By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Parents wishing to send their young children to the new childcare center being built in Great Bend, can now secure a spot on the waitlist. The Bright Beginnings Childcare Center, near the 10th Street and K-96 Highway intersection, will open for 59 children in the beginning.
Advancing Barton County Childcare (ABCC) Chairman Sara Arnberger said interested parents can get signed up at abccinc.org.
"Our site director and board are monitoring the waitlist as requests come in," said Arnberger. "Pending we have a spot, we're filling those right now and reserving them. Anyone else to inquire or come in after the fact, we're still adding to the waitlist. A lot can happen between now and opening our doors."
The Center will provide full-day care and education for children aged six weeks to 5 years. The weekly charge for the childcare center in Great Bend is set at $190 per child. The Center hours are from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. If children are not picked up before the closing time, there will be a charge of $1 per minute per child after 5:30 p.m.
Arnberger said the anticipated completion date of the $1.6 million childcare center is April 1, 2024, but a conservative date of June 3 is set for all the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) processes.
"We're aiming still for spring," said Arnberger. "For our waitlist, we put a conservative opening date for June. We hope and think that it's going to be before that, but we wanted to give parents the idea of that conservative date just in case those KDHE approval processes take longer."
The ABCC committee took on fundraising for the 6,500-square-foot daycare, and received a $2.23 million grant to assist with the Great Bend facility and build a similar daycare in Hoisington.