By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
During a stop in Hays last week, Gov. Kelly visited the Bob and Pat Schmidt Community Center construction site.
The $6 million, 14,000-square-foot community center near 27th and Canterbury is scheduled to be completed in July.
It will house a child care center, Hays Senior Center and community rooms for public use.
James Robben, director of business development and special projects, said the seniors want to attract a square dancing competition to Hays. They would use the community room for this purpose.
Mayor Sandy Jacobs said the community needs more meeting space.
"There is so much about this that is for the whole community," she said. "It just makes you smile when you tell the story. It was the right thing to do at the right time."
The facility is being billed as an opportunity for intergenerational interaction between seniors and children in the child care center.
The center includes a storm shelter that can be used by senior center, child care and surrounding Grove housing development residents.
Doug Williams, executive director of Grow Hays, which has spearheaded the development, said the shelter added to the center's price tag. Still, the development group felt it was a priority for the project.
The senior center will have a patio and a three-season room off the playground so seniors can watch the children play.
The child care center, which Bright Minds Academy will run, will open in August. It will have a capacity for 77 children.
Bright Minds is now taking names for a waiting list for the facility.
Melissa Rooker, executive director of the Kansas Children's Cabinet, said the Children's Cabinet has been able to add more than 3,600 child care slots. Once all the slots in the works are added, including those at the community center in Hays, the cabinet will have helped add about 6,300 child care slots in Kansas.
Kansas Children's Cabinet and Trust Fund granted the project $3.5 million. The center was also supported through private funding, including a Robert and Patricia Schmidt Foundation donation.
The state funds came from a tobacco settlement to the states and were designated for early childhood education by the Kansas Legislature in 1999.
Kelly said child care is needed for businesses to attract and retain employees.
Kelly said the center was a good example of a public-private partnership.
The community center is part of a larger housing project, The Grove, which is being marketed toward seniors.
Work has begun on infrastructure for The Grove housing addition. Most recently, work was being done to lay a sewer for the addition.
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