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Potsdam's Building Blocks Daycare remains closed because they can't make payroll

Posted 1/26/15

By CRAIG FREILICH POTSDAM -- Building Blocks Daycare remains closed for the second week, not so much because of minor building code violations, but because they can’t make payroll. “What we had …

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Potsdam's Building Blocks Daycare remains closed because they can't make payroll

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- Building Blocks Daycare remains closed for the second week, not so much because of minor building code violations, but because they can’t make payroll.

“What we had coming in would not support paying our teachers their next paychecks,” said Marianne Jadlos, new director of the center, located behind Snell’s Office Complex on State Rt. 56 north of the village.

Jadlos said when she arrived as the new director Jan. 12, she “came in, looked at the paperwork, including outstanding bills, and I knew finance was a concern. It became clear we owed a lot of money.

“As the week went on, I was concerned for payroll. Paychecks were due on the 16th.”

Jadlos said that members of the board of directors and herself “used our own money” to come up with payroll for the roughly one dozen employees, not including herself and the office manager.

“Another payroll would be due Friday. We knew we would not be able to cover it,” Jadlos said.

That was when the board decided they had to temporarily close the center, which had been serving about 60 children.

They announced the closure last weekend.

“The kids are not here because I cannot pay the employees to watch them.”Jadlos replaced former director Marlene Pickering.

A state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation spokesperson said no active BCI investigation of the center, but a trooper is following up on an early January complaint of a laptop computer missing from center.

Jadlos said inspectors from the state and the town had determined in the meantime that there were some “minor” code violations, such as missing molding, that will have to be addressed, and will be, before the center reopens, but that was not what prompted the closure.

“The finances were the main concern. That’s why we decided to go temporarily inactive.”

She said she did not believe the members of the board “were aware of the depth of our problem, and the extent of the debt. They were surprised.”

She said she and the board will be meeting to define the revenue vs. expenses question, and working with an accountant “to try and figure out what we can do to rectify the situation and open our doors because the community needs daycare.

“We need to know – are we living beyond our means or did some things just catch up with us,” she said. “We have to be sure we can cover the bills.

“We will have to meet the license and code requirements before we reopen, but even if we polish everything up and we still can’t pay our teachers, we can’t open our doors.”