RANGELEY, Maine — Community leaders in the Rangeley area broke ground Friday on a new child care facility they hope will help support growth of the region's workforce.
Thousands of parents in Maine said the state's child care shortfall is the primary reason they're without a job, according to the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
The $3.5 million Rangeley Childcare Center will offer about 50 spots for infants and kids through 5 years old, giving parents in the area more options. It will also have an extra classroom to potentially expand the space to take on an additional 20 or so more kids.
The Beth Brunswick Memorial Fund is taking on the project. Nonprofit leaders said there are only three childcare facilities in the area, and only one of them takes kids younger than 2 years old.
“Some people work Monday, Wednesday, Friday because they don’t have daycare Tuesday, Thursday," Leeanna Wilbur, the secretary and treasurer of the nonprofit, said. "Others find that they can’t work at all."
Michelle Laliberte, Beth Brunswick Memorial Fund board member, has lived in the area for more than 20 years. Her three kids are now grown, but she said she remembers struggling to find daycare when her kids were infants.
"It was a struggle, not just for me but all my friends at that time," she said.
The center will be built near the Rangeley Lakes Regional School so parents with other school-aged kids can have an easier drop off or pick up. The center and school will also collaborate on curriculums to help eventually ease young children into the school system.
"It is, I think, probably one of the biggest things that is going to happen to Rangeley in the next five years," Wilbur said.
The Beth Brunswick Memorial Fund is still fundraising for the final $300,000 for the facility. The nonprofit plans to start construction work in October with a goal to open the center next summer in 2025.