FARMINGTON – It didn’t take Steve Jones long to get back into running his own business again. This time he and his wife, Rhonda, have gone big. Real big.
In August, the Farmington couple bought The Lucerne Inn on Route 1A in Dedham that has 31 rooms and overlooks Phillips Lake.
The 200-year-old inn and property between Ellsworth and Bangor features a golf course, large outdoor swimming pool, gazebos and outdoor patios.
The Joneses operated Steve’s Market on Depot Street in Wilton for more than two decades.
The Farmington Rotary Club awarded the couple its Entrepreneur Award in 2003. The honor is given to someone who has grown a business by coupling creativity, innovation and determination to improve the local economy, define workplace pride and contributing to the overall strength of business in Western Maine.
Steve Jones worked more than 100-plus hours a week between the store and the couple’s catering business.
In May of 2004, Jones said he wanted to take a break from the long hours, working weekends and holidays, and sold the store.
That Memorial Day was the first one he had off in 23 years.
Now a little more than a year later and another holiday, Jones is back at the long hours and overseeing the historic inn.
“Right now, I’ll be working seven days a week,” Jones said recently.
He expects he’ll eventually get his hours down to 60 to 65 a week in his “management type position,” he said.
It shouldn’t be hard, he said, because he has an “excellent, extremely well-trained staff” that is upward of 62 during the season and 35 to 40 during the winter.
While Jones is up in Dedham, Rhonda is still working at the University of Maine at Farmington and will move up permanently after their youngest daughter graduates from Mt. Blue High School in Farmington.
Jones was back in his glory last week, conferring with people at the busy, 36,000-square-foot inn with its “upscale suites,” two main function rooms and its reputation as a “huge wedding spot.”
More than 100 weddings a year are held there, Jones said.
There were five weddings scheduled for Labor Day weekend, he said.
“I’ve always been interested in running a hotel,” he said.
The couple had been looking for a place to buy, he said, and they fell in love with The Lucerne Inn once they saw it.
Instead of the Joneses making the food as they did when they catered, they’ll leave that to the executive chef and staff.
They do up to 600 meals a day, he said, when there’s a couple of weddings along with the regular restaurant fare.
The Joneses bought the inn from Bion and Dorain Foster who bought it when it was run down and did a lot of work on it to fix it back up, Jones said.
Though they’ll miss their friends down in Franklin County, Jones said they’ll look forward to seeing them when they come to visit.
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