Jasper — The Hamilton Cares project spearheaded by Dr. Thomas F. Logan, Ph.D, has shifted into high gear and proposes to bring high quality childcare into Hamilton County by utilizing vacant space in the old high school/courtroom annex. A tentative grand opening is slated for early January 2013.

Logan is the executive director of the Early Learning Coalition of Florida's Gateway based in Lake City and he has been diligently working on the Hamilton Cares project for years.

Hamilton Cares, Inc. is a non-profit 501c3 corporation committed to serving the young children of Hamilton County. It was formed in 2009 by concerned citizens of Hamilton County and is chaired by Mike Williams of Potash Corporation (PCS) in White Springs.

Ricki Kennedy, Cecil Davis, Elizabeth Mitchell, Carol Milton, Mantha Young and Rick Young are on the board of directors for Hamilton Cares and they met with Logan and engineer Phil Bishop at the proposed site on Jan. 25 to go over the detailed floor plans.

“Everyone agrees that one of the most critical issues in Hamilton County is the lack of local programs providing quality early learning,” Logan states in his proposal to the county.

With more than 600 infants, toddlers and three-year-olds in the county, Logan said fewer than 100 slots are available in private centers and homes, and they do not offer high-quality early learning. The principal goal of the project, he said, is to “increase the availability of affordable, quality early education and care in the county.”

Logan also said there are currently only two licensed childcare facilities in Jasper that serve about 40 children.

Additionally, he said, there is a Headstart program in Jennings that serves between 20-30 kids.

According to Logan, the latest census figures state there are 770 children under the age of five in Hamilton County with 300 of them below the poverty level, so he feels there is a definite need for this facility.

The Hamilton County School Board deeded the buildings at the old high school property on US 41 over to the board of county commissioners after they built the new high school on US 129. In September of 2010 the county contracted a lease agreement with Hamilton Cares for use of an unused classroom wing located behind the county administrative offices.

By utilizing this space, the new childcare center will be centrally located in the middle of the county. Plans are to convert five old classroom spaces on one end of the wing into a high-quality childcare and learning facility that will serve all of Hamilton County regardless of ethnicity or income, Logan said, and admission costs will incorporate a sliding scale fee.

Everything in this portion of the wing, Logan said, will be re-painted, ceilings will be re-done and windows will be replaced at a moderate cost of $40 per square foot. The existing air conditioning units, he said, were installed in the 80s and are still in working order.

A fenced in playground will also be constructed on the backside of the facility. That area currently has several large shade trees that bode well for a play yard for the children. Elaborate playground equipment, however, will be part of the second year of the project as funding allows.

The design of the facility was fashioned after a Lake City childcare center called Happy House, whose director served as a consultant to Logan during his vision of a similar facility in Hamilton County. Happy House, Logan said, is a diverse daycare center that enrolls children from both low and high income families, and they have a waiting list to get in.

“That's because it's quality care, which is what our goal is here,” said Hamilton Cares board member Elizabeth Mitchell.

Logan said, “Hamilton County has a low high school graduation rate compared to the rest of the state, it has a low rate of kids entering kindergarten who are ready, and we want to impact that, but that's not the only thing. We also want it to be a quality daycare site that anyone in town would want to go to, and that there'd be a wait list a mile long because it's got that reputation, which is the case at Happy House.”

“Right now this community doesn't have anything that serves those types of families,” Mitchell interjected.

“There are hundreds and hundreds of kids in this county who don't qualify for Headstart,” said Logan.

The new Hamilton Cares facility, he said, is meant to serve a wide diversity of the population and will also offer developmental screening, ongoing child assessment, subsidized childcare (school readiness), and Florida voluntary pre-kindergarten (VPK) services, as well as provide nutritious USDA approved meals and snacks for the children.

“From the very beginning it was clear that the need in this county is not just for low-income kids that are subsidized childcare,” said Logan. “There really isn't childcare at all. We're looking for middle-income families that might want to find childcare. Everyone I've talked to said that they leave their kids with family members, or they take them to Live Oak, Lake City or Valdosta because there's nothing here. There never has been.”   

Thanks to private fundraising efforts, massive renovations have already been visualized on paper by engineer Phil Bishop in cooperation with county engineer Greg Bailey. Bishop and Bailey of North Florida Professional Services of Lake City developed a renovation plan for the site that was funded by $6,550 in donations to the project.

Board member Mantha Young said she wants the community to know what they're doing and that the project will bring good paying jobs to the county.

“We're excited about that,” she said.

Logan estimates that the facility will initially serve 62 children, create 13 full time jobs, generate $300,000 annual payroll, and return $80,000 to $100,000 back to the community in the form of purchases of goods and services.

“The Board has verified that neither asbestos nor lead paint is present in the building,” said Logan.

Substantial renovations, however, are needed before the facility can be opened, including the installation of bathrooms, replacing windows, adding screened in porches with kickboards and installing rear exit doors for each of the classrooms, as well as fencing the playground.

The Suwannee Valley Foundation is considering a request by Hamilton Cares for $8,000 in funds for the playground development, and Kaplan Early Learning Center has committed to $30,000 to help equip the early learning classrooms.

Additionally, the school board of Hamilton County will allow use of the parking lot and is considering contracting with Hamilton Cares to provide USDA approved meals that would be prepared at Central Hamilton Elementary.

The next step is to apply for financing from the Hamilton County Economic Development Council, Logan said. Hamilton Cares hopes to present their application to the council at their next meeting tentatively scheduled for Feb. 9. Logan hopes to get approval from them for the project when they meet again in March. After that, the project will go out for bid and will be open to Hamilton County contractors.

The first phase of the project, Logan said, will be the director's office.

“There will be just a single director, no administrative assistant,” said Logan. “We're not going to over-staff the place.”

Once the first portion of the wing is completed, future plans for the second year of the project include the possibility of renovating the north end of the wing to accommodate after school care kids, which Logan said would generate additional revenue for the county. Plans are to put a kitchen in that part of the wing so that meals can be prepared onsite for the children. Meanwhile, fundraising efforts continue.

Logan and the Hamilton Cares board of directors are excited about the project and they urge the entire community to support their vision for a quality childcare and learning center in Hamilton County.