GALLATIN, Tenn. (WKRN) -- Gallatin is inching closer to a new million-dollar daycare facility.
The city's council committee will meet Tuesday evening to discuss the project, which has been in the works for nearly three years. According to the Interim Director of Gallatin's Economic Development Agency, Rosemary Bates, the city was awarded an ARPA federal grant in August of 2022 for $500,000, aimed at building a new daycare center.
Coupled with $110,000 from Gallatin's Shalom Zone and $550,000 from Gallatin's Development Board (who collects funds from administrative fees, maintenance fees, etc.), the city has, on paper, the money needed to finally build it.
"Everyone’s getting very excited about this project because the need is so big," explained Linda Boyers, executive director of Gallatin Day Care Center, who will also operate the new center. "And it is all over the country, not just in Tennessee, not just in Gallatin, not just in my little area, but all over the country. People need quality child care, at a price they can afford."
Construction of the center would ideally begin near the end of June or early July. The location selected is an old school building on Small Street, owned by and next door to Shalom Zone.
"It’s right in the middle of housing projects," said Boyers. "So the location is going to be one of the best things about it, because it is going to be a place that people can walk to in that community."
The daycare would create 16 new jobs and could take in 90 underprivileged kids in the community, aged one to five. Boyers said support for this project has been unanimous from those she's spoken to over these past few years.
"Our city government, our county, I mean, I think we got everybody supporting it! I don’t know of anybody that has said, 'Oh no Linda, we don’t need this,' I think everybody is going, 'Yay!' All of our children deserve to be able to go into kindergarten at the same base as everybody else."
Following Tuesday's council committee meeting, Gallatin's City Council will make an official, final vote on the project sometime next month.