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Kent 360 - Kent, Ohio

Blog of Dave Ruller, Kent City Manager

  • City Dollars and Sense
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WAIT2TEXT Campaign

April 19, 2018 by Dave Ruller

After the Bowman Breakfast earlier this month the Kent Police Department and KSU Police rounded up the usual cast of local dignitaries to help promote a new safety campaign that partners with local businesses to raise awareness on the risks that come when people text and drive, text and walk, and even text and bike.

We’ve all seen the symptoms — head bent down, elongated neck, shoulder hunch, bloodshot eyes, thumb soreness, and completely clueless to what’s happening around them.  It’s not a good look.

That’s why the Kent and KSU PD are joining up to arrange a community intervention in the form of a public information campaign to stop distracted texting.

Everything has a time and a place and m0bile technology has great benefits but not when driving or walking around town — it’s not safe.

The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year. Nearly 330,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving. 1 out of every 4 car accidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving.

Throughout the next month, Kent PD and Kent State PD will be closely monitoring distracted driving and distracted pedestrians to encourage them to keep their phones down and heads up.

KSU just completed a great experiment where they had an employee dress up in a blue Santa suit wearing a bunny head.  The person walked around campus and students were asked if they noticed anything unusual — and as you might imagine, a lot of students were so engrossed in their phone that they had no idea about the costume.

The bunny costume is trivial, a 2,000 pound car is not, so hopefully those students got the point.

Here’s the link to the full story on the bunny costume:

 

 

Filed Under: Safe City

N Water Street, Better Block Themes

April 18, 2018 by Dave Ruller

I blogged a couple weeks ago about a new effort being led by the property owners on N. Water Street (with a little help from the City and Kent State University) to re-imagine the street and to come up with creative ideas to test out as a “Better Block Project” hopefully later this year.

(To get a feel for how Better Block works you can take a look at how the Better Block Foundation helped the residents of North Hill in Arkon re-invent their neighborhood for a weekend).

In the first working session, the imagineers broke into small groups, drew ideas on maps, cut and pasted ideas, and then presented their works of inspiration to the full group.

This week, a few members of the “core team” sat down and reviewed each of the recommendations in order to identify common themes and distill the big picture ideas into a blueprint in hopes for a Better Block test run.

Here’s that list of common themes:

1. Star of the West open area could be used for outdoor activities (stage, seating, cornhole, yoga, jenga, dancing, chess, etc)
2. Mill District branding could be displayed on the Star of the West building (and other locations)
3. Crosswalks at intersection of Columbus & N. Water
4. Crosswalks at intersection of Portage & N. Water
5. Parklet in front of Scribbles Coffee
6. Pop-Up Market in the Hometown Bank parking lot next to Bent Tree Coffee
7. Vacant lot open area used for outdoor activities (across from 257 N. Water Street)
8. Low wall murals/painting in front of houses north of Bent Tree Coffee
9. General: wide use of green space (wall gardens, pocket park, etc)
10: General: wide use of bike racks

These are still just “drawing board” ideas which will have to be worked through if they’re going to make the cut for the Better Block event.

Lots of work yet to be done to figure out how to take these concepts and turn them into “proto-types” to put in the street for a weekend but it’s a great start.

The group welcomes help from anyone that finds this sort of grass roots community based planning fun.  Feel free to contact Harrison at 330 676-7500 to sign up.

Filed Under: City Living, Neighborhoods Matter

State Bike Route 70 Includes Kent

April 17, 2018 by Dave Ruller

Thanks to a little extra work by the City Engineer, the Ohio Department of Transportation has done some re-routing on the designated State Bike Route 70 that will now include a portion of the Portage Hike and Bike Trail that runs through Kent.

State Bike Route 70 is Shown in Dashed Pink Dots

Kent has made significant investments in our “green” infrastructure like bike trails over the last decade so it’s great to see all that effort rewarded with the official state bikeway designation.

The hike and bike trails in Kent are enormously popular by local residents and students, and we’re happy to be able to share those trails with outdoor enthusiasts from all around the state of Ohio who are enjoying a ride on the official state bikeway.

