City approves child care center renovations

Robin Hilber

A local childcare center is updating its facility to comply with regulations and increase capacity.

The Columbus Board of Works has approved allowing Children Inc. to make improvements to the Columbus Child Care Center.

According to Assistant Director of Community Development Robin Hilber, Children Inc. manages the center through a lease with the city, which owns the McClure Road property. Under this agreement, facility improvements of more than $5,000 cannot be made prior to written approval.

“Jill Harden, executive director of Children Inc, has asked to use approximately $16,000 of the maintenance account funds to remove the lofts for classrooms 4 and 6 in the B-Wing in order to improve the use of space and comply with current licensing regulations which no longer permit licensed centers to use loft space,” Hilber wrote in a memo to the board.

Children Inc. also has “several grants available for childcare expansion” and would like to add more classrooms to the center, she said.

“Although this will not require maintenance funds, they would like construction approval to alter the building in order to accommodate additional children which is currently a vital community need,” according to Hilber.