Naval Base Will Open Child Center

The Point Mugu naval base will open a child development center Friday to serve military families, Navy officials said.

The 8,000-square-foot facility has been outfitted with an irrigation system, turf and landscaping. The center will include five classrooms, a director’s office, teacher’s workroom, laundry room, kitchen and storage room, and will serve about 120 children ages 2 to 6.

The facility joins an older, smaller facility that will continue to care for about 30 infants.

“The old one just didn’t have the capacity we needed,” said Mary Pease, operations clerk for the regional director of child development. “The base commander made a commitment to meet the need and take children off a waiting list.”

The center is open to children from Point Mugu and Port Hueneme naval bases.

The $1.4-million project comes on the heels of several other projects addressing the needs of military families, including the recent groundbreaking of a $2.6-million youth center to serve older children and renovations to military living quarters.