Kent’s Health Commissioner and his staff have worked hard to step up their attention to proper trash handling in City neighborhoods and it’s encouraging to see things looking better than ever before — but there’s still room to improve and at the recommendation of the Health Department, City Council approved a new set of regulations, tickets, and fines that can be used at properties of repeat offenders who choose week-in and week-out to ignore basic trash storage and containerization requirements.

The Health Department made their recommendations to up the ante on trash compliance because they’ve received an increasing number of trash complaints called in during 2014 — with many of the complaints coming from neighbors living near properties that have become chronic violators.  It was time to try something different and bring those neighborhoods some relief.

Improper handling of trash can lead to a long list of troubles from unsanitary conditions and the types of vermin and problems it attracts.  Not to mention it’s an unsightly nuisance when it’s spread all over front yards rather than in trash cans where it’s supposed to be.

The Health Department doesn’t want to play the role of trash police but when all else fails there needs to be some recourse to protect neighborhoods and that’s where the new tickets and fines will come into play.

Despite what cynics might suggest, the tickets are not a money maker for the Health Department and they’re truly are a measure of last resort.  The Health Department will not go looking for problems but when they receive a complaint there’s an expectation that they have the tools needed to fix it.

Fixing something on private property is always tricky and everyone is happiest when a knock on the door and a little education produces the results everyone was hoping for but not everything goes that smoothly and for those cases that require a little extra push, the new ticketing system should go a long way.

That’s a bit of the logic behind the new trash tickets and here’s more details supplied by the Health Department (you can also jump to the Kent Health Department Web Site to read more by clicking here).

 

 

 

 

 

One of Kent’s top strategic priorities is sustaining great neighborhoods in our community.  A lot of our focus over the last couple of years has been jobs, jobs, jobs — which makes sense in this tough economy — but at the end of the day we still subscribe to the idea that we work to live, not live to work, so having a great place to live is vital to our quality of life and the City has to a role to play in that.

Actually we play a lot of different roles in protecting, preserving and creating great neighborhoods but one of the most direct is our City Code Enforcement Program.  Just like the laws that govern behavior, Code Enforcement is that social contract that we agree to when we choose to live in our community.  We, as dutiful citizens, have voted in regulations that reflect our values and expectations for how we want life to be in our neighborhoods, e.g., trash in containers, yards mowed, respectful noise levels, safe houses, etc.  And the City’s Code Enforcement Officer is responsible for holding us all accountable to our own community standards.  

Here’s a snapshot for how we did in 2009:

 

     

If you drive anywhere around Kent these days you know that summer is the high water mark for construction activity.  Pile drivers, jack hammers, mixers, excavators and backhoes are in their glory right now.  If you could get close enough you’d see that they are sporting couplers made by Kent’s very own ACS Industries on Mogadore Road, the coupler industry leader (my shameless plug for a Kent based business). 

There’s definitely a heightened sense of urgency for construction after the passing of the summer solstice in these northern latitudes as the window of the season is narrowing with each passing day.  With that in mind, the City is busy with its annual concrete repair and replacement program.  The concrete work is an example of routine maintenance that like clockwork is performed year-in and year-out.  It’s like the painting of an aircraft carrier; by the time you finish one coat, it’s time to turn around and start all over again — the same holds true for city sidewalks. 

In order to keep up with the damage that mother nature, errant vehicles, and everything else inflicts upon our favorite slabs of concrete, the City sets aside $100,000 or so a year and hires a contractor to work on those areas that are experiencing the worst spalling, chipping, cracking and differential settlement. 

Besides keeping the city looking good and making it easy for moms and dads to roll their strollers around their neighborhoods, it’s also about keeping the public safe from what we refer to as slips, trips and falls that result from bad sidewalks.  It turns out that our favorite majestic trees are public enemy number for our favorite sidewalks; the tree roots lift, push, crack and bully sidewalks all over town.  Since we love them both, we have to continually work on repairing the root damage which is probably close to 80% of the concrete work that we perform each year. 

Street Name                         Location
Cuyahoga Street –  Between Major’s Lane and N. Mantua Street
Gale Drive – Cul-de-Sac to North end of Bridge on Sunrise Blvd.
Garth Drive – Silver Meadows Blvd. to East end of street.
Kevin Drive
Longmere Drive – Middlebury Rd to Haymaker Parkway.
Oak Street, West – Franklin Ave. to S. Water Street
Pleasant Avenue – N. Mantua Street to East end of street
-Individual Locations (Wilson, Crain, Doramor, River) 

In addition, if funding is available we hope to add the following to this year’s program:
-Additional sidewalk work on Sunrise Boulevard
-Additional sidewalk work on Crain Avenue

There may be minor traffic delays on certain streets during the repair work but those delays should be less than 5 or 10 minutes. The pavement replacement on Kevin Drive will reduce the two lane road down to one lane for a period of two to three weeks.  The contractor has been asked to maintain two way traffic on Kevin Drive through the use of appropriate signs but if necessary, Kevin Drive may need to be shut down at some point. If this occurs, the residents will be notified in advance of the closing and emergency vehicles will always have priority access through any work zone even if the road has been temporarily shut down.