Cool Art Idea For Kent...

Posted by dave in Taking Care of Business on December 26, 2006 | No Comments

A class of students at Kent State spent a semester coming up with ideas to help use art to make Kent’s downtown more of a destination. They came up with a number of ideas but one of my favorites was using projection art on some of our downtown buildings. One of their favorite buildings to use was the grain tower — it’s white like a screen, it’s visible from just about everywhere and it’s an iconic part of Kent’s skyline.

It turns out that projection art is used in a lot of bigger cities. The concept is pretty simple — buy a projector and display art on buildings. They showed me pictures of an art museum that projected Mona Lisa and other famous portraits in the windows of the building at night. It looked like they were looking out the window at you — very cool.

What’s nice is, it’s mobile, it allows rotating artwork and with today’s technology the quality can be very good at a reasonably low price. Here’s a few prototypes:

Merry Christmas Kent...

Posted by dave in General on December 25, 2006 | No Comments

On behalf of everyone that wears a city uniform, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope we served Kent well in 2006 and we look forward to an even better 2007. It may not be a white Christmas but we have a few images to help celebrate the season.

Wild Goat Cafe, Best Kept Secret #21...

Posted by dave in Taking Care of Business on December 24, 2006 | No Comments

In my continuing coverage of Kent’s best kept secrets, Wild Goat Cafe may not be so secret, but it is one of the Kent’s best places to eat. It’s not just the good food and great service, it’s the whole cafe experience. Wild Goat Cafe is a great example of a home grown, locally owned business that understands that customers want more than mass produced franchise food — they want a place that has it’s own sense of style and character, a place that resonates with their values — which is exactly what Wild Goats Cafe has cooked up to perfection.

The Wild Goat Cafe is a great place to stop for breakfast or lunch any day of the week. They offer booth, table and counter seating to suit your mood and size of your party. They advertise catering services too. They’re full service without feeling corporate.

I’ve been in for breakfast a half dozen times and I’ve been glad I went every time. They do a great job of mixing food selection, quantity and price in an atmosphere that has a feel all of its own.

Wild Goat Cafe was smoke free before smoke free was cool — because that’s just what they believe in, and everything about their business stays true to their beliefs. That’s what makes it a Kent classic.

I’m always out promoting Kent as a place that is different in all the right ways — and Wild Goats Cafe could be Kent’s poster child.

The other thing about Wild Goats is that it’s a genuine cross-over establishment. It’s got something for students, families, visitors and locals featuring a wide selection of dishes including many vegetarian items. If that wasn’t enough, you can’t beat their homemade desserts, smoothies, and cakes.

Wild Goats Cafe is also one of the great success stories of the West River Neighborhod revitalization (see the before and after pictures below). The site is located on West Main Street in Downtown Kent directly across from the newly renovated Kent Library.

Before Revitalization

After Revitalization

Open Mon-Sat 7AM-4PM and Sun 8AM-2:30PM. Call 330-677-2326 for more information on both the restaurant and catering opportunities.

And don’t be shy with this secret, you have my permission to tell everyone you know about this great Kent business.

Support Kent businesses.

Kent City Council...

Posted by dave in Philosophic Ramblings on December 23, 2006 | No Comments

I suppose it’s dangerous to write about your bosses, but since I’m about to tell you how hard their job is, I figure I should be ok (then again, if there’s no new blog posts next week, you’ll know I figured wrong). Anyways, I realize that second guessing every decision a politician makes has become America’s favorite past time, but that doesn’t make it right. The fact is, your City Council members are plain old citizen volunteers who take their turn at fulfilling what they consider a civic duty without any training or experience beyond being a citizen that cares about their community. They have full time jobs, families, and a life outside of being a Council member — but they are willing to give something back to the place they call home because that’s important to them.

Sure, they campaigned to get on Council, so you could argue they knew what they were getting into, but I’d also argue that signing up for Council doesn’t come with a label of “fresh meat”, but sometimes that’s how they must feel. And that’s probably why many talented people choose not to run for Council.

