Plans to add child care center being considered

Meyer Group, an architectural firm in Duluth, Minnesota recently submitted two drawings depicting the addition of a county-built child care facility to the Cook County Community Center.

One plan shows the child care at the front of the building. The other illustrates the addition at the back of the building. The front plan is an estimated 8,000 square feet and the back plan about 10,000 square feet. The smaller day care would cost about $2 million to build while the larger concept would run an estimated $2.5 million. These figures don’t include site work, furnishings, remodeling the existing building, new compressors, LED lighting, kitchen expansion, $175,000 for the playground, landscaping, new parking and paving, roof repairs, drainage issues, etc.

Meyer Group submitted a bid for just under $15,000 to make the drawings.

Included in the drafts are a child rest room, crib room, infant classroom, laundry/janitorial room, kitchenette, reception/ administration space, sick room, storage, toddler classroom, two adult restrooms, motor room (play area), changing tables in the child restroom, work/ supply room, and vestibule. There is also a 30-foot-wide play area that runs the length of the two buildings, less the entrance to each, for the children.

Plans also call for mirrors on the walls of the motor room, along with long bars mounted lengthwise to the mirrored wall that can be used for yoga and stretching. This will allow the room to be utilized for a workout space or for dance classes in case there are not enough children to care for.

Funding to build the addition could come from the county issuing revenue revenue bonds, said Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers.

Besides the child care center, Cook County commissioners are looking at potentialy bonding for highway projects and to replace faulty windows at the courthouse, and repair the roof at the courthouse. New windows would also be installed at the Cook County Law Enforcement Center, as well as improving county highway garages in Tofte and Hovland.

Currently, the child care center is in the conceptual stages.

Should the child care center be built, the plans include hiring six full-time employees and one halftime employee to run the facility.