RV park home to city’s lone Laundromat

John Wayne RV Ranch offers Maricopa residents something they are missing and many don’t even know it: a Laundromat.

“If a person needs to use a Laundromat the only one they can find is all the way out in Casa Grande,” Ranch Manager Elaine Gillituk said. “We give permission to the local residents to come use ours.”

The Ranch, which recently joined the Maricopa Chamber of Commerce, has a newly renovated laundry room with three heavy-duty washing machines, six top-load washing machines and seven front-load dryers.

Owners Deanna and Naji Alkateeb remodeled and decorated the laundry facility at the end of March.

“We put in new chairs and decorations for the walls,” Deanna Alkateeb said. “We also put in a flat-screen TV.”

Gillituk said the TV is a good addition.

“We get people with children and it does make the time go by quicker,” she said. “We have also had requests for sodas and bottled water and snack items, so we’ve been talking about putting that in.”

InMaricopa.com asked its Facebook readers if they knew about the facilities at the ranch and if a Laundromat is needed in the community. The majority agreed a laundry facility would be helpful and didn’t know there was one at the Ranch.

“I have comforters and sleeping bags that could use the big powerful washer and dryer,” resident Toni Barreras said in response to the Facebook post. “It would also be nice to know that there is a backup plan if my washing machine or dryer ever broke.”

Other residents said it would also benefit their visitors.

“When we have guests over they, too, would like to wash all their clothes quickly and that would be grand,” resident Cecilia Ashe commented.