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From left, Janis Dodson, Glenn Wrenn, Shea Dodson Wrenn, and Ricky Dodson are the past and present owners of Carolina Plumbing and Water Services in Mebane.

From left, Janis Dodson, Glenn Wrenn, Shea Dodson Wrenn, and Ricky Dodson are the past and present owners of Carolina Plumbing and Water Services in Mebane.

It might not sound like an ideal place to work for your typical 16-year-old, but for Shea Dodson Wrenn, going to work at Carolina Plumbing and Water Systems was just the family thing. The Mebane-based small business was started by her dad and mom — Rick and Janis Dodson— in 1984. Shea has worked at the company for most of the last 17 years, starting out as a teen doing dispatch, to taking over as co-owner and senior manager in 2018.

But don’t think for a minute she landed the top job because she happens to be the founders’ daughter. She is a licensed plumber, providing her with the perspective needed for understanding and meeting the needs of her 12-person staff.

“I have gone out and worked as a tech assistant,” Shea said, “but I’ve never run my own technician’s truck. To get my plumber’s license I had to go out and get my own hours, and it was a good experience. I liked that. It was something outside the box for me. I’ve grown up around it, so I was familiar with it.”

As she continued to prove herself at the family business, and as her parents were getting older, they began to see Shea as someone they could trust to take over Carolina Plumbing and Water Systems. That’s when, she said, she “really started thinking about it and praying about it.”

Shea’s mom and dad are semi-retired, and remain co-owners of the company, along with her husband, Glenn. In fact, Ricky Dodson is a commercial fisherman and owns Captain Rick’s Seafood.

“He goes to the coast and catches fish, and also purchases from local fishermen there what he can’t catch. He buys fresh seafood and brings it back. He has his own oyster bed there, too. He keeps himself pretty busy.”

Keeping busy is not a problem for Shea and her staff at Carolina Plumbing. The company mostly does residential work, including rough-in remodels, tankless water heaters, water filtration, or water systems. The company has installed systems for a few new construction homes, but hasn’t dabbled too much in that area.

“My dad came up with a slogan years ago: ‘We take care of your water from its source to its disposal,’” Shea said. “Basically that means we can work on anything from — if you’re on city — from where it goes from your water meter all the way to where it gets to your septic. So, we really cover everything when it comes to plumbing. We do venture out some for other services. We do well pumps. We work on pool pumps, pool filters, pool plumbing, but we don’t do the electrical side of pools.”

Carolina Plumbing and Water Systems is a veteran-owned, woman-owned, woman-run family business. Many of the employees have been with the company for more than 10 years. Shea said the company takes great care in ensuring the staff they hire are responsible and skilled.

“You’re going into people’s personal spaces,” she said. “You’ve got to make sure that they’re trustworthy, they know what they’re doing, that they can hold a good conversation, be polite, and courteous.”

Shea was born in Mebane, and said its recent explosive growth could help propel her company to expand to allow it to bid on some of the town’s planned housing developments.

“We have to make certain steps before we can actually get there but, yes, that has definitely affected our business on a positive note, how much Mebane is growing. We see a lot of good business potential and we’re looking forward to seeing what the future holds with that,” she said.

In her almost two-decade career at Carolina Plumbing, Shea said her favorite part of the job is the people she works with and knowing the opportunity her company provides its employees is helping them achieve their goals. 

“Honestly, I really cherish the people that I work with and seeing them succeed and seeing them grow. I love watching these guys doing things I know that they enjoy,” she said. “In every job there’s going to be times where things that you have to do sometimes are things you don’t want to do. But for the most part I just like seeing them succeed and be happy. It drives me to want to be better for them. I want to make sure they’re taken care of.”

When she’s not working, Shea likes to spend time exploring the outdoors — including boating — with her daughter and husband. Shea said one of her favorite things to do is horseback riding.

Carolina Plumbing and Water Systems is at 719 Mattress Factory Road in Mebane. For more information, go to www.carolina-plumbing.com.

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