U.S., L.A. Plan Joint Child Care Center in City Hall

The city of Los Angeles and the federal General Services Administration will work together to establish a child care center in City Hall for the children of U.S. and city government employees working in the Civic Center area, officials announced Friday.

The accord, which ends a GSA search for a downtown child care center, will put a 9,700-square-foot facility on the ground-floor level of City Hall South, Mayor Tom Bradley said at a press conference. Plans call for the center, which will accommodate about 100 children, to open by Oct. 1.

“For working parents in this society the time has come,” Bradley said. “Child care is a priority . . . we cannot permit more latchkey children.”

A private child care provider will be contracted to operate the facility, which will include care for infants and children up to age 5.

‘Drop-Off Zone’

The center will feature five activity rooms, a kitchen, laundry room, lounges for teachers and a lobby waiting area. In addition, there will be a 3,500-square-foot outdoor playground along 1st Street, between Main and Los Angeles streets, and a “tot drop-off zone” on Los Angeles Street, said Patricia A. Lane, the city’s child care coordinator.

The center will be open from 6:45 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Lane said child care fees commonly are about $100 a week for infants and about $75 for older children, but that the new center would charge lower rates.

The cost to the city and the federal government to build and operate the center for the first five years is estimated at $1,900,000, a sum that includes rent, utilities, design, construction and equipment, Lane said.

Cooperative First

Of the 25 child care centers the federal government expects to open nationwide by the end of the year, the Los Angeles facility is the first one established in cooperation with a local government, said Ross A. Biatek, GSA deputy regional administrator.

The area that will house the center is currently occupied by the administrative services division of the city’s Personnel Department. About 76 employees will be relocated to other offices in the building, said John Driscoll, general manager of the department.