By ADAM ATKINSON

CANTON — Canton Day Center has launched a fundraising campaign to see through the final stage of a planned completion of its second floor.

Center board member Kathryn Mullaney delivered a presentation to the village and town boards at their joint meeting last week, highlighting the project which will cost $450,000.

The center has raised $85,000 for the work thus far.

The building was constructed in 2009, with a planned 10,000 feet spread between two floors at the United Helpers Maplewood campus. The second floor section of the building was never finished said Mullaney.

The financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 put the second floor completion on hold.

“And our fundraising and our enrollment crashed. So we didn’t have the demand for as much space as we had, so we left the second floor unfinished,” Mullaney said. “Now the demand is growing. Demand has grown, we have people calling all the time and we have to turn them away. So we want to finish our second floor.”

“We are trying to expand our capacity,” Mullaney said. The board intends to house its school-age children’s programs at the facility at Maplewood in the fall.

The center has been running a program for 44 school-age children at Canton Central in two rooms they were able to rent at a cheap fixed price. That cheap rental was recently increased to full market price, and the center will be limited to only one room for next year, reducing the program’s legal enrollment potential. New York State requires such programs to provide up to 34 square feet per child.

The state has recently authorized the center to use the second floor at the Maplewood facility for its school-aged population, with the addition of $35,000 in renovations. These renovations would be part of the total completion costs of the second floor, Mullaney said

The center population is currently 16 infants, 24 toddlers, 18 pre-school children, 44 SACC children — 102 children total. The center would like to see that enrollment increase to 114.

“I am here today because I want to spread the word that we are in campaign mode,” Mullaney said.

Canton Day Care currently has applied for grants from the River Valley Redevelopment Agency, NNY Community Foundation, Empire State Development and the Canton Community Block Grant, said Mullaney.

Mullaney invited the gathered municipal officials to visit the center and see the site for themselves.

“If you or your children were in one of the old centers, it is so nice to be able to be in center thats designed for childcare. What a difference it makes, instead of trying to make do in a space that is designed for other purposes,” Mullaney said.

The Canton Day Care Center’s webpage features more information about Canton Day Care, and a page for the public to make tax-deductible contributions to the project at https://cantondaycarecenter.org/give/.