This soap opera in Morris Park will have a happy ending.
A Morris Park Laundromat owner stuck in a bureaucratic spin cycle is no longer being hung out to dry.
Ronnie Mosia will soon be able to officially reopen his self-service shop at 725 Morris Park Avenue – and this time legally – after a bureaucracy boost from State Sen. Jeff Klein’s satellite office at local Community Board 11.
The city’s Department of Consumer Affairs shut Mosia down in January for operating without a laundry license. Laundromats in the city are required to register with the DCA and fill out a proper application.
But Mosia, who took over the Laundromat two years ago after buying the place from a friend, said he had no idea that Laundromats even could be licensed until a DCA official walked in to shut him down.
“I didn’t get any notice until one day they came in and wrote me up,” he said.
Mosia paid a $1000 fine, but could not open his business until a DCA inspector ensured that the shop with up to city standards.
The businessman says DCA told him he’d have to wait at least three weeks for his application to be processed. But closing for a full three weeks would mean hundreds of lost dollars for his already struggling small business.
Searching for answers, Mosia wandered into Community Board 11’s office on Colden Avenue off Morris Park Avenue, where a staffer from Klein’s office was stationed. Klein’s been hosting weekly satellite offices at various locations around his north Bronx district.
Klein’s office got in touch with DCA, which pushed Mosia’s application to the front of the line. He got a call from them Monday, Feb. 3, and a city inspector was as of press time scheduled to arrive before the end of the week.
“Finally the light shined down and they were very accommodating,” Mosia said. “It’s good to know that some people are there to help you out.”
Mosia’s small business squabble, and eventual resolution, comes under a new administration that promises that it will be kinder and gentler to small businesses.
New mayor de Blasio said at a press conference Jan. 21 that he would be less ‘punitive’ to small businesses. He vowed to install a new system to clarify the relationship between small business owners and city agencies.
