{"id":153911,"date":"2022-05-06T20:36:49","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T01:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=153911"},"modified":"2022-05-09T04:46:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T09:46:02","slug":"longtime-downtown-vw-business-closed-clearing-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2022\/05\/06\/longtime-downtown-vw-business-closed-clearing-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime VW business clearing out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A downtown Van Wert fixture has closed its doors for good and now, all that\u2019s left is to finish clearing out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Hour Cleaners, 114 N. Washington St. opened in 1959 as One Hour Martinizing, then underwent a name change when Ron Roberts purchased the business 10 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
One Hour Cleaners had been in downtown Van Wert for over 60 years but is now closed. Owner Ron Roberts is in the process of clearing out equipment from the N. Washington St. building. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, 77, said a combination of his age and new regulations were the main factors in the decision to close the dry cleaning business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t run a \u2018perc\u2019 (perchloroethylene) machine near an apartment building and with them (Van Wert Forward) remodeling, they\u2019re going to have apartments in the area,\u201d Roberts explained. \u201cIt\u2019s quite a process to close it down and get all of these machines out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts also explained that an employee suffered an injury at home and was unable to keep working, which left him to work alone and he added he planned to just hand over the business to another employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe worked here 31 years and originally I was just going to give her the place and she could rent the building from me but it got to the point that I had to tell her she wasn\u2019t going to be able to make a living, so she went and found another job,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThat was the start of the downhill slide. This is a dying industry \u2013 you need it but not enough to make a living with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt used to be people would wear suits for everything and it was really busy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts recalled he came to work as a manager at the business in 1962 or 1963, but it wasn\u2019t exactly a smooth start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went to Delaware, Ohio to train and went I came back everyone had quit \u2013 they didn\u2019t show up for work,\u201dRoberts said with a chuckle. \u201cThey were mad because a lady who worked here didn\u2019t get the job. They had run the machine clear out of \u2018perc\u2019 so I took the still down and was able to get it to run again. At that point, the guy who owned it sent a guy down to help me until we hired somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts purchased the business in 1969, a time when dry cleaning was still a booming business. At one point, he had five employees with three of them running the machines or pressing and one or two at the counter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all dry cleaners offered one hour cleaning and Post said when business was at its peak, it was most likely a big draw. Otherwise, the turnaround was a couple of days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could do it in an hour\u2026it was a pain, but you could do it,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIf someone had a funeral to go to or something like that you could get them in and it was perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All customer pickups are complete and Roberts said once the bigger equipment and machines are moved out, the process of shutting down will be complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA guy in Dayton says he can move the boiler so now at we\u2019re at his mercy as far as the timeline,\u201d Roberts explained. \u201cThe rest, if no one wants it I\u2019ll wind up scrapping it which is sad because there\u2019s a lot of money in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything is gone, but you can\u2019t believe the stuff I took to the Salvation Army and Goodwill,\u201d he continued. \u201cI took six wedding dresses the other day and I took four a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the building is cleared out, Roberts doesn\u2019t plan to sit idly by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI suppose not having any responsibility is okay but I\u2019m thinking I\u2019m going to find something to do,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added those needing dry cleaning service can take their goods to a Duffy\u2019s Cleaning drop off point at Jamie Lynn\u2019s on South Shannon St. They\u2019ll pick up Tuesdays and Thursdays and take the items to Lima to be dry cleaned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor A downtown Van Wert fixture has closed its doors for good and now, all that\u2019s left is to finish clearing out. One Hour Cleaners, 114 N. Washington St. opened in 1959 as One Hour Martinizing, then underwent a name change when Ron Roberts purchased the business 10 years later. Roberts, 77, said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 23:57:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}