In Lompoc, there are more than 2,700 children under 2 years old and only 186 child care spaces available in the city.
“This translates to the potential unmet need for 93 percent of children ages 0 to 2,” according to a needs assessment from the local school district, adult school, and First 5 Santa Barbara County.
One father told the Sun that he started looking for child care for his daughter before she was born. And that care cost between $1,100 to $1,500 a month, until he and his wife found a state-funded spot in Lompoc that made it more affordable for day care.
At least one other child-focused nonprofit has been trying for two years to open a similar child care center for kids aged 0 to 5 in Lompoc.
LEAP: Learn Engage Advocate Partner aims to provide child care for up to 64 kids, with 16 spots for those under 2 years old, which isn’t a lot, but it is something. And those spots will be cheaper than your average child care thanks to some help from the state, but getting a license is proving more difficult than imagined.
“I thought we would be spending a couple of hundred thousand dollars to get this space ready. I’m now looking at $800,000,” LEAP Executive Director Lori Goodman said. “This was a children’s center; this wasn’t transforming an office space into a child care center.”
So, it cost this nonprofit child care services provider that already has a center in Goleta almost $1 million to turn an existing child care center in Lompoc into a child care center. And the space is ready to roll, but the center continues to await license approval.
The project has had to dip into LEAP’s reserves to stay afloat. How on earth can the state expect more child care centers to open if start-up costs are more than $500,000?
It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Lompoc’s current Mayor Jenelle Osborne thinks the city’s heading for ridiculousness with its almost mayor elect, Jim Mosby. Osborne is losing to her longtime challenger, first-time winner (election results won’t be certified until December).
She said that the city’s reserve fund is at $8 million, and she helped restore “respect and decorum to the council, staff, and public at council meetings.”
“I leave the incoming mayor and new council the opportunity to build on that success,” she said. “Unfortunately, I fear a reprisal of the distrust of government, staff, and each other will set the community back once more with the return of the incoming mayor to the council.”
I can’t say that she’s wrong, with Mosby returning to the dais and Dirk Starbuck and Victor Vega ready to ride backward to their vision of Lompoc.
Former City Councilmember Mosby thinks the city wants change.
“There’s a lot of things that we were doing before that we need to bring back,” he said. “We need to make sure that City Hall is working for the people, and lately it’s been working in the other direction.”
Yeah! Maybe we can get rid of the reserve fund, for starters.
The Canary isn’t feeling optimistic. Send complaints to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 8, 2024.
