Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Keweenaw Family Resource Center Director Iola Brubaker, left, and Canal View Administrator Kim Salmi update the Houghton County Board on a project to start a new child care center in the county.

HOUGHTON — Plans are progressing for a new child care center to help address the large shortfall in Houghton County.

Canal View Administrator Kim Salmi and Keweenaw Family Resource Center Director Iola Brubaker gave a presentation to the Houghton County Board Tuesday afternoon about a child care initiative that could provide a place for 70 to 75 children.

In October, the county approved $200,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds towards a child care project. That money will go towards architectural planning, Salmi said.

The state would have to approve the drawings, after which the project would go out to bid, Salmi said. The process would take about a year, Salmi said.

Construction could take place as soon as next winter, with the child care center scheduled for opening in spring 2024.

The new facility would ease, but not eliminate, the child care deficit in the county. There are around 300 slots for licensed child care providers in Houghton County, but about 1,300 children in Houghton County under 5 with both parents working.

The state also recently closed down several unlicensed child care providers in the county, Salmi said.

Brubaker cited studies showing child care investment generates a return of $4 to $14 for every $1 spent.

“It’s important for economic development, it’s important for long-term care,” Brubaker said. “It’s important for our families, and it’s important for the education of our young people to have high-quality child care centers.”

The child care center would be located in what is now being used as the Copper Country Intermediate School District’s Certified Nursing Assistant classroom. The adjacent church has also agreed to donate some land for a playground.

Converting an existing facility will cost about a third as much as building a brand new one, Salmi said.

Priority would be given to the children of Canal View employees. Other slots would be open to the community as well as potential partner groups like hospitals and the sheriff’s department.

Ideally, the center would be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate parents with longer shifts, Salmi said.

“For those of us that work a 12-hour shift, our child now has somewhere safe to be during that time where they’re getting fed and taken care of, after-school programs where they can work on homework,” she said.

During COVID, about 40% of nurses nationwide left their positions, Salmi said. One of the biggest factors the departing nurses speak about is the difficulty of childcare. Salmi estimated Having a child-care facility would enable her to bring on 20 to 30 new employees.

Additional staffing would enable Canal View to take in more residents, Salmi said. With residents not going to Canal View, they’re instead sent to swing beds at the hospital, set aside for stays of 14 to 21 days.

“They should be in a nursing home right now, but we don’t have the staff to take care of them,” she said. “So now when you go to the hospital and you need a bed, there may or may not be that bed available for you because it’s being occupied by a nursing home resident.”

Salmi and Brubaker said they are also focused on making the center affordable. In one case, a medical worker was able to find a child care slot, but couldn’t afford the $3,000-a-month cost, Brubaker said.

The eventual goal is for families to pay no more than 10% of their annual income in child care, versus current costs of up to 50%, Salmi said.

Canal View participates in a state program in which the state and the employer each cover a third of the employee’s child care costs. While the income caps are high enough for most of Salmi’s employees to qualify, they’re not able to find the licensed care the program requires.

“I only had two employees that actually had licensed slots that could actually participate in that program,” Salmi said.

There are also local endowments to help defray the cost.

Brubaker said the partnership is designed to be repeatable throughout the Upper Peninsula.

Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital might also be a partner for a similar kind of facility, Brubaker said.

“This is a real great potential for other businesses, organizations to learn from some partnership work about how we might be able to do this, not just to benefit Houghton County, but to benefit the whole region,” she said.

The group is putting together a business plan for a state startup grant. Those funds are first-come, first-serve, Brubaker said.

“That’s going to be a huge thing, if we can get our application in before the money is gone,” she said.

Salmi said she plans to file an application for a child care license by the end of the week.

Houghton County Board Chair Tom Tikkanen said he is excited about the benefits both for working families and to reduce waiting lists at Canal View. The coalition being assembled also lets the county leverage limited ARPA funds into something bigger, he said.

“This $200,000 wouldn’t get us very far if we were going to open a child care center,” he said. “We’d never get it off the ground. But this may be the answer.”

In other action, the board:

• Approved an agreement with the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy for a $10,000 recycling microgrant. It will be used for mailers about recycling opportunities for single-stream household items and e-waste. It would also go towards research by Michigan Technological University’s Sustainability Demonstration House, which would pick up plastic film collected by the county.

• During reports, Commissioner Gretchen Janssen said recycling at the county’s transfer station was at 5.32 tons in January, up from 2.48 tons last year.

• Discussed the service agreement with Waste Management, which is expiring March 31.

Several council members discussed qualms with the contract; Janssen singled out a clause that would allow Waste Management to raise prices if their profits decrease. Tikkanen suggested the county could put out a request for proposals.

Keranen and the chair of the county’s solid waste committee will meet with Administrator Elizabeth Bjorn to decide on a recommendation.

• Reappointed Kathleen Johnson to a three-year term on the Copper Country Mental Health Services Board of Directors.

• Reappointed Karin Cooper to the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission.