Low-income day care center should open in the fall

A five-year delay in the completion of a low-income day care center in Schaumburg will finally end this year, officials say, allowing families on its waiting list to finally get help getting back to work and school.

A $750,000 grant received last summer and a more recent change in the ownership of the project helped bring about the progress.

The Children's Home and Aid Society of Illinois, which was always intended to run the day care center, recently took over its construction from the Woodfield Area Children's Organization.

Work on the center suddenly stopped in 2003, 60 days short of completion, when it became one of 1,980 projects whose state funding was frozen by new Gov. Rod Blagojevich in an effort to come to grips with Illinois' budget crisis.

The $2.4 million center depended on $966,000 in state funding, but by the time of the freeze only $100,000 of that had been received -- and that came through former state Rep. Terry Parke.

The $750,000 grant last summer came from the state as a result of lobbying by the village of Schaumburg. That grant and the Children's Home and Aid Society's ability to raise funds make the completion of the center this construction season a sure thing, officials said.

Woodfield Area Children's Organization President Joe Sernett, who will continue to serve on the center's advisory panel, said the changes guarantee an opening by the time school resumes in the fall.

The village of Schaumburg also is providing $175,000 it received from a federal community block grant.

"It's a worthwhile project," Mayor Al Larson said. "I'm very encouraged. It's a project that will serve not only Schaumburg but surrounding communities as well."

Children's Home and Aid Society has taken out a $1.5 million bank loan to complete the project, which it intends to repay through fundraising, Schaumburg economic development director Matt Frank said.

The society already operates a day care program at Our Savior's United Methodist Church, next door to the current construction site at 725 E. Schaumburg Road. Completion of the project will allow the number of children served to rise from 42 to 110.

When the project was first announced, 210 applicants from across seven municipalities quickly came forward.