Here’s a presentation prepared by ODOT that gives more details behind the State Bike Route Project:

State Bike Route Overview

 

Filed Under: City Living, Go Green

Kenko’s Restaurant Update

April 16, 2018 by Dave Ruller

Kenko’s is the new restaurant that’s been planned to open at the corner of Haymaker Parkway and Depeyster Street (next to Pizza Kitchen) for more months than I’m sure the owner would care to count — and it looks like a solution for the delays due to the lack of internal kitchen vents is close to being solved.

Temporary  permits have been issued to a contractor to hoist a new duct to be installed inside the building this week — and the fact that the equipment is now stored on site and I saw employees up on the roof of the building made me think it’s getting close to show time.

Kenko’s has a great reputation for their unique blend of sushi and teriyaki sauces but very soon you won’t need to take my word for it, you’ll be able to taste it for yourself.

Stay tuned for their grand opening announcement in the months to come.

Filed Under: Taking Care of Business

PARTA Updates and Public Hearings

April 6, 2018 by Dave Ruller

Our hometown regional transit agency, PARTA, is always working to keep up with the times and they’ve got some changes in the works for their Dial A Ride services (DART) that they want to share for public comment at some upcoming meetings.

DART provides eligible and registered transit riders a special pick-up and ride service for folks whom for various reasons are unable to utilize the fixed-route bus system that most of us are more familiar with.  In those cases, riders can call for pick up and delivery on demand similar to taxi or Uber services.

PARTA transit services are critical in Kent — both DART and fixed route buses — so I’m happy to spread the word of their upcoming proposals.

                                                     

PARTA,

Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority                

Contact: Katherine Manning 330-678-7745 x 113; kmanning@partaonline.org

 Service Change Public Hearings

PARTA will hold public hearings on potential dial-a-ride changes set for July 1, 2018.  Public hearings will be held at the following dates and times:

April 16, Reed Memorial Library                                           10:00 a.m.

April 16, Garrettsville Library                                                2:00 p.m.

April 17, Randolph Senior Center                                         10:00 a.m.

April 18, Kent Central Gateway (2nd Floor)                         2:00 p.m.

April 19, Reed Memorial Library                                           5:00 p.m.

April 20, Streetsboro Library                                                 2:00 p.m.

 

Dial-a-ride response service (DART) is shared-ride, general public transportation available to passengers who register with PARTA.  PARTA is proposing a series of changes to its DART service with the goal of creating long term sustainable service.  PARTA has not made any substantial changes to its DART system or its fare structure since 1998.   A countywide sales tax passed in 2002, along with contract and state and federal funding, has in part funded a countywide DART service over the last 15 years.  However, despite PARTA’s efforts to run efficiently and keep costs low, PARTA has seen a decline in revenue along with inflationary costs.  Therefore, PARTA is now taking steps to redesign the DART service model to support ongoing service for Portage County residents by:

 

Reallocating Days/Hours of Operation

Service hours will be reallocated to support expanded days and hours of service, mirroring fixed route services:  Monday-Friday 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Increase in DART Fares

DART Current Proposed
General Public $4.00 $6.00
Reduced Fare $2.00 $3.00
Medicaid (Contract with JFS or DD Board) Free
Ticket Book General Public (10 Ride) $30.00 $54.00
Ticket Book Reduced Fare (10 Ride) $15.00 $30.00

 

Utilization of Fixed Route System

Trips that have easy access to fixed route bus service and have pickup and drop off locations within .3 miles of a fixed route will no longer be eligible for DART service. Trips will still be eligible for DART if pickup or drop off locations are outside the 0.3-mile subject to service availability.

PARTA offers free travel training to help individuals and groups learn to use PARTA’s fixed route system. Individuals who attend the class for the first time receive a free 10-ride pass. (A list of upcoming classes is available on partaonline.org.)

PARTA encourages Portage County residents to attend the public hearings that have been scheduled.  If residents are unable to attend, comments should be directed to PARTA at 2000 Summit Road, Kent, OH, Attention: Planning Department, via mail or fax at 330-676-6310.  Comments can also be made online at www.partaonline.org.

Filed Under: Services News

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Contact me: Dave Ruller: RullerD@kent-ohio.org

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