By MIKE HELENTHAL
DANVILLE — There is hardly a better illustration of Danville’s recent economic history than Michael Stonebraker’s Vermilion Rentals store on Williams Street.
Housed in the former Hill Lumber building beside the railroad tracks, the fledgling business was riding the wave of Danville’s boon times when it opened in 1972.
The Village Mall was just opening and Stonebraker — out of the Army in 1965 just ahead of the buildup to the Vietnam War — had market research in his hands showing the Danville region’s trade population was bursting with 150,000 workers.
Stonebraker’s business started growing from the day it opened. At its peak, Vermilion Rentals employed 10 and paid for full family health and life insurance as the number of regular business accounts grew to more than 200.
Within eight years he had bought out his partner and added a side company that rented portable toilets. And he kept expanding the list of for-rent merchandise to a burgeoning market of home-repair do-it-yourselfers.
“We started with $50,000 in equipment and we had up to $2 million at our peak,” he said. “We tried to hit all markets.”
But the run ends at the end of the month with the announcement the business will close and the building and its merchandise sold at auction.
“I’ve had good, good times in Danville,” he said last week, “and bad, slow times, too. This is one of the bad, slow times.”
The account list is now around 50 and sales measured against the store’s peak period are down 50 percent.
“It’s amazing — the population has just died here,” he said. “I wish I had the answers because this town has been good to me. It was a prime place.”
Pulled back
Stonebraker said Danville’s decline has been intensified by the national economic meltdown, higher insurance costs and the expense of meeting state regulations.
He said he has been saddened to watch the health insurance he once offered to entire families drop level by level, first to coverage of an employee and spouse and then to just the employee.
He said worker’s compensation and liability insurance costs have skyrocketed to the point the state will have difficulty attracting new business for years to come. At one point, he said, an Illinois law held him responsible for someone falling off a ladder his business had rented to that person.
“I don’t see how the state can get anything to come here,” he said.
He had tried to walk away from the business eight years ago and have employees operate it while he moved to a retirement home with his wife in South Carolina.
But sales kept sliding and he decided two years ago to return and try to save it.
Within six months, his wife moved back to Danville with him as they renovated a small apartment inside the business.
“We’ve never been apart for that long of a time period,” he said.
She recently moved back with the decision to auction the business, which came about because Stonebraker couldn’t find a buyer.
“I tried my best to sell it, but I think people are just scared because of the economy,” he said, though a few interested buyers bowed out because they could not obtain financing. “We’ve had a lot of people ask.”
March 31 is the final business day, though Vermilion Rental-Porta Toilets was purchased by local businessman Phil Brown and will continue to operate under that name.
“This is still a profitable business,” he said. “It seems like a crime to shut it down.”
Going back
Stonebraker became a rental-store operator by chance.
He had repaired helicopters while in the service and thought he might pursue a career in aviation before filling in at work one day for a friend.
The job was at an Indianapolis rental store owned by Johnny Temple, whom he called a “pioneer” of the retail-rental industry. Temple later expanded and owned several stores in Indiana.
Stonebraker, born in Indianapolis, already had a technical background and found he liked the customer service side of the rental business.
“I didn’t really want a job, but I went down there anyway,” he said. “I’m a people-oriented person and I enjoyed the construction trade. I just fell in love with it.”
He worked as an over-the-road salesman for Temple before the opportunity to co-own the Danville store opened up.
He said he was initially warned the neighborhood was dangerous — but said he’s never had problems. There have been a handful of break-ins, but nothing alarming.
“This area gets a bad rap, but it’s been a good area,” he said. “It got to the point if somebody (suspicious) was outside my business, the neighbors would call me at home. If I left a tool outside, I’d find it on my doorstep the next morning.”
Stonebraker said his work days are likely not finished with the auction.
Within months of his first retirement he was back working at a department store in South Carolina so he could keep meeting and talking with new people.
“I don’t have any health issues, so I’ll be working again, I’m sure,” he said. “I don’t have any formal education in business; I’m old school. You learn about your customers’ needs by listening to them. Personal contact is the key to any successful business. It’s been my life for 40-some years.”
FYI
The auction of Vermilion Rentals will be held 9 a.m. April 19 at the site, 635 E. Williams St. March 31 is the last business day.
