ASTORIA, Ore. — It’s official: Peace First Early Learning Center in Astoria, one of Clatsop County’s larger child care centers, will close this summer.
The early learning center, which operates out of buildings owned by Peace First Lutheran Church, looked for alternative locations after the church decided it would list the property for sale — without success. They announced in mid-May that they plan to close in August.
The closure will affect more than three dozen children and eight employees.
The church council, caught off guard by the announcement, told the early learning center’s board at a meeting on May 23 that they were interested in finding a way to keep the center open.
But, following a church council meeting this week, the council said they were going to “respect and accept” the decision to close. The child care center has been a mission of the church since 1988.
In a letter to the early learning center’s leaders, Judith Lampi, president of the church council, said the council was not able to “navigate to nor agree on solutions” to satisfy four conditions the center’s leaders had put forward at the May 23 meeting.
The center’s leaders asked the church council for a commitment in writing that the child care center could continue to operate on the property for two years. If the church accepted this condition, the center asked the church to assume responsibilities for utilities at the downtown campus.
They also asked that the council and congregation take over the search for a new location for the center. Finally, they asked if the center moved to the church’s other campus on the east end of Astoria, that it would be a priority mission in that space.
Lampi told KMUN it was a difficult decision to let go of the downtown campus. It was also financially necessary. The downtown campus has significant maintenance needs the church cannot afford.
Peace First Lutheran is the result of a 2020 merger between Peace Lutheran Church and First Lutheran Church. The congregation meets at the church campus in Astoria’s Uppertown neighborhood.
Lampi said the merged church can’t afford to wait two years to sell the downtown property and take on the utility costs of the early learning center.
“We couldn’t afford it,” Lampi said. “Our church would have been gone.”
The church offered the center one year. The center declined.
“The decision to close the (early learning center) has brought great sadness to everyone involved,” Lampi wrote in her letter to the center’s leaders. “We trust that you, as the board of directors, made your decision based on the challenges facing your business and proceeded with compassion and empathy for your staff and clients.”
Clatsop County has struggled to provide adequate child care for years. City and state officials say the closure of Peace First Early Learning Center will be another blow.
Jim Randall, the center’s board president, told KMUN the child care center couldn’t continue to operate at the downtown property with so much uncertainty about when the property might sell and without clear commitments from the church council for an alternative.
Randall and the center’s leaders met with city, county and state representatives to explore other options for the center for months, but came up empty.
Eva Manderson, the director of Northwest Regional Child Care Resource and Referral, was involved in the search efforts. She told KMUN it was heartbreaking to hear that the center would close.
“Especially to see a program where (director Virginia Atwood) has worked so hard for her staff, so hard for her kids to be a high-quality space and to be a strong business in the community,” she said, adding, “and I’m not surprised when it happens either.”
Manderson said she wished there had been more time to explore options. She pointed to grant funding from Business Oregon coming up this summer that could be put to land acquisition and property upgrades.Randall is a member of Peace First’s congregation as well and finds himself conflicted about what to think and feel.
“I’m still wrapping my head around this,” he said. But he said he doesn’t blame the Peace First congregation. “They’re making their best decision just like we made our best decision,” he said.
“It’s just,” Randall concluded, “circumstances.”
For Lampi, it’s a reminder that child care availability is a much larger, systemic issue. Small churches and small congregations don’t have the funds to help support these operations anymore.
“We need the government’s help,” she said. “We can’t do this as small entities.”