Citizen Action Center 2008 to 2011...

The top searched phrases in2011 were “recycle”, “population”, and “mulch”

Salt Program Suspended...

CDBG Funding Applications Available...

PROGRAM APPLICATION PROCESS

Public Safety Community Advisory Committee...

After a successful first year hosting community safety advisory committee meetings, the City is back at it in 2012 with a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 10th, at 7:30 am  in the training room of the main Fire Station on Depeyster Street.

The meetings are open to the public so if you have an interest in learning more about rescue team work, please feel free to attend.

Here’s the meeting notice sent out by Bill Lillich, Public Safety Director:

January 4, 2011

Dear Safety Director’s Community Advisory Committee Members,

This is a reminder that our next meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, January 10, 2012.  The subject of this meeting is Special Rescue Teams in Portage County, of which our fire department is a substantial participant.  The presentation will take you through the selection, equipment and training process for three major Portage  County response teams with which the department participates.  These teams are the Urban Search & Rescue Team, the Confined Space Rescue Team and the Portage County Dive Team.

We hope to see you all there.

Respectfully,

Bill Lillich
Our next meeting is scheduled for March 13, 2012.

Free Rock Salt for Kent Residents...

After taking November and December off, Old Man Winter tried to make up for lost time by dumping 10″ to 12″ on us earlier this week.

Did we really need to make it all up in one storm?

Fortunately, we’re getting a temporary reprieve with temperatures forecast to climb back into the 40′s for at least the next couple of days which should make most of that last storm a melting memory, but I’m guessing we’re not exactly out of the woods yet, and more snow and ice is sure to follow in the weeks to come.

With that in mind, the City is trying something new in 2012.   Anyone that follows the discussions of City Council would know that Council has wrestled for many hours on how to enlist the help of residents and businesses to clear snow and ice from sidewalks following storms.

Council even put together a committee of city residents to study what other cities have done for sidewalk clearing and the committee came back with examples of cities that played hard ball — establishing stiff financial penalties for non-shovelers — and soft ball — assigning City crews to clear critical sidewalks.  The question has been what will work best in Kent?

The expectation is that good neighbors do their part to keep the sidewalks around their homes clear but legislating good neighborliness has proven to be problematic.

Recognizing that, Kent City Council made some minor ordinance changes to put a little more pressure on residents to pitch in but they’ve also asked us to find ways to encourage — rather than enforce – more shoveling and we’ve done things like make shovels available for residents to borrow and we’ve created an annual awards program recognizing our local shovelers who went above and beyond the call of duty (watch a video of their efforts).

Along those same lines, we’re planning to try something new in 2012:  Free rock salt for Kent City residents to use on the sidewalks around their home.

On Friday, January 6th, the Public Service crews will be setting out a trash container full of rock salt for City residents to use to fill their buckets at the Yard Waste facility adjacent to Plum Creek Park.

The salt container will be oustide the fence just to the left of the Yard Waste gate so residents can come by at their convenience (24-7) to fill their bucket and salt their sidewalks.

This is meant as a service for residents, not contractors, and we will use video equipment to make sure that the right people are using this new service.

City crews will keep an eye on the salt level in the container and refill it as necessary.  Plus, there’s a phone number posted at the site to call if the salt runs out.

We’re hoping that this new service offers a small incentive to get more shovels and snow blowers working on City sidewalks to keep pedestrians safe.

It’s hard enough to battle winter’s wind and temperatures without having to make a path through un-shoveled territory.

End of Year Capital Projects Update...

The holiday season is a time of traditions and one of the City’s end of year traditions brings the City Engineer, Jim Bowling, in to the last City Council meeting to provide an update on the numerous capital projects that he and his staff managed during the course of the last 12 months. 

With all of the construction work that we’ve had going on it’s hard to stay current on everything, so Jim’s presentation is a favorite among the Council members and the staff.  In keeping with the season, hearing Jim’s report feels a bit like opening community presents. 

Anyone who drove around town in the last 12 months knows first-hand that 2011 was a banner year in construction in Kent – with traffic detours and lane reductions around every corner —  so Jim had lots to talk about.

Not surprisingly, Jim made sure to give plenty of time to the status of the new Fairchild Avenue bridge and downtown redevelopment.  Either one of these projects could take an hour to cover in any detail but Jim did his best in the time he had available.  With the projects in various stages of completion there were lots of questions about how things are working, what things are done, and what parts are still to come. 

In a sign of progress, if you pulled the minutes from Jim’s presentation at the end of 2010 you’d see that he talked a lot about the status of the engineering, surveying and design work for these projects, whereas this year his focus was on what construction had been done to date.  From blueprints in 2010 to hammers and nails in 2011 — progress!

