The Waterville Planning Board on Monday unanimously approved a $9.4 million early childhood education center, the first center of its kind in the Northeast.
Construction of the nearly 40,000-square-foot Educare Central Maine, which will be connected to the George J. Mitchell School, will begin this summer, according to the Morning Sentinel. The center is slated to receive $2 million in federal stimulus funds, as well as $3 million from Doris Buffett, sister of billionaire investor Warren Buffett and a leader in the Educare project. The Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation is also offering a $2 million challenge match that requires the Educare funding team to raise $2 for every $1 the foundation contributes, according to the paper.
The center will serve 184 children up to age 5 in the Waterville area, and will serve as a lab site for the Kennebec Valley Community College’s early childhood degree program. It is slated to open in September 2010 and will create 60 jobs, according to the Kennebec Journal.
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