Crow Wing County is looking to address the child care shortage by providing grants to help both existing providers and new daycare businesses.

According to the county, a number of businesses are having trouble recruiting workers into the labor market as they’re having a difficult time finding daycare services. Thanks to funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, the county will be providing grants to daycare providers as long as they follow certain requirements.

“The only thing that the grant cannot cover is ongoing staffing costs, because it’s one-time money, and so it won’t do anything for long-term staffing costs,” said Crow Wing County Administrator Tim Houle. “We can use it for the equipment necessary to run a daycare, we can use it for staff training, we can use it for licensing costs. Bottom line is, we know that we need more daycare slots in Crow Wing County, and so we’re trying to use some of these federal funds to create an incentive for us to get some more.”

Applications can be submitted online at the Brainerd Lakes Area Economic Development Corporation website. The deadline is 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 3rd.

By — Lakeland News