Lebanon
Cara and John Eliason are acquiring RealClean from its longtime owner, Keith Beardslee. Beardslee, 66, is retiring from the business he started in the early 2000s after previously working in the building and insurance industries.
“I’ve been working here since last year, doing all the physical labor and learning from Keith,” Cara Eliason, of White River Junction, said recently as she was hoisting up rugs on pulleys to prepare them for cleaning at RealClean Rugs’ plant in a former railroad shipping warehouse on Spencer Street.
Beardslee, of Cornish, said he’s ready to step aside from the physically demanding work and has been training the Eliasons in the business, which he said was a logical transition after operating an insurance industry that specialized in selling policies to cover damaged homes and businesses.
But Cara Eliason is no stranger to the cleaning business and working with customers. Her grandmother, Lucy De Masse, and uncle, James Mayville, owned the former College Cleaners in Hanover and White River Junction. Eliason said she worked “off and on” for College Cleaners for 14 years before it closed.
Then, after working as a manager in a hotel housekeeping department, Eliason went to work for RealClean Rugs last year after she responded to a “help wanted” ad. When Beardslee announced his intention to retire — he co-ran RealClean with his daughter Katherine Beardslee — Cara Eliason signaled her desire to take over the reins.
“The family was closing the business down, but the minute I came in here it felt like home again,” Cara Eliason said, recalling her years working her grandmother’s and uncle’s dry-cleaning business. “It’s in my bloodline.”
Beardslee had previously sold a related business, Elite Cleaning, which specializes in in-home and in-business wall-to-wall carpet cleaning, to current owner Penny Howlett a few years earlier. Both RealClean and Elite Cleaning operate out of the same building on Spencer Street.
Ledyard National Bank has moved staff into a new 8,500-square-foot space at Benning Street Square behind Shaw’s supermarket in West Lebanon, where it will bring together employees from several back-office functions into a single place.
Located in the space formerly occupied by Visiting Nurse and Hospice for VT and NH, the new office space will accommodate bank employees who work in the consumer loan and mortgage processing, operations, information technology, compliance, finance and human resources departments.
“The primary purpose of our new 8,500-square-foot site is primarily to bring six departments, which have worked in separate locations in the past, under one roof,” Kathy Underwood, chief executive of Ledyard, said in an email. “Many of these divisions work closely with each other on a daily basis. Therefore, coming together in one location will allow them to better support and collaborate with each other, ultimately realizing tremendous efficiencies and reaping the benefits of more immediate and direct communication.”
Underwood also noted that the new offices include a large meeting facility, where the bank can hold its board meetings, as well as boards on which employees serve. “We also plan to use the large conference room for community education and events,” she said.
Lebanon builder Trumbull-Nelson Co. was the lead contractor on the $611,000 project, according to the building permit on file with the city of Lebanon’s planning department.
Propane and fuel oil distributor Dead River Co. is moving its West Lebanon walk-in office to Glen Road Plaza from Seminary Hill Plaza. Gary Haines, area director for Dead River, said the move will allow for more accessible parking space for Dead River’s customers. Dead River expects the new office, which will be located next to the Colonial Barber Shop, to be open within 30 to 45 days after contractors finish fitting up the space. Dead River Co.’s Seminary Hill Plaza location closed Nov. 30.
Items of interest to the local business community are published in the Business & Money section of the Sunday Valley News. Submissions may be sent by email to: biznotes@vnews.com (high-resolution photographs may be attached in .jpg format), or by mail to: Business Notes, c/o Sunday Valley News, P.O. Box 877, White River Junction, Vt. 05001. All items are subject to editing for clarity or space.
