The Gary Common Council is likely to decide Tuesday if a Merrillville-based company will be allowed to expand a day care facility they operate in Gary.
Geminus Corp. officials operate a school at the former St. Mark School, 3880 Jackson St., and hope to expand the school’s capacity to more than double enrollment.
The existing facility offers day care and preschool programs for children ages 3 to 6 uses four classrooms and has a capacity of 84 students. The expanded facility would boost capacity to 178 students, officials said.
Administrator Penny Adams said the school has a waiting list of interested parents large enough that she believes they could easily reach the higher enrollment for their facility. She said federal Head Start programs have provided Geminus with a grant to pay for the expansion.
On Friday, Geminus officials to ask the Common Council’s planning committee to approve development of a fire access lane in the space at 3869 Van Buren St. for the existing facility.
The council’s agenda for Tuesday at the pavilion at Marquette Park calls for a vote on the issue by the full Common Council. Committee members who reviewed the project looked favorably on the idea, with Councilwoman Rebecca Wyatt, D-1st, saying “it looks like a great project to me.”
Councilwoman Linda Barnes Caldwell, D-5th, who presided over Friday’s hearing in the absence of committee Chairman Herb Smith, D-At large, said she expects the project will be approved at that time.
“I’m looking forward to this project moving forward,” Caldwell said.
Once the fire access lane is developed, Geminus officials will be able to move forward with the expansion project. Tom Maverick, an architect hired by Geminus, said officials hope to have the expansion complete and ready to open by Aug. 1.
Maverick said the plan is to build a one-story extension to the north of the existing schools to provide additional class space.
He said that regulations for Head Start programs require that they be offered in a one-story building with direct access to the ground outside to provide easy escape routes in the event of an emergency, which makes the existing building’s second-story “largely unusable.”
Maverick said there will be some space between the existing building and the new extension that officials plan to use as a play area for children that would be more secure than what exists currently.
“The play areas are to be sheltered from the outside world,” he said.
Mary Hurt, the Gary city zoning administrator, said all people living within 400 feet of the project were contacted by mail to seek their opinion, and none expressed opposition to the expansion.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
