Southwest Health is looking for $2.5 million to allow the hospital to open a child care facility on its property.
The hospital received a $2.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Congressionally Directed Spending Grant toward a child care facility, but needs an additional $2.5 million to complete the project, as well as an operator of the facility.
Southwest Health hosted a meeting with U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D–Wisconsin) Oct. 13 to explore possible funding sources.
Southwest Health CEO Dan Rohrbach set a goal of February for “most of the funding” to be able to break ground next summer or fall and open in spring 2025.
Rohrbach cited a 2020 UW–Platteville workforce development study that indicated child care as a major issue among employers, but “nobody was stepping up and saying we’ve got to embrace this problem. … Everybody agrees there’s a problem, but nobody has the mechanism to solve the problem.”
“We haven’t approved a child care facility in the city for a long time,” said Platteville Common Council president Barb Daus, who attended the meeting.
Rohrbach said the hospital had reached out to government offices, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and private funds without success so far.
The proposed child care center would be built on land Southwest Health is developing 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.
The hospital is also looking for an operator of the facility in an arrangement similar to the Dubuque YMCA’s child care facility. Rohrbach said the hospital’s operating the facility would cost it $3,500 per child per year.
“We’ve said from day one this is going to be an educational institution; this is not going to be day care,” he said.
Child care is an increasing issue among Southwest Wisconsin families and major employers, including Southwest Health, which has 600 employees and is Southwest Wisconsin’s second largest employer according to Rohrbach.
Snug as a Bug Child Care in Cuba City announced plans for a $2 million expansion in the former Shopko building in Lancaster subject to approval of a $200,000 Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. grant to redevelop the building.
Giggles and Wiggles, Lancaster’s second largest day care facility, closed 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. The daycare facility has a lease with the school district through next June.
Baldwin described herself as a “capitalist,” but said child care “doesn’t seem to flourish in a free-market system.”
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature have also not reached agreement for increasing state child care funding.
“I’m disappointed our state can’t work together to fix this problem,” said Daus. “People need to come to the table and admit there’s a problem.”
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.
Rohrbach said child care for the youngest children was the biggest issue. He also said child care is less of an issue for current parents, who have figured out child care arrangements — even if they are as complicated as two Southwest Health employees who live not far from the hospital but drive their children each morning to Dubuque for child care — than for “the person who’s going to have children. … Potential parents, they’re the ones who are terrified” of trying to find child care.
Southwest Health has met with employers that might be interested in buying slots in the hospital’s child care facility for their employees to fund the facility’s operational costs.
