City commission encourages LAIC to proceed with planning for new daycare center

The Lake Area Improvement Corporation has received direction from the Madison City Commission to move forward with its planning for a new daycare center to be located on city property along North Highland Avenue.  LAIC Executive Director Brooke Rollag met with city commissioners again on Tuesday to discuss the proposal of locating a new daycare center on city property where there is currently a small baseball diamond.  Commissioners first heard from Rollag about the LAIC’s proposal at its previous meeting and wanted to have it back on the agenda in order to have time to collect some feedback from the public and the city’s Park Board.  

During Tuesday’s meeting, Rollag reviewed with commissioners the LAIC’s process of getting to this point of recommending a location.  

Rollag referred to the LAIC’s recent purchase of more than 67 acres of land located along Highway-81 going north out of Madison and ending at 9th Street.  With the proposed daycare site being tied to federal money, Rollag said that a potential swap could be made with the city to provide another city park within the newly acquired land.  

Overall, Rollag said that the proposed daycare site meets all of the requirements for what they want.

Commissioners and Mayor Roy Lindsay said they had heard predominantly positive comments about the possibility of locating a new daycare center at the proposed location.  City Parks Supervisor Mike McGillivray said that the Park Board was not able to meet to discuss it, but through e-mail communication with its members, he said that he received nothing against the proposal.  

Action taken by commissioners Tuesday allows the LAIC to proceed with planning for the new daycare center and work through what needs to be done to replace the city park property.  

January 18, 2023