The biggest takeaway from Jim’s talk would be that nearly all of the City’s major initiatives are underway at this point.  City planners have officially handed the ball off to the construction engineers, and over the course of the next 12 months the building inspectors will be asked to carry the ball over the goal line when its time to issue the certificates of occupancy. 

Thats when the real fun begins.

Unfortunately we don’t have the benefit of Jim’s audio explanations but here’s the slides from Jim’s powerpoint presentation.

Behind the Scenes of the New Fairchild Bridge...

The new Fairchild Avenue bridge has been open for just over a month and motorists seem to be settling in to the new traffic patterns. The initial traffic counts suggest that those patterns are consistent with the what the engineers had in mind when they designed the bridge — which was move traffic through the intersection safely and quickly, and where possible discourage thru traffic from cutting through the adjacent neighborhoods.

According to the traffic counters, so far so good.  There’s less traffic cutting thru the Crain Avenue neighborhood (almost a 50% reduction), more traffic is driving thru downtown Kent, and there’s less congestion at the intersection for all traffic movements.  Considering the project isn’t done yet, these are all good indicators.

That’s not to say everything is running perfectly and there’s plenty of tweaking that will continue to go on, but fundamentally traffic is flowing more efficiently and safer.  The traffic counters will also continue to monitor the traffic patterns to make sure the signal timing is optimized to achieve the goals of all the project, and to add signs where appropriate. 

Being the largest bridge project in the history of Portage County, it’s no surprise that we held an appropriate ribbon cutting ceremony that included as many of the local dignitaries that could join us on a chilly morning in October. 

The Mayor officially christened the bridge, being the first to drive across it in an antique car but the truth be told, technically, George, our local wheelchair celebrity, beat the Mayor across the bridge in his chair to much applause.  

I’m sure all of the local dignitaries presumed that they were the first to get a chance to walk the bridge, but in the interest of full disclosure, a group of Boy Scouts performed a complete inspection of the bridge prior to the offiical opening — just to make sure everything was in good worker order for the opening.  

Call it our soft bridge opening, where we figured if it could stand up to the scrutiny of 12 energetic scouts, it was ready for anything.   

Here’s some images from the Scout bridge inspection (Jim, City Engineer, is the tall one) –

It all starts with safety gear, vests and hard hats.

With the exception of one Scout, the bucket brings the Scouts some peace.

The Scouts take command of the bucket loader, which gives one Scout some concern.

The Scouts leave no stone unturned, inspecting the hike and bike trail tunnel.

The bridge columns sit in the background as the Scouts consider the movement of trains under the bridge.

The bridge decking passes inspection so the Scouts proceed to check the wall height.

The Scouts give a visual check on the overhead lighting.

The details of the traffic control box that runs the signals is explained in such great detail that one Scout takes a short nap.

The Scouts grill the City Engineer with load bearing questions putting the pedestrian wall to the test.

A successful completion to a difficult bridge inspection.

Scouts react to City Engineer's suggestion to re-inspect the bridge one more time.

Fill A Police Cruiser...

Normally the words “Filling a Police Cruiser” are probably not what you want to hear as you duck your head getting in to the back seat, but this time its all good — the only thing in the back seat will be cans of food, dancing Elmo, and Chutes and Ladders.   

The Kent Police & Citizens Association are sponsoring their annual Fill-A-Cruiser event on Saturday December 10, 2011 from 1 pm to 4 pm at Walgreen’s (320 S. Water St.).

The Police will be accepting toys, games, non perishable food items and monetary donations.   All proceeds and items collected will be used to benefit families in the Kent area during the holiday season.

If you are unable to make the event, items can be dropped off at the Kent Police Department before December 10th.  For more information contact Police Lt. Treharn at 330 676-7572.  

Times are tough all around and even a little bit will go a long way towards making someone’s holiday special this year.

Joining the Facebook Crowd...

About 3 years ago we had hired an intern out of Kent State University who like many folks his age were riding high on the social media craze of Facebook.  The intern kept telling us we needed to jump on Facebook too but at that time the jury was still out whether Facebook had much relevance for cities. 

We didn’t have any issues with Facebook in principle, we just weren’t sure how to use it for city purposes.  Looking back I think we were over-thinking and over-complicating it, and it turns out that the intern was ahead of his time as we’ve seen a steady rise in the number of Facebook pages for cities popping up all over. 

We decided it was time to climb aboard and we are now live with the beta site the intern had created way back when.  Better late than never. 

