There’s good news for parents whose children attend Yellow Brick Road Infant & Toddler Center. The center has lights, heat and action – after a day of darkness, cold and no action.
The daycare center, located on South Third Avenue, was forced to close Wednesday after its boiler failed overnight Tuesday. With biting cold that had reached as low as five degrees degrees before sunrise, pipes in the center’s basement froze and broke.
“I got here at 7 a.m.,” said owner Sandi Cacace. “Pretty much as soon as I walked in, I was like, ‘Brr, it’s cold in here. It shouldn’t be like that.’ ”
The lack of heat required contacting parents of 11 children to let them know they couldn’t attend Yellow Brick Road that day. Because of licensing restrictions, Yellow Brick Road was not able to accommodate the children at its other facility across the street, which was open.
“I was surprised they were closed because they are almost always open,” said Andrea Alexander who has a toddler at Yellow Brick Road. “They stayed open through most of the snow storms. They are open most of the holidays when I have to work and other schools are generally closed. They are always there for the parents and go the extra mile to be flexible to accommodate our needs. They take great care of Betty and we really appreciate what they do.”
“Believe me, this is something I never, ever like to do,” said Ms. Cacase of the closure. “We are definitely open tomorrow. We are up and running, warming up as we speak.”
Although relief from the cold weather is on its way, Highland Park is expected to face lows of minus four degrees on Thursday and only one degree on Friday. Neither day is expected to have temperatures rising above 12 degrees. A break is expected to come Sunday, when temperatures may reach a high of 49 degrees, although rain also is in the forecast.
For homeowners concerned about the risk of freezing pipes — and so far, none in Highland Park has been reported, except for Yellow Brick Road’s — the American Red Cross on its web site recommends keeping the thermostat set at the same temperature overnight as during the day, and leaving cabinet doors open to expose pipes to warmer air.
We had a burst frozen pipe!