By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The Golden Belt Community Foundation recently announced the recipients of eight Golden Belt Spring Community Building Grants totaling just over $15,000. Stafford County Economic Development was awarded the largest of those grants at $5,000, and Stafford's Executive Director Kathleen Norman said the grant was beneficial in helping the county solidify a daycare plan.
"This was very helpful, especially in the beginning, to help analyze options," she said. "We did get significant funding once we knew what our plan was, from the city and county, but this really helped us explore our options and figure out what we can do."
Like other area cities and counties, St. John and Stafford County are facing a childcare shortage. Norman said the GBCF grant was used to look at locations that could have served as daycares.
"There are some people interested in being childcare providers, but they don't want to provide out of their own home," Norman said. "They would like to have a different location, but the challenge is it's hard to find another location that would be suitable. Housing is tight right now so you can't just find another house to solely run a daycare out of."
When weighing the options of renovating some of those properties to meet childcare standards, the group instead used some of the GBCF grant to purchase land for a new modular classroom that will house two daycares and serve up to 18 children. Two independent providers will be able to use the new classroom to open their childcare businesses.
"We're hoping it will be operational early next year," said Norman. "We're currently in the process of getting the land, and the modular unit itself has already been secured. Once we have the land in possession we'll have more of a timeline. Because it's not in a residential house, we'll have to have a fire marshal inspection and a KDHE inspection, so that will add some length of time to being fully operational."