BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Gracedale, the Northampton County nursing home, will convert the first floor of its vacant Southeast Wing into a day care center that will offer free services to employees of Gracedale and the county’s emergency operations center and forensic center, the county said in a news release Monday.
- Gracedale, the Northampton County home, will convert its first floor into a free day care center for county employees
- Construction on the $562,399 project is scheduled to start this month
- The county will hold a news conference to kick off the project Tuesday
The county will hold a July 25 news conference to kick off the $562,399 project. Construction will start this month, the county said in a release.
County Executive Lamont G. McClure, Northampton County Human Services Director Susan Wandalowski and Gracedale Administrator Jennifer Stewart are scheduled be at the Tuesday event.
The new day care will be operated by Learning Locomotion, which has locations in Easton, Bangor and Wind Gap and whose website says it “provides educational experience for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, pre-kindergarteners, school-age children and even pre-teens.”
The county has partnered with USA Architects to design the project and awarded contracts to CMG of Easton Inc. for general contracting, JBM Mechanical for mechanical and HVAC and Billitier Electric for electric, according to the release.
McClure first proposed the idea of building a day care at Gracedale more than a year ago, saying it would be an incentive to attract nurses and support staff to work at the county home, which was dealing with staff shortages.
McClure at that time asked County Council to approve using $2 million of the American Recovery Act funds for the project.
