PERU — A Peru man who worked at NewPage mill has started his own plumbing business after he was laid off in February.

Derrick Vaughn, who has run Von Plumbing in Peru since February, said he was first hired by NewPage in August 2012 and worked as a plumber in the groundwood department.

“I went to Washington County Community College for a couple of years and majored in plumbing and heating,” Vaughn said Monday afternoon. “After that, I did plumbing locally for about seven years before NewPage hired me in 2012. I was there for about six-and-a-half months before they laid me off.”

“They ended up hiring me again a little later, but I found out in December of 2013 that they would be laying off a bunch of us again,” Vaughn said. “After that, I figured that instead of working for someone else, I could start my own business.”

Vaughn said working at NewPage and other local companies “gave me a lot of good experience, and I knew my plumbing knowledge was something I could always fall back on if I got laid off.”

“My wife’s got a good job, and we’re fortunate enough to have made some good investments over the years, so it felt like now was the right time to start my own business,” he said. “While I was at NewPage, I was working on building my client base. It’s been slow-starting, but me and my wife don’t have any kids right now, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to be decently established in a few years.”

Vaughn works by himself out of his house in Peru, he said, but hopes to build enough of a client base to enable him to hire another worker.

“It’s nerve-wracking to start your own business,” Vaughn said. “Paychecks come in only if you’re getting work, so you’ve got to put in the time and stay busy, but it’s been rewarding to see it all come together. I come from a long line of family members who have had their own businesses, small and big. This is my best chance to try and do something like this.”

For more information, call 357-3871, or visit the Von Plumbing page on Facebook.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com