OJAI : Panel to Study Plan for Day-Care Center

The Ojai Redevelopment Agency and the Ojai Unified School District have formed a joint committee to study building a children’s day-care center in downtown Ojai.

The Redevelopment Agency gave its conceptual approval this week to the proposed child-care center, which would be located next to the East Ojai Avenue park-and-ride lot on a 30,000-square-foot lot owned by the district.

The school board has not taken an official position on the center, which would offer free or subsidized care to primary school students before and after school, but appointed two members to the committee for further study.

City officials will begin drafting a preliminary site plan for the project this week, said City Manager Andy Belknap, who is the Redevelopment Agency’s director. The Redevelopment Agency has reserved $60,000 in its 1991-92 budget for a low-interest loan to the child-care provider selected to operate the center, Belknap said.

If the child-care center is approved, city and school district officials will then attempt to find funds for grading and landscaping the site and purchasing modular classrooms and playground equipment, Belknap said.

“More and more cities and redevelopment agencies are working with school districts to take on these sorts of projects,” Belknap said. “And child care is a social concern we should really become involved in doing something about.”

City Councilman Joe De Vito and mayor pro tempore Robert McKinney were selected to represent the agency on the committee. School board members Muriel Lavender and Tom Niehaus will represent the district.