Van Buren Commissioners Debate Going Forward With Daycare

A proposed daycare project in Van Buren County could be stopped before it starts.

The county commission’s steering committee B heard from Mayor David Sullivan Tuesday night. Sullivan said he had made several phone calls and discovered that previously discussed daycare subsidies for were not available.

“See according to some of the paperwork that I found,” Sullivan said. “It said that Greg [Wilson] had had agreement with Upper Cumberland that they were going to pay a portion of a child’s, well I think some of the commissioners got told that.”

Commissioner Michael Woodlee said the only reason the previous commission had moved on the project was to offer low-cost daycare for local parents. Woodlee said without subsidies the costs would be too high to benefit struggling families. Woodlee said just opening a daycare center was useless because people can do that on their own at their own property.

All but one commissioner expressed interest in cancelling the project altogether. Commissioner Brick Wall said he thought the project should be brought back to full commission.

“We could kick it to the whole commission and say, ‘Let’s have this commission and this mayor decide if we still want to do this daycare’,” Wall said.

Sullivan said everyone needed to keep in mind if there is not enough money to complete the renovations and planning, then the county has to kick in until the project is completed.

The committee voted to bring the project to the full commission meeting on May 16 with a recommendation to hold further discussion in a worksession.