Watertown Trust to assist in funding sale of salon

Thistle Head Salon, 165 Mechanic St., is changing ownership.

"It's just a fantastic opportunity for me to buy my own business," said Chantel J. Taylor. "I was at the right place at the right time."

Watertown Local Development Corp. approved a $36,000 microenterprise loan to help her get started during its board meeting on Thursday morning.

Mrs. Taylor said she's been at Thistle Head for a year after spending six years at the Marcy Spa & Salon, 165 Polk St.

"We have some space currently available," she said. "I'll be renovating, changing and updating some things to a modern style."

The salon's Web site will be updated, too.

Current owner Shirley Aubin isn't going anywhere, though. She just wants a slower pace, she said.

"I love my salon, but it's a tremendous amount of work," Mrs. Aubin said. "When I opened it, I wanted to do the best job I could do."

The loan from the corporation, also known as Watertown Trust, will be paid over seven years.

"I was impressed with her business acumen and she had a very thorough, realistic business plan," said Donald W. Rutherford, chief executive officer of the Trust.

Board member Donald C. Alexander abstained because he frequents the salon.

The board also had extensive discussion on the methods of the board's evaluation of the Trust's two employees.

"I'm not big on the rating system, score card things," Mayor and Board President Jeffrey E. Graham said. "You either give lily-white answers or it becomes awkward."

He said because Mr. Rutherford and Executive Assistant Kim S. Taylor are employees of Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency, all the Trust board can do is make recommendations and create salary room in the budget.

"We wanted some verifications of the salary recommendations," Board Vice President Mark S. Bellinger said. "It's a way to have a process to show how they're doing and how the raise recommendations were arrived at."

Mr. Alexander, who is also CEO of JCIDA, said he would like to have the board evaluations to substantiate its recommendations.

"It also gives the employees an opportunity to see where they stand," he said.

As board members found several items to tweak and two members were missing, the board agreed to work on the evaluations more.

The board agreed to a new microenterprise loan fund policy that would give start-up business owners an incentive to attend the Entrepreneurship Training Course run by the Small Business Development Center at Jefferson Community College, Watertown.

Owners who have not run a business before must submit a certificate of completion by one year after the loan closing or face going to a default interest rate, usually three percent higher than the original rate.

"If they have business experience, we recommend but don't require them to take the course," Mr. Rutherford said.

The board also approved a $50,000 demand note for Current Applications that the motor manufacturer would use only if necessary to buy raw materials while orders increase.

"Business has picked up substantially," Mr. Rutherford said. "They've had to bring on a couple of employees and more inventory."