Timberjaxx Pass to celebrate its grand opening Saturday

by Dan McClelland

This Saturday Tupper Lake’s newest tourist attraction- Timberjaxx Pass at 86 Demars Blvd. will celebrate is grand opening from 2p.m. to 5p.m. A ribbon-cutting and blessing by Fr. James Teti will take place at 3p.m.

Those who bring along a non-perishable, non-expired food item for the Tupper Lake Food Pantry, will be able to sample one of the company’s small soft serve ice cream cone in exchange for their donation.

The event will also produce an afternoon of live entertainment by Tupper Lake’s favorite duo, brother and sister Mickey Desmarais and Claire Brown. Visitors can try out the new course or a delicious Hersey-brand frosty treat from the parlor.

Saturday’s event marks the finish of over two years of study and research and over a year of construction by the owners, Juli and Jed Dukett and a team of friends and family members. The local couple transformed the Hyde Company’s vacant gas station problem on the Route 3 corridor that connects the two sections of the village into an attractive 18-hole miniature golf course and cozy ice cream parlor that is expected to draw tourists and residents for decades to come.

The new business was one of the ten projects selected from an initial round of 16 finalists in the village’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative that produced $10 million in development money for economic development in the uptown business district and for southerly pieces of the local corridor known as “The Boulevard.”

Juli and Jed and their Timberjaxx Pass is about the second of the ten funded projects to come to fruition.

Jewelry creator Rachel King and her silversmith and gem-crafting partner, Brandon Cooke were the first DRI recipients open this summer at their new Park Street store site.

Under the state grant program, candidates had to fund 100% of their projects with their own money, and then at the finish received up to 40% reimbursement from the state department of state. The local couple invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their new business- far beyond the grant allocation of about $199,000. If project budgets go over budget, as theirs did, it’s up to the owner to pay any overage, as they did.

Jed Friday offered great praise for the DRI’s local planning committee who he said spent many hours of their time to help grow businesses here.

Our first stop there Friday was inside the new, freshly decorated ice cream parlor.

Featured inside are two types of ice cream- hard and soft, and both made by the famous Hershey company. The couple went with the national brand because of its popularity.

Motorists have already stopped this summer when they see the Hershey sign out front.

The one counter is glass-fronted so customers can pick from the dozen colorful containers of hard ice cream that are ready for scooping.

High school student and stand-out athlete, Taylor Stoll was working the bar that morning and when asked she said the she thought a big favorite is the “Roadrunner Raspberry” in that day’s line-up. The flavors change week to week. Another bin, featuring a dark chocolate flavor, is also very popular, she told the Free Press. Its color was as deep and rich, as the flavor itself, she said.

“The kids love ‘Cotton Candy’,” a pink and blue mix, noted Juli Dukett. “It’s so popular we run out of it all the time!” It was missing that day. There’s only room for 12 bins in the ice cream case- so the flavors are routinely rotated to give customers as wide a choice as possible.

Juli showed us how to dispense the soft ice cream cones from their soft ice cream machine that serves both custard and soft ice cream in vanilla and chocolate, or the favorite, a swirl or two of both. Sprinkles are there for the asking.

A third flavor is included every week- but the black raspberry has been a steady one in recent weeks- given its popularity.

She offered us the custard sample, and while we refused initially, we relented and took it from her. It was a good decision. The creamy custard was delicious.

At the second counter there they dispense shave ice in over 32 flavors. Some of the flavors are sugar-free.

Across that counter is where the sundaes and other creations spring from- topped with cherries, chocolate, and caramel sauces, whipped cream and other mouth-watering things. “Right now banana splits are very popular,” explained Juli.

The sundae special last week was one called “Cabin Crunch Twix,” which features a tiny Twix bar. It starts with caramel topping on vanilla custard swirls and a chocolate crumble cookie, dressed out in whipped cream and cherries. “Wow!” is a common response to the first bite.

Several large signs over that counter list all the splendid and gooey goodies that can be made and served there.

Ice cream lovers can enjoy their treats inside the parlor at tables and counters there or go outside under the awning left over from the site’s gas station days.

“We’ve been very busy since we opened earlier this summer,” the local elementary school teacher said that day.

“It’s busiest when its sunny and hot. But people have even been coming for ice cream when it’s rainy!”

The new miniature course has seen the most traffic this very hot summer when it’s overcast- and comfortable to play outdoors.

She said they have seen many campers from nearby campsites coming out to play when the sun is behind thick clouds. Some mini-golfers come in the bright sun, but most prefer the cool days and evenings.

“People obviously don’t play during heavy downpours, but many will stay and play through light rain and sprinkles.

“They find our new course both fun and challenging. We’ve seen people of all ages play...anyone can play miniature golf. Sometimes they organize friendly competitions, particularly among families and groups of friends.”

The new tourist venue is becoming the fodder of bragging rights between family members and friends who live here or who vacation here.

“Our golfers love the waterfall, they love the fountains, they love the varying elevations on many of the holes.” She said they built their course with no impediments on the fairways so that wheelchair bound people can easily maneuver it and play.

She said the course was designed by miniature golf course builder Bob Horwath, who has built courses all over the world. For months last summer he worked side by side with Jed building the place from scratch.

Their course, according to the couple, is easy for everyone to play, but offers its challenges.

