Carol Oakleaf and Lori Lovelace are gearing up for the grand opening Sept. 7 of the Fort Scott Washateria, 501 S. National Avenue.
From Sept. 7 to 14, Lovelace said free washing and drying will be offered at the laundry mat with the signing up for a loyalty card.
“It’s free promotion of the business,” Lovelace said. “You have to provide your own detergent and drying sheets or buy them from us.”
The promotional first week of business will be to help customers get used to the highly technical washing and drying machines, Carol Oakleaf said.
Lovelace is the manager, Oakleaf is the owner and they have hired D.J. White as the manager-in-training, and Christina Walker as a part-time employee.
“It will be all hands on deck that week,” Lovelace said.
The hours will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. On Sunday mornings no assistant will be available, Oakleaf said.
In addition to the laundry mat, the business is offering a variety of other clothes cleaning services, which will begin at a later date, once the first week is over, she said.
Services such as pick up and delivery of laundry for both residential and commercial, alterations, starch and press, and wash-dry-fold of clothing.
Community Clothes Closet
The Community Clothes Closet had an organizational meeting on Aug. 15, with about ten people attending, Oakleaf said.
Lovelace will be the director and Oakleaf the president of the philanthropic group that will sort, stack and distribute donated clothing to those in need.
Another meeting will put into place others needed on the board: secretary, treasurer and five directors, plus members.
“They will plan how to operate and chart the course for the clothes closet,” Lovelace said.
“A lot of people on the Beacon board were at the meeting,” Lovelace said. The Beacon is another helping agency that recently stopped accepting clothes donations.
The closet is “expensive and time-consuming,” Lovelace said. “We already have a set up (to launder and store the clothing). We are going to work with as many service organizations as we can,” to get it up and running.
Lovelace said they are already accepting clothing donations, even though the Community Clothes Closet building is not complete yet.
“We won’t be distributing until at least Oct. 1,” she said. “My sheds need to be finished.”
Contact Lovelace at 620.215.1314 for more information.