Hohnstein: Ulbersdorf: Everything ready for the children

–

Find your training, finance your apprenticeship, continue your career – here you will find job offers and tips on the subject of work and education.

–

It was a long way to get there. Because in the day-care center, work was carried out in several construction phases. At the very beginning, however, there was a threat. The existing day care center was too small and the city was threatened with a reduction in the capacity of the operating license. If that had happened, some daycare places would have been lost for the whole of Hohnstein. The city decided to act and the city council went along with it, even if it was repeatedly an uncertain construction project, mainly because of some imponderables such as subsidies or construction prices. The project was divided into two construction phases.

First, a former apartment was added to the day-care center and the whole thing was rebuilt. That would have solved the space problem. However, it was already clear back then that the day-care center would have to be completely renovated at some point. But at that time there was no money for it. Funding was only available through the district’s own Kita-Invest program.

Rural daycare saved

In May 2021, the city of Hohnstein then benefited from another funding program. The city had applied to “Vitale Dorfkerne und Ortszentren” with the kindergarten and also received the grant notice in October 2021. And so it was clear that the castle kindergarten could really be whipped into shape. But this required freedom to build. During this time, the children moved to the ASB day care center in Ehrenberg.

With the conversion and renovation, a piece of jewelery has now been created. The city has succeeded in renewing the fourth and thus last day-care center after Ehrenberg, Hohnstein and Rathewalde. And Mayor Daniel Brade (SPD) can report something positive. With the originally planned construction costs of 577,000 euros, this time the total expenditure of 543,000 euros is very good.

–

For this purpose, practically the entire lower part of the castle was turned inside out. The new crèche area in the former apartment now has its own playroom, bedroom and bathroom. In addition, experts have completely renewed the electrical and sanitary installations. A liquid gas heater replaces the old night storage heaters. The walls were completely replastered and painted. In addition, there is now a small office for the teachers. Barrier-free access to the day-care center has now also been achieved.

Since the facility is quite many years old and the castle is no longer brand new, there were also a few surprises for the builders, which sometimes led to replanning. Significant deficiencies were identified when the floors were renewed. “We decided to completely rebuild the floors. This eliminated the steps between the rooms and the hallway,” says the mayor. Originally, the intention was not to touch the bathroom in the existing building. But here, too, significant defects were found in the sanitary installation and the walls, so that some things had to be renewed. But now the children can take possession of their castle kindergarten again.

This means that the 30 places in the facility will be retained. “For us, the refurbishment is also a huge added value for the castle. In particular, the installation of the gas heating will benefit the entire building. So far there has only been furnace firing and electric heating,” says the mayor. And last but not least, the extensive renovation has made it possible to keep the day-care center in Ulbersdorf. That was not always so. Some can still remember very bad times, when there were sometimes only ten children to look after. At that time, the city of Hohnstein jumped into the breach and took over part of the wage costs for the kindergarten teachers.

–