Community PRIDE conversation in early stages
A community discussion in Hampton regarding the growing and critical need for daycare service has raised the possibility of utilizing the former Hampton Lutheran School as a daycare facility.
A group of more than 20 people, which included a mix of young parents and community leaders, met last week at the Hampton Auditorium, continuing a conversation that actually began last spring.
“When we did the March community discovery event with Bobbi Patti (owner of Five Rule Rural Planning) the top three needs they found for Hampton were housing, a bar and restaurant and a daycare,” said Haley Bamesberger, one of three people who helped organize last week’s meeting. “We just started talking about it and a daycare was one thing that Holly Herzberg, myself and Annie DeLa Cruz decided to take on.”
The group began looking at local options for a possible daycare facility and at some point decided to check out the Hampton Lutheran School building on 3rd Street, which has stood vacant since the school closed its doors a year ago.
“The three of us walked through the Lutheran School with Bamesberger Construction, the fire marshal and the CDC just to kind of see what it would take to get it up to code and running, the number of kids that could fit in there and all those sorts of things,” Bamesberger said. “We were pleasantly surprised that there weren’t a whole lot of code updates that would need to be done. The fire marshal told us that the newer side of the building, that north side, needs lighted exit signs and it could be good to go.”
With that encouraging report, the group decided to share the information, which led to last week’s public meeting.
“We are kind of thinking that it makes a lot of sense to use that building,” Bamesberger said. “It’s been there, it’s part of Hampton and it’s been available for a while and nobody else has found a use for it, so I thought this would be a good fit.”
St. Peters Church actually owns the building and Bamesberger reported that conversations with church representatives “are still open and going.”
“We’re hopeful of that being our end location, but we still have some financial things to figure out for that,” she said. “This is just being explored as an option.”
Herzberg added that last week’s meeting was an important step in terms of communicating with the community.
“We know as a community if we want Hampton to keep going and growing, a daycare needs to be part of the conversation,” she said. “Daycare is a challenge in most communities right now across the state of Nebraska. The meeting provided an opportunity for community members to give feedback about the actions that had been taken so far and also direction for any future actions.”
Bamesberger also reported that the group has come up with a name to help recognize the effort.
“Holly came up with something and she threw it out last night and I really liked it,” she said of the PRIDE slogan. “It stands for Patrons Respectfully Invested in Daycare Expansion.”
“We are looking forward to continuing to work collaboratively with our community partners to hopefully get a daycare center established in Hampton to serve our families and patrons,” Herzberg said.