Hoffman’s coming to Oneonta
A pair of dilapidated signs is all that remains of Christopher’s Restaurant and Lodge on Oneonta’s busy southside Route 23, but that’s due to change when Hoffman’s Car Wash comes to town.
Town of Oneonta Supervisor Randy Mowers told The Freeman’s Journal / Hometown Oneonta he was excited to see the development.
“You know what pays the bills? Commerce,” Mr. Mowers said. “We have to take care of the people and give them what they need and want to visit and stay in the Town.”
“I want people to know the Town of Oneonta is open for business,” he said. “This is common sense. We’re well aware of the need to protect the environment and that’s a priority while we’re moving forward.
As for Hoffman’s, he said, “They followed every step of the process with the planning board to make sure they answered our questions.
“They don’t mess around,” he said. “They use a new water system where they recycle 40 percent of the water they use – the top side of the car gets the fresh, they use the recycled water to blast out the dirt on the bottom of the car.”
“This is a great project for our Town,” he said.
Company CEO Tom Hoffman, Jr., said the Town of Oneonta project is one of several on the docket for the car wash giant, with stores on the way in Gloversville, Utica, Rome, and elsewhere. Mr. Mowers said he hopes to see work begin as early as Summer 2022.
“It’s an exciting addition to the Town of Oneonta,” said Town Board member Skylar Thompson. “We are happy the Christopher’s space is being filled with a big asset to the Town and we hope there are many more to come.”
With Starbucks on the way later this summer, Mr. Mowers said he is not concerned about traffic congestion on the already-busy stretch of road.
“When we talk to people about coming to the Town to build, one of the first things they ask is ‘Do you have a Starbucks,’” he said. “I am so glad to tell them that we do. Now we get to tell them we have a couple of great carwashes along the way, too.”
“Traffic is there anyway,” he said. “We’re tourism here. We attract a lot of visitors. We can deal with the traffic.”
Mr. Mowers – tax dollars pay the bills. Tell it like it is. You want tax dollars to pay for stuff that residents really don’t need or want. Residential property taxes won’t decrease. Are you making traffic improvements to the Route 23 corridor in that area? I haven’t seen any. There will just be more congestion. I don’t know about the rest of readers or residents, but I certainly don’t go on vacation or visit the Town of Oneonta with the hopes of finding a car wash. A lodging establishment with a nice restaurant probably would have been a better choice.
I thought KFC was going to build on that site.
Yeah, I agree! The Restaurant and lodging that mysteriously disappeared as a new one came to west end!!!! 😢