The Boulder City Council formally requested $110,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funds from Jefferson County to purchase a building from Jim Darcy Elementary School north of Helena to use as a child care facility. The request for county ARPA funds will be discussed at the July 27 County Commission meeting.
According to City Council President Drew Dawson, ARPA funds would only provide half of the $110,000 at a time—the city would receive $55,000 in the near future and the other half “about a year from now,” Dawson said. If the request for the ARPA funds is successful, the city will apply for a bridge loan of $55,000 so it can purchase and relocate the building as soon as possible, Dawson said. The city would eventually pay back the loan with the other half of the ARPA funds that it would receive in about a year, he added.
Dawson said that there has been a recent emphasis on the lack of licensed child care in Boulder and in much of the central Jefferson County area. He said that once the building is purchased, the city plans to transfer ownership of the building from the city to the Boulder Child Care Working Group, a spinoff of the Boulder Transition Advisory Committee that Dawson chairs. However, this can only happen once the group becomes an incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit. If the group achieves that status, it will be able to accept funding from a “variety of sources that allocate money towards child care,” Dawson added.
