Cunningham's Coin Laundry and Ice Cubes

by Ann Hauprich

Dave Avenarius runs a business where the expression “The Iceman Cometh” is heard on an almost daily basis.

Yet even after five years of making and delivering tons of the frozen product to commercial and residential settings, Dave never fails to crack a smile when greeted with those words.

In fact, he especially welcomes them as an icebreaker when conversing with new customers who stop by the quaint retail setting he operates with wife Karen at 9 Church Avenue, near the intersection of Route 50 and East High Street.

Open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. between the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, the building where Cunninghan’s Ice is situated was originally a carriage house used by The Haight Family around the turn-of-the century. The structure was transformed into an engine and transmission repair shop by brothers Lyall and Ross Cunningham shortly after World War Two, but was converted into an icehouse after the late Bob Wilson purchased the property in the 1980s.

“One of the things that appeals to me about this location is that there’s so much history connected to it,” muses Dave, who recently learned that that the barn right next to the ice business is the very one where famed “60 Minutes” commentator Andy Rooney often played as a lad. (Rooney’s fraternal grandparents and later a favorite aunt and uncle resided inside of the neighboring house until 1950.)

It is thus fitting that the first thing those who enter Cunningham’s Ice see is an antique deluxe three-door solid oak icebox that would have been regarded as a luxury by consumers of a bygone era when ice was usually chopped from frozen ponds and delivered by horse and cutter to area homes and businesses.

Those in Ballston Spa relied primarily on Foote’s Pond to serve the south end of the village while a pond behind what is now Pizza Hut on Doubleday Avenue provided for the pre-refrigeration needs of the north end. So proud is Dave of the ice business that he and Karen (who works full-time as a teacher in Shenendehowa during the school year) commissioned artist friend Cori Ripley to create two pieces celebrating the business’s rich heritage.

Now beautifully frozen in time for the enjoyment of those patronizing Cunningham’s Ice during the summer months, are Ripley’s nostalgic rendering of Foote’s Pond along with a distinctive Adirondack rocking chair she helped create for the village’s cool 2008 “Ballston Rocks” promotional campaign. Four 9-inch wooden icicles hang beneath one of the powder blue rocker’s arms while a hole suitable for holding an ice-cold beverage has been cut in the other. Polar bear and penguin images complete the design of the one-of-a-kind chair on the icehouse premises.

Not that Dave, Karen or any of the cousins who help them wait on customers will get many changes to sit and rock over the next few months.

“Our busy season starts with Memorial Day picnics and remains brisk during June, mostly because of graduations and weddings. We’re out straight during July and August because many restaurants need extra ice during Saratoga’s track season. Things really don’t slow down until early September when the last Labor Day celebrations take place,” explains Dave.

What few who encounter the village’s affable Ice Man know is that he completed four post-secondary programs after graduating from Ballston Spa High School in 1989. What only those closest to Dave knew was that he milked cows at a neighbor’s farm on the outskirts of the village before school and tackled other chores after classes starting in Grade 8. He also learned how to operate a tractor and other heavy equipment at Carr’s farm.

The skills he gained have not only come in handy in the ice business but also gave him an edge when he studied auto mechanics, auto body repair and marketing after high school. After successfully completing the trio of two-year AAS programs at Hudson Valley Community College, Dave earned a BA in marketing management from Siena College in Loudonville.

By the time he donned a cap and gown for the last time in 1997, Dave had a job offer waiting at a Fortune 500 company in Albany where he had impressed supervisors during a college internship. Although he did well at his sales and distribution job during the seven years he was on the Pepsi payroll, the industrious young man yearned for a career that would enable him to spend less time in a traditional office setting.

“Maybe it was the time I spent on the dairy farm in my teens . . . I just knew I’d never be happy chained to a desk; I had to find a way to earn a living where I could be physically active -- preferably outdoors – for large chunks of time,” reflects Avenarius.

Fortunately, hell didn’t have to freeze over before opportunity came knocking at his door. Actually, Dave was the one who knocked on opportunity’s door. The important thing is that his perseverance over a three-year period ultimately led to the realization of his dreams to acquire a pair of successful businesses known collectively as Cunningham’s Ice & Coin Laundry.

