News

Day care center to open in July

By Scott Wagar

06/17/2014

Within a matter of weeks the doors of the new day care center will open and the sounds of little children will be a buzz through the halls and rooms of the new facility.

The present plan is to open the day care on Monday, July 7, with 35 children registered to start on the inauguration day.

The day care has been long in coming. With a shortage of day cares in Bottineau the past few years, the Bottineau EDC went into action and started to plan to bring in a day care to assist the community.

As the EDC attempted to raise funds for the day care, which proved to be difficult due to construction costs across the nation, the local pre-school and Head Start programs announced they were ceasing operations in the local community, leaving over 100 children without day care.

With a low number of day cares, high construction cost and parents dealing with little or no day cares to place their children in, the community was facing a serious scenario over this issue.

Fortunately, and through the hard work of Bottineau’s EDC, the funds were raised and the new day care is ready to care for the communities’ kids.

The EDC owns the building and it is located on the campus of Dakota College at Bottineau, which is state property that has been donated to the EDC through the State Board of Higher Education for the day care center. Lindsey Guss, owner of the Building Blocks Learning Center, has rented out the structure from the EDC and will be the director of the day care in the edifice.    

“I can’t say enough about the help from the EDC, the college and a lot of community people who have been really great. Everyone is so excited,” Guss said. “I think they have waited so long for this to be here. But, everyone is so anxious to get in and get going. So, yeah, lots and lots of support, everybody has been great and I appreciate everybody’s help and commitment and time.”

The day care structure is built with top of the line safety measures, security and technology that focuses completely on the needs and cares of children who will be in the building and on its playground.

The structure has an infant room, toddler room, two pre-school rooms, kitchen and pantry, lunch and commons area, three offices, conference room, storage facility and fenced in playground facility.

In the main hall of the building, there is a mural painted by Anna Jacobson from Langdon, N.D., of a tree, which will be a donor recognition wall for those who have contributed to the day care center.   

When it comes to security, all outside doors that lead into the building will be locked at all times. If individuals want to enter into the facility, but have no credentials to be in the building, they must enter through the front door where they will be identified through a window in Guss’ office. If the individual’s credentials are approved, Gus will then open the door to the facility through her office.

In safety measures, the entire building is set up to keep the children safe. From the type of furnishings, to automated lights, to door hinges, the building has the children in mind.

When it comes to lighting in the building, all the lights are motion sensored and turn on automatically. So, when children walk into a room the lights turn on automatically for kids. Staff members can also control the lights manually if the need arises.

The doors are also built to protect children from getting their fingers pinched in between the space of the door and door frame.

The door and frame are connected with a rubberize type shield that makes it impossible for the children to hurt themselves in the door.

The day care center, which is 6,597 square feet, will have floor heating.  

The infant room, toddler room and the two preschool rooms are set-up to care for the proper ages of the kids that will be in the rooms. From the diaper changing stations, to the nap area, to the hand washing stations, and so much more, the kids will have safe and easy access to the items they utilized in the day care.

The two pre-school rooms will be utilized in two different ways. The one-room will hold preschoolers for day care purposes, while the second preschool room will be used as a preschool.

Guss has been working on bringing in a preschool for the Building Blocks Learning Center, which will allow for one group of preschoolers attending class in the morning hours and another preschool class in the afternoon. Each section of preschool will be able to hold 15 students.

If all goes according to plan, the preschool should start in August.
“The preschool will be similar to the United Parish’s preschool and will assist in the issue of preschool in Bottineau,” Guss said.

With the structure built and all furnishing being moved into the building, Phase One of the EDC day care project has been completed.

They are currently working on Phase Two, which is a fund raising event to purchase the playground equipment for the kids to play on. Presently, some smaller playground equipment has been purchased and will be ready for the day care’s opening date, but the EDC is attempting to get the funding for bigger pieces of equipment for the playground before the fall of the year.

Guss’ Building Blocks Learning Center will have nine full-time employees and one part-time staff member.

The estimated cost the day care center is around $950,000. The structure can hold 51 full-time kids, which will include eight infants, 10 toddlers and 32 preschoolers.   

Deana DeFoe, director of Bottineau’s EDC Office, is pleased with the day care center.

“It has been a community project in its entirety and we are so thankful for the support that has come from city level, county level, state level with the Department of Commerce, and with all the individual donations that have come in,” DeFoe said “It is really amazing.”

There will be a community grand open on Saturday, Sept. 6 from 3 to 6 p.m.