Thousand Oaks to Look at Ways to Bring Day Care to Old Town : Council: Officials have allotted $155,000 to develop programs for low-income families. They will consider strategy at tonight’s meeting.

With a potful of money at the ready, Thousand Oaks council members tonight will discuss how the city can encourage more child-care providers to set up shop in the Old Town neighborhood.

The council three years ago agreed to spend $155,000 to develop child-care services for lower-income residents along Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

So far, the city has spent just $21,000 on a consultant’s study analyzing the need for more day care. The rest of the money is up for grabs, and no one’s quite sure what to do with it.

Should day-care providers receive loans to launch new centers? Should low-income families receive subsidized vouchers? Should unlicensed caretakers receive help obtaining state permits? Or should existing programs get grants?

As they debate tactics, council members will be working from one common assumption: Market forces have not brought day care to central Thousand Oaks, so the city should step in with money and muscle.

“I don’t want the city involved as a purveyor of child care, but we have to be facilitators, to help providers operate in this area and help our citizens afford it,” Councilman Frank Schillo said.

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For the Old Town neighborhood, officials are seeking inexpensive programs with flexible hours and the space to accommodate children with colds or other mild illnesses. More than half of the parents who answered a consultant’s survey said they had trouble finding care for sick children, and 40% complained about problems matching their work schedule to day-care hours.

Even with 2,366 spaces available in licensed child-care centers in Thousand Oaks, experts estimate that thousands of local youngsters regularly spend time unattended or stay with unqualified baby-sitters.

“We know the demand is there,” Councilwoman Judy Lazar said. “Let’s see if we can’t fill it.”

Child-care experts laud Thousand Oaks’ goals. But they point out that other agencies are already working to boost the number of licensed day-care centers.

Child Development Resources, a nonprofit countywide referral group, recently wrapped up a state-funded recruitment campaign that succeeded in bringing 60 new licensed providers to the Conejo Valley.

The group’s executive director, Julie Irving, is quick to offer the city her staff’s skills in helping Thousand Oaks drum up still more providers.

“If you’ve never been in this business before, you can’t assume that it’s easy to transfer your skills, (especially) if you’ve been in the business of doing roadwork, issuing building permits and keeping citizens happy,” Irving said. “If they want to replicate what we do, they could help fund us.”

Some local child-care providers, however, are hoping for more direct financial help from the city.

Sherri Laboon, for one, has her eye on an Old Town building that she’d love to turn into a child-care center. But she knows from experience that she can’t swing such a big project without some help.

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When she founded the Roots and Wings Child Care Center in Thousand Oaks four years ago, Laboon was saddled with “hundreds of ridiculous conditions” from the Planning Department, she said.

The tab for landscaping her parking lot came to $30,000. Installing a block wall in the side yard cost $10,000. And replacing a chain-link fence with decorative wrought iron set her back $15,000.

“All that, without even spending a cent on the children or the program,” Laboon said ruefully. “We’re just not able to charge enough to make up the cost” of complying with Thousand Oaks’ standards.

“By over-regulating planning issues, they’ve really put a damper on child care,” she added. “The only way it’s going to happen is if the city steps in.”

For herself, Laboon would like a $75,000 grant. Other child-care providers said low-interest loans and help obtaining permits would be enough. And even those who wouldn’t benefit directly said they supported the city’s efforts to target Old Town.

“Child care and education are really needed there,” said Camille Eastin, president of the Conejo Valley Family Child Care Assn. “It would certainly be beneficial if the city would be willing to help.”