June 18, 1999
TYKES TO BREAK GROUND ON NEW KU CHILD CARE CENTER
LAWRENCE -- Toddlers with tiny shovels will break ground this month for the long-awaited new Hilltop Child Development Center on the University of Kansas campus.
The new $3.3 million, 18,000-square-foot center will be on Irving Hill Road, just south of the Burge student union and west of Anschutz Sports Pavilion. Upon completion in July 2000, it will replace the center's home for the past 27 years, a former student center and office building built in 1954.
The groundbreaking will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 27, at the construction site. Work will begin the next day. Current Hilltop center children and their families are invited to bring a shovel and help break the ground.
Speakers at the event will include Provost David E. Shulenburger, Hilltop board of directors president Dena Podrebarac and Hilltop executive director Pat Pisani. Refreshments will be served.
Hilltop's current home "has been wonderful but it's time. It's not big enough," Pisani said. "We've expanded into every square inch of it."
The old facility also has suffered from plumbing, ventilation and electrical problems in recent years.
The new L-shaped center will feature a Kansas nature and environment theme with two wings, one dedicated to Eastern Kansas, the other to Western Kansas.
The west wing will feature textures and colors corresponding to prairie grasses and wildflowers, while the east wing will connote a more forested terrain with lots of wood and forest colors. The landscaping will feature plenty of native plants, grasses and wildflowers.
The center will have two playgrounds, one for children under three years old and one for older children. Hilltop presently has one small playground.
"The playground is going to be more of an adventure play area, with more opportunities for children to experience many kinds of play," Pisani said. "It will be a very unique child-care facility."
Other features include:
- Plenty of parking space, including a circular drive for access. Currently Hilltop is located on a short dead-end street with little room to park or turn around;
- Fully accessible rooms and playground;
- A huge aquarium in the lobby featuring Kansas fish and turtles;
- A large kitchen;
- Restrooms in every classroom.
With the help of KU faculty, staff and students, Pisani also hopes to add several exciting features, such as murals, colorful banners, a weather station and a working windmill to generate electricity for a traffic light for tricyclists.
"I need people who know how to do it," she said. "This will be an excellent service and learning opportunity for students."
Pisani also hopes to raise about $20,000 privately to fund
construction of a dry creekbed to run through the playground. The creekbed could be filled when the kids want to play in the water. It could also be used for ecology lessons, she said.
About two-thirds of the funding for the new center will come from a $4 child-care fee assessed to all KU students. The remainder comes mostly from revenue bonds issued by the university. Through action by the Student Senate, KU students started paying a $2 annual fee in 1993 to help fund the new center. The fee was doubled last year.
Because Hilltop will start paying $81,000 annual bond payments for the new center, compared to $1 a year currently, Pisani said Hilltop's rates will rise slightly.
The center serves about 150 children, including before- and after-school programs. The new center will allow Hilltop to take in about 60 to 75 more children. Hilltop presently has 150 children under three years old on a waiting list and will only be able to take 15 off the list this year. The list is expected to grow to more than 200 children by next spring.
New spots are given first to siblings of current KU-affiliated Hilltop children, then to KU students' children, then the children of KU faculty and staff.
Hilltop's current facility was built in 1954 as the Methodist Student Center. Hilltop began operating in the brick building in 1972 and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1997.
Contact: Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858
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