Member Story: Jaelie and Brandon Cobb, Mrs. Cobb's Family Drain Cleaning & Plumbing

Most of our members don’t wind up quitting their day jobs and launching their own businesses. 

But if you do, isn’t it nice to have a credit union that knows what it’s like to be a hometown business, too?

That’s exactly what motivated Jaelie Cobb and her husband, Brandon, to work with us when they launched Mrs. Cobb’s Family Drain Cleaning and Plumbing in Schuyler Falls in 2022.

Jaelie—the “Mrs. Cobb” in the business name—said she and her husband opened their first joint checking account with Adirondack Regional Federal Credit Union back in 2015, “when we were young and had nothing to our name.” 

Shortly after, Brandon took a job as a lead technician with a large plumbing company in Plattsburgh, NY. He worked there for six years before working up the nerve to make the leap and open his own plumbing business in February 2022. 

Anybody who’s started a small business knows how many decisions there are to make. They had to buy professional plumbing equipment, tools, and a truck. And, they needed to draw up a business plan. But when it came to choosing a financial institution for their business banking, that decision was easy.

“That was just no question,” Jaelie says. “Adirondack Regional has been with us since the beginning. Back then, on Mondays we’d have just $10 left in our account. And now we’re running our own business.”

But one of the biggest draws, Jaelie says, is simply knowing that Adirondack Regional FCU is a big part of each community it serves. Mrs. Cobb’s serves most of Clinton, Essex, and Franklin counties —coincidentally, most of the same area the credit union serves, too. (We also have members in part of St. Lawrence County.) When members deposit money with the credit union, we lend it back out only to other members in our local communities. That strengthens the places where we live. Bigger, national banks can’t say that. And we also support local organizations such as The Strand Center for the Arts, Tri-Lakes Humane Society, and several others. 

“Just being a small business, we like to support other small businesses,” she says. “Because that’s what we want in return.”

Two years later, the Cobbs have grown their business slowly and steadily. They started with one truck and just added a second, and they’re about to hire a full-time employee. 

“I don’t even have to say my name when I go there,” Jaelie says. “The staff just knows who I am. And they’re always there to help you figure out what’s going on.”