I honestly don’t think it’s the time commitment that keeps people away from participating in running their local government. I think it’s the criticisms that they become subject to — and that it’s not just limited to Council Chambers. It’s in the mall, at the grocery store, at the soccer game, at church, at work, over the fence in the back yard, at the birthday party… it’s everywhere, 24-7.

Somewhere along the way we seem to have come to view our elected officials as indebted to us, at our beckon call, like they owe us something. And that’s too bad because I think by allowing that perspective to be the norm, we’ve diminished the ability of Council to lead.

We all know it, but when it comes to something in our back yard, we ignore the fact that leadership decisions aren’t a popularity contest — and sometimes politicians have to make unpopular decisions because it’s the right thing to do — and that’s what they were elected to do.

Of course Council has to be responsive to the community, but a Council that only responds, never leads, so we the “electorate” have to understand that democracy wasn’t intended to be “every man for himself” — it’s supposed to be electing people to look out for the public good, which isn’t the same as giving every voter what they want.

It takes a unique person to keep a sense of optimism in an environment when every word you say shows up on the front page of the paper and every decision you make is put out there for public debate. Don’t get me wrong, public debate is the essence of our democratic system, but it seems to be getting more and more personal and less objective or based on facts.

This is not unique to Kent, this is a becoming an epidemic in cities all across America. We live in an increasingly complex time and the issues are getting harder and harder to understand. As a result, local politics falls victim to oversimplification, catch phrases and buzz words.

While reading your local newspaper, have you ever thought “Why did the city council make that decision?”

The local press only has so much room to cover an item being decided by Council. I suppose we’re fortunate that we have both the Record Courier and the Stater covering Kent, but even with reporters at a meeting or workshop reporting on what they hear, the public cannot possibly get all the details, questions and passion that goes into every decision.

The point of all my rambling is that our elected officals are your neighbors. Normal people who come together at 3-4 times a month to attempt to make Kent the best place to live, work and raise a family. These people are volunteers who happen to have one thing in common. They all care about Kent.

So in the spirit of Christmas, thank your Councilmen and Councilwomen for doing what they do for Kent. (And while you’re at it, throw in a good word about the City Manager too!)

My Thanks to City Employees...

Posted by dave in Services News on December 22, 2006 | No Comments

Good Afternoon,

As we wrap up 2006, I want to thank everyone for doing so much for Kent this year.

Maybe you were too busy to notice, but together we sent a message to this community in 2006 — we did things that people said couldn’t be done. We paved Alley 3, we re-opened the Middlebury Road Bridge, we got the old hotel owner to start fixing his building, we got in the Main Street Ohio Program, and we even got direct deposit here in the city. These things matter, not just because they needed to be done, but also because they showed everyone that just because something hadn’t been done, doesn’t mean it can’t be done. That’s a message this community needs to hear, and that’s the point we punctuated with the opening of the bridge last week.

In thousands of ways, big and small, we made an impact on people’s lives here in Kent in 2006. Maybe everything didn’t always go our way, maybe we didn’t have as many people as we should, and maybe we didn’t have all the equipment we needed, but in the end we always found ways to do what needed to get done. To me, that’s the greatest complement anyone can offer us — that when things were on the line, everyone stepped up to finish the job. In a world where talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words, we delivered in 2006.

2007 is going to come at us fast, but I really believe that we’ve got momentum on our side, so I have high expectations for next year. But next year has little to do with me and everything to do with you. I’ll need your help to keep the community focused on all the good things we’re doing in Kent every day. I’ll need to know what you’re thinking, learn what you’re doing, and understand what I can do to make it easier for you to do your job better. I’ll need everything you’ve got, and I promise to offer the same in return.

I’ll tell you straight up that we’ve still got some tough times ahead in 2007. Our financial problems are still here, and more Kent companies will close their doors next year, so we’ve got to go after business development at full speed. Whether you realize it or not, everyone of you is a part of our business development strategy. The services you provide, the contacts you make, and the impressions you leave on people builds our reputation as a city where people want to live and work in. That’s more important than any marketing slogan or tourist brochure can ever be. It’s always about the people and you are the people.

