Ashland County Community Foundation Women’s Steering Committee is spearheading initiative

ASHLAND - Lacking professional, quality daycare for children in the county could one day be a thing of the past if the proposed plans for a new, state-of-the art facility at the city's industrial park becomes a reality.

In early May, County Commissioners listened to a presentation by Brenda Uselton, Kristin Aspin and Barbie Lange who are leading a drive to address these specific community needs.

The Ashland County Community Foundation Women’s Steering Committee is spearheading the initiative. However, a newly formed nonprofit organization, Foundations Community Childcare, will own and operate the center.

A local property developer has donated a three-acre piece of land in the Ashland Business Park for the center on the western side of Ford Drive.

More: Ashland women business owners gather to talk about struggles, victories in the workforce

On June 1, the group went public with a fundraising campaign held at SJE, close to the newly proposed site for the daycare.

2019 assessment shows need for childcare facility

“According to a 2019 Ashland County Community Health Assessment from the Ashland County Health Department, 12% of Ashland County. parents said they had missed work in the past year due to the lack of child care,” said Uselton. “Ashland County. has no childcare centers open past 6 p.m. Even when childcare spaces are available, many families are unable to access childcare because of non-traditional work hours or unaffordable costs.”

The lack of available centers and available spaces for children is also insufficient added Uselton. A handout presented at the meeting said 750 to 1,000 new housing units and 500 to 1,000 new jobs are being created in the immediate area and the center would allow Ashland to keep up with current growth.

“Ashland County has only three licensed childcare centers that accept infants and toddlers,” Uselton added. “Together these centers provide only 26 spaces for infants and 56 for toddlers. We conducted a needs assessment of parents working in the industrial park in May 2021. This assessment showed that more than half struggle to find affordable care for their children.”

Uselton said they need is definitely there with the county home to approximately 3,000 children under the age of 5 years old.

“As the CFO of BCU Electric, we work closely with the businesses in Industrial Park," Uselton said. "These businesses and all businesses in Ashland County will be served by this initiative. The childcare center meets a community need, a need primarily made up of single, working mothers. No price tag can adequately match the peace and mind given to the families that will be served by this initiative.”

“By creating this new childcare center, we will almost double the number of licensed infant spots in our community,” said Aspin, who is the chief program officer at the Community Foundation. “It will greatly increase capacity for toddlers, and also provide needed space for preschoolers and school-age children. Inclusion of nontraditional hours of operation at the new center will assist working parents with current childcare needs, but importantly, it will allow people to enter and remain in the workforce who otherwise may not be able to do so because they cannot find childcare compatible with their work schedules.”'

Completed project to total approximately $4.5 million

The handout showed the expense of the capital project to be estimated at $3,284,300. $2.8 million of that would be for site work, building materials, driveway/parking lot, lighting and kitchen equipment. Also factored into the proposal was the cost of playground and fencing ($150,000), furniture ($50,000) and other necessary items.

Classroom, office, kitchen, cleaning and bathroom supplies, along with food, drink and a few other items would total an additional $13,000. Total expenses were $4,546,830.

Once the center is running, the estimated total yearly revenue from tuition, endowments, grants, donations and registration fees was at $1.019 million with yearly expenses from staffing, building costs, equipment, etc. to be $920,920, leaving a net of just over $98,000 a year. Tuition estimates are based on a plan to serve 23 infants, 33 toddlers, 39 preschool aged children and 36 school-aged children.

The 12,400 square foot facility would create 20 full-time jobs and serve up to 150 children at any given time.

“We respectfully request a contribution of $500,000 to the childcare initiative specifically from American Rescue Plan dollars that have been allocated to our county,” said Aspin at the commissioners’ meeting during a PowerPoint presentation. “You can see the building is designed in three wings so as the need grows we can actually expand any or all of those three wings.”

Along with the 20-plus jobs created, additional opportunities will be available, said Aspin.

“The center will likely have such positions as director and assistant, lead and assistant teachers/caregivers, cook and kitchen assistant, janitor/maintenance and more,” she said.

“It will provide intern opportunities, volunteer and research opportunities for students. There is a lot of good that will come from this.”

“I think I can speak for all three commissioners,” said Commissioner James Justice. “We are all very supportive of this project. It’s great for the kids and for economic development here in Ashland which Mike (Welch) is a big part of. We see a big boon in being able to take care of these kids.”

Justice also talked about the possibilities a facility could give to an individual.

“You have families with just one parent,” said Justice. “And that makes it really, really tough on them. This enables them to go and make a living and still be able for them to do what they need to do. I personally am very, very thrilled that this is happening.”

Campaign went public on June 1 with $2.2 million already contributed

“June is our ‘Month of Giving’ where we are inviting the public to join us and consider contributing to this important initiative to strengthen families and make our community a better place to live, work and raise children,” said Aspin. “The first $200,000 of donations made in June will be matched by SJE Inc., one of our industrial park employers.”

Women’s Steering Fund Committee Member Lange, ACCF President Jim Cutright, Aspin, Uselton, SJE Operations Manager Tim Bartholomew and Ashland Mayor Matt Miller all spoke at the fundraising kick-off campaign.

“To date, contributions from businesses, grants and individuals total $2.2 million. Our fundraising goal is $4.5 million to build the center, cover startup costs and establish a partial endowment for ongoing operations,” said Aspin.

At the end of the fundraising campaign Miller said, “We are going to come together and solve a problem. What a wonderful thing to tell the next company (interested in Ashland), we have a wonderful daycare facility.”

The tireless efforts of this particular committee has already garnered interest from other counties as Ashland may become a leader in providing its community with affordable, and equally important accessible, quality daycare.

“The collaborative nature of this project, its public-private partnership, has received attention from neighboring counties and state-wide organizations,” added Aspin. “We have been happy to share our methodology and are pleased that our innovative, collaborative design may serve as a model for other communities.”

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Fundraising campaign begins for proposed Ashland daycare facility