With Karen (who holds degrees from both the College of St. Rose in Albany and Russell Sage in Troy) as his business partner and much moral support from his parents (retired nurse Barbara and civil engineer Karl), Dave rolled up his sleeves in 2003 and began working on a series of interior and exterior upgrades and improvements that have won him the admiration, respect and gratitude of many in the village.

For starters, he kept not only the Cunningham name that has been beloved by villagers for generations, but also made sure the phone number remained the same.

“Cunningham’s was an established turn-key business and it was important that the transition of ownership be a smooth one right down to keeping the same phone number that had been connected with the business for roughly half a century. I didn’t want the phone service to lapse for even two minutes,” stresses Dave.

It was a decision that paid off quickly; in fact, he still recalls the identity of one of the company’s very first ice customers: Ron DeLucia, proprietor of DeLucia’s Grocery & Deli on Route 9 in Malta. “He’s been with us from Day One and is a regular to this day.”

Other satisfied customers include restaurants, taverns, service stations, specialty shops and camping grounds spanning from Ballston Spa to Galway, Mechanicville, Round Lake, Saratoga Lake, Saratoga Springs and Wilton. Included in the client base are Gaffney’s, The Coffee Planet, The Tin & Lint, The Parting Glass, The Horseshoe Inn, and The Ripe Tomato. Cunningham’s Ice also delivers to wedding caterers as well as those serving customers in such posh settings as The National Racing Museum near the thoroughbred track on Union Avenue. Those north of The Spa City are referred to Dave Wood, proprietor of Maplewood Ice in Queensbury and Whitehall, with whom Cunningham Ice sometimes teams up on bigger events during the hectic summer season.

To fill orders that cometh an industrious iceman’s way, Dave must keep four large ice-making machines operating 24/7. “Each machine is capable of producing 2,000 pounds of ice a day, which, of course, means we have the ability to produce up to 8,000 pounds of ice daily.”

There’s also an ice block maker that utilizes a food safe propylene glycol solution to produce 25 blocks, each weighing 10 pounds, at a time. The 10-pound blocks sell for $2.50 each while 20-pounders cost $3.50. A seven-pound bag of cubes is priced at $1.25.

“Once the solution gets cold, we can harvest every 10 hours,” notes Dave, adding that an ice inspector stops by at least once a year to make sure everything meets with health and safety standards. Those in his frosty line of work must also secure and display a New York State Ice License. It is, he reflects, a far cry from the old days when the ice was chopped from the nearest pond and transported to your door via a horse-drawn cutter.

Ironically, such a sleigh might well once have been sheltered from the bitter cold inside of the former carriage house where the ice is now made by the mammoth modern machines. In addition to the refrigeration pieces described above, the rustic 1,000 square foot structure also harbors other industrial sized freezers and storage units in which Avenarius and his wife have invested over the past five years. “We’ve been gradually replacing out-dated freezers with more energy-efficient walk-ins, but are by no means finished updating our equipment,” says Dave.

For reasons that are partly sentimental, the couple has not yet parted with the original freezer that Bob Wilson brought to Ballston Spa from what was then Red’s Restaurant (now The Ripe Tomato) on Route 9 in Malta.

An iceman’s greatest fear, emphasizes Dave, is not a heat wave, but a thunderstorm severe enough to knock out the power and lights. “The antique solid oak deluxe two-door antique model we have on display didn’t need electricity to do its job, but everything else under this roof is dependent upon the power and light company. The longest outage we had in our five-year history lasted 36 hours, but fortunately, the blocks were so thick that our losses were limited. Since we don’t yet have a generator as a back-up source, we just have to hope any power outages that come our way this summer won’t last too long.”

Proud members of the Ballston Spa Business & Professional Association, Dave and Karen strive to support as many service clubs and community causes as possible and hope to do more upon completion of their many commercial improvement projects.

On top of the many upgrades they’ve made at Cunningham’s Ice, the husband and wife team has invested heavily in beautifying the façade of Cunningham’s Coin Laundry as well as replacing out-dated washers and dryers with larger, more energy efficient models. Virtually all of the work has been handled by the man who enjoys working from sunrise to sunset as much now as he did in his teens.

Whether operating heavy equipment, troubleshooting and repairing machinery, developing a marketing strategy or interacting with customers, Ballston Spa’s iceman manages to flash a warm smile that melts hearts and keeps patrons coming back to see what the newest kid on the Ice Block has in store for them.