So many times it’s those seemingly insignficant acts that come back to pay dividends down the road where you respected the person and treated them as you’d want to be treated. I can’t tell you how many business awards ceremonies I’ve attended where the business owner refers to some small act of kindness or extra effort that some city employee did that caused them to move or keep their business in town. That’s the kind of reputation we have from people that already know us, now we just need to make sure more people get to know us and move to Kent.

Many of you have received recognitions for your professional accomplishments this year. I wish I had the time to congratulate each of individually but instead let me extend my gratitude to everyone. These are important milestones that should be celebrated with pride.

I’m looking forward to starting 2007 but in the meantime I will be taking vacation Christmas week to be with my family. As the attached Chrismas card says, I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season. I’ll see you next year.

Thanks.

Dave

Kent: Like Always…Like Never Before...

Posted by dave in Taking Care of Business on December 21, 2006 | No Comments

I was joking yesterday with our Planning Director that no matter how dull he tries to be, development projects always seem to stir things up and raise the pulse and blood pressure in the community. Development is one of those lightening rods that can become a flashpoint dividing people into pro-change, anti-change camps, often irrespective of the project itself. It doesn’t have to be about the project – it’s what the project represents and how someone feels about change. Our job is to help manage the change process, honoring the past while ensuring hope for a better tomorrow. Making sure Kent is “like always…and like never before” at the same time.

Walking the change tightrope is tough, and it tests our skills at balancing a lot of legitimate, competing interests. It’s not so much that there are good or bad projects, the question is more about the fit of the project for the community.

The trouble is you have to buy the project before you get a chance to try it on, so the best you can do is guess at how well it will, or won’t, fit. And since you can’t return it, the stakes are high so the pressure’s on to make sure you guess right.

And therein lies the source of the problem — guessing at future impacts that you’re going to have to live with no matter what. When development projects are put in that context, it’s no wonder people resist change. It’s human nature to default to preferring to accept known problems, rather than change things and face uncertainty — even though uncertainty could bring improvements.

Throw in a little cynicism about the sincerity of a developer’s promise and you have a recipe for confrontation. Our goal as a city is to help defuse and depersonalize the process and offer yardmarkers in the field of play to begin to put a project in a perspective that everyone can understand.

We model traffic impacts. We calculate parking needs. We evaluate infrastructure using engineering standards. We have the developer submit drawings with plan sets to paint us a picture of their vision in way that is meaningful. We talk to neighbors and hold public meetings. We make recommendations as staff, but ultimately we have “average Joe” citizens (Planning Commission) make the final call as to whether projects are going to fit good or not — because this is their community and they should know best.

All these efforts are made to take out some of the guesswork, but in the end, it’s still forecasting and predicting — which when you consider how much money the National Weather Bureau spends to forecast weather you can appreciate the challenge of predicting human behavior related to new development.

So once again, the forces at work tend to favor status quo, not change. But to borrow from the laws of nature, healthy eco-systems have to continually adapt and change with changes in their environment — and so do cities. Cities are not closed systems, we are interconnected and inter-dependent on all parts of our city just like eco-system.

Our health as a city depends upon our capacity to change. Change doesn’t mean denying our past — it’s means honoring that past by ensuring tommorow will be better than today. Sure there’s risk involved in change, but there’s a bigger risk sitting still watching the tides erode away our shorelines day after day. The tides don’t stop or wait for anyone, so we need to muster the courage to do what needs to be done to preserve our shore.

I didn’t intend to rattle on about change in this post, all I wanted to do was to talk about how we’re working as a city to be more development oriented, to be more of a resource to both citizens and developers that are part of the process of transforming blighted neighborhoods or vacant business properties into vibrant economic centers.

To give you a flavor of how I want us as a city to be a better resource for developers, I’ve attached a copy of what I call my ”Developer’s Speech.” We’re planning to invite all our developer’s in to meet with us in 2007 to introduce some of our newer staff, and more importantly to talk about our new attitude.

