A new child care center is up and running in Mapleton and aiming to fill a pressing need for working parents.
Putnam Playtime opened the week of Nov. 13 in an expansion of a home-based daycare run by Karen Putnam of Mapleton.
A former medical and nursing assistant, Putnam ran a home-based daycare serving 10 young children for about two years, and decided to expand the business this year.
“I was getting called all the time about taking new children and I had to say no,” Putnam said. “I was getting at least one phone call a day for a while. People are saying there’s just no providers out there.”
Putnam and her husband decided to take their daycare business to the next level, building a new childcare center next to their home on the Grendell Road and getting fully licensed as a commercial daycare center that can serve up to 38 children.
In Maine, home-based daycare providers are licensed as family providers and are allowed to have up to 12 children in their care and one employee. Providers that serve more than 12 youngsters are licensed as daycare centers and must have a commercial building that meets local code as well as a host of state requirements.
Putnam said she has filled about 12 slots and will have four employees.
Karin Petrin, microenterprise specialist with New Ventures Maine, helped Putnam with business planning and said her expansion could be a model for a small business adapting to meet regional needs and complying with complex regulatory requirements.
“Child care is one of those industries where the margins can get really tight, really quickly, and we wanted to make sure it was going to be sustainable for her to make a center,” Petrin said of working with Putnam.
“Managing 30 little kiddos versus 6 is a very different dynamic,” Petrin said. “There’s much more stringent rules. It’s almost treated as a school. A center has to have educational components, safety measures, and staff with higher education requirements.”
Putnam said she’s looking forward to this next phase of the business and to helping fill a need in the Mapleton area for young families.
“It takes two people to work, and the way things cost, if two parents aren’t working, they’re not going to be able to provide for their family,” Putnam said. “Working families need to be able to provide for their family and have a reliable person watching their kids without any worries.”
