City offers support to daycare

The Sundance City Council has pledged support to KidPrints Inc. in an effort to help alleviate a tough financial time for the daycare.

As well as paying off the note on the building to avoid an increase in rent, the city has decided to replenish KidPrints's coffers in the amount of $4000.

The alternative to this assistance, said Mayor Paul Brooks, is to risk Sundance no longer having daycare facilities available – a service he feels is too important to the community for that to be an option.

The last time Sundance lacked a daycare, the mayor said, there was, "Really high absenteeism at work and it became fairly problematic for the whole community. There are a lot of working parents who need that facility."

He later added, "I think we're looking at a fairly limited amount of money to fix some small problems."

Twofold Problem

Members of KidPrints' board attended last week's meeting to request help from the city, explaining how the facility found itself in such a tight spot.

The first of the two problems was caused by the cold. Because the winter was so harsh, the extreme temperatures caused the emergency heating to kick on inside the daycare for three months in a row.

Staff did not notice this had happened until the bill arrived, by which time it was too late.

The second issue involves the agreement with Sundance State Bank on the loan for the building. The original note is expiring, and the new agreement will see an increase in KidPrints' rent.

"It kind of just spiraled for us," said Angela Olson, board member.

Paying the Note

On the issue of the rent increase, Brooks said he had already held discussions with Clerk-Treasurer Theresa Curren to seek a solution.

Their suggestion was for the city to pull money from its savings and pay off the $55,509 note on the building, which would alleviate the increase in rent.

The increase itself was inevitable, he explained, because it was built into the original agreement with the Wyoming Business Council when the daycare was built.

"The theory was that that daycare would be on good enough footing that, after the first ten years, [the rent] could go up because the place would be solvent enough to absorb the obligation," said Brooks.

"It appears at this point that you're not that solvent, and so in fact we have to come up with something."

The council voted to draw the money needed to pay the loan from one of its Certificate of Deposit (CD) accounts. Because this money must be withdrawn in $100,000 increments, the council decided to use the remaining money to partly pay off another of the city's loans.

KidPrints' contract will also need to be reworked, commented Curren, because it states that the occupants of the daycare must pay rent equal to the monthly loan payment.

With the note paid off, she asked the council if they would still want to charge KidPrints the $400 per month.

"My desire is that the daycare remain open more than anything," Brooks replied, suggesting that the city would not necessarily want that income unless it planned to pour it back into the building.

Council Member Callie Hilty suggested cutting the rent in half and putting it away to build a fund that can be used on maintenance needs.

For example, the KidPrints board members had brought a few maintenance requests to the attention of the council earlier in the meeting, asking if the staff parking lot can be repaired; whether changes can be made to the main parking lot for kids' safety; and requesting that the city consider splitting the cost of a sprinkler system. They also mentioned an ongoing issue with an unpleasant smell believed to be sewer gas, for which Brooks approved of the idea of calling in an expert to locate the source.

Responding to these requests, Brooks commented, "Maybe we can do it in a phased approach." He noted that the city's discretionary money is always limited and said this should be an ongoing conversation.

Financial Loss

On the matter of the heating bill and overall financial difficulties, Brooks asked the council to commission $4000 to KidPrints to get them through the tough spot.

"We don't want that thing to close," he repeated, adding that the city would not even want the daycare to close temporarily. This has happened in the past, he said, and the cost of retrofitting and bringing things up to code meant that it cost about $30,000 to get it open again.

"We all learned a lesson – and it was a fairly expensive lesson," he said.

Meanwhile, KidPrints board members made clear that they are already working on improving their financial situation. For example, the goal is to fill the building as much as possible to maximize income, which is now bearing fruit despite issues with staffing that have affected education as a whole in recent months.

A new director is meanwhile about to come on board.

With the current crisis in hand, Brooks asked KidPrints representatives to continue the conversation with the city so that future issues can be alleviated quickly.