On May 19, 2022, Northampton County Council approved the appropriation of $2 million in federal pandemic funds to establish a daycare at Gracedale to attract and retain staff at the nursing home, and if possible, at the 911 and forensic centers as well.
Council was advised that this daycare is a pilot program and might ultimately be expanded to include the entire county.
The only Council members opposed were John Brown and John Goffredo.
Over a year passed before the daycare renovations were completed. The county spent $562,399, split among General Contractor – CMG of Easton, Inc.; Mechanical (HVAC) – JBM Mechanical; and Electrical – Billitier Electric. The daycare will be operated by Learning Locomotion. It will accommodate between 30-50 kids and operate between 6:30 am and 7 pm for children from 6 weeks to 12 years old.
After that, a certificate of occupancy was needed from Upper Nazareth Township. It was finally obtained in April or May, and the next step is licensing.
The state must inspect the proposed daycare before issuing a license and is expected to do in August, according to Human Services Director Sue Wandalowski. She told County Council yesterday that the state will probably need to inspect the property twice. Fiscal Affairs Director Steve Barron also reported that the county has set aside $800,000 in pandemic funds to pay for the daycare's operation through at least one year.
Since County Council appropriated $2 million for the daycare, and only $1.3 million is accounted for, where is the remaining $700,000? Hopefully, it's not in Gracedale's general fund.
UPDATED 8:17 AM: Administration sources tell me the remaining $700,000 has been spent on licensing, permitting fees, payments to the vendor and outfitting the daycare with furniture and supplies. I would expect that, given what happened to the retention bonuses, County Council would ask for a breakdown of how the $2 million appropriated for the daycare has been spent.
14 comments:
Have you done a RTK for the remaining funds?
No one at 911 could ever use this - all day shifts begin at 0600.
Wandalowski and Baran said the remainder of the money is in the HR budget. In fact, she said that the balance ought to cover 2 years of operating.
more funds missing? Can't wait to hear the BS on yet another McClure fiasco
It's time for an independent investigation. It's essentially theft by poor administration. Employees, patients, and taxpayers all lose. McClure shouldn't be running for another office. He should be lawyering up. He has no business being anywhere near government at any level.
Typical government incompetence and procrastination. No private, for-profit child care facility would ever take this long to open. And in another example of being out of touch, “day care” hasn’t been used by the profession or, for that matter, in most state statutory and regulatory guidance for years. “Day care” - is that for children, adults, or pets?
Isn’t this the same area that was renovated into a rehab unit and opened in 2012? So now it was “renovated “ again into a daycare? Who is steering the ship
here?
My #1 question is this. If there is a sex offender living at gracedale and we all know there is bound to be at least one, how can you open a daycare on the same site? Do they throw out the resident because he can’t be near kids? How does this work?
It's just more money not going where it was alloted too. Typical Lamont. Should have an outside agency come in a audit all the county departments
You little fearmongerer you! I like it! You sound like you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about! Please share more…
Obviously do not understand how long it takes to 1. Construct a facility (or remodel an area), 2. Go through the permitting process that the Commonwealth.
Great question!
There is an annual outside audit of every department. Unfortunately we continue to see this administration and the Controller delay and drag the process out rather than competing it in a timely manner.
They will tell you “the doors will be locked”.
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