ABOVE: Work by various construction crews is being done daily since March in the new childcare space at Lakeview Methodist Healthcare Center in Fairmont. The new space will allow for 59 additional children.

FAIRMONT– After sitting empty and untouched for three years, work has finally begun on the new childcare space at Lakeview Methodist Healthcare Center in Fairmont.

Building Blocks Learning Center and Childcare has been housed within Lakeview since 2017 and when Lakeview decided to expand a few years later, it included a new childcare space as part of its project. However, with inflation the $1.2 million included for the project only covered enough to build the shell of the space and it has sat untouched since 2022 while the needed money, about $1.3 million to complete the project, has been fundraised.

Even with generous donations from community members and businesses, totaling about $500,000, more was needed for the project. Then, in the fall of 2024, the Board of Directors at Lakeview stepped up and agreed to fund the remaining amount, which set the project once again in motion.

Recently though, the Rosen Family Foundation gave a $250,000 donation to the project.

“For them to see this project as a necessary addition to the community like we see it has been amazing. The Rosen Foundation is so generous, helpful and community-minded. We are overwhelmed with their generosity and helpfulness,” said Lakeview Administrator, Deb Barnes.

She added that overall Lakeview has been amazed with the generosity of other donors that have contributed to the project, some of the largest of those being the Krahmer family, Mayo Clinic and Valero.

From October, when the board decided to fund it, to March, when work actually started, Barnes said a lot of steps have been taken.

“It’s built as an educational building and will house 99 kids. Once the plans were a-go, everything had to be vetted through the agencies that give us permission,” she explained.

While all of the plans for the childcare space had been ready and produced for several years, a few mechanical changes were made in a cost cutting effort.

Tu-Anh Johnson of Wold Architects and Engineers said after that change was made they had to do some redesigns and then submitted it for permitting and bids in late December 2024.

“Then we submitted it to the state and then it took them a little while to send it to the city,” Johnson explained.

She also explained that because of the number of kids the space will allow for, it’s not like an in home daycare and has to be treated as such.

Right now Barnes said the construction company, United Builders, is hoping for a mid-summer completion date.

With the project, Building Blocks will come under Lakeview’s non-profit umbrella.

Building Blocks owner, Shea Ripley, said they’re excited for the space to be complete so that they can expand their capacity. They are currently full with roughly 50 kids but the new space will allow them to take double the kids.

Fairmont and Martin County, like much of the state, has faced a crippling childcare shortage which has affected families, the workforce, businesses and the overall economy.

“We have an amazing group of staff that will afford us the ability to expand immediately which is so huge for our community,” Ripley said. “We are turning down families daily, sometimes multiple families per day. Many of these families are looking to relocate to Fairmont and the lack of childcare is causing them to change their plans. The new space will add 59 childcare slots.”

Unfortunately she said they haven’t had the ability to keep a waitlist because the demand is so high. Instead they’ve been telling interested parties to watch their Facebook page, where they will begin posting about new enrollment opportunities when there’s a more solid opening date for the new space.

In the meantime, Ripley has been collecting supplies that will serve them in the new space.

“The second floor of the nursing home is filled with donations. We save everything to help with the cost of furnishing the new space,” she said.