Holts Summit church to break ground on new preschool

Construction will soon begin on an addition to Grace Lutheran Church in Holts Summit, to be used as a preschool. The church will have a groundbreaking ceremony following Sunday morning services on May 6.
Construction will soon begin on an addition to Grace Lutheran Church in Holts Summit, to be used as a preschool. The church will have a groundbreaking ceremony following Sunday morning services on May 6.

Parents of preschoolers here will soon have a new place to send their children to learn.

Grace Lutheran Church is planning an addition to its building to be used as a preschool, teaching children about Christ in addition to a basic preschool curriculum. There will be a groundbreaking ceremony for the new addition Sunday, May 6 after morning services.

Don Rahm, president of the church council, said that it is a project the church has had an interest in for a while.

"It's been discussed for probably the last two years," Rahm said, elaborating that they've recently met with people who are experienced in running early child care centers and preschools, getting the ball rolling for them. "We've also had a desire to actually increase the space that we have available for the church. The daycare center would allow us to expand ... things are falling in place now for us to be able to get started on this."

After the ceremonial groundbreaking, Rahm hopes to get construction fully under way that month, and have the addition finished and ready to go in August for the 2012-13 school year. He's still waiting to hear back from his builder with subcontractor bids, but he anticipates the addition will cost in the vicinity of $350,000.

"It's a fair amount of money for a church building, but the nice part about this is it will be used on a daily basis," said Rahm. "Having a preschool in there is going to really open up and provide the need and use for the building, so it's definitely worth the price."

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.