Money and Laundering

Written by James Straub
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Hospitals Provide Boost for Blue Hill

ELLSWORTH — Decisions by two Hancock County hospitals to send their laundry business to Blue Hill have boosted the local economy and helped create jobs.

Peter Briggs, environmental services manager at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital, said the hospital began sending all its laundry to Blue Hill Laundry on Nov. 13.

The hospital will spend about $135,000 a year to have some 300,000 pounds of laundry cleaned at the Blue Hill business.

Less than a week after MCMH started its contract with Blue Hill Laundry, Mount Desert Island Hospital began sending its laundry there.

“The hospital felt that Blue Hill Laundry would meet our needs more efficiently at a higher quality,” said Jeff Nichols, director of public affairs at MDI Hospital.

MDI Hospital will send about 150,000 pounds of laundry to the business annually at a cost of approximately $80,000.

Prior to contracting with Blue Hill Laundry, MDI Hospital had its laundry done by Crothall Laundry. The national company based in Pennsylvania served its Maine clients through a facility in Gorham.

Briggs said Maine Coast Memorial had sent its laundry to Commercial Laundry System in Pittsfield, but when that facility closed down, the hospital started shopping for another commercial laundry.

“One of our interests was jobs,” Briggs said. “As we looked at options, most were in southern Maine. If we could keep jobs local, it would be preferable.”

Doug Jones, CEO at Maine Coast Memorial, said he is pleased to have found a suitable commercial laundry in Hancock County, especially since the other options meant doing business in southern Maine.

“We might have sent our laundry to South Portland,” he said. “I don’t think they need jobs as much as we do.”

The hospital contracts are good news for Thom Tabor and Michael Stickney, co-owners of Blue Hill Laundry, and for employees at the laundry.

“We were ready to start letting our summer help go,” Tabor said. “Instead, we’ve kept our summer crew and added two positions.”

Tabor said his laundry business is “extremely busy” in the summer. The commercial aspect of his business gets a boost from restaurants and lodging facilities that thrive in the summer but slow down or close in the winter.

Likewise, the coin-operated machines at Blue Hill Laundry are much busier in summer because of an influx of seasonal rentals and a steady flow of business from people cruising the coast.

Tabor said that during a normal winter in the past, the laundry would employ three or four people, only two of which worked full time.

“Now, we’ll have 10 full-time workers through the winter,” he said.

Briggs said MCMH is pleased with the service from Blue Hill Laundry, which picks up and delivers laundry six days a week.

Tabor currently makes all deliveries but expects to add another position by hiring a delivery driver.

He said decisions made by him and his partner to be environmentally friendly also appeal to commercial and household customers.

“We installed a solar hot-water system this summer,” he said. “We like to do things on the green side when we can.”

While the boost from the hospital contracts has helped increase the workforce this winter, Tabor expects to expand his employee base even more next summer.

“We expect to add a full second shift next summer,” he said.

Tabor said he is pleased to have the laundry contract for two of the county’s hospitals. He said Blue Hill Memorial Hospital currently tackles its laundry chores on site, but that could change someday.

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