ABOVE: The designated space for Building Blocks Learning Center and Child Care inside Lakeview Methodist Health Care Center in Fairmont still sits unfinished after more than two years.

FAIRMONT– The search to find funds for the unfinished child care center inside Lakeview Methodist Health Care Center in Fairmont is still in the works. The space intended for Building Blocks Learning Center and and Child Care has sat empty for over two years as advocates have struggled to raise the money needed to complete it.

Building Blocks has been housed within Lakeview since it lost its previous rental site in 2017. When Lakeview made the decision to expand several years after that, it included in the blueprints space for a larger child care center.

“We thought, we’re building a new nursing home and we wanted to continue to do child care. From our perspective, aside from how wonderful it is for the workforce and for parents, it’s also a great benefit for residents so we wanted to continue it,” said Deb Barnes, Administrator of Lakeview.

Lakeview’s new skilled nursing facility cost about $22 million. The non-profit secured a USDA loan for $19 million and then came up with the remaining $3 million thanks to fundraising efforts and several large donations.

“The child care structure was included in that (cost),” Barnes explained.

However, after construction of the facility started, the Covid-19 pandemic hit and subsequently, costs rose significantly. Because Building Blocks was always going to be the last step of the project, those prices were not yet locked in whereas the prices of the nursing home had been locked in prior to the pandemic and inflation.

“There was enough money left to get it to where it is now with the outside structure completed and not enough money to finish the inside,” Barnes said.

Currently, Building Blocks has space for about 45 children, but has a waitlist of 80. The new space will accommodate 100 children.

“We’ve tried to do fundraising and have had some wonderful donations from private people and businesses, but there hasn’t been anything that the city or county can do to help us,” Barnes explained.

“We are asking for funds to finish it because we as the non-profit see the benefit to our residents and the community and would like to continue to do what we’re doing by giving them more space to operate their program,” Barnes said.

She had approached State Representative, Bjorn Olson, about a month before the current legislative session started to ask if it would be possible to ask for funds to finish the program.

“He wrote back and said it is possible and that he would write a bill,” Barnes explained.

The bill, which would allocate $1 million to the project, was first scheduled for a hearing with the Minnesota House Workforce Development Finance and Policy Committee, which was held just last week. Barnes and Building Block’s Director, Shea Ripley, were present to testify.

Olson spoke as to why he’s in favor of supporting this bill.

“There are a couple things in St. Paul that everyone agrees is a serious issue in the state of Minnesota. One is water, everyone needs clean drinking water. Another thing

everyone agrees on is that housing is in short supply and another thing we agree on is that child care is in a desperate situation,” he said.

The bill has moved to the Children and Families Finance and Policy Committee. Olson has talked to Dave Pinto, chair of that committee, who said it doesn’t sound like there will be money in the budget this year for the committee to support the project, though they recognize the need for it.

However, Olson said that they’ve been looking at funding through DEED (Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development), which Lakeview has previously applied for and was denied.

“We’ll look at the reason the grants were denied and on what grounds. They may just be one hangup,” Olson said.

He said that Pinto was told that that Building Blocks was the only child care center in Martin County, and was shocked to hear that given that nearly 20,000 people live in the county.

“We have in-home daycares, which is wonderful and we need more of. But this is one instance where we can immediately double the size of the child care center’s capacity,” Olson said.

He pointed out that there’s already a dedicated space that’s partially complete and some funds raised for the project through private donations.

Overall, Olson and Barnes are optimistic about getting the needed funds to finish the project.

“If it happens this year, great. If it doesn’t happen, we’ll keep fighting for it. There are always different avenues to go,” Olson said.

“Bjorn has been phenomenal in seeing the need and doing everything he can. He’s also working with DEED because there’s some money they have for this very purpose. He’s trying to tap all of the resources that are available for us,” Barnes said. “It’s been wonderful to have someone do that for us.”