JAX Childcare Facility Increases Bar Harbor's Childcare Capacity by 30%
Ellsworth's DEFY YMCA will run the program that highlights need for childcare, housing, and business intersections in community
BAR HARBOR—Lon Cardon, the president and CEO of the Jackson Laboratory said that whatever you do, you don’t want to get in the way of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer S. Catherine Longley.
“If you get in Katy’s way,” he told the seventy or so dignitaries, staff, and members of the public assembled at the ribbon cutting of the Island of Imagination Early Learning Center at The Jackson Laboratory’s Main Street campus, January 11, “you’ll know what I mean. I mean, she just drives right through.”
Longley’s ability to “drive right through” was a key factor in the lab’s construction of a $4.5-million childcare center meant to help families find a safe place for 50 infants and toddlers from local families.
Longley was quick to give credit to others as the group celebrated the construction of the center, which came in both under budget and on time after breaking ground October 2022. The facility was built by the lab, but will be leased and run by the Down East Family YMCA, which already works with the lab at a childcare facility on the Beechland Road in Ellsworth. It’s the second big construction project in the last year for the lab, which recently built employee housing called Woodlands Lane Apartments, which has 24 units.
According to a press release from the lab,
“The $4.5 million center was supported by a $250,000 grant from the Maine Child Care Infrastructure Grant Program, part of a $15 million state investment into the construction or expansion of workforce childcare programs. Island of Imagination was designed and built by an all-Maine team including TAC Architectural Group (Bangor), Bowman Constructors (Newport), Woodard and Curran (Portland), and Cordjia Capital Projects Group (Camden).”
The need for housing and childcare go hand-in-hand in the lab’s plans to help their workers and members of the community. Of the 22 children that will start attending childcare in the light-filled, state-of-the-art facility, most are part of Jax families, but one family is employed by MDI Hospital. Another family works for the island’s school system.
Cardon said that improving access to childcare has been a goal of the lab for decades. “Beechland was a big success for us and we’re just really proud of it.”
In 2019, the lab surveyed its employees and said that lack of childcare was a major need. An earlier plan involving the MDI YMCA did not work out.
“This project has been underway since 2018. We saw a need and were fortunate to design and see this new center through to fruition, partnering with DEFY,” Longley said. “Childcare resources on MDI are very limited and we view this project as an investment in our employees and their families today and a critical recruitment and retention tool. This center will provide quality childcare for families at JAX and in our community for many years to come.”
Longley stressed that making childcare available and providing homes for people are key to the success of small and large businesses in the Mount Desert Island area. The new facility can host up to 50 children and she said they expect to hit those numbers by next January. Those 50 spaces increase the availability of childcare on Mount Desert Island by 30 percent.
“This is so meaningful to working parents,” Longley said and mentioned that it’s a partnership (with the Y leasing and being the childcare experts, and the business or large non-profit building and hosting the facility) across the state.
According to a release before the event, “A talented workforce is critical to JAX’s success, and to the accomplishment of its mission. To help ensure its ability to attract and retain employees, JAX has prioritized the needs of its team in areas including childcare, housing, and transportation.”
THE DOWNEAST FAMILY YMCA CONNECTION
The Downeast Family YMCA is based in Ellsworth and currently headed up by Matthew Montgomery.
“YMCAs are one of the largest providers of childcare across the nation and youth development is at the core of our mission. We know better than almost anyone that childcare is more than a convenience for most families. Safe, high-quality, and education-based childcare are all critical factors that help parents return to work, ensure social and emotional development, and lead to better outcomes in learning and child development,” Montgomery said.
In the audience Thursday sat his predecessor, Peter Farragher. The discussions for the collaborations began under Farragher’s tenure, who was also key to the Ellsworth-based YMCA’s expansion in the last twenty years. The Y operates not just its Ellsworth center and now this childcare facility, but also the Blue Hill YMCA, Bucksport YMCA, the Moore Community Center, the YMCA summer camp on Webb Pond, and Beechland Road Early Learning Center.
Montgomery said, "Access to safe childcare ensures that families can return to the workforce with confidence that their children are well looked after."
Courtney Wood is the YMCA’s director of childcare. The Bar Harbor site director is Andrea Howell. Former DEFY YMCA kid himself, former State Representative (D-Hancock County) Louie Luchini and current regional advocate at U.S. Small Business Administration attended.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Finding safe and available childcare is key for many Maine family’s wellbeing and for the economy, Governor Janet Mills believes.
