National Clothesline

It was almost noon on Tuesday, December 2, when a car careened out of control and crashed through the wall of a drycleaning shop located at Cobb’s Corner in Stoughton, MA.

Sophia Nusinov, 56, was on her way to visit her friend, Olena Galkyny, a seamstress who was working at a sewing machine in the plant’s front window at the time, when her Subaru Outback jumped a 6-inch high curb and smashed through the storefront.

Galkyny's leg was injured in the accident, but plant owner Morton Matt believes it could have been much worse if not for the wheeled office chair she was sitting in. It was pushed to the side upon impact with the vehicle.

Matt described the incident to the Brockton Enterprise: “I could hear the glass splattering. It sounded like a bombing. It’s a miracle she wasn’t killed.”

According to the Enterprise, local police office James O’Connor was watching traffic in the vicinity when he heard the loud crash.

“I looked around and I couldn’t see anything,” he said. “I thought maybe a car had bottomed out when a couple of women flagged me down. Even then I couldn’t see it because the car was completely in the store.”

O’Connor helped pull Galkyny from the debris. Though her leg was injured, she was able to walk to an ambulance, which took her to Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton where she was later released.

After questioning Nusinov, O’Connor cited her for negligent operation so as to endanger. He determined that she accidentally hit the gas pedal in her car instead of the brake. The acceleration caused her car to drive all the way through the Adam Cleaners’ window and into the dividing wall the plant shared with its neighbor, an H&R Block office.

Fortunately, the H&R Block office is only open during tax season, which begins in early January. If the accident occurred a month later, there would have been a line of people next door.

According to Matt, the only people in his store other than himself and Galkyny were his wife and two other plant employees. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the first time one of his businesses was hit by a car. A drunk driver hit a building of his after hours in Quincy, resulting in the roof caving in.

Last year, Anton’s Cleaners helped haul in 51,271 coats (costing them over half a million dollars in cleaning costs) during its annual coat drive, utilizing a few dozen plants scattered throughout eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.

This year, the chain hopes to capture and clean another 45,000 between October 15, 2003 and January 15, 2004, before the coats are distributed to families who really need them.

“Coats for Kids brings out the best in people,” noted Charles Anton of Anton’s Cleaners.

Plenty of others will be helping in the effort, including Fox 25 and the Boston Bruins, as well as The Salvation Army and many local Massachusetts Community Action programs, Southern New Hampshire Services, and Cradles to Crayons.

In the past eight years, Anton’s has helped bring in more than 190,000 coats altogether.

ASN Laundry Group, Inc., celebrated the grand opening of its new facility in Roselle, NJ, on November 13.

The new facility, which will serve as a regional sales office, warehouse and service center, is fully staffed to serve coin, on-premise and industrial laundries in the Garden State and eastern Pennsylvania.

The warehouse maintains a full inventory of parts for IPSO washer-extractors, Jensen heavy duty laundry equipment and the full line of American Dryer products, as well as parts for all other makes and models of laundry equipment.

Attending the celebration were over 40 customers and industry members as well as local dignitaries, including Joseph Croteau, Borough of Roselle Mayor, Peter DeRose, Chief of Police, Kenneth Blum, Borough Chief Financial Officer and Yves Francois Aubourg, Roselle’s Urban Enterprise Zone Coordinator.

ASN Laundry Group has served the New York area for over 30 years from its headquarters in the Bronx.

Recent expansions extended the company’s reach into New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Formerly known as IPSO of NY/LaunderCenter, ASN Laundry Group is a full service distributor of washers, dryers, smart card systems, changers, and related equipment and supplies for coin-operated laundries, industrial and hospital, nursing home and other on-premise laundries.

Arrow Parts, a division of ASN Laundry Group, offers replacement parts and repair items for all major laundry and drycleaning equipment at both the Roselle, NJ, and Bronx locations.

The new location will benefit customers with sales tax reductions allowed by the State of New Jersey. Roselle, NJ, is located in an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), which allows ASN to offer customers 3 percent sales tax on purchases.

The UEZ designation also helps ASN to keep prices low through reduced sales tax on initial construction and ongoing business supplies.

The new facility is located at 159 East First Street, Roselle, NJ, 07203; phone (908) 241-5655 or (800) 832-9238. The ASN Laundry Group headquarters is at 1731 West Farms Road, Bronx, NY, 10460; phone (718) 542-8686 or (800) 463-4067.