By KEN de la BASTIDE, Kokomo Tribune enterprise editor
ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com
After 45 years, Friday will mark the last day for the operation of The Salvation Army day care.
Last month, the United Way of Howard County announced it would no longer provide $44,500 to The Salvation Army for the day care operation at 1105 S. Waugh St.
"This has been a difficult number of weeks," Major David Moffitt said Tuesday. "It started with the surprise announcement from the United Way that the day care would not be funded."
Moffitt said the day care center will close on Friday, and the five employees will be terminated and offered a severance package.
"We looked at every possible way to stay at our current location," Moffitt said. "We considered replacement funding and a way to make up the lost funding."
Moffitt said to keep the day care operating would have required taking $30,000 from other projects.
There were 24 children enrolled in the day care in December, and The Salvation Army is working with the United Way to place those children in facilities that are still open.
"I'm concerned when you consider the future of Kokomo," Moffitt said. "Every program cut by the United Way was youth programming. This does not bode well for low-income families."
A year ago, The Salvation Army was looking at shifting the day care program to one of the facilities operated by the Howard County Children's Center, Moffitt said. When the center consolidated, that ended the effort.
"We're saddened this decision has to be made," he said. "It came from an inability to negotiate the merging of services."
Moffitt said The Salvation Army is considering moving some of its offices to day care location because it is more accessible to people.
Hope to reopen a day care with another agency is minimal, he said.
"The cost to keep the day care program open this year was between $85,000 and $100,000," Moffitt said. "The start-up costs for a new program would be double that amount.
"This is a programming loss to the community," he said.
In January, Lori Tate, executive director for the local United Way, said the cut programs have been underutilized for several years and offer services available through other United Way agencies.
The United Way also eliminated a $50,000 allocation to Big Brothers/Big Sisters because the board's involvement has fallen below the minimum standards required by United Way, and because the number of child/mentor matches dropped from 234 in 1998 to 62 in 2008.
The Howard County Children's Center funding was reduced from $164,052 to $67,458 when one of its two sites were closed.