Graham councilman-elect Jim Young is a man of many hats: veteran; father; husband; small business owner; coffee roaster; podcaster; and now, the author of the first in a series of novels built around a semi-autobiographical protagonist, Churchill McCluskey.
Young, 59, made his foray into the world of fiction Wednesday, with the release of his first independently-published novel, The Sniper’s Apprentice: Southern Noir Novel of War, Redemption, and Revenge. The central character, McCluskey, “was raised in the Carolina backwoods on tales of Winston Churchill and war” and begins his “transformation from gifted marksman to soldier – then something else entirely,” the novel’s synopsis reads.
“Doing that first book – it just made my imagination pop,” Young says of the process he used to transform his concept into the first installment in his “Sniper’s Apprentice Series,” which went on sale yesterday.
Young’s imagination also may have gotten a jolt from the six shots of Italian espresso he starts his day with: he has spent most of the last decade developing, roasting, and perfecting his proprietary flavor profiles for Salvation Coffee, which he opened in 2018 along South Church Street in Burlington.
He originally taught himself to roast coffee as a side gig, selling small batches through the online retailer Shopify, before converting his operation into the brick-and-mortar coffee shop that sells artisanal coffee drinks, baked goods, and branded merchandise.
‘Not worldwide deployable’
As an infantryman stationed at U.S. Army Garrison Schweinfurt in northwest Germany during the mid-1980s, Young had been assigned to patrol the border next to Czechoslovakia, when he developed frostbite after his relief failed to report for duty. Young continued to man his post – leaving wasn’t an option – and never really thought about it again, until he went to reenlist and learned he was being honorably discharged due to his injury.
Between the frostbite and the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act of 1985 – which mandated $23 billion in federal spending cuts, half of which came from the defense department’s budget – Young’s military service was over after a single, four-year tour. “The budget cuts won out,” he recalls, adding that, due to his injury, his superiors had deemed him “not worldwide deployable.”
Though he’d grown up in Knoxville, Tennessee, Young moved to Burlington, the city he was born in, and opened, Ear Candy, an electronics retailer along South Church Street that specialized in home theater, whole house audio/video, car audio, and surveillance system installation.
Twenty years later, Young would again pivot, converting the storefront that had been home to Ear Candy into what he now refers to as his salvation. “I started falling out of love with it,” he says of his earlier entrepreneurial effort. “I did it because I loved music – Judas Priest all the way. I thought if I got some little hobby to take my mind off it, I could do a little Ear Candy stuff on the side…I make money doing my hobbies.”
“I don’t think you can screw up a coffee bean unless you absolutely burn it,” Young explains. “I knew I had certain profiles of beans; I had an idea. At that time, I had a roaster that could only roast three pounds at a time.” He spent the next three months experimenting – with wife Karry at his side, taking notes – and sampling the results. “I figured I could put a roaster up front, where the showroom [for the electronics store] used to be.”
Young eventually contacted Burlington city officials to find out what he’d need to do to allow customers to come in and sample roasts. “They said I’d have to put in a bathroom,” he tells the newspaper. “I went home and told my wife, ‘Okay, we’re going to open a coffee shop.’”
“Where the name came from [was] it was my personal salvation,” Young elaborates. His wife, Karry, does the baking, and the youngest of two grown daughters, Kourtney – a longtime former manager and barista who he recruited from Starbucks to manage the front of the house for Salvation – round out a staff of about 15 employees. In addition to his proprietary roasts, such as the organic Ethiopian Washed Sidamo (called Speed Freak) and the Columbian blend (Wild Roast), Young also brews between 300 and 400 gallons a week of cold brew, all of which he sells online and at his shop in Burlington.
Fast-forwarding to his newest role, the councilman-elect says his desire to serve others, as well as his concerns about development and crime, motivated him to enter this year’s race.
This marks the second time that Young had wandered into the minefield of electoral politics. In 2017, Young ran against longtime incumbent Graham mayor Jerry Peterman after initially planning to run for city council. “I asked about the price – [the staff at the board of elections] said it was $10,” Young recalls with a laugh, “and so I said, ‘I want to run for mayor.’” He was ultimately trounced: Peterman won by a margin of 82 percent (729 votes) to Young’s 18 percent (165 votes), according to the final results from the November 2017 election.
‘It made me want to throw up’
During that campaign in 2017, Young says, “People were calling me wanting to give me dirt; it made me ill…To call me, a perfect stranger, giving me dirt on Jerry Peterman, it made me want to throw up.”
Young was later appointed to serve on Graham’s planning board and Historic Resources Commission (HRC), two posts that the councilman-elect, who changed his voter registration from Republican to unaffiliated several years ago, plans to resign from soon. His tenure on the planning board also factored into his decision to run for Graham’s city council.
“I’m tired of seeing neighborhoods established for 30 to 40 years approved for high-density development,” the councilman-elect explains. For an example, Young points to the Riley’s Meadow subdivision with 252 single-family homes and 141 townhouses off North Jim Minor Road, which is within Graham’s extra-territorial jurisdiction and was approved on a 3-2 vote in August 2021, despite concerns about density.
“Maybe the city council can hold the developer accountable and not allow that developer to do anything more within the city of Graham until he [addresses problems that have been reported about Riley’s Meadow],” Young says. “That’s what I figure I was here for – for the people to have a voice.”
Young finished second in the November general election with 1,102 votes – incumbent Graham city councilman Bobby Chin led with 1,155 votes – but ahead of Randy Phillips by 17 votes on election night. A subsequent recount, conducted on November 19 after a certified vote count had shown Phillips was a close third in the race for two open council seats, narrowed Young’s lead but still put him 14 votes ahead of Phillips.
Between owning a small business, writing novels, and hosting a podcast, “The Smoke Debrief,” with his cinematographer friend Hollywood Heard, Young also serves as president of the Durham Pistol and Rifle Club and as a community ambassador for Operation Enduring Warrior, a nonprofit that provides rehabilitation programs and other assistance for wounded veterans.
Now, the councilman-elect says his main goal is to not make people regret that they voted for him. “I’m going to learn a little bit before I open my mouth,” Young says, vowing to reserve judgment until all of the facts are in.
“I have been underestimated my entire life, and I am perfectly happy with that,” he adds with a laugh.
Young is scheduled to be sworn into office at 6:00 p.m. next Tuesday, December 9. He lives with his wife at 1516 Broadway Drive in Graham.
