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'You can't just go anywhere': Holmes Child Care tasked with short-term relocation

20250125_Ruesch_city-holmes-childcare-hargraves-repairs-4.jpg
The Hargraves Community Center is shown on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. The community center will undergo HVAC renovations starting in March.

“This is not the first time the Town has done anything like this,” Andre Allen said. “We just felt that it was injustice and a way to push her out of where she was for 30 years.”

Allen, the co-chair of Equity for Education, is talking about Holmes Child Care executive director Alethea Alston. 

Back in November, Alston met with three members of the Town of Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department for what she thought was an informal introduction to a new staff member, Alston said. 

At the meeting, Parks and Recreation assistant director Nikiya Cherry told Alston that her daycare will have to relocate by March 1 for 60 days while the Hargraves Community Center undergoes heating, ventilation and air conditioning renovations.

Now, Alston is trying to find a temporary home for the child care center during the two month renovation period. 

“Had we known months ago, we could do whatever we needed to do and probably had housing ready to go without a problem,” Alston said. “But with such short notice – and it’s never even been a prior conversation in the past – that was very unfair, and it showed disrespect and lack of concern.”

The HVAC renovation includes replacing three units – two on the first floor and one on the ground floor, where Holmes is held, and adding two new units – one on each floor. 

There will also be a new mechanical room on the ground floor, new sub-flooring in the attic and repair and installation of sheetrock walls and ceilings in the attic. 

According to a planning document from the Town, the entire project will take 90 days.

“It's going to be great to have new air and new heat,” Alston said. “I'm looking forward to the upgrade. However, the timing stinks.”

Alston said Cherry told her The Corner Teen Center was a possible relocation option, but it was ultimately up to Alston to find a new location. The teen center is on the ground floor of the U.S. Post Office and District Court and has no playground or fence.

The first floor of Hargraves will also be closed during renovations, and the Town-run after-school program that takes place on this floor will be moved to the gym, Alston said. She said she asked Cherry whether Holmes could relocate to the gym’s side room, but Cherry said Holmes would have to close at 2:30 p.m. to make way for the after-school program.

Emily Ragland, a Holmes parent and North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics administrator, said she and her husband support children in the community by working in education.

“It felt hurtful, almost, and a little disrespectful to have a place say, ‘you have a few months,’ and to not give us better notice or a place to go, or even just an understanding of what it takes to move a licensed child care center,” Ragland said. “You can't just go anywhere.”

On Dec. 6, Alston spoke with the Parks and Recreation Department again and asked about other Town-owned locations, including the Chapel Hill Community Center, she said. 

Atuya Cornwell, the Town’s Parks and Recreation director, is working with Alston to find a temporary space for the child care center, and they are planning to look at a location on South Estes Drive soon, Alston said.

Alston said what she needs from the Town now is support in finding a new location, as well as floor repairs, wall painting and pipe work for the Hargraves location.

At a Chapel Hill Town Council meeting on Jan. 15, interim Town Manager Mary Jane Nirdlinger said the Town will work with the contractor on scheduling and is looking into how they can incorporate repairs into the existing project.

Allen and Ragland are concerned by the late notification Alston received to relocate and wants the Town to investigate. 

The Town knew about the renovation plan months before Alston was notified, but didn’t tell Alston until 10 days after the contractor’s bid was released. 

“You need to give the person at least six months, six to eight months worth of time to find somewhere to go,” Allen said. 

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Ragland also said she wants a clear project timeline, a written guarantee that Holmes will be able to return to Hargraves upon project completion and financial assistance for Alston in the event that there is an increase in rent at the new location.

Alston said she had to relocate the daycare for two and a half years in 2000. The Town did not help her find a new location and was initially told she would have to relocate for nine months, Alston said.

She said she has not had a paper lease since 2003. 

“[Alston] has been grandfathered in for a lifetime, so they can’t kick her out, but they can make it uncomfortable so that she probably won’t want to come back, and that’s not going to happen either,” Allen said.

@DTHCityState | city@dailytarheel.com

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