Developer’s Speech

Welcome everyone this morning.

Appreciate the time you took to join us.

We’ll do our best to make it worth your time.

Lead off by reminding everyone that what we are involved in is bigger than just codes and ordinances

We are literally building the community

Community that is distinctive, important to people and businesses, worthy of a place to call home

That’s our charge, it depends on both of us to deliver our best every time out

Some new, some less new faces, but it is a new attitude

Partnership and Collaboration

Be good at it will take practice

Our success is a function of our ability to develop an effective working relationship

Get away from throwing a plan set over a wall and wait for us to throw it back over

Underutilize our talents and overburden your patience

Urge you to consider us another asset to contribute to your projects.

Use us to help you get off to a “great start”, call us, come and see us, meet with us on site

The best finishes all have great starts.

Investment horizon – long term success

Quality Development

Eliminate work redone, punch lists, mobilization costs

I’ve heard that the City can cost you money, but if that’s true then certainly the city can save you money.

Leverage our resources

Commit to quality – getting it right the first time

And we all win.

Thank You

Working that Kent Brand...

Posted by dave in Taking Care of Business on December 20, 2006 | No Comments

Here’s the deal: we live in a time of such information overload that cities are degenerating into an endless sea of sameness. Everywhere you go is looking more and more like the last place you lived, which is good if you’re into a manufactured sense of mass produced redundancy but it’s not so good for inspiring that sense of pride that comes from recognizing what makes us unique and special. Branding is a process of separating, rising above the noise, “remarkabilizing” Kent in an entirely Kent sort of way. I’ve shared some of my favorite tag lines (built around a couple of the themes I see as Kent’s assets) to hopefully get you started thinking and sharing your ideas to add to the list — all in the name of building a Kent brand.

Sample Tags

1. “Authenticity/Full Life/Real Life Experience Theme”

Live true.

Living 360 degrees, All 360 degrees of life.

In living color. Technicolor

Color in a black and white world.

Life in 3D

Kent³

Uber Kent

Iconic, I-Kent-ic

No short cuts or rounded edges

In age of beige, Kent is Technicolor

Delivering on a promise to be genuine.

Authenticity is the sum of all our attributes

KENT : A place to go with everything on it.

Kent : Live like you mean it.

Something for each side of you

If you’re into it, so are we.

Down to earth unconventionality, unique, eclectic

No assembly required. No assembly desired.

Life unscripted

Echt – genuine

Modus vivendi – lifestyle

Kent makes everything else look plaid.

Kent . Made from scratch.

Original vs. Sequel

Living your script not someone else’s.

Not a me-too city.

Unmistakably Kent.

Unprecedented Kent.

Kent’s a promise, not a promotion.

Wide Angle City

Something to prove.

Unpretentious

Life Altering Events: Walking, Love, Moving to Kent

Authenticity doesn’t console, it shatters.

Not Stettford.

Suburbia’s antidote.

Head in the sky, feet on the ground.

Life uninterrupted

Organic

No artificial flavors, No imitation flavors, No artificial ingredients

Not a pretender

Not a ready mix city

Not a museum, great art made in the street

Living paradox

Not A, THE

Live XL (extra large)

Full Throttle, Full Volume

Kent for life

Some city’s strike a pose (poser), Kent is straight up

Where memorable experiences are always within reach

Stop living a lie, move to Kent.

Unwilling to compromise? Same here.

Don’t compromise, improvise.

Kent, your invitation to life.

Tired of fads, come to Kent.

Close, but no Kent. There’s close and then there’s Kent.

Semper apertus – always open

Life takes Kent.

Got Kent?

Every flavor of life.

We have 5 senses, use them all in Kent.

No place else offers more ways to go from Point A to Points BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.

2. “The Unconventional Theme”

Proud sponsor of unconventional living.

A city is known for the characters it keeps.

The Kent difference.

Right where everything else isn’t.

Different in all the right ways.

Life on your own tune/time.

Conformity is over-rated.

Reality is not created equal.

Off center.

Uncensored. Uncut.

