A South Carolina law was changed about a year ago to encourage the business of distillation. That is, previously the state demanded $50,000 license payments every two years from a distiller, while Florida and Georgia collected only $800 on an annual basis from its distillers.

Not surprisingly, S.C.'s $50,000 every two years was a poison pill to any start- up distiller, and Georgia and Florida got all the business.

Larry Koester, working with Rep. Jimmy Bales, championed the cause to drastically reduce the $50,000 fee down to something competitive with Georgia and Florida. Koester's friends at Firefly Vodka of Charleston moved their distillery from Florida to Wadmalaw Island.

But Koester is not a distiller, at least not as a bigtime player or a professional. He's a laundry and dry cleaners man. He owns and operates Columbia's Cleaners, all four locations.

Koester is the oldest of six children. He was born in Charleston's Baker Hospital, what is now a condominium building on the northwest corner of Colonial Lake. His father was in the food service business, managing contracts with the Charleston Naval Base at the time of Koester's birth and later with universities and colleges across the South.

The family moved to Columbia while Koester was still in grammar school. He transferred to Burnside in Lower Richland and then to A.C. Moore on Rosewood. When he finished Hand Middle School, his father took an assignment in Atlanta, where Koester graduated from Dykes High School out Roswell Road.

Taking summer work with his grandfather's bakery on King Street in Charleston, Koester enrolled at USC's Columbia campus with the goal of a degree in business. Besides working summers for his grandfather, Koester was an authorization clerk for SCN's BankAmericard, and he tended bar at the Palmetto Club when he wasn't handling inquiries at SCN. Another part-time pursuit was with ARA/Slater, his father's food service firm.

With all his job commitments in Columbia and Charleston, Koester took a little longer to graduate, but when he did, he went directly into the executive management training program at SCN. At the time, Pete Cross was president, and Koester was his favorite bartender.

Koester was the assistant branch manager for the SCN office in Dentsville, answering to Columbia's George Little, the branch manager. Little left banking for the residential construction business, and Koester rose to the title of branch manager on Garners Ferry Road, next to Gill's Creek and the Rosewood Drive Extension.

After five years of managing banking with many people out Garners Ferry Road, Koester took those contacts into his own business, originally named Burnette's Cleaners.

Bill Burnette was an early success with his One Hour Martinizer location at the corner of Belt Line and Devine, and Koester opened another location across Garners Ferry from the V.A. Hospital. The location was formally the old Columbia Photo Supply conversion of a Shell station. After more expansion, Koester bought out Burnette and changed the name to Columbia's Cleaners.

This year, 2008, at the brink of recession, is Koester's first flat year since he began with Burnette, a time of no growth in the business, which is actually positive in a time of business retraction.

To recharge his batteries, Koester continues his childhood habits of hunting and fishing, mostly in the Lowcountry.

To serve his community, among other positions, Koester is the chairman of the Airport Commission, where he is welcoming three new members: lawyer Xavier Starkes, former city council member Anne Sinclair, and Roxanne Wilson, wife of Congressman Joe Wilson.