Tonya Fetzer already owns one childcare facility, but overwhelming demand, she said, has led her to open a new one in Lucasville. Although there are other childcare options in the area, she said hers will be Lucasville’s first licensed daycare center.

“There’s never been a center (in Lucasville before) … This is a center, this is not a home-based daycare,” Fetzer said.

Fetzer’s new business, the Lil’ Lambs Learning Center, is essentially a response to the success of her first.

“I own Northwest Area Child Care on (State Route) 348, and there wasn’t enough spots, so I knew that the need was great in our area,” Fetzer said.

The Lil’ Lambs Learning Center will open Oct. 19 at 188 Morgan Drive behind the Briar Patch. It’s a location Fetzer says will allow her to serve parents in both the Northwest and Valley school districts. She hopes it will also help alleviate the pain of school budget cuts.

“This is going to be specialized in pre-school. We have two licensed teachers on site and with the cutbacks with the schools, we decided it was time to step up because there’s been a lot of cutbacks with Head Start,” Fetzer said.

The Lil’ Lambs Learning Center will employ 10 people and care for children as young as 4-6 weeks old.

“We are able to watch children before school and after school,” Fetzer said. “We watch them from the age of 4-6 weeks, whenever the doctors OKs them to be put in our facility, until they are age 13. Once they turn 13, they no longer can come.”

Fetzer said she is excited to be able to open her business in Lucasville not only because there is a need for childcare, but because there is also a need for good news.

“We’re really excited to offer this for the Lucasville community, because our community is a good one. This is showing a lot of positive attitude whenever we bring new businesses in our little community,” Fetzer said. “There’s more to say than just all the negative publicity Scioto County has got. There’s good things happening here. We’re growing, we’re reaching out and doing a good community service.”

For more information about the Lil’ Lambs Learning Center, call 740-259-2066 or 740-876-9272.

ERIC KEPHAS can be reached at 740-353-3101 ext. 234 or ekephas@heartlandpublications.com.