Margaret Bennett is trading in her fabric softener for a paint brush.
“It’s not gonna be very exciting,” Bennett promised of her retirement, which became official Tuesday after she and daughter Susie signed over Bennett’s Coin Laundry to Nicholas Crisp of Le Roy.
“I’m going to be home mostly, painting fences and babysitting,” Bennett said, with one notable exception. “I want to go to Oklahoma to go to a casino. I am going to make my daughters loan me money so I can go to a casino, with no intention of ever paying them back.”
Levity aside, Bennett said she’ll miss the day-to-day interaction with the laundromat’s customers, many of whom she’s known for multiple generations.
“They’re happy for us,” Bennett said, “but sad at the same time.”
Bennett started at the laundromat in 1968, working for her mother-in-law, Goldie Bennett, when it was still Acers Park Laundry. Prior to that, the business was owned by Sid and Ethel Pasley.
Margaret took over in 1991. Susie joined the operation in 2003.
Crisp, who has owned a laundromat in Burlington for the past five years, said a few changes are coming at Bennett’s, which will keep its name.
Perhaps the largest difference is Crisp will not offer dry cleaning services.
“They had somebody take items to Chanute for that,” Crisp said. “I don’t have that capability.”
He will continue the “wash-dry-fold” service, where customers can drop off their garments for an employee there to do the cleaning, which Margaret and Susie Bennett had done for years.
“I’ve got someone I’m looking at hiring for that,” Crisp said. The wash-dry-fold services will be available Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 7:30-10:30 a.m.
Crisp will also offer ironing services.
He also will open earlier each day, at 5:30 a.m., to get early-risers. The laundromat will close each day at 10 p.m.
“I’m getting a new change machine,” he said. “It’s on back-order. For the most part, the washing machines are in good shape. There may be some that get replaced.”
Prior to acquiring the Burlington laundromat, Crisp worked for a commercial laundry sales and service company in Wichita, which catered to laundromats and hotels.
