NEW SCOTLAND — “We all know about the struggles of finding childcare … we’ve lived it,” Jennifer Hogan told the crowd that gathered on Aug. 29 to watch her cut the ribbon on her new childcare center.

The Learning Garden is housed in the second building at The Grove at Maple Point, near the intersection of routes 85 and 85A in New Scotland.

Supervisor Douglas LaGrange said the plaza was seven years in the making and that at first Hogan planned on occupying just half of the new building. But the demand was so great in the burgeoning once-rural town, that she is using the entire building.

A report from the state’s Office of Child and Family Services licenses the center through May 2028 and says it has the capacity for 32 infants, 36 toddlers, and 50 preschool students for a total of 118 children. It also lists, as of May 20, just one vacancy for an infant, six for toddlers, and 12 for preschool students.

The center is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

“I always wanted to work in education,” said Hogan, noting she holds both an undergraduate and a master’s degree in the subject.

“It is not babysitting,” Hogan said of her childcare center. “It is education. I stress to my staff when they’re hired and all the time that we’re educators, we follow a curriculum, we use a STEAM-based curriculum,” she said, using an acronym for science, technology, engineering, art, and math, “which I’m very proud of.”

Hogan said she was happy to work with Albany County and to serve families “who need childcare assistance.”

Hogan also said, to applause, “We’re building kind, compassionate individuals.”

Sixty percent of New York state is classified as a childcare desert, said Guinevere Gorman, a member of the board of directors of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce. She also said the need for childcare is expected to grow by 5.9 percent in the next five years.

“We really need two incomes in a family in order to kind of survive …,” Gorman went on. “So it’s pressing most of our families into a position of needing someone like you guys.”

Government at the town, county, state, and federal levels was represented at Thursday’s ceremony.

Congressman Paul Tonko called childcare “an essential service for working families.” He touted the now-abandoned child tax credit “that put money in the pockets of working families” and said he hoped it would be revived.

He also spoke in support of several bills he hopes will pass: the Stabilization Act that would provide $16 billion in grants nationwide; the Child Care for Working Families Act that would use a sliding scale of assistance for families; and the Child Care for Every Community Act that would offer affordable child care and early learning programs for children who are not yet required to attend school.

Tonko thanked Hogan for taking “a leap of faith” and concluded, “Your success will be a stronger beginning for children and we need to see it through their eyes.”

Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy said she was proud of the investments the state has made in childcare and noted “almost $7 billion a year that was obligated about a year ago … which will play out over the next few years.”

But she also said, “I don’t think we’re beginning to fully address all the childcare deserts … The need is great.”

While Tonko admired the light in Hogan’s center, Fahy said, “It smells beautiful.”

She also lauded the sound of the children playing during the ceremony and called the center “a wonderful, nurturing safe place.”

Michael McLaughlin, Albany County’s deputy executive, said, “I’m not really that great at childcare so thank God for those who are willing to undertake this effort.”

He also said, “It’s an incredible workforce development and support model alone, taking away the fact that it’s a necessity of modern life.”