OZARK — Construction of First Ozark United Methodist Church’s Kingsley Christian Learning Center moved forward Sunday afternoon with an official groundbreaking ceremony.
Church members, construction team members, and civic leaders joined CLC Director Britney Johnson behind shovels to turn the first dirt for the project that is being built behind the historic church on Broad Street in the former Hagler Heating and Cooling Building, now church owned.
People are also reading… Hughes Construction Company of Ozark is awarded the $2,592,300 contract to renovate the building into a state-of-the-art child learning center with a 135-child capacity, Garrett said. Construction should begin Nov. 1 and is expected to take 12 months to complete. “The Kingsley family has had a long standing association with the First United Methodist Church here in Ozark that started some 145 years ago,” she said. “It is still going strong today.
“Child care has become part of incentive packages companies use to recruit,” he said. “A lot of people, even if they live out of town, want their child in child care in the city in which they work.” In 1999 the center opened its doors to 30 children between the ages of six weeks and four. One year later, the center had 52 children enrolled. In 2006, an after school program started, Patton said. “The classrooms extended to upstairs in both the older building and the then-new Family Life Center.