City of St. Peter creates task force to address childcare needs

ST. PETER, Minn. (KEYC) - Monday night, St. Peter’s city council passed a resolution to dedicate resources towards helping local childcare.

The council appointed a ChildCare Task Force made up of council members and childcare workers to learn about what issues exist inside of St. Peter’s childcare infrastructure, both private and public.

The city hopes to use the new committee as a force on the ground to support St. Peter’s childcare services.

“The goal is to set a variety of goals that help us identify that ‘how can maybe the city help in this instance, in the daycare situation, whether it’s with private in-home childcares, childcare centers, or any variety of that. And if the city can’t help maybe the city can help connect to different resources,” said Joey Schugel, director of St. Peter’s Community Center.

This type of committee is one that the city has used in the past, but has been dormant for a number of years.

St. Peter already has a variety of childcare and after school programs through the town’s community center, and the city says that the task force is just one of many ongoing efforts to ensure that children are well taken care of across the community.

“We’d just like to reiterate how important childcare is for communities, and you know, we want our businesses, like all businesses in St. Peter to be able to thrive and if the city can be a help or assistance in any way we’re going to work hard to try to provide what assistance we can,” said Schugel.

From here the task force will report their findings and provide updates on the effort intermittently at city council meetings.

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