Like across the nation, Durango and La Plata County have a dire need for more child care services. The Powerhouse, a museum and children’s science center in Durango, plans to provide 44 spaces for toddlers and preschoolers for year-round child care.
The Powerhouse’s building, a historic former coal power plant, is owned by the city of Durango and leased to the nonprofit science center. Per the Powerhouse’s lease with the city, formal child care services are not an approved use of the space.
Until earlier this week, at least.
Durango City Council unanimously approved an addition to the lease allowing the space to be used for child care services. Councilor Melissa Youssef was absent from the meeting.
Specifically, the Powerhouse would use its one-story education building, the Carlton Family Science Education Center, and the museum portion of the campus would not be affected, said Jeff Susor, Powerhouse executive director.
The Powerhouse plans to open one toddler classroom that can serve up to a dozen children and two preschool classrooms that can serve up to 16 children each, totaling 44 spaces for prekindergarten enrollment.
Susor said about 1,100 children in the Durango area are currently not served by licensed child care services.
A project overview of the Powerhouse’s proposed child care center said La Plata County is designated as a “’child care desert’ for infants and toddlers” with over three times as many children as licensed child care spaces for enrollment.
Further, it said 60% to 70% of children under the age of 6 have all parents in the workforce, 58% of parents who leave the workforce leave because of a lack of needed child care options, and 1 in 5 employees say they’d switch jobs for better child care options.
The Powerhouse’s project would “likely represent the largest expansion of licensed child care capacity over the next 18 months” by adding over 40 slots for 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds, the overview said.
When asked if the Powerhouse would be impeding on the business of existing child care facilities, he said other providers the Powerhouse consulted with said it would not, and there is a real gap in child care services that needs to be filled.
“The Early Childhood Council (of La Plata County) has been supportive. Peer providers have been supportive,” he said. “The need in the community is so large that we haven’t heard concern from any of our peers that we’re stepping into a space that threatens their existing and future business.”
The Powerhouse board of directors met with Durango City Council in January 2023 to express the need for more toddler and preschool services in the community and also to discuss other new amenities at the Powerhouse such as experiential play areas. Another meeting was held between the two entities in May that year.
“We went through a strategic planning process in 2023 and really defined our mission as supporting children, their learning and their development partly through the museum,” Susor said. “And the child care project was one of the initiatives identified in that strategic planning process to address that mission.”
The Colorado Department of Early Childhood recently awarded the Powerhouse $795,000 through its Employer Based Child Care Facility Grant program, according to a description of the revised lease agreement between the Powerhouse and the city.
Susor said the one-time grant will support renovations to the Powerhouse’s campus in order to meet licensing requirements and prepare the space for opening. The nonprofit has rearranged its existing operating budget to ensure the services can be supported once they are launched.
He told The Durango Herald a key part of renovations is moving interior walls to have appropriately sized classrooms. Although the Carlton Family Science Education Center, which is adjacent to the Powerhouse museum, already has three classrooms, two of them must be 60% and 75% larger to meet state licensing requirements.
“We have a plan to do that without changing the footprint of the building and are estimating a five-month construction project to complete that,” he said. “A couple of the other state requirements are around restrooms for kids and outdoor play space.”
He expects to finalize renovation plans over the winter for construction to break ground in September 2025 and finally to launch services in 2026. Construction isn’t planned to start until next fall to give ample time for proper reviews and permitting as well as to avoid disrupting the Powerhouse campus any more than necessary, given summertime is the Powerhouse’s peak visitor and program season.
“We’ve built a plan operating model to support the needs of working families, and that really is around 12 months of care rather than a school year schedule,” he said. “… Part of the model of employer-based care is having an employer partner who is financially investing in the center to make sure that we’re paying living wages, ensuring financial accessibility.”
The Powerhouse plans to participate in Universal Preschool Colorado and the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, which according to the CDEC, “provides child care assistance to families that are working, searching for employment or are in training, and families that are enrolled in the Colorado Works Program and need child care services to support their efforts toward self-sufficiency.”
The nonprofit has also found long-term foundation funders that are specifically interested in helping open and sustaining community child care services, Susor said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