We dusted off the beta site, put some finishing touches on it, and jumped with both feet.  The site is pretty basic — we’re not going to win awards for the most creative use of Facebook, but that’s ok because our goal was to provide another source of information for people to follow all that’s happening in Kent. 

Click here to visit the Official City of Kent Ohio Facebook Page.
We also have a Kent Economic Development Page that Dan Smith, City Economic Development uses that you’re welcome to follow as well. 

We understand that not everyone will want to Friend us (and we won’t take it personally) but for those Facebookers out there that like to receive notice of new things popping up in Kent, we’ve now got another way to be on their radar screen. 

Part of our challenge with Facebook has been finding the time and the staff to keep it updated.  There is no position description in the City titled Offical Facebook Manager — for that matter, we don’t even have any IT Manager — so we’ve had to learn on our own and find a volunteer who was willing to add Facebook updates to their own other duties as assigned list.  Fortunately, we found one. 

The longer we Blog, Tweet, and now Post on Facebook the more we’ve come to realize how much information we have and how many people want access to more of it.  We’re all about sharing information; the challenge is providing a way to get it to the people that want it in a form that they want it in.

The print media was the old standard — and between local newspapers and our quarterly Tree City Bulletin — we continue to make print a part of our communication strategy.  But today people want more so we have a City web site, a Kent Police web site, a Kent Parks and Rec web site, a City blog site, a City of Kent Twitter site, a City Economic Development Facebook site, and now a City Facebook site.  

We also had an online emergency notification system that would allow us to post emergency messages or alerts, e.g., water main break, snow emergency in effect, etc., that would automatically send text and/or email messages to anyone that signed up to receive those notifications.  For about a year that was a free system and we used it while it was free, but as it grew in popularity they began to charge more than we could afford to pay so now we’re back looking for an affordable reverse 911 system that would let us send voice messages out for public notification when we have these sorts of troubles to tell people about (like the Kent City School phone notification system).   These reverse 911 systems are pretty pricey but we’re hoping to find one to buy sometime in 2012. 

Plus, we’ve also got plans to add a community electronic bulletin board in 2012 at the corner of SR43 and SR 59 adjacent to the downtown project that will scroll local community and campus information 24-7. 

We promise to continue to take advantage of technology as long as we can figure out how to use it, afford it, and keep it current. 

By the way, I’d love to find someone to build us a City of Kent app for smart phones, any volunteers?

Street and Sidewalk Work Update...

1. Crain Avenue Resurfacing Project — The City’s contractor will be starting the resurfacing of Crain Avenue from North Willow Street to Elmwood Drive, which will consist of milling 3″ off of the existing asphalt pavement and resurfacing it with 3″ of surface course asphalt. Additional work will include medium depth pavement repairs and minor utility structural work. 

Normal traffic patterns will be maintained for most of the work but motorists should expect delays throughout the duration of the project. Crain Avenue may be closed to through traffic from North Willow Street to Elmwood Drive when the contractor places the rubberized asphalt surface course so that traffic does not damage the hot asphalt pavement. The closure to through traffic should be a one day event, weather permitting, and range from 4 to 6 hours. A discussion will be held with the contractor at the preconstruction meeting to see if the road closure can occur on a Saturday. This type of work is performed utilizing a “moving” construction zone. Vehicles utilizing any street that is being resurfaced can expect minor traffic delays since the traffic will be reduced to one lane where the work is being performed. Residents and businesses may have a temporary loss of access (up to ten minutes) to their drives as the construction work passes by their property. 

8. Annual Concrete Repair Program — The City is meeting with the contractor to begin our annual concrete repair program. The work will consist of removing and replacing existing concrete sidewalk, concrete drive apron, concrete curbing and upgrading concrete ramps to ADA standards at intersections. Traffic will be maintained on all streets during construction. Please note that there may be minor traffic delays on all affected streets throughout the project’s duration. The traffic delays usually last about 5 minutes but may vary depending upon the situation. It is anticipated that there will not be any road closures as a part of this project.

The following streets are a part of the 2011 Annual Concrete Repair Program:

Burr Oak Drive To Wilson Avenue North end of Street

Columbus Street From S. Depeyster St. To N. Willow Street

Crain Avenue From N. Willow Street To Elmwood Drive

East Oak Street From S. Water Street To Vine Street

Park Avenue From N. Mantua Street To Gougler Avenue

Valleyview Street From the Cul-de-Sac To Vine Street

East Williams St. From S. Water Street To Vine Street

West Williams St. From Franklin Avenue To S. Water Street