A future daycare facility in the City of Wayland has received a major funding boost from the state child care. 

The Wayland Child Care Organization is receiving a total of $505,450 in the form of an affordable childcare grant announced by Governor Kim Reynolds. A building for the center has been purchased on Main Street in Wayland and will add 49 new child care slots. Owner Lindi Jepson says that these funds will be used to help with construction and labor costs to get the facility up to code along with purchasing everything a daycare needs, “We’re starting from scratch, we’re starting a whole new daycare. So we don’t have anything. We don’t have furniture, we don’t have any toys, playground, nothing. So part of the grant will be going to putting everything together, having something for an outdoor play area. There are certain specifications with that, they have to have shade. And then for indoors, you have to have so many square footage for certain ages in the classroom. So we’ll be working on that process over the next couple of months.”

Jepsen added that the city has been looking to add a child care facility for some time now and that she and her husband Zach approached the city with the idea. They hope to have all the furniture and toys ready to go in the fall with the opening of the facility in January 2023. Jepson and her husband will continue to work full-time as a nurse practitioner and acoustical sealing contractor, respectively. She says that with the lack of child care in the area, they hope to bring an affordable service and help the economic growth in the community. The Wayland Child Care Organization will begin to accept applications in the fall.