The Great Bend City Council Monday night heard things are moving in the effort to build the group daycare center at 4507 Farmers Plaza Lane. This is a project of Advancing Barton County Childcare Inc., an offshoot of Great Bend Economic Development Inc. 

“We are seeing some progress,” said GBED President Sara Arnberger, addressing the council on behalf of ABCC. “You will see our new ‘coming soon’ sign that has the image of what our center will look like.” 

They already have the job posting out for a site director and are receiving applications. 

And then last week, project architect GMLV Architects of Wichita was able to send out requests for proposals to hire a construction manager. Once the construction manager has been chosen, they will lead the bid prep process to find the subcontractors. “We are so excited to be at this point in this project,” Arnberger said. “It is certainly taken a long time to get here. But the product is going to be absolutely wonderful and the team has been working really hard. So all good things coming on that front.”

The property was purchased from Farmers Enterprises Inc. by ABCC. The site, located across from the 10th Street-K-96 junction, is currently vacant.

The facility will be a 501c3 non-profit under the umbrella of GBED called Advancing Barton County Childcare Inc.  The facility will provide services for 59 children.  

They are building new instead of retrofitting an existing building. To meet stringent Kansas Department of Health and Environment standards, this makes more sense.

The cost will be about $1.2 million. Most of the funds have been raised.