The future is looking bright for a new daycare facility in Lanigan as citizens gather on Munster Street by the site for a celebratory burger barbecue and groundbreaking ceremony. The event was held on Thursday at 6:00 pm.
The area for the new site sits just north of the existing school facilities which will soon be vacated for parking and drop-off amenities for the new school and the daycare.
It’s an important day for residents with young children. They’ve found challenges with finding daycare services in town, and the new modern facility will provide an improved environment and provide the necessary space to accommodate existing families and new ones expected to arrive with growing employment opportunities.
Katelynn Psovsky, vice-president of the Lanigan Daycare Board and head of the expansion committee talks about the current situation and the prospect of a new one.
“We can hardly believe it. We’ve been dropping our kids off at this tiny little daycare with all these kids in a basement, so it’s going to be so nice to have this big new facility. It’s going to be beautiful, and we’ll have so many more families taken off the wait list.”
“We had a need 8 to 10 years ago,” explains Cassandra Leggott, also with the board and the expansion committee. “We’ve made numerous tries to have the number of seats expanded. We have families still living in the community that are taking their kids to other daycares. They might have to drive to Nokomis or LeRoy, and then go to work at BHP.”
For his part, Mayor Tony Mycock, who took part in the celebration on Thursday, says it’s an exciting part of all the activity that’s abuzz in Lanigan.
“We finally have the contract awarded for the daycare. It was a bit of work to get it going, but this is going to be a big plus for our community. We really need this.”
Along with the new school which welcomed students in May, the demolition of the old high school and elementary school will provide space for improved bus drops and better traffic flow for the new school and daycare. Mycock also noted the growing use of the new pool and waterpark facility with a newly added waterslide.
All this excitement follows on the heels of a wet but well attended “Celebrate Lanigan” weekend.
“There are lots of positives,” Mycock says. “We’re working on residential development that will hopefully attract families to Lanigan.”
The ceremonial shovels bit into the ground and as part of the celebration. Mycock turned over the project’s lease to Psovsky who accepted it on behalf of the Board.
With continued development of the BHP Jansen mine and the Aspen Power Project, both striving to become operational as soon as possible, Lanigan is poised for growth and working hard toward their goals.