On a hot afternoon last week, City Council members, community leaders and a huge crowd of residents celebrated the opening of the new Child Care Center at Rengstorff Park, capping a decade of sometimes contentious politicking and planning.
City officials started the brainstorming process in 1997 with the goal of providing affordable care and child development for low-income families, and last Thursday, council members cut a purple ribbon, marking the opening of the $5.4 million building, which has already filled spots for 104 children when it opens Sept. 8.
The 9,400-square-foot-center will offer seven state-of-the-art classrooms for infants and children up to 5 years old. About one-third of the children attending the center will come from low-income families, city officials say.
The center will also have a resource room, staffed by volunteers of the federal program Americorps, and will provide information about parenting and educational resources for anyone in the community.
“Congrats to the residents — you did not allow a dream to pass,” said Cora Tomalinas, commissioner of FIRST 5, during the ceremony, which was attended by well over 150 people. “You worked hard for our future, our children.”
The project was on-again, off-again, and in January community and council members worried that the building was too expensive, with funds falling short by almost $2 million. But on a 5-2 vote, the council approved covering the shortfall at the center, which is partially funded by a Lucille Packard loan.
The council used county and state guidelines to determine who would be eligible for subsidies. A family of two with an income of $42,000 can qualify for assistance. The scale goes up to a family of eight earning just under $70,000.
At the ceremony last Thursday, six council members gathered in 97-degree weather to hold up a purple ribbon, and Mayor Tom Means cut it with large scissors decorated with the Mountain View logo. After the ceremony, city leaders gathered by the fence in the back playground — adorned with a “Big Buddies” gate, designed by local artist Robert Ellison, which leads to Rengstorff Park — to eat, drink and celebrate the new building.
The gate is both “a portal to the past” and “a frame to the present,” said Janis Zinn, a member of the city’s Visual Arts Committee. “It’s a gateway to the future for all the children who will come and go on their way to the future.”
E-mail Casey Weiss at cweiss@mv-voice.com ?? ?? ?? ??
