WAUPUN — Waupun’s sole childcare provider Wee-Care Child Center submitted a grant application to the Community Development Authority at City Hall, requesting funds from the City of Waupun to help expand current childcare facilities to meet community needs.
The Community Development Authority is a committee that oversees new business developments and renovations in the City of Waupun. On Tuesday morning they met to review outstanding grant applications from downtown area businesses, including from Wee-Care Child Center.
Wee-Care is the sole remaining professional daycare facility in Waupun after a second closed down in 2020. It provides “professional, quality childcare” for ages from 6 weeks to 11 years old. They also provide 3k, 4k, and afterschool programs.
The Wee-Care application outlines the plans for expansion of the childcare facility and requests funding from the City to help with the renovations.
In the grant application form, Wee-Care has requested a total of $124,500 in funding from the City of Waupun to expand the facility to increase enrollment capacity and modernize amenities. The grant application also states they plan on hiring two additional staff to assist in expanded enrollment.
Wee-Care currently employs 25 employees and is licensed to care for 100 children in the facility at once, but the expansion would allow Wee-Care to increase their license from 100 to 110. But even that isn’t enough for covering all of the community’s needs.
“We have calls almost daily for people looking for child care,” Wee-Care said in the marketing plan attached to the grant application. “There is a very high demand for quality care in Waupun, as we are the only licensed group child care center.”
According to the document, Wee-Care has 160 total children enrolled in the program with around 60 more children on their waiting list.
The proposal also describes the various barriers of entry to the industry for newly established businesses, which includes high start-up and insurance costs, and the difficulty of finding qualified individuals to hire for the programs.
Wee-Care Child Center has operated in the City of Waupun for 33 years and is located at 1 E Brown Street. Wee-Care and A&M Partnership are co-owned by Allison Neumenn and Miranda Bykowski.
Correction 10/30/23 1:56PM: — A previous version of this article stated that the requested funds were to cover losses incurred over the COVID-19 pandemic. While this is one of the possible uses of ARPA, Wee-Care requested funds to assist in renovating the facility, not cover losses.
