City Council in 2011...

2011 turned out to be a year with lots of significant ground breakings, and as exciting as those Kodak moments were, they all started in the Council work room as concepts for Council to deliberate, discuss, amend and vote on.

Turning shovels is the fun part but that’s only possible after the hard work is done in Council Chambers, so as we look ahead for 2012, I thought it made sense to look back at the items that City Council worked on in 2011 — since many of those items are likely to be on the highlight reel for 2012 when the shovels hit the dirt.

Below you will find excerpts from the 2011 City Council Activity Report which distills the many hours of Council discussions into categories that relate back to our community strategic priorities.

Kent Police Annual Report...

With a victory over the Kent Firefighters in the first annual Kent Police vs. Kent Fire basketball fund raiser for cancer this passed weekend, the Kent Police have not only earned their stripes but also bragging rights around City Hall.

Trust me, the firefighters and cops have great respect for each other, but there’s a rivalry buried within all that brotherly love, and I’m sure the overtime loss to the cops is a source of great pain for the firefighters.  No doubt the cops are reminding the firefighters of the final score every chance they get.

So I wouldn’t be surprised to see some reference to the victory on the cover of the 2012 Kent Police Annual Report, but in the meantime the cops can stand proud following another great year of serving the Kent community in 2011 as detailed in Chief Lee’s 2011 Kent Police Annual Report.

The report provides insights into the measures that matter most in a community — the City of Kent experienced a decrease in nearly all of the reported categories of crimes, accidents and calls for service.  Chief Lee reports that when she looks at the 10 Year Crime Index, she’s proud to see the hard work of the members of the force having led to steady reductions in incidents of serious crimes and a steady increase in our crime clearance rate.  In her business, that’s a true win-win outcome.

It’s worth noting that 2011 was a year of significant leadership transition in the Kent Police Department — former Chief Peach retired, 2 Lieutenant positions changed over, 8 promotions occurred and 3 new hires were made — yet, the Department didn’t miss a beat as Chief Lee used her experience and excellent communication skills to ensure that the professional reputation of the Department carried on and grew under watch.

TV and movies may be entertaining but don’t judge your hometown Police Officers based on the drama’s you see on the small and big screen.  That’s a whole different reality.  I’m not suggesting that there isn’t drama in real life, but the work of a professional Police Officer is so much more than the high tension car chases and crime scenes.

Chief Lee’s Annual Report provides a window into the diversity of work that the Kent Police Officers get involved in.  One of Chief Lee’s ambitions was to expand community policing and strengthen the connections of Police Officers with neighborhoods.  It’s a modern version of the beat cop who had the time to walk the streets, talk to people and stay plugged in to local networks.

The world today is too busy for cops to have time to sit on the front stoop and chat a while but Chief Lee is making a case with her people every day to what they can to interact with residents in positive ways.   She has great people working with her and I’ve personally seen change taking root, and more importantly I’ve heard from people in the community that they notice a more customer oriented approach by the Police under Chief Lee’s leadership.

I think you’ll see some of Chief Lee’s customer orientation listed in the highlights of the 2011 Annual Report:

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.