MERCER

Coin laundry closed; Owner couldn’t keep her head above water

Mercer’s lone coin laundry has closed due to high water and sewage rates, the owners’ son said.

Larry Warner locked the doors for good Monday night of his mother’s Warner’s Laundromat on South Erie Street. The laundry has been in the family for 40 years.

Those wanting to wash their laundry will have to use laundries outside the borough.

"This isn’t something I decided on in the spur of the moment,’’ Warner said. "We’ve looked for ways to keep it open.’’

Consumers Pennsylvania Water Co. Shenango Valley Division recently raised its rates 29 percent to pay for a new treatment plant in Sharon. The water company announced plans for the rate hike more than two years ago.

Laundries in the Shenango Valley also saw the increase but those in Fredonia and Grove City won’t because the water company doesn’t serve those towns. That, said Warner, placed him at a disadvantage.

Before the water price increase went into effect the laundry was already unprofitable.

"We thought with the extra volume we get in the summer time from local campgrounds we’d break even,’’ Warner said. "But that didn’t happen.’’

Even though all of the laundry’s equipment is paid for, the business has been piling up losses.

Currently charging $1 a wash, Warner polled customers and found if the laundry raised the price by 25 cents a wash, one-fourth of the patrons would go elsewhere.

Warner’s mother, who owns the business, is in a nursing home and in the past had been using proceeds from the business to pay part of her bills, he said.

"We really feel bad about this,’’ Warner said. "There’s a lot of people in Mercer who don’t have a way to get to Fredonia and other places. On the other hand, we just can’t take money out of our hands to keep it open.’’