
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 3, 1994                   TAG: 9408040014
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TAKING CARE OF CHILD CARE

ROANOKE-based Appalachian Power Co. long has played an advocacy role for economic development throughout its Southwest Virginia-West Virginia service area. This week, the electric utility - together with the Roanoke Valley YWCA - made news in a different arena: child care.

Then again, not so different.

Study after study has confirmed that dependable and affordable child care is a critical component of economic development. It contributes to the success of many an enterprise; its availability, or lack thereof, is a key factor weighed by many a business in deciding where to expand or relocate.

There's no mystery why. Good child-care services strengthen the availability and reliability of an area's work force. Productivity is enhanced when working moms and working dads aren't distracted by worries about their children's care while they are at their jobs.

This week, the YWCA and Apco announced an important contribution to the welfare of the valley's children - and the valley's prospects for economic development. The utility is donating land and a building, to be razed, to make room for a $2.8 million child-care center at the YWCA's downtown Roanoke location, a stone's throw from Apco headquarters.

And not just a run-of-mill child-care center. This will be the first of its kind in the state. It will provide traditional day-care services, as well as special day care for youngsters with physical or mental disabilities and those with temporary illnesses.

The need for such a comprehensive child-care center is known all too well to parents who have had to give up their jobs because they cannot find good day care for young children who are, say, visually impaired, or who have hearing problems, or who wear leg braces. In the Roanoke Valley, the Roanoke-based Easter Seal Society of Virginia Inc. estimates, about 70 such children are born each year.

For the past three years, the YWCA has been serving some of these children with its Kids in Special Situations program at the Y's Salem center. With construction of the new child-care center in downtown Roanoke, the valley's employment center, that service can be greatly expanded. All told, the Y expects to serve about 200 children a day at the new facility, half of them in the special-needs category. Fees will vary, depending on family income.

Plans call for making the Y's existing swimming pool, gym and other facilities handicapped-accessible. State-of-the-art playgrounds, and environments designed to encourage early-childhood development and creativity, are to be added. Apco has promised to equip the child-care center's kitchen.

The new center, which could well become a model for other Virginia communities, should benefit many of the Roanoke Valley's children and their parents - and in doing so, benefit the valley as a whole.

by CNB