Canal Winchester finds a new use for council chambers

CANAL WINCHESTER, Ohio (WCMH) — Kids are taking over city council chambers inside Canal Winchester City Hall.  

Instead of agendas, city staff, and council members, council chambers on Wednesday morning was full of children and toys, resembling a big playroom or daycare.

“Oh gosh, as you can see now, she is playing doctor or nurse, she loved the blocks over there, she was building," Kate Perz said about all the different things her 3-year-old daughter played with.  

A space normally used for resolutions, ordinances, and zoning had a toy coffee shop, car, and other toys as part of what the city calls Kid Zone. 

“It’s so sweet,” Mikayla Brown said about her two-year-old son. “He's made so many friends and he's having a blast. You can tell he’s just living his best life. It's been so much fun.” 

The idea came up after a business offering a similar space closed. Many of the playsets at city hall came from there, according to Hannah Woodruff, events and communications coordinator for the City of Canal Winchester.  

“We have a lot of programming geared for older adults and so we wanted to make sure we were targeting and bringing something into the community for all of our residents, so this is another subsect of our community that needs some attention and might need a free fun place to burn off some steam and energy," she said. 

The first Kid Zone was held Wednesday morning. Woodruff said as soon as it opened, children were bouncing from one toy to the next. It was some parents’ first time inside council chambers. 

“This is great, this is the best way to be in city council, I think," Perz said. 

Kid Zone will be held Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The plan is for it to run all year and parental supervision is required. 

"Certainly repurposing space,” Woodruff said. “We have the room. It does sit empty a lot of the time, so to be able to give it some life during the week with some young kids is really great for us.”