to approve the owners. I even think that in our contract it says the Lake Rabun Association has first right of refusal to purchase the marina, so we are trying to keep it in the family in perpetuity. And that is where we are.
—Charlie arp
O
Special Lakemont Stories 115
