editor@theplattevillejournal.com
A decision on whether Southwest Health will pursue building a child care facility is not imminent, according to hospital officials.
Southwest Health has been awarded a $2,585,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant toward building a facility on its Eastside Road campus.
However, the grant leaves the hospital $3.2 million to $3.5 million short of what it estimates it would need for the facility.
If Southwest Health accepts the grant, it would have two years to raise the funds and make plans for the facility, according to Southwest Health Foundation executive director Tammie Richter.
“There are a lot more factors at play,” said Katie Droessler, Southwest Health’s director of human relations, who called a decision timeline “to be determined.”
Droessler said Southwest Health has had conversations with major Platteville-area employers, including UW–Platteville and Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, on the issue, including the possibility of employers sponsoring spots in a facility for their employees’ children, as is being done in Dubuque child care facilities.
“It’s a big thing to undertake” because child care facilities are not significantly profitable, she said, despite the cost to parents to get child care.
Another issue to be determined is who would operate a child care facility, since, Droessler said, “we’re in health care, not child care.”
The need for a child care facility in Platteville is not at issue based on comments at the meeting Southwest Health held to meet USDA public-notice requirements Monday afternoon.
“We hear all the time about the need,” said Platteville Common Council president Barb Daus. “We’re willing to help partner or promote.”
The USDA Congressionally Directed Spending grant is the same grant as the $7 million grant the Platteville Fire Department received toward a new fire station.
Louise Gotzinger of Lactalis in Belmont said her company, which has 330 employees at its Belmont plant, was “aware of a huge need in partnering, whatever that might look like.”
“Parents are incredibly burned out, and they’re wanting to apply for [jobs] but they’re not because of no child care,” said Christy Cole of Raising Wisconsin, a policy and advocacy effort of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association.
Southwest Health is developing 27 acres of property around its Eastside Road campus, with possible additional health clinics, retail and residential properties in the area. Infrastructure was added funded through Tax Incremental Financing District 6.
Child care is an increasing issue among Southwest Wisconsin families and major employers, including Southwest Health, which has 600 employees.
Snug as a Bug Child Care in Cuba City announced plans for a $2 million expansion in the former Shopko building in Lancaster, which has one child care facility needing a new home and another closing.
Giggles and Wiggles, Lancaster’s second largest day care facility, is closing Aug. 31 due to difficulty finding staffing.
Maple Street Kids, which is located in a former Lancaster Community School District school, is looking for a new home because the school district is looking to vacate the 1925-vintage building after next summer. Plans are for the daycare to move to the former Pioneer Directories building on Alona Lane on Lancaster’s south side.
Platteville has five state-licensed group day care facilities for nine or more children to age 7, including Southwest CAP Head Start, UW–Platteville Children’s Center, Great Beginnings Learning Center, Imagination Station, and Friendly Frogs Child Care, according to the state Department of Children and Families. The Platteville area also has six state-licensed family facilities for up to eight children younger than 7.
Belmont has one state-licensed group day care, Lil’ Wonders Child Care. Dickeyville has one state-licensed group day care, Country Care Children’s Center. Livingston has one state-licensed family day care, Walmer’s Family Daycare, that is listed as “temporarily closed” according to DCFS.
Snug as a Bug’s Lancaster expansion includes possible funding from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and through the City of Lancaster and the Southwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government gave states funding to assist childcare operations, with Wisconsin getting approximately $400 million for programs like Dream Up and Partner Up, as well as Childcare Counts. The end of the pandemic resulted in funding cut to $90 million in the current state budget.
The Grant County Herald Independent in Lancaster contributed to this story.
