COLONY — The town of Colony’s Krayola Kids Daycare may be nearing its final days. Employees have not received a pay check for two weeks and according to Mayor Morris Fitts, the town has no money to pay the daycare’s seven employees.
“We are trying to decide what to do,” Fitts said. “We have to make a decision about them (employees) being laid off.”
Daycare Director Alicestine Ivory, along with her employees, have said they can not continue to come to work without receiving a paycheck.
“They just told us we just wouldn’t get paid,” Ivory said Tuesday afternoon.
Former town clerk Karen McCombs said in an earlier interview the daycare brings in about $2,000 a month, but the payroll is more than $8,000 per month.
Fitts said the town is out of money.
“It has come down to paying the bills or paying the daycare workers,” Fitts said. “It’s just really sad.”
Parents have not yet been notified of the foreseen closure.
“We wanted to post a notice by Friday,” Fitts said. “We are supposed to give a two week notice. Parents don’t know, there are just rumors going around.”
Ivory is afraid if the daycare is shut down, it will be hard to open back up. She said it is to the point where she can not come to work without compensation.
“I can’t now,” Ivory said. “I come out here for a paycheck, not to volunteer.”
The daycare currently has 25 children enrolled and seven employees.
“I haven’t told the parents,” she said. “We don’t know what to tell parents.”
Ivory said she wants to give the parents notice of the closure.
“We do it for the kids,” she said. “But I can’t do it (work without pay). Some workers can do it because they have spouses that work, but me personally, I can’t.”
Fitts has asked Rep. James Fields for some type of assistance to insure the daycare can stay open.
“Due to their financial situation, it just wouldn’t be right to give them taxpayer money,” Fields said.
Fields said he does not want to see the daycare close, but hopes the town will work together to help open it back up.
“It will devastate the town,” he said. “That’s going to put seven to eight more people in the unemployment line and that’s not necessary.”
The daycare is one of the few businesses in the town.
Fields is certain the town will make it out of its current financial hardship.