Ely Child Care Center Gets Makeover

By ROBERT KOCH
Hour Staff Writer

NORWALK — Years in planning, the nearly $4.7-million overhaul of Nathaniel Ely Child Care Center got started Monday afternoon with state and local officials gripping shovels, as children wearing hard hats looked on during a groundbreaking ceremony outside the facility on Ingalls Avenue in South Norwalk.

“This is what it’s all about. We have some of our students (here). Let’s welcome them,” said Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now Executive Director Joseph E. Mann, also the state legislator in whose district the childcare center lies. “We appreciate everybody’s effort. We appreciate everybody’s work. This is going to be a great opportunity for us and for our kids, and we’ll see you here again when the renovations are complete.”

Built in 1956, Nathaniel Ely Child Care Center is now leased by the city to NEON, the city’s anti-poverty organization that uses the building for the local Head Start childhood development program. The renovation, slated for completion in August 2007, will modernize and expand the building. At present, 181 children are enrolled in the Head Start program at the center. The renovated building will accommodate 205 Head Start children, according to NEON.

The renovation includes a new roof, windows, rest rooms, and kitchen, as well as the installation of the elevator and renovation of the playground. Part of the project will be the demolition of six portable classrooms in the back of the building, which will be replaced with a permanent 6,100-square-foot structure. The groundbreaking, held at the front of the building where the toddler addition will rise, drew about three-dozen people, including Mann; Mayor Richard A. Moccia; NEON Deputy Director Dina Kubelle; Frances A. Freer, regional administrator for the state Department of Social Services; a staff member from the office of U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4; state Rep. Bob
Duff, D-25; NEON board members; Common Council members; and David Wasch, child care program manager with Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority.

“This is the first time that CHEFA has had a chance to actually partner with a municipality in a project like this,” Wasch said. “Facilities are a very important part of every child’s early education, and I’m just glad I could have a small part in that.”

CHEFA is covering $4.2 million of the project’s cost. Community development block grants will pay for $200,000. In its 2005-06 capital budget, the city committed $285,000 to the project. Nearly all at the groundbreaking praised the project as a collaborative effort among local, state and federal officials committed to a first-class childhood development facility. Moccia credited his predecessor, former Mayor Alex Knopp, former mayoral Assistant Edmund
F. Schmidt and Wasch for moving the renovation and expansion forward. “I don’t think any of this would have been possible without the help of CHEFA, without the help of David Wasch,” Moccia said. Rose Marie McKenzie, NEON’s newly hired child care director, said the overhaul adds to her enthusiasm about her new job. She praised the city and state’s commitment to the project and predicted that the renovated center will benefit Norwalk youth for years to come.

“With quality early childhood (programs), it’s going to affect further educational achievement, as the children grow older,” McKenzie said. “When we make that commitment at this age, we’re going to see a difference in children as they get through middle school and high school and, hopefully, onto college.” Carvin J. Hilliard, NEON board chairman and a councilman representing South Norwalk, said the renovation and expansion ultimately will help to close the achievement gap.

Closing the achievement gap is not just a buzzword, but we’re actually addressing it, thanks to the state, Mayor Moccia and everybody involved,” Hilliard said. “This truly has been a community effort supported by the state … it says a lot about this city’s commitment to education.” Becker & Becker of Fairfield is the architect for the project. W & M Constructions of Stamford is working as project manager for the renovation, which will be done in phases.
Robert M. Lux, W&M project executive, said the work will begin with two additions, slated for completion by next spring, and move next summer into renovation of the second floor of the existing building. During work, the portable classrooms outside the building will be used as swing space to accommodate children.

Lux said he does not anticipate any construction difficulties. “It’s pretty straightforward,” Lux said.