With the Little Charger Early Learning Center holding its groundbreaking for new facilities Friday, they still have a little bit to go before the project is completely funded.

Board of Directors President Laura Robson says that when the ELC received the initial estimated project price, it was going to cost roughly $1.4 million dollars, but that they ran into some issues before getting everything started. She mentions that the main issues that they’ve faced include supply chain issues, labor shortage for contractors and inflation.

Robson tells Raccoon Valley Radio how those issues have affected the project.

“It has caused our projected building cost to increase by close to $800,000. So, yeah, that’s caused us to kind of take a pause there for a little bit. We hoped to start this, honestly, about a year ago, but we have paused here this last year or so to try and regain our focus, gather some of those funds, and continue to move the project forward.”

Robson explains that they decided to go ahead and start the project, as the deadline to use the funds from some of the grants they’ve already obtained is approaching and they don’t want to lose that funding. After the adjusted estimate came out, the ELC has continued to apply for grants and hold fundraisers, and has roughly $600,000 left before the project is fully funded.