The Pendleton City Council has authorized a $25,000 grant to the nonprofit Pendleton Children’s Center (PCC) for emergency expansion.
The emergency expansion follows the sudden closure of a large day care facility that has left Pendleton families without child care services. Pendleton is classified as a “child care desert” where there are not enough licensed child care provider spaces for the number of children who need care.
After the announcement of the closure, day care parents and PCC representatives approached the city council with a request for funding.
“The ripple effects of this closure are dramatic,” said parent Erin Biencourt. “We are not talking about displacing 6-10 children. We are talking about displacing 30-40 children in a community that already lacked child care.”
PCC presented a plan to create three temporary classrooms in the existing PCC space. Those classrooms will be able to accommodate infants and toddlers as well as expanded preschool capacity. The renovation for extra classrooms will cost $50,000, and the city of Pendleton and Umatilla County have agreed to split the cost.
“When Room to Bloom announced that 38 children would potentially be displaced, we knew that an intervention was needed and quickly,” PCC Board member Jennifer Costley said. “Parents in this community have made it abundantly clear that child care is a basic need. We are very grateful that the city recognized and responded to that need as quickly as possible.”
The Pendleton City Council discussed the request during a work session in May and asked city staff to draft a resolution. Resolution 2905 was drafted to authorize a $25,000 grant to the Pendleton Children’s Center for facility expansion in order to “Maintain existing childcare jobs and preserve parent’s ability to work because they have adequate childcare services.” Pendleton City Council approved Resolution 2905 on Tuesday.
Umatilla County agreed to accelerate $25,000 in funds from an existing grant for the expansion while the city council agreed to grant the remaining $25,000 from the City Community Development Fund, a discretionary fund that historically has been used for economic development.
