AUGUSTA -- Waterville will be the first community in New England to boast an innovative child care and education center aimed at wiring children for success by promoting brain development in the first five years of life.

First Lady Karen Baldacci announced today at a Blaine House ceremony that Waterville is the chosen site for an Educare Center and the $4 million from Educare backers Doris Buffett -- sister of billionaire investor Warren Buffett -- and the Ounce of Prevention Fund.

"It is a great day for Maine, a great day for Maine's children and a great day for Maine's future," Mrs. Baldacci said.

Buffett alone is contributing $3 million through her Buffett Early Childhood Fund.

Waterville beat out three other Maine communities that initially applied.

The outside money will be boosted by $2 million by local donors Bill and Joan Alfond. Bill is the son of the late Harold Alfond, the multi-millionaire philanthropist and former owner of Dexter Shoes.

The Greater Waterville Alliance for Early Care & Learning, a team of educators, social-service professionals and children advocates, developed the winning proposal, which calls for building a $10 million Educare building by the George J. Mitchell School.

Mitchell School serves students from preschool to grade 3.

Alliance members said the Center would serve 166 children and feature a staff of more than 60, most of them highly qualified educators and child-development professionals.

The alliance projects an operating budget of $2.8 million and hopes to have the Center open by fall 2010.