It’s time to swing the bat.

That was the resounding answer of the Mount Vernon City Council on if the city should continue investigating the construction of a child care addition to the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center.

That addition, according to rough initial numbers of square footage for the addition, would come at roughly a $11 million price tag.

City administrator Chris Nosbisch said that when the LBC was originally constructed, the cost per square foot was roughly $250 per square foot. Current prices for construction are now roughly $400 per square foot.

The center, as is being looked into by OPN Architects, will amount to 19,000 square feet for the first floor. That would allow construction of eight classrooms. The entire first floor can be isolated from the LBC, and locked separately from the addition. With eight classrooms, that would allow between 80 to 110 children of different ages to be taken care of at the center.

The second floor of the addition would add three more rooms and storage for the LBC. One of the rooms would be a large room to be reserved for things like parties. One would be a wide open turf room, that would have multi-purpose usage. The third would be an indoor interactive play area.

With that $11 million price tag, Nosbisch estimates the city’s investment would be in the $5.5 million.

“That would impact other projects in the city’s capital improvement plan,” Nosbisch said.

That would include two significant projects for the city, including the Hwy. 1 project that the Iowa Department of Transportation will be working on in 2027. That has an initial cost of $1 million for the city, where the DOT will tackle a significant amount of additional work on the project.

The other project in the next five years, the streetscape project in uptown Mount Vernon will be on the plate for roughly 2029. Each phase of that project is slated to cost $2.5 million.

Nosbisch asked the council if they felt the childcare project should be a top priority for the next seven years.

The council’s answer was a resounding yes.

Council member Paul Tuerler said that this would be a potential economic tool for the community, as it could also help to improve the quality of life of citizens in the community.

“When I look back when my children were younger, we were blessed to have childcare options in our area and have actual choices,” Tuerler said. “For the good of the community, this is a project that makes sense, from enhancing the offerings at LBC and meeting a need in the community. One way to guarantee you never get a hit is to not swing the bat. I think it’s time to swing the bat.”

Council member Scott Rose said that he thinks there are good reasons to move forward with this, including the driving potential of helping the local economy. “It’s the right thing to do,” Rose said.

Mayor Tom Wieseler said that the city is aware that it will also need to make steps in increasing entry level housing in the community, as the city needs homes for people in starting professionally in the community as well.

Rose questioned what happens if the childcare is started now, but in the next to five to 10 years, the center is no longer needed as a childcare center.

Nosbisch said in those instances, there is an ability to turn spaces into a career to technical education classrooms that could be utilized by the local school districts as well or community college classroom space.

Rose did commend those who have kept the pressure going on this childcare issue in the community, as there have been multiple points he thought this might have been dead in the water, but the community has proved that is not the case.