ELYRIA — Child care provider Chris St. Peter was stunned when she received a letter this week saying the state has no money to pay her for taking care of children of low-income parents in June.

“To be honest, I threw up,” St. Peter said. “My husband works at Invacare, but this money (from child care) pays our mortgage — we have a $1,100 mortgage.”

For the time being, St. Peter will continue to take in the children without pay in her Bell Avenue home.

So will her friend Jenn Hill, who cares for youngsters in her home on Furnace Street.

“I’m going to provide services next week and see what happens,” said Hill, the single mom of two. “The parents might have to provide their own food.”

St. Peter, Hill and other anxious child care providers crowded the Thursday meeting of Lorain County Commissioners.

They didn’t get many answers. County Administrator James Cordes said federal money is not flowing to Lorain County Job & Family Services because of the state budget crisis.

Commissioners urged them to contact State Reps. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria and Joseph Koziura, D-Lorain, as well as state Sen. Sue Morano, D-Lorain, to supply with them detailed information about their plight.

The state budget crisis is responsible, according to Mary Lou Golski, director of Lorain County Job & Family Services, who did not attend the meeting.

“They (state officials) do not have any money to forward to us,” Golski said. “We’re sitting on a million dollars of child care bills … a lot of innocent people are going to be harmed.”

The state owes the $1 million to 160 child care providers in Lorain County at 85 centers, Golski said.

Children from some 3,000 households receive care in those facilities while their parents work or train for jobs, Golski said.
“I feel really bad for the day care providers, but we aren’t singling them out,” Golski said.

She said providers are required to give a 10-day notice they will stop providing services. She said Wednesday afternoon that she did not know of any child care providers who are dropping out.

Child care providers said they are worried about the ripple effect if they stop caring for children while their parents work.
“If the parents can’t get to work, they’re going to go on welfare,” said Mary Glynn, of Elyria.

Child Care provider Jean Armstrong said providers will meet on the issue from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the community room at the Elyria Police Station.

She had told county commissioners that child care providers have tight budgets too and mortgages to pay.

“You have to pay your money or they’re going to snatch your house up,” Armstrong said.

After the meeting, Armstrong said she will carry on for now.

“I love my kids — that’s my joy,” she said.

Except for paying its own employees, Golski said Job & Family Services has not been paying its vendors or even paying the county on its lease of the old Cook’s department store building on North Ridge Road.

“I haven’t got any money (from the state) since the middle of June,” Golski said.

She said Cordes told her the county does not have any money to front to her agency for the payments.

“The cupboards are getting bare,” Golski said.

The last check to the agency from the state was just $27,296, with $27,153 designated for child care services and $143 for adult protective services, she said.

Golski said the $27,153 for child care wouldn’t go very far in making $1 million in payments to providers, so the payments are being frozen for now. The payments go out once a month and normally would be sent out by early next week, she said.

Golski met with the union representing some of her own staff of about 300 employees on Thursday but declined to comment on any possible concessions.

Without state funding, the agency could continue to pay its staff for some time — possibly up to two months, she said.

Meanwhile, child care providers worried about what will happen to their small clients and their working parents.

Chris St. Peter and Jenn Hill brought nine children they care for to the county commissioner’s meeting. The children listened patiently, quietly and were well behaved after being told that they were there for a very important purpose.

St. Peter said the parents of children in her center have a hard enough time meeting co-pays ranging from about $10 to $118 a month.

Most of her parents work at restaurants, she said. One mom who works at Red Lobster has four children, according to St. Peter.

Jenn Hill said two of the mothers of children in her care are going to school – one to business college and one to Lorain County Community College.

Hill, who has a first and second mortgage — also worries about caring for her own two kids.

“Where’s our food going to come from?” she asked. “I’m a single mom — the only income-earner in my house.”

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

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