Child care center opens

By FINN HARTNETT

Staff writer

After a month-long delay because of leakage, Hillsboro Community Child Care Center opened Monday.

The center will be open year-round and provide care to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

“It went well,” director Micah Wilkins said. “We have five classrooms, and we had kids in every room.”

Wilkins said all construction issues have been “resolved.” She referred questions about building inspections to city administrator Matt Stiles.

City inspector Ben Steketee visited the child care center at the end of last week, Stiles said, and issued a permanent certificate of occupancy.

“It’s all wrapped up from the inspection side,” Stiles said.

While the center is open for business, its official ribbon-cutting is almost two months away, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4 at 9 a.m.

“They wanted to give the day care an opportunity to run for a bit,” Stiles said.

Wilkins declined to provide the number of children enrolled.

At past city council meetings, city officials said the goal for the center was to have 99 students.

Stiles said the current number was 25.

“Once school gets going, it’ll jump up,” he said. “I think we have 66 who are enrolled or are yet to be enrolled. We have some babies who haven’t been born yet.”