The Library Laundromat has closed after over 15 years of operation by its current owners and many decades of service to the town, but a brand-new, state-of-the-art laundry is scheduled to open in mid-December at the corner of Mill Hill Road and Elwyn Lane.
The new establishment will be called Woodstock Laundromat, according to the proprietor, Vince Christofora, Jr., owner of Woodstock Hardware. “There are times to be creative and times not to be,” he commented. Christofora is also owner of the building the laundry will occupy, formerly rented by Post Express, which closed up shop early this summer.
Christofora said he’s been working on plans for the laundromat for four or five months, unaware that his prospective competitor was thinking of going out of business. When the Library Laundromat closed for a day and a half last winter due to a late propane delivery, we spoke to Pedro Morales, who owned the business with his wife, Sara. Morales said he intended to keep the store open but was worn out and looking to sell. He could not be reached for the present article, as his phone numbers are no longer in service.
When the Library Laundromat closed two weeks ago, Christofora accelerated his construction schedule to fill the gap. The many local contractors working on the renovation rearranged their schedules to accommodate the speeded-up construction.
“I think it’s something the town needs,” Christofora said. “It serves a lot folks in town that have apartments with no laundry capabilities, or septic systems that can’t support laundry equipment. So it’s a service for the entire community.”
He is installing a dozen washers and a dozen dryers in the 900-square-foot building, substantially fewer than the previous laundry had, but Christofora says these high-tech washers will do a load of laundry in 15 minutes.
All the machines are “state-of-the-art, brand-new, made in the USA, commercial washers and dryers,” he explained. “They’re energy-efficient and water-efficient, and they use less soap. I don’t know the specifics on the time for the dryers, but with this technology they get hotter quicker, and it’s a quicker cycle that uses less energy. This is the number of machines the laundry equipment manufacturer recommends for the area of this space. It should be more than adequate to service the town.”
Christofora hopes to provide a base for the people who handled Library Laundromat’s drop-off laundry business. “They have a successful business, but they’re now having to go out of town to operate. We’re trying to negotiate to have them at the new location.”
He added, “My family has been in the retail customer service business for two generations now, so we know how to provide a service to the town and the residents. We’re making it very friendly with free wi-fi and TV. It should be an enjoyable space to do your laundry.”++
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