By carolyn o’connell
Staff Writer
carolyn o’CONNELL Travel Unlimited, managed by Laura Notte, didn’t miss a day of business even after a fire and a recent storm which damaged the building.
LONG BRANCH —It was business as usual, but there was nothing usual about it.
Travel Unlimited and the Western Union branch located inside 239 Third Ave. were just barely spared of being ravaged by a fire that raged above in the apartments on the two upper floors of their building on July 14.
The businesses suffered heavy smoke damage and damage to the ceilings, so the employees of Travel Unlimited took their operation to the street, unwilling to lose even one day of business.
"We couldn’t conduct business inside because our eyes would burn from the smoke," said Laura Notte, manager of Travel Unlimited. "Even if they were able to tolerate the smoke, the electrical service and telephones were not in operation."
Instead of closing the doors, Notte said, they took it to the streets.
Notte, with her cell phone in hand, went to her brother’s home in Oceanport and set up shop. Her assistant remained seated on telephone books outside the building on Third Avenue, letting customers know they were still in business and were taking travel reservations.
They were forced to do this because of the fire, which was believed to have been started by smoking material tossed onto a roof of a common way between two buildings at approximately 1 p.m. that Sunday.
Notte said fire officials told her that the blaze raced up a stairwell and lit the building on fire. What remains today is buckled vinyl, charred walls and an everlasting smell of smoke.
"All I saw when I arrived at the scene on Sunday afternoon was glass everywhere, and I could not get near the building," said Notte.
In the days following the fire, Notte said, at least three truckloads of burned rubble were hauled off the property.
"The apartments are completely gutted; there no longer are any inside walls," she said.
For the next three days, Notte and her assistant used the telephone to communicate. Reservations for tickets and vacations were taken from the sidewalk and called in to Notte, who made the reservation and printed the tickets. She then personally delivered them back to Long Branch into the hands of waiting customers.
After the third day, the electricity came back on, which put the computers back into operation, but the business remained without phones.
Still using the cell phones for another five days, Notte said, "The cell phone bill was a sight to see." The bill totaled more than $800, but in the end customers walked away satisfied, she said.
The Western Union branch office was another story.
Because the utilities to the building were not in service, Western Union remained closed for almost a week.
Its customers, mostly from the immediate local community, who used the service to wire money to families in outside countries and to pay utility bills, were directed to nearby branches within Long Branch and in Ocean Township.
The building owner, Sylvia Broderick, according to Notte, also had her work cut out for her. Broderick was responsible for finding temporary shelters for the families living in the apartments above; hiring a contractor to clean the first floor of the building, install a new ceiling to replace the one that had sustained damage and construct a new roof; and making the endless calls to the insurance company.
With a new ceiling in place, a second disaster struck — the unexpected storm of Aug. 2. The tarp placed on the roof of the building was ripped away by the strong winds that traveled unmercifully through the area; then came the rain. Notte said the rain traveled through the exposed holes in the roof, into the uninhabited fire-damaged apartments and down onto the newly installed ceilings above Travel Unlimited.
"Those ceiling ties just turned to mush," Notte said, "so we had to start all over again."
Despite the water damage, Notte noted that they again were very lucky, and business prevailed.
Travel Unlimited, which was established in 1956, had seen many owners until Broderick bought it more than 10 years ago.
Within a year of purchasing the business, Broderick also bought the 35-year-old building in 1995 and moved the travel agency out of the building next door into her newly acquired building, where it has remained.
Since then, according to Notte, the business has changed drastically.
"Just in the last year, it has made a significant change," she said.
Agencies used to make their money from the airlines, which would pay them for every reservation they would book, Notte noted.
"Agencies would make 10 percent," she said, "but over time the percentages became less and less until it bottomed at zero. Today customers are charged a service fee to make up the difference. The Internet has also walked away with some business, but it has not impacted our agency as much."
Customers remain faithful, with most business coming from personal travel and some corporate accounts mixed in, she added.
Notte said she books a lot of customers on trips to Puerto Rico and to Central and South America so they can return to visit their families. Trips to Canada, Asia —especially Hong Kong — and many domestic destinations top the list for their corporate clientele.
The Third Avenue agency isn’t limited to airfares. It will also arrange for car rentals, book cruises, travel packages, travel by train and even weekend getaways.
"September and the beginning of October is our slow time because parents are preoccupied with getting the kids back to school," Notte said. "But in October, our customers start thinking about warmer weather, and we begin to book trips to Florida."