Affordable child care, safety at Oxford-Crailsheim intersection pursued by local governments

Dec. 11—WORTHINGTON — The shortage of affordable child care in Nobles County continues to hamper current employers and community growth alike, and local leaders decided Friday to form an ad hoc committee to progress toward a solution.

Representatives of the county, the city of Worthington, District 518 and Minnesota West Community and Technical College met Friday to work together on child care and other issues.

"The time for studying this thing I think is done," said Worthington Mayor Mike Kuhle. "We gotta do something."

Kuhle will form the committee, including county and city staff as well as several local businesses who have experienced hiring challenges due to the shortage of affordable child care.

The group considered a multitude of options regarding child care, even floating a series of possible locations where a day care center could be located — West Elementary, which District 518 has intended to demolish; a floor in the Atrium, which would not improve the local housing shortage; The Globe building at the corner of Third Avenue and 11th Street, the old Edgewood facility and others.

Another suggestion was that the Nobles County Arts Center could potentially go in together with a child care facility, as the Nobles County Library'sWorthington branch is hoping to use its space in the library's basement at some point in the future.

District 518 is looking at expanding preschool in the future as well, which could potentially start in fall 2023, said Superintendent John Landgaard.

The intersection

The group also floated a number of options to improve the safety of the Oxford Street and North Crailsheim Road intersection. Oxford Street is also known as Nobles County 35.

Worthington Middle School is located at that corner, but in recent years District 518 has planned a number of other building projects along North Crailsheim, including the Learning Center, which is complete and in use, as well as the Intermediate School and the Community Education building, both of which remain under construction.

Already, District 518 has adult crossing guards to shepherd children across the street at the beginning and end of the school day, but when the building projects are done and the facilities are in use, traffic on Crailsheim will increase.

"Even with crossing guards we've had a lot of issues," Landgaard said.

There have been close calls, many drivers who go too fast, and even a few incidents with drivers losing their tempers.

While the state sets the speed limits based on traffic studies, Nobles County can improve the safety of the intersection in other ways, such as adding a left turn lane for the school and changing the configuration of the intersection slightly — "in general, anything we can do to keep speeds more reduced in that area," said County Engineer Aaron Holmbeck.

Other suggestions were made too, like closing a street, moving a crosswalk or adding more flashing lights farther from the intersection to warn drivers to slow down before they reach the intersection.

The speed limits remain a major concern.

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