PAXTON — Paxton Park District officials appear determined to help out the soon-to-be-displaced Paxton Community Nursery School by letting the organization that oversees more than 50 area children use park district grounds to hold its programs on a daily basis next year — even if it possibly means displacing the Paxton Peace Meal program that has used the park district facilities for the past 29 years.

After more than an hour of discussion at a Feb. 14 meeting, the park district board instructed nursery school officials to bring written plans on how they would use the Civic Center  to a special meeting that was called for Thursday, Feb. 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the Civic Center, 601 S. Fall St.

Voting on how to proceed with the nursery school will be the main item on the agenda.

Though the board did not vote on anything at its meeting last week, the majority of its members expressed a desire to do whatever they could to help provide a home for the nursery school, which after 44 years is being forced to move out of the Paxton United Methodist Church in May after its lease expires.

“If it comes down to finding a temporary spot for Peace Meals, that’s what we’re going to have to do,” board member Brad Strebeck said.

“If we can help out when no one else can ... I personally feel we should do all we can,” said board President Eric Evans, who added, “I don’t think there’s going to be a fee” for the nursery school.

Because of various state regulations intended to protect children, the nursery school has had an extremely hard time finding a new facility to use in Paxton next school year, said Erin Graham, vice president of the nursery school board.

Nursery school officials have looked at 11 churches in town to see if they could be rented, but none met fire codes that prevent such children’s programs from being held on any floor other than the ground floor without a sprinkler systems in place, Graham said. A lack of distance from registered sex offenders and the presence of weapons on site have squashed any ideas of using a few other facilities in town, as well.

“We will close if we don’t find a place. We’re kind of at our last resort,” said Michele Cosgrove, president of the nursery school board.

Like the nursery school, the Peace Meal program that provides meals and social opportunity to the elderly operates, for the most part, Monday through Friday.

Because both organizations would need to use the main room of the Civic Center over the noon hour, the park district is in a difficult situation trying to come up with a solution.

Ideally, Peace Meal would not be displaced if the nursery school moves in. Hoping to build some long-term stability by using some of their own money through fundraising and possibly funding from the city, nursery school officials have expressed interest in building an approximately 1,200-1,600-square-foot addition — in a yet-to-be-determined direction — onto the Civic Center to use for their program.

Such a proposed new addition would be owned by the park district, attorney Bob Martensen said, but an agreement could be made in which the nursery school would have the first right to use the room for its programs.

In a perfect scenario, such an addition could be built over the summer and be done before the nursery school starts its classes in August, meaning it would never need to displace the Peace Meal program to use the main room at the Civic Center.

Because the potential addition would hook into the existing utilites and would be simple in nature — it would just be a large room with a small kitchen and some restrooms, officials said — officials from the nursery school and park district are holding out hope it will not take but a few months to construct.

Still, that is just the best-case scenario, and it would still be cutting it close to the next of school in August. The proposal would also likely rely on the city of Paxton potentially offering up to $30,000 toward the project through the city’s revolving-loan fund, which provides low-interest loans to businesses and organizations to create or retain jobs.

Mayor Bill Ingold said he and city officials will do all they can to help, but there are “no promises.”

There is also no telling how long it could take to come up with the rest of the funding and whether the permit process and construction go smoothly.

So that still leaves a decision to be made, as the nursery school wants to know it has a home next year before moving forward. And it is a tough decision, as the park board did agree the Peace Meal program is a valuable program in town. The program provides meals for the elderly, with sometimes only a few showing up, but other times, it’s many more; at a recent lunch, 14 individuals were welcomed.

“I hate the idea of displacing Peace Meals,” said park district board member Kay McCabe, who expressed the most support for Peace Meal of anyone on the board. “We’re already committed to Peace Meals.”

With the Peace Meal program not having restrictions on where it can operate like a nursery school does, and with the nursery school being home to 54 children this school year, it appears there will be a move toward formally approving park district grounds as a home for the nursery school.

If that turns out so, the Peace Meal program will still have a home until August. After that, park district officials reiterated, the plan for a move by the Peace Meal program would only be “temporary” if it is needed.

But Peace Meal regional supervisor Cathy Lentz said her organization will have to look out for its best interests, in the short term and long term.

“We will do what we need to do (for us),” said Lentz, indicating the program would stay elsewhere if it found a better home in Paxton.

“I know the value of the nursery school, but just not in this (park district) building,” added Cathy Whitcomb, site supervisor of the Peace Meal program in Paxton.

Park district officials reiterated they want to make this work for both sides.

“We don’t want to displace anyone. We want to help as many as possible,” board member Steve Sample said.