One difficult hole is what they call the anthill hole No. 8, where a hill similar to where ants might live en mass rises around the hole. On another the golfer either has to negotiate a six foot long, narrow bridge over water to a corridor beyond, which most always dumps the ball onto the green. If the golfer’s ball goes off the bridge it just meanders down the stream and up onto the same green.

On some holes bumpers along greens and fairways have been eliminated so your ball can easily land in a nearby pond.

The balls are easily retrievable with nets attached to poles.

Tupper native Dan Dattola was in town that day with his wife Laurie with their daughter in law Ashley and her children. Everyone was enjoying their ice cream cones under the former gas pump covering outside.

Dan, who developed both the Rockridge and Haymeadow subdivisions here in the 1980s, stopped into the parlor to congratulate Juli on their new business. “All I can tell you is this is the nicest thing in Tupper Lake right now. I hope you are successful and that you grow it bigger.”

Juli thanked Mr. Dattola, telling him she and Jed planned to work very hard to do just that.

Riley Fletcher and Cameron Sarvis came into the parlor after their first 18-hole round and were eager to sign up for a second one.

Riley and Cameron thought the toughest hole was the par 4 Hole No. 15 featuring a long and steep fairway. Juli explained they got the design for it from the Lake Placid bob run course. Riley wasn’t happy, however, that Cameron managed several holes in one that day.

The young pair said they would highly recommend Timberjaxx Pass to any and all comers. “It’s just so much fun!” exclaimed Riley.

Juli said she and Jed and their children played many miniature golf courses on annual vacations in the south over the years and from those experiences they eventually knew some of the features they wanted on their course. “We knew we wanted a waterfall and the ponds. There was an over/under hole we’ve played on other courses that we knew we wanted to include.”

Laurie Pickering and her sister Penny Larche stopped by that day for their daily “baby cones.” They said it was the highlight of their days in these unusually hot, summer months.

Sitting with Jed that day and looking out over his 30-car parking lot, he said there had been some concerns during the planning if that would be enough parking. He said even if very busy times at their new place, the parkings space there have been sufficient.

“Unlike a place like a restaurant or brewery where people might be there for an hour or more, people here can play a round of golf in between 30 to 45 minutes and then they’re gone.”

“Of course that all depends on the size of the group, and if there are large groups ahead of them.”

Of the groups their place attracts, are individuals who come by themselves to try the course or couples who come in two and often with another couple. “But we also had a lot of large family and family groups...a lot of grandparents with their grandkids.”

Some parents and grandparents come with their kids and grandkids, and just walk along with them through the course as the kids play, he also noted.

He said sometimes if the children are older and perhaps young teenagers, parents will come into the parlor and have ice cream while the kids enjoy the course. “That’s worked out well many times so far this summer...every one is very respectful of others playing the course and everyone seems to really enjoy themselves.”

As Juli said, Jed also noted they have had many compliments on their new place from customers.

He said many mini-golfers like the water holes. A ball that goes errant off the green or fairway into the water costs the player a stroke. That’s every water hole except No. 10 where the water can be played to the hole.

He called that unique double-way to play hole and the bob run hole their course’s “signature holes.”

Jed said one of the most pleasurable parts of the construction phase which began July of last year and finished this spring was working with Designer Bob Horwath.

In his research Jed thoroughly vetted the designer and learned first hand he was the best for the job. “I talked to people Bob had worked for and they couldn’t say enough good about him and his work!”

The two bonded within days and became fast friends. “We still talk at least once a week.”

He said that while many of Bob’s trademark designs are found in the Duketts’ new course, several like the two-route water course were altered and are unique to this course.

Jed also had lots of praise for his Uncle Gus of Saranac Lake and Juli’s brother Todd and her parents, and Jack Moody who helped them in so many ways, including much of the construction.

Todd Bickford did much of the interior and exterior painting to spruce up the former convenience store, and built two modern handicapped washrooms next to it. The entire place now is decked out in bright red solid stain and black trim- and as such has become a most attractive addition to the Boulevard strip.

He said all the suppliers and local contractors they used all went the extra mile to help them finish on time. Most of the local folks like Mitchell Stone which provided dozens and dozens of truckloads of the packy sand to build the base and Lemieux Excavating which furnished dozens of large boulders for the giant waterfall and to line and punctuate the fairways and Tri-lakes Masonry which poured the many concrete surfaces sent trucks and crews whenever they needed them. Tupper Lake Supply, Aubuchon Hardware and Fortune’s Hardware were always available too with needed supplies. At one of the first holes Chip Lemieux fashioned with several boulders the shape of a turtle, and so it’s logically called “the Turtle Hole.”

The entire miniature golf course is very well lit, downward style in keeping with the community’s dark skies policies.

That downward style is most appropriate for focussing light where it does the most good in the evening- on the tees, fairways and greens, Jed and Juli have found.

In the construction work by Bob and Jed, every hole was built atop lots of drainage pipes to make sure surface water disappears from the course minutes after a big rain storm.

We toured every hole with Jed and Juli, with Jed tossing a golf ball out in front of him at each hole to show us their particular peculiarities and challenges.

By their smiles and enthusiasm the two owners are very proud of what they have accomplished here with the state’s help. They look forward to their new place being a big part of Tupper Lake’s late spring, summer and early fall seasons for the enjoyment of the people who live here and those who come here each year to enjoy this community.