LETTER TO THE EDITOR: New Laundromat Could Benefit Community

Benson could use a nice, clean, totally functional laundromat. If one did not exist here, which is pretty much true now, the closest one is in Starbuck. Driving 45 miles round-trip to do a load of clothes is not my idea of convenience or efficiency.
And I know of at least two local citizens who have done just that.
Here’s a thought:  Benson chose to remodel and sustain the Armory. It is now the “Benson Community Center.” It looks great on the outside! But, many of us, who went to vote there last November, looked around and thought, “So this is what you get for $2 million  dollars?!” One lifelong resident of Benson said, “I felt like I should go get my roller skates .” That’s what it was 60 years ago, a roller rink. 
My suggestion is:  put a nice, clean, completely functional laundromat in there. Make it a pleasant place to linger and visit. Sounds like what a Community Center should be. You might even have room for a couple of PickleBall courts, another community-like activity.
It is the job of city government, or of any government, to help make 

life more livable for the governed. That’s us. Here’s an excellent opportunity to live up to that ideal.          
A laundromat in the new Benson Community Center could actually become profitable. Such an investment would yield a return, over time, to eventually pay for itself and, in the process, create a meaningful, long-lasting community service.
To add value to the new Benson Community Center will take some imagination. We humans are capable of that.

Ron A. Hanson
Benson