WATERTOWN, S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) A recently vacated 14,000-square-foot building that for decades housed local nuns is ready to save Watertown’s largest child care operation from closing.

Like so many communities, Watertown is struggling to make child care work. It’s too expensive for many families to afford, yet not profitable enough to keep child care centers afloat. Some facilities have closed, which makes the demand higher than the supply.

Either way, some parents are forced out of the workforce to stay at home and look after their young ones.

Two years ago, Codington County formed the “Child Care Action Team,” a coalition of leaders of Mothers of God, Lake Area Technical College, and a couple of local nonprofit groups (Codington Connects and Watertown Development Company).

They surveyed residents and found that 74 percent of them believe the area lacks sufficient options in child care, even though 85 percent of area children rely on it.

Now, that coalition is out to solve the problem, starting with the quagmire of Little Blessings, Watertown’s largest child care provider, with over 150 kids and a waiting list of over 100. The wait to get in is currently over a year.

The monastery recently moved its nuns into brand new senior living apartments on its Harmony Hill campus, leaving St. Anne’s residence hall empty.

Not only has Mothers of God pledged to donate the building — valued at $1,000,000 — to Little Blessings, a major child care provider in Watertown, but it has also committed to paying $250,000 for architects, engineering, consultants and licensing.

The current Little Blessings space at Family Worship Center is 5,000 square feet. The 9,000 additional square feet at St. Anne’s could make room for all existing Little Blessings children, plus 50 more kids, taking the clientele to over 200 kids.

It will still take over $2,000,000 in additional funds to renovate St. Anne’s and make the space viable for daycare. That’s a 65 percent discount from what a brand new facility of that magnitude would cost, but it is still nonetheless a steep price tag.

Some small donations have rolled in, but some major employers in the city have so far balked because they already have other financial commitments and child care, while vital, is not a wildly profitable business.