Cool Laundry II shutdown is lifted

The Governor’s COVID-19 Task Force lifted Friday its order that shutdown Cool Laundry II in Kagman for alleged violation of anti-COVID-19 directives.

Jung

In lifting the shutdown order, the task force has found the proposed mitigation measures submitted by Soi-In Corp. president Jung Ja Kim, which owns Cool Laundry II, to be acceptable and in compliance with directives.

Kim told Saipan Tribune over the weekend that they already re-opened Cool Laundry II but they also treated the facility with a disinfectant before that. She did wonder why the task force allowed only four persons at a time inside the laundromat when Cool Laundry II has enough room for social distancing, having an area of 3,600 feet. “I have the biggest area of all laundromat (sic) in the CNMI,” said Kim. She appealed to the task force to reconsider its decision with respect to number of customers allowed inside. She said that allowing only four customers at a time is hard for a struggling business.

Cool Laundry I in Fina Sisu, which is also owned by Soi-In Corp., was also disinfected, although it was not subject to the shutdown order.

Kim assured Alcohol Beverage Tobacco Control Division director David Maratita that they continue monitoring and sanitizing the two facilities.

ABTC, a sub-task force of COVID-19 Task Force, shut down the Cool Laundry II last Aug. 31, allegedly due to a lack of consistent monitoring, that it was left unattended, nobody was there to maintain crowd control and they were not regularly sanitizing the premises.

Kim said she explained that they have been conducting consistent monitoring and sanitizing Cool Laundry II as well as Cool Laundry I at least on an hourly basis, if not more.

The CNMI COVID-19 Task Force shut down Cool Laundry II and Cheers Karaoke in Garapan for alleged violation of the emergency directives and temporarily closed Saipan Vegas in Chalan Laulau and Club 88 in Garapan for alleged failure to rectify reopening plan issues.

At a recent KKMP radio news briefing, Maratita said they inspected over the week 245 establishments and out of those, 154 were found to be in compliance with the directives, or for a 63% compliance, and 85 establishments were non-compliant.

He said those 35% that were non-compliant were subsequently advised, educated, and warned to fix the varying infractions.