When Gov. Mills was in her thirties and the district attorney in three counties in Maine, she married Stan Kuklinkski. A widower, he brought with him to their Wilton home, his five daughters, ages four to 16, and Mills was suddenly a stepmom, a working stepmom in an elected position.
That, she said, made her understand what it was like to be a fulltime parent and realize childcare needs on both a personal and community level. The family placed a Barbie doll condominium in the hallway. One day, she came home and saw Barbie all dressed up in a high fashion gown. She asked her four-year-old why Barbie was so dressed up.
“Barbie has grand jury duty today,” her daughter said. “Tonight she has to go to a Democratic fundraiser.”
Children, Gov. Mills emphasized as she chuckled, are like sponges, hearing what you say, seeing what you do. They need good safe spaces, spaces like what the Jackson Laboratory has built, so that parents can go to work and have peace of mind.
This past July, Gov. Mills signed a law that begins a childcare reboot that has multiple policies meant to help childcare providers and families and increase the system’s capacity. Back in 2021, approximately 85 percent of all childcare providers had staffing shortages. The law expands the childcare subsidy program and also gives childcare workers a monthly wage stipend of $400, which is up from $200. The average childcare worker makes approximately $32,000 annually.
A recent 22-year study illustrates that early care that is high quality can create positive outcomes for children for years, a point Gov. Mills discussed during her speech. By creating more access to that in communities, businesses and non-profits and governments and tax payers are investing in the future. Bar Harbor voters have also just approved a local multi-million bond to rebuild its ailing Conners Emerson School.
For JAX, there’s also a significant economic impact to both Bar Harbor and Maine that occurs by its location and employees. It paid $59.7 million to local Maine vendors in 116 Maine communities, including over 230 companies in Bar Harbor, Ellsworth, and Southwest Harbor. The average salary for new hires was $66,700 in Maine. And its number of employees has increased by 29% since 2015. Those employees need homes, but also many need childcare.
JAX is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity that supports other local institutions, but does not have to pay property taxes on portions of its property essential to its mission. It does pay property taxes on housing. It typically chooses to make a payment in lieu of taxes to Bar Harbor. In 2023, the organization supported:
Kids’ Corner
MDI Hospital
Jesup Memorial Library
MDI YMCA
Downeast Community Partners
Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry
Island Housing Trust
Ellsworth Public Library
Hancock County Technical Center
Island Connections
Kids’ Corner and the MDI YMCA also offer childcare in Bar Harbor.
According to a piece by Christi Magnano from December 2023 about JAX,
“In 2023, employees from across the United States volunteered more than 2,300 hours of their time to organizations including the Sacramento Food Bank, America’s Vet Dogs, the Alzheimer’s Association, Jesup Memorial Library, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners, and local high schools and YMCAs amongst others. Volunteering in these ways is made possible at JAX due to a Volunteer Time Off benefit, allowing employees to take two full days per year to volunteer with a nonprofit organization of their choice.”
Those volunteer hours are only counting the lab staff’s volunteer time off benefit program. Employees volunteer many more hours in their communities.
CHILDCARE SUBSIDY PROGRAM
The state of Maine has a childcare subsidy program (CCSP) to help parents work, train for jobs, or go to school and this program has expanded under Gov. Mills’ tenure. Families must meet income guidelines and be employed or enrolled in schooling or jobs training or retired to benefit. Parents and guardians pay a portion of the costs according to a sliding scale.
Families of four now need to meet a 125% threshold of the current state median income, so roughly around $123,000 to qualify as of January 1, 2024. Before that, the income threshold was 85%.
TO APPLY FOR CCSP
Print, complete, and return the application by mail:
Call OFCS 1-877-680-5866 or (207) 624-7999 Monday-Friday, 8:00am-5:00pm
Visit your local DHHS office to receive a printed application. Find your local DHHS office or call 1-877-680-5866 or (207) 624-7999.
About The Jackson Laboratory
The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, non-profit biomedical research institution with a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and nearly 3,000 employees in locations across the United States (Maine, Connecticut, California) and Japan, as well as a joint venture in China. Its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health. For more information, please visit www.jax.org.
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR THE ISLAND OF IMAGINATION
Island of Imagination Daycare Center
640 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609
207-610-7600
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://www.defymca.org/locations/mdi-early-learning-center/
https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/ocfs/support-for-families/child-care/paying-for-child-care
DISCLAIMER: Carrie Jones came to Bar Harbor from Bates College because her former husband received a job at JAX. She has been a part-time employee of the Down East Family YMCA, a summer intern for Janet Mills when Mills was the district attorney based in Lewiston, and also she was (for a brief time) co-chair of the Kids’ Corner board.