An unlicensed daycare tucked inside a Linworth storefront at 2394 West Dublin Granville Road has been shut down after fire inspectors flagged a laundry list of safety problems, including an open well in the playground and non-working smoke detectors. On Tuesday, the City Attorney’s Property Action Team secured a court order to close the Russian Learning Center, and police later boarded up the daycare portion of the building while the attached Romashka grocery was allowed to stay open for shoppers.
According to WSYX, the emergency court action followed a Columbus Fire inspection and a Serious Hazard Order. City Attorney Zach Klein said in a release that the center “failed to meet basic standards for safe childcare.” Property Action Team attorney Heidi Carr said the city moved quickly with Columbus Fire to haul the unsafe operation into court.
What Inspectors Found
Court filings show Columbus Fire inspected the Russian Learning Center on March 20 and found nearly a dozen serious violations, including non-functioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, no certificate of occupancy for commercial childcare, an open well in the playground large enough for a small child to fall through, and holes in the fence leading directly out to Dublin-Granville Road, according to court documents. The Fire Department issued a Serious Hazard Order that required the owner to vacate the children by the end of the day on March 26 and prohibited the property from operating as a daycare until the problems were fixed. An agreed judgment filed with the court sets a permanent-injunction hearing for May 20, 2026.
Enforcement And Next Steps
The Property Action Team followed the inspection with an emergency lawsuit, and Judge Stephanie Mingo signed an order closing the daycare. The Columbus Police Department carried out the order and boarded up the child-care portion of the building, the city said, per WSYX. Under the court agreement, the Romashka Grocery Store that shares the building can continue to operate while the daycare remains closed and subject to inspections and repairs. The judge is scheduled to revisit the case at the May 20 hearing to decide whether the shutdown of the daycare will become permanent.
Legal Context
Most center-based child-care programs in Ohio must be licensed and meet state health and safety standards before they can open their doors, and they are subject to inspections and enforcement if they fall short. Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 5101:2-12 lays out the licensing process, safety requirements, and inspection rules that govern licensed child-care centers and underpins enforcement actions in cases like this: Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 5101:2-12.
City officials said they plan to keep working with Columbus Fire and code enforcement to hold unsafe operations accountable while families look for licensed alternatives. The case remains open, and the court will decide at the May 20 hearing whether to make the injunction closing the daycare permanent.
