At every meeting for the past several months, the Carroll County Board of Supervisors has received requests for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 funding from a variety of non-profit organizations. Earlier this week, one request elicited a more lively conversation than the norm. Nikki Heuton, Director of the Carroll Area Child Care Center, provided an update on challenges and successes over the past year.
They currently have 45 employees, 35 full-time. However, Heuton says many of these take jobs at schools and other locations for better benefits, including insurance. Heuton says to address their recruitment and retention challenges, they have increased the pay structure over the past year and are working to find an insurance plan for their employees. She also talked about 2019 projects and what they have identified as goals for this year.
Supervisor, Dean Schettler, however, wanted to talk about long-term debt on the building, parking lot and roof. He says this puts them in an unfortunate situation.
He also presented a potential solution.
Neil Bock says he recognizes they have a heavy debt load, but there is also money on the other side of the equation.
Heuton says they try to have enough cushion in the bank for one month of operating expenses and to be prepared for unexpected major repairs. The supervisors took no action on the funding request at this meeting. They will, however, need to finalize numbers prior to the March 15 budget filing deadline.
