Richland plans to build child care center

RICHLAND — The town of Richland has formed a committee to build a child care center near the downtown.

During a public hearing in September, the Richland Child Care Organization asked the Richland City Council for the property a block west of Central Park, at the intersection of Walnut and Main streets, where the school once stood. The city agreed to give the empty lot to the club for $1.

Kerry Hadley, a member of the Richland Community Club, is spearheading the project to build a child care center in Richland as the chair of the Richland Child Care Organization. She said the city paid for the organization to collect data on the community’s child care needs.

Hadley said child care needs are especially acute in Keokuk County, where there is no longer any registered day care provider. That’s why the Richland City Council, Richland Community Club, and the town’s business owners are residents are coming together to build a child care center.

“There’s such a critical need for it in our county,” Hadley said. “We’ve been working with Early Childhood Iowa, Sen. Grassley’s office and Rep. Miller-Meeks’ office. There’s a lot of interest in getting this up and running. There’s a waiting list to get into the day care at Pekin, and that’s why we’re pushing a critical timeline to establish this day care that is state and federally approved.”

Hadley said the ground where the new child care center would be built is where the school once stood. The school, at one point a grade school and high school, was emptied out in 1962 with the creation of the Pekin School District, where the Richland School District consolidated with neighboring towns such as Packwood and Hedrick. The building had mostly sat empty since then, and was torn down about two years ago. After it was flattened, the city had to wait two years to let the ground settle before anything new could be built on it, so Hadley said now is the perfect time to put a child care center there.

“The property is just ripe for development,” she said. “Our Richland Community Club is good at identifying needs and addressing them. We don’t want to be a bedroom community for other places.”

Earlier in October, the Richland Child Care Organization toured the Little Achievers Child Care Center under construction in Fairfield to get a sense of what they could build in Richland. Hadley said Richland’s will be smaller, of course, with a goal of housing 50 kids at the beginning and growing to 85. She said club members are talking about building other amenities for children, such as a splashpad.

“We want to help the community thrive and create stuff for children of all ages,” she said.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com