By Jeanne Sager
CALLICOON — June 22, 2007 — The Jeff Bank has found a new home in Callicoon.
After First National Bank of Jeffersonville President Ray Walter promised the bank would stay in Callicoon despite its leaving from Peck’s Markets, tongues have been wagging about the possibility that there was no room left in the small town.
Although one eatery is for sale on the main drag, there are few vacant buildings in Callicoon, and even fewer that would satisfy the bank’s promise to provide better services to its customers at a new location.
But Walter said this week that Bob Head, owner of Head Plaza just outside the hamlet on Route 17B, has offered the bank a spot in his building.
Just this spring, Head held a ribbon cutting on the business plaza he’d created in an old collision repair shop.
He came to the bank with an offer – move into the spot now occupied by gift and flower shop The Cranberry Patch.
The businesses located in the plaza are expected to play a game of musical chairs, with The Cranberry Patch moving into the space currently housing the Shear Pleasure hair salon right next door and Shear Pleasure moving to the rear of the building.
Walter was quick to point out the bank is not looking to displace any other business.
“It’s not that we’re the big bank coming in pushing people out,” he said.
When he first announced the bank would be leaving Peck’s in both Callicoon and Narrowsburg, Walter said the decision had been made by the grocery store – which made a deal with Catskill Hudson Bank to fill the space rented by Jeff Bank for 12 years.
Jeff Bank is not looking to put itself in the position of the “heavy,” shoving out another business to suit their own needs, Walter said.
Instead he hopes the other businesses within Head Plaza, including The Cranberry Patch, will benefit from the increased traffic the bank’s placement in the corner storefront will ensure.
“It seems like a good location for us,” he said, “not too far out of town and on a busy road.
“In the long run, it should be a real advantage to [Cranberry Patch owner Donna Peters] as well,” he noted.
Although the bank’s lease with Peck’s isn’t set to end until late September, Walter said they aim to have the new branch open by Sept. 1.
Because of its location at the end of the plaza, the new branch will be able to offer customers a drive-up ATM and drive-through banking, he said, something that isn’t available in the current location.
The bank is still working out the logistics of resiting its Narrowsburg branch, but Walter promised a new location will be open before the Sept. 26 lease closure.