Chillicothe City Council is getting a new place to meet. Beginning with its Nov. 9 meeting, council will gather at the restored Armory in Yoctangee Park, Chillicothe City Council President Kevin Shoemaker announced during the Oct. 26 meeting, according to the Chillicothe Gazette.
Council members had been tasked with finding a new place to hold their meetings and looked at multiple spots in downtown Chillicothe, the Chillicothe Gazette reported. The park option that recently opened up will save the city money while letting council guests enjoy the park’s recent renovations, according to the Gazette.
The Armory was restored through the Appalachian Community Grant, which also funded other upgrades in Yoctangee Park, including the skate park, pickleball courts and a multi-purpose building, the Chillicothe Gazette reported. The state recently approved the city to use the restored building as council’s meeting space until a new permanent home is found.
The move puts one of Ross County’s most public civic routines — council’s regular meetings are held on the second and fourth Monday of every month and are open to the public — inside one of the city’s most visible public investments. Residents who attend the Nov. 9 meeting will see both at once: a council doing its regular business, and a grant-funded building being put to everyday civic use.
No end date for the arrangement has been announced. The Gazette reported the approval covers the city’s use of the building until a permanent council home is found, so the Armory should be treated as council’s address for the foreseeable run of second- and fourth-Monday meetings.
For residents, the practical change is simple: the meeting place moves, nothing else does. The same council, on the same second-and-fourth-Monday schedule, in a building the public already uses for recreation — and, per the Chillicothe Gazette’s reporting, at a saving to the city compared with the alternatives council weighed downtown. Agendas and meeting business remain the public’s to follow in person, now from seats inside Yoctangee Park.
What happens next is the first meeting itself: council convenes at the Yoctangee Park Armory on Monday, Nov. 9, at its regular time, and the public is invited as always. Anyone planning to attend should head for the park rather than council’s former meeting location.