At their April 26 work session, the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners indicated their preliminary support for a request from David Smith, one of the founders of the Wings Early Childhood Center on Piedra Road.
The request would allow Wings to expand their parking lot and playground areas onto neighboring County-owned property, to accommodate plans for two additional classrooms. The Center opened its doors — with financial help from the Town and County governments — and it currently ‘mostly full’ according to Mr. Smith.
“So we are going to expand our facility and add two classrooms and a kitchen,” Mr. Smith told the commissioners. “We have enough land for the building itself. But we need extra space for playgrounds, primarily…
“In 2017, the County provided $100,000 as seed money to help us create this new center, and through grants and donations we built that $100,000 in seed money into almost $1 million. That money was used to buy the abandoned Greenhouse Restaurant and do a full remodel of it, and we can now serve 40 children on any one day…
“Almost all of our parents are working parents… and we subsidize the tuition for about 90% of our children, meaning that they come from low-income or very-low-income families, many with incomes below the federal poverty line…
“This expansion will add 29 slots… and one of the new classrooms will allow us to serve children age 6 weeks to 18 months. Currently, we only serve children ages 1 to 5, but there’s a huge demand in Archuleta County among working parents who have very young children. We need a place for them.”
The drawing below shows the approximate location of the proposed new classrooms (green rectangle) and the County-owned property that would be used for playgrounds and expanded parking is indicated by the yellow overlay. The red line is the property line. (This is an older aerial view and doesn’t show the existing playgrounds that Wings has added to their facility.)
Because the requested easement is on County airport property, County Manager asked the airport manager to contact the Federal Aviation Administration to make sure this property use was allowed.
County Manager Derek Woodman:
“Because there are no permanent structures over on that side — it will be a playground with temporary structures — there is no big encroachment on the property line, and so there is no problem…”
Commissioner Ron Maez:
“I think it would be extremely beneficial for us to use that property for the school. I don’t have a problem with it. We can’t use it for anything else…
“They are limited in space, out there, and actually Wings has been very diligent. And they’ve also met with obstructions along the way…”
Commissioner Maez addressed Mr. Smith.
“You guys have [overcome those challenges], and I see a huge potential in Wings. I mean, seeing what you’ve already gone through.”
Commissioner Warren Brown:
“I know that Wings has had a positive community impact; I’ve been there on multiple occasions, and it’s always full of kids. I think it fills a need on our community that’s not been filled. So I would certainly support continuing to assist Wings in this way.”
Commissioner Brown addressed County Manager Derek Woodman.
“Derek, if you would put this on the agenda for our next regular meeting?”
To learn more about Wings Early Childhood Center, visit their website, here.