Staff Report

SYRACUSE — As Polywood prepares to launch a $12 million expansion that will bring 300 to 400 more jobs to the area, some have asked if the area has enough housing, child care and classroom space. While not all the new employees may move to the area, it is hoped a large number will.

Housing

When it comes to affordable housing, the market is pretty tight. Kay Young, a realtor with Todd Realty and treasurer of the Kosciusko County Board of Realtors, said affordable housing ranges from $125,000 to $250,000, although she thought the top price would be a stretch. The minimum would be a house with two bedrooms, two bathrooms although most homebuyers prefer three bedrooms especially if they have children.

Young said since early 2019 there have been 179 sales in the Syracuse/Milford/North Webster area with an average sale price of $120,000. At press time there were 11 in those same areas listed in that range.

When it comes to renting an apartment, Young said average rent for a one-bedroom would be between $700 and $900 a month. There are very few apartments and currently almost no homes available for rent. The cost of renting a house would be more than $1,000 a month according to Young.

One of the main issues causing a tight housing market is finding affordable land to build affordable housing on. Another issue is for developers, the big money isn’t in building affordable homes. The only way to fix the issue is to convince builders there is a profit to be made, finding affordable land and finding the backing for building affordable housing.

Syracuse Town Manager Mike Noe said Syracuse has a housing committee that is working with the county on attracting developers to the area.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation’s housing committee recently commissioned a study to look at housing county wide. According to Stephanie Overbey, CEO of the community foundation, a preliminary draft of the report has been sent out to local government officials. The housing committee will be meeting later in June to discuss when it should be released to the public.

Child Care

With new jobs coming it’s expected there will be an increased need for child care for those new employees. According to the LaunchPad website, in Syracuse, there is one licensed home providing child care, one pre-school ministry and one day care. In North Webster there is one early education center and two pre-schools while in Milford there is one early education center.

LaunchPad is a child care and early learning coalition in Kosciusko County. “We already know from some data that came out last fall that the Syracuse area is a child care desert. Meaning the area has less than one child care seat for every three children who need care,” said Sherry Searless, director of LaunchPad.

LaunchPad recently received a state grant and will be using some of those funds to bring more child care to the area. Two programs will be launched soon, a child care center will be established at Syracuse Elementary School for Wawasee staff while in North Webster an early pre-school program will be offered to the public. This program will be limited to 30 spots.

“If everything opens as normal in the fall, those programs will stay,” Searless said. However, what most parents need is child care for infants and toddlers.

Searless said the biggest issue is the model for child care is broken. In order to pay for qualified staff, parents have to be charged an amount they can’t afford. The average pay for someone working in child care with a childhood development degree is $9.35. “It’s difficult to find qualified staff,” Searless said. “We just don’t have enough people in the field.”

LaunchPad believes the way to fix the problem is for businesses to invest, not necessarily by having an on-site day care for employees, but instead invest in LaunchPad as it works to invest in child care throughout the county.

Searless explained having an on-site facility brings its own set of headaches, from liability insurance to being able to provide child care for employees on each shift.

Education

If more people move to the area, will there be space in Wawasee schools for additional students?

In an email to The Mail-Journal, Dr. Tom Edington, superintendent of Wawasee Community Schools, addressed the question: “Wawasee schools was aware that a Polywood expansion was in the works. We are thrilled for Polywood, our community and our school district.

“Wawasee is working with Polywood as we expand our career/tech course offerings since we are a feeder program for the local economy and Polywood is already the largest employer in the district. With trends of some families leaving rural Indiana areas for the larger cities, Wawasee has experienced a slight decrease in enrollment over time. We have space in our schools and program offerings if our enrollment would increase locally.

“We are presently working on various plans for opening school in the fall. Those plans depend on health conditions in the community and state. We want to be a part of the learning and growing of children in a closer way than an electronic screen! We are considering how school can look and work in 2020-21, given any restriction due to the virus.

“Wawasee is thrilled that Polywood will have a bigger and better place to work, that the new ball fields planned for Kern Road will be great, that our economy continues on an uphill climb and that our schools will be back in some good fashion in August.”