Ponderay OKs mall day care

PONDERAY — The empty space in the Bonner Mall, previously occupied by North Idaho College, could soon become a 24-hour day care site.

Upon recommendation by the Ponderay Planning Commission, City Council members unanimously approved a special use permit Tuesday requested by the Bonner Mall to allow Little Fit Day Care to operate in the space.

Dennis McLeish of Ponderay started Little Fit Day Care last summer and said he is hopeful that the commercial site in the mall will open in February.

"My hope is that it will jumpstart the mall," McLeish said. "If we've got a place where parents can go to other businesses and spend $10 to have their kids go play for a couple of hours, that's wonderful." 

During last week’s Ponderay Planning Commission meeting, assistant planner KayLeigh Miller gave a presentation on plans for the site, which includes a proposal for a new entrance to Bonner Mall Cinemas. The new entrance will be located to the west of the current entrance, and the current theater entrance will become the daycare entrance. Since the west side of that section of the mall was previously walled off, walling off the east side of space would separate the day care from any other businesses in the strip to ensure the safety of the kids and minimize distraction to mall-goers. McLeish said the day care area will be sound-proofed as well.

Tom Hix, facilities manager of the Bonner Mall Partnership, attended the meeting in support of the day care as well. He said Miller did a good job going over the plans for the site, adding only that he is working with contractors on the doorways and there would not be any outdoor play areas added because McLeish and his employees take the children out into the community for activities.

Little Fit employees take the kids out to places in the area like parks, trails and the library.

"I wanted to do it so my son wouldn't feel like he is missing out on life, so that why I chose to do it where we go out into the community and we do all the activities," McLeish said.

As the children of Little Fit employees ran around the proposed site Monday afternoon, McLeish told the Daily Bee that his son, 2-year-old Dennis McLeish IV, is his inspiration for starting the day care.

"He is the reason our pricing is so cheap," McLeish said. "When his mom and I were still married we were just really struggling, with two people. Not even high schoolers will do the prices I do with Little Fit."

McLeish was a manager of sporting goods department store before starting Little Fit, and he said kids are the most common reason people get fired or quit.

"Either the day cares are too expensive or the kids get sick and can't go, or they are just working to pay for somebody else to raise their kids, and that doesn't sound right to me," McLeish said.

Little Fit accepts children from 3 months old to 12 years old, and McLeish said they charge $10 for up to five hours, $20 for five to 10 hours, and $25 dollars for more than 10 hours. They accept walk-ins as well, McLeish said. He said it is difficult to manage, but an excess of staff will be on at all times to accommodate walk-ins when the new facility opens.

McLeish said he chose to open a 24-hour day care because there are a lot of swing shift and night shift opportunities in the area, such as Litehouse Foods, so he wanted to cater to that need.

The employees also do school pick-ups and drop-offs for $2 a day per family. He said about 20 of the 56 children enrolled in Little Fit are transported to school by the employees.

In order for parents to know where there kids are at all times, McLeish uses the Bright Wheel App, which he discovered by watching the show "Shark Tank." It creates a "mini Facebook feed" McLeish said, though only those authorized to do so can see it, so the parents can only see their own child or children. The employees use the app to alert parents to when they take the children to the park, pick up a child from school, when the child eats, sleeps, or any other activity. The parents can put in any important information as well.

"It's a free app as well," McLeish said. "And the best part is, with the pictures from there and our Facebook page, the parents don't have that empty space in their kids' lives."