Child Care Center for Up to 150 Proposed in Milbank

Mark Leddy announced he has appointed an advisory board of community members to partner with Kelsey Buttke, owner of the licensed day care center Backyard Bulldogs housed in the former KC Hall in Milbank. A $50,000 gift will allow Buttke to continue operating, and a signed Letter of Memorandum (LOM) signifies the beginning of the group’s plans for the construction of a child care center with the intent to accommodate 100-150 children. 

Leddy’s advisory board is composed of himself, Nichole Bury, Dr. Bryan Johnson, Adam Jones, Julie Kunde, Amy Thue, and Randy Twistol. Leddy said, “We’re calling ourselves the advisory board right now at Backyard Bulldogs, but as soon as the final legal work is done –we’re revising the bylaws a little bit – we will have the existing board resign, and we will become the newly elected board. Leddy believes the switch will happen in early April.

Buttke added: “We are excited for this next chapter in Backyard Bulldogs Childcare. Our hopes and dreams have been to find a way to expand our offerings to meet the needs of our community.”

Leddy met with the owners of Milbank’s two newspapers on Thursday, March 20, to reveal his plans. Lance Junso of First Interstate Bank and Josh Wendland of Milbank House Movers attended as representatives of the Grant County Development Corporation (GCDC). Buttke was also present. 

Leddy explained,” Kelsey will continue as the director of the childcare center.” No interruption in her services will occur. “A $50,000 donation will provide immediate financial support for her to continue operations.”

In response to questions posed by Kathy Ward of The Valley Express and Holli Seehafer of the Review, as to the source of the funds, Leddy stated a local couple, who preferred to remain anonymous, had donated the sum. 

“We tried,” Buttke explained. “We thought in the beginning, nine years ago, when we started, we could do this. Like I said to my husband then, ‘I got this’ and then a couple years later, it was like, ‘Oh, this doesn’t make sense.’” 

She said when COVID hit, she thanked God for the grants that she got, or she said she would have had this issue a long time ago. “We’ve got to do something now. I feel it’s our minimum wage increases,  expenses of food, and all. What my families pay just doesn’t do it anymore like it used to.” 

“We have been working on this problem for a while,” Wendland noted, speaking on behalf of GCDC, but it took finding some grant dollars to get the study done to allow us to have proof of the problem.” The approximate $40,000 came from the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development. The GCDC used the money for research and a survey conducted by Klein Visioneering Group, a company in Lead that specializes in child care political strategy, advocacy, and consultancy.

Buttke, who has three kids of her own, who are ages seven, four, and two, said Backyard Bulldogs is licensed for 20 children, but right now she is running at 14. She charges $145 per week per child. 

Buttke also related some of the recent ups and downs she has experienced as a daycare owner: For the longest time, I filled those 20 spots. I think our highest has been 24, but we have to get a different license for 24.” She continued, “ We are at 20 kids now because of payroll. I had so much expense. It was so much of a loss. We’ve kind of just been doing a service the last few years. We’ve survived on the COVID grants to be able to have those negative (cash flow) years of just serving as many kids as we can.“

She said, “ I was running with five or six staff and 20 kids. Last fall, we lost quite a few to kindergarten, and I lost staff. And so it was just the two of us full time and 14 kids. We actually break even. So, I think the short-term goal is to maximize what our spots could hold, and try to get back to 20. 

Buttke continued, “I’ve been asked, ‘Can you add more kids?’ Well, yes, I can, but it just really doesn’t make sense for me to be adding kids because it’s just costing me. I can’t charge the parents enough to pay for the payroll.” 

Seehafer asked Leddy and the group, “When you talk about looping in all of the greater assets of our community, and then you turn around to the expenditure side of that, we’re talking a lot about one daycare, which is a great daycare, but there are also other daycares in the community. Are they going to have the opportunity to come in under this?”

“At this point, this is a plan to get a daycare center in place in the community. I think you know, to your question, Holli, that’s what stopped progress on this all along, as we can’t solve every problem that’s out there,” Leddy replied. “Now, we’re working to solve this one that we need – a daycare center – -but I think within the environment we’re talking about, there’s still a spot for other providers. it’s not as if this is going to become the only provider in the community.”

“And we’ve also had those listening sessions where they (providers) have all been invited, ” Leddy added. “I know Nichole has reached out to every provider she can find, and been in direct contact with them on numerous occasions, trying to get their input as to the direction we’re trying to go.” 

“It’s not a competition thing, Junso voiced, “and it’s not like we picked Kelsey out of the blue, and we said, ‘Hey, we like Kelsey better than everyone else.’”

Leddy, describes his role in the group as an accelerant, and he was connected with Buttke through the GCDC and its director, Tracy Stein, said,” Kelsey was really the only operating center in the community.” 

The GCDC was able to identify 13 in-home providers in Milbank. Backyard Bulldogs Childcare is the only center in Milbank and it is licensed by the State of South Dakota. Big Stone City has the Little Lions Learning Center. Based on information available to GCDC, two of the in-home child care providers in Milbank are also licensed.

Buttke has been operating her business as a 501 (c) (3) since 2017. The term 501 (c) (3) is often used interchangeably with nonprofit, but the IRS also recognizes it as exempt from federal taxes. Leddy said, “That’s one of the keys, because we already have the commitment of $50,000 that will come in as soon as the transition takes place. And having a 501 (c) (3) just makes that possible.“

Buttke also briefly explained why some daycare owners choose to become licensed and some do not: “There are certain requirements, like self-closing outlets and things like that a provider has to change in their home. They (the regulators) are trying to make things easier, and they try to incentivize providers, by saying if you have a license, you can apply for state assistance and you can apply for the food program,”she said. “Sometimes they have toy grants and things to try to keep you there. They don’t want to make it super hard, but it does end up being difficult for some people, and that’s why they choose not to license.” 

“What’s scary about that,” Wendland said, “is whoever’s providing this assistance– the federal government, the state –they’re actually making the problem worse sometimes.”

According to Leddy,  a location for a new facility has been identified. “Well, in our mind it has, but we have to convince the other partner. Ideally, it would be somewhere near the school, centrally located, you know, near the school, Unity Square, in that general area. If  we could pull the strings and make that happen, that’s where we would put it.”

Ward asked about choosing an existing building in Milbank, and Leddy answered, “That’s always a possibility.” Later, Leddy said he believes Unity Square is too small for the project.

When queried about funds for the new project, Leddy mentioned the figures of $2-3 million, but nothing definitive. He said, “Essentially, the plan we have with Development Corp is we expect that we will get the larger businesses in the community on board. The report’s not there, but I love this, because it talks about the only way you can solve this is a shared responsibility.  I see the shared responsibility as being the business community and the taxing entities.”

“I told Mark last night, this is an affluent community, an affluent, small community that we have here,” recalled Lance Junso. “But I think through our research we found out it’s not going to be one person that runs and does this. It’s going to have to be an approach where we’re all bought into it.”

Leddy foresees the project as transitioning to long term in two to five years, but five as long. “So hopefully more like two to three,” he said. “We just have to get going on this. We need to educate the public, the city leaders, you know, everybody, as to why this is a community problem,.and just because your kids are gone or school age, why this is still your problem.”