ENFIELD — Beverly Parrish could walk from her apartment across Main Street to wash her clothes before a dryer fire last winter forced Laundry Depot, Enfield Village’s sole laundromat, to close for renovations.
It was “very easy” to hop across the street to switch a load from the washer to dryer, Parrish said in an interview on her front stoop on Thursday.
Now, Parrish, who works as a night shift supervisor for Listen’s Miracle Mile thrift store, said she has to cart her 2-year-old to Lebanon to clean the family’s clothes every Friday.
They have to wait there for a couple of hours for the wash to finish and the machines are roughly three times more expensive than it was at the Laundry Depot, she said.
Parrish said she is “still waiting” to hear what will happen with the laundromat across the street.
She hadn’t seen it, but Brian Degnan — who has owned the Laundry Depot since November 2017 — sent out a survey through the Enfield Listserv late last week seeking community input on the property’s future.
The five-question survey asks respondents how often they use a laundromat, what prices they would be willing to pay for 30-pound and 35-pound loads, and “If it wasn’t a laundromat, what else would you like to see in Enfield?”
In a Monday phone interview, Degnan, who holds a doctorate in electrical engineering, said he hadn’t yet had a chance to crunch the data and more responses were still coming in.
He had hoped for 50, but had already received more than 70.
Degnan, who earns a living as a researcher, bought the laundromat in order to expose his children, now 4 and 6, to the practical skills of operating a business. Before the fire, his eldest child would help sweep and put carts back, he said.
Though he doesn’t need the money, he said, “It’s a business. It has to break even.”
Even before an overloaded dryer caught fire last February and forced the business to close, Degnan said the Laundry Depot was not meeting that goal.
To get the business on even footing, Degnan said, he is likely going to have to increase prices, which was why he sent out the survey.
“There’s this kind of weird dynamic,” Degnan said. “People want a laundromat. … I wasn’t sure if anyone would be able to pay for it.”
Before the February fire, Degnan was charging $4 for 30-pound loads and $5 for 35-pound loads. He had already increased prices from the $3.25 and $4.25 the previous owner was charging.
He estimates that he may need to increase prices by another dollar a load.
In the survey, he asked respondents to say what they would pay between $3 and $7 for the smaller load and what they would pay between $4 and $8 for the larger load.
Degnan blames the cost increases on regular water and sewer rate increases for the town’s 484 village water users and 610 sewer users in recent years. At the beginning of 2019, water rates went up 5% and sewer rates went up 8%, according to the Enfield’s website.
“In mathematics, we say ‘there are two types of people: those who understand compound (interest) and those who pay compound interest,’ ” Degnan said in an email.
Though being closed has given him a break from the high costs of water and sewer, Degnan said, he’s put money into the renovations, which have included new heat pumps, a new roof, electrical improvements and refinishing the machines.
Depending on when he can get contractors in to finish the renovations and when he can sort out some insurance issues, Degnan said he would like to reopen the laundromat, perhaps with a coffee shop attached, in the coming months.
Village residents Ashley Raymond and Kenneth Smith, who were outside their Main Street apartment on Thursday, had not seen Degnan’s survey, but said they miss having a laundromat nearby.
“It’s kind of a bum deal,” Raymond said.
The two were wearing paint splattered clothing and said having it nearby made it easier to wash work clothes.
Like Parrish, they have children they have to pile into the car when they drive to Lebanon to do laundry.
“It was definitely easier with it right there,” Raymond said.
On Thursday, workmen applied drywall to the Laundry Depot’s ceiling, as Mike Bedard, who rents an apartment from Degnan and plans to run the coffee bar when and if it opens, pointed out the renovations.
Before the fire, Bedard cleaned the laundromat in exchange for being able to do his laundry for free. Since then, Bedard has had to lug his clothes to Lebanon.
“It’s awful,” he said. “It’s expensive.”
Farmington, Conn., resident April Rogers, whose family has owned a cottage on Crystal Lake for decades, said she didn’t do laundry during her weeks in Enfield this summer because the Laundry Depot was closed. Instead, she brought it home with her.
Rogers said she’d be willing to pay about $4 for the smaller load and $5 for the larger one — the prices Degnan said he was charging before the fire.
But in general, Rogers said would be worth a price hike of some kind to avoid making a special trip to do the wash.
“I don’t want to go all the way to Canaan or West Lebanon,” she said.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
