Regarding Mr. Spencer’s letter to the editor (How About A Charter Amendment To Require That Councilors Do Your Laundry), it may be a good reminder that a self-serve laundry is a privately-owned business, not a county-run facility. As with every business, they rely on their customers for financial support.

Running a business is a two-way street. The business owner relies on their private enterprise for their income as much as the customers rely on the business for their services. If the LA residents who rely on the self-serve laundry to wash clothes don’t frequent a business, it will be forced to close. 

Many store front businesses in Los Alamos as well as across the U.S. are closing. Their expenses are fixed or increasing; rent, insurance, utilities, wages, and of course, taxes (everyone wants that raise, but it doesn’t come our of thin air).

However, a business owner’s income is not fixed. It ebbs and flows like the tide depending on the needs of their customers. Business owners also hope to make a little extra to set aside for those lean times when their income is lower and hopefully, to retire.

As Mr. Spencer mentions, there are many LA residents who rent. On the plus side, many of the rental apartments do offer laundry rooms that residents can use. If it were not for these rental extras, perhaps the local self-serve laundry would still be open.

The blame nor requirement for a solution for businesses that close should not be placed on the shoulders of the county and our elected representatives. When a business closes, it’s because the citizens are not supporting that business, not because the county isn’t supporting the business.

If we miss a service that has closed, the blame should be placed on the same person we see in the mirror every morning. Luckily, we can see into the future when it comes to knowing what local businesses will close. If we don’t frequent a local business with our patronage, it will close forever.