Daycare To Utilize Former Grocery Store
A commercial building with a history of many ventures including a grocery store, a furniture store and, most recently, an arcade and go-kart amusement facility, will now become a daycare center.
Little Blessings Daycare, currently operating at Pentecostal Lighthouse Church at 123 Fawley St., Warsaw, was granted a variance to use the building at 835 N. Lake St. for the daycare center. The Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals voted in favor of the petition Monday night.
Assistant city planner Tim Dombrosky told the BZA, “This property has been looking for a tenant for a while. It’s my recommendation that a daycare would fit well and it would be my recommendation to approve it.”
BZA member Rick Keeven said, “I’m very, very enthused about this,” and only questioned where the daycare would add a playground. Daycare director Bobbie Crouch said the playground will be located on the east side of the building along West Street.
“The location better suits our needs,” Crouch told the BZA prior to the vote. “There are portions of (the current facility) that are without air conditioning.” She also said the center wants to begin using Paths to Quality and other state programs that the new facility will allow them to apply for.
In the only other order of business for the BZA, the Hispanic Bible Church was granted a variance to use the Bibles and Books location at 129 Roosevelt St. for Sunday morning church gatherings. “It’s like adding a cat to a dog kennel,” Dombrosky explained to the board, “it won’t make much noise and no one will probably notice it.”
The church, consisting of about 30 members, will meet only on Sunday mornings in an area in the back of the bookstore. On Sept. 1, the church will also operated a new name, Vista Fellowships.
The Warsaw BZA is governed by Tom Allen, Rick Keeven, Mary Ellen Jordan, Tammy Dalton and Jack Wilhite.