Committee has no firm date yet for opening The Village in historic Oliver House

JOHN DAY — The Grant County Childcare Committee is working to make it easier for people to get last-minute child care.

The committee has opened a new child care center specializing in drop-in or gap care at the historic Oliver House, 150 NW Second Ave., in John Day. Drop-in child care provides an option for people needing urgent child care and differs from regular centers in that spots are not reserved and are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

With the help of a $556,592 Child Care Infrastructure Fund Grant from Business Oregon, the Grant County Childcare Committee purchased the Oliver House for $535,000 to use as a child care facility. The committee used the remaining funds to increase the fence height around the property from 3 feet to 4 feet.

Committee member Kitman Kenzle said the group started in 2021 as a group of people who wanted to improve child care access and resources in Grant County.

Shortly after its creation, the group received a grant to conduct a feasibility study for child care in Grant County. Kenzle said that feasibility study showed Grant County desperately needed child care. With the study as a reference, the committee began looking at ways to create more child care opportunities in the county.

The first steps were becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and hiring Kinzle as an employee of the committee. The next step was writing grants and lending technical expertise to Humbolt Childcare at Humbolt Elementary in Canyon City.

“All of 2023 was just a building year between getting child care up and running at Humbolt and becoming an official nonprofit,” Kenzle said. “It took a little bit longer than the calendar year.”

Kenzle said any member of the community can join the Grant County Childcare Committee. The committee’s board is made up of committee members and handles day-to-day operations.

Location, location

Kenzle said the Oliver House’s notoriety throughout town is one of the reasons the committee chose the site for its new facility. Along with the home’s fame, its centralized location makes it an ideal child care facility.

“A big contributing factor was its location,” she said. “It’s by Painted Sky, it’s close to Seventh Street, it’s close to the highway — it’s just very central. It’s also already fenced and the lot is level.”

The 4,895 square-foot facility has four bedrooms, four bathrooms and sits on just more than .3 acres. Kinzle said the committee will rechristen the facility as The Village with licensed care for 16 children on its opening day.

Kenzle said The Village hopes to be licensed to care for kids aged 6 weeks to 12 years old.

She said The Village has the space to care for up to 40 children. The Village will be open Monday through Friday and hours will be flexible while covering a full eight hour work day.

“We’ll shift based on needs within the community,” she said. “If someone needs us there at six, we can shift — it’s very much trying to meet what the community needs and not what we assume the need is.”

Kenzle said there is no hard date for the child care center’s opening as the committee needs to complete licensing and may need a conditional use permit from the city of John Day prior to the start of child care operations.

There is some work to do in determining what rates will be. Kenzle said there will likely be an hourly and daily rate, and the committee is looking at the feasibility of a monthly rate.

“Primarily, we’re really hoping to be a drop-in center where there is no contract of having to pay every month,” Kenzle said. “Parents use us as they need us and they pay at time of service is the plan.”