Different everyday.

Kent, the difference is you.

Kent’s Characters…Yes, they’re real.

Counter culture

Rebellious

Kent …makes everything else etc., etc., etc.,

There are those that play the game. And there are those that change the way the game is played.

Kent : re-writing the book.

Uncommonly Kent. Different in all the right ways

Cure for a common case of suburbia

Kent : living proof that stability/suburbia/ is overrated.

No straight lines.

Off the wall not off the shelf.

Off the charts not off the rack.

Collaborative fission of coordinated individualism

Legalize Kent

Kent Bazaar.

Hip, Subversive.

Outspoken

Follow your folly.

Out of the Ordinary

Off the beaten path

Unbound

Quirky

3. “Kent Character Sub-Theme”

Kent-onality, power of personality

Here’s to the Characters.

Characters welcome.

Black squirrel

4. “Leading Edge/Experimental Theme”

The Kent experiment. Be a part of it.

Life invented daily.

Kent reinvented daily

Beta Kent

Exploring the Edges

Kent : Where today’s Marco Polo’s hang out.

Kent State Imagine theme

Kent remaking itself daily, be a part of it.

Spontaneous.

Frenzy.

Antidote (alternative) to “been there done that.”

Kent 2.0

Kentropy – edge of chaos,

Live Wire

Life Out Loud

Kent : Imagination Playground

Living at the speed of life

5. “Future/Fun/Optimistic Kent Theme”

Kent : Right sized for fun.

Let’s do this.

Smile, you’re in Kent.

We share Kent. We share a future.

Savor the surprise.

Fun shouldn’t have an expiration date.

Kent . That’s what I’m talking about.

The City that wants to be great not big.

Kent . Start something. Anything. It’s up to you.

Kent : Destination Now

Kent . Go farther.

Life, improved daily.

Kent. Fuel for living.

Live forward.

Not small, fun sized.

Don’t have to be big to think big

Unlock capabilities

Kent: Exploring life. Fulfilling dreams.

Kent-Possible.

Someday begins in Kent.

Someday happens in Kent everyday. See for yourself.

Don’t wait until someday.

Incite hope

The little city that could.

Do something that hasn’t been done before.

Do what’s possible and try what’s not.

Nobody goes anywhere without us.

Kent : Exploring life. Fulfilling dreams.

Dreams made real.

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Kent Police Offi...

Posted by dave in Services News on December 19, 2006 | No Comments

Judging from the popularity of police based TV shows, it’s probably an understatement to say that the American public has a fascination with police work. What cops do, and how they do it, makes for great TV drama. With 27 officers on the Kent Police force, I appreciate the fact that the profession remains one that captures public interest, but unfortunately I also think the dramatic portrayals tend to misrepresent what is truly one of the most honorable professions a person can choose. Donut jokes aside, Police work is hard physically, intellectually and emotionally. These are people that choose to put themselves in harm’s way on our behalf. To find trouble, before it finds us.

For all it’s glory on TV, police work in the real world has much more to do with being prepared, persistent and patient – rather than some producers imaginative use of special effects. As much as the CSI series would like you to believe that forensics technology can solve any crime, in reality, it’s still the officer in the street that prevents, stops and solves crimes.

And just because we are a smaller city doesn’t mean that being an officer in Kent is any less demanding than in the big cities. Quite the contrary. A gun can kill in small cities just as easily as in big cities so Kent officers face the same dangers, and the same challenges, e.g., drugs, domestic dispute, gang activity, as their big city cousins. It’s actually a credit to the effectiveness of our police force that Kent is a city where most of us don’t have to think or worry about our safety.

It’s not that the threats aren’t out there — it’s just that your city police officers are also out there, keeping us safe.

Of the three cities where I have worked, I have to say Kent has the most educated police force I’ve ever had a chance to work with. This is not your grandfather’s police force. A surprising number of our officers have master’s degrees and nearly all have college degrees. We have an exceptionally well trained and prepared police force that has been used as a model for other cities to learn from — and not just in Ohio or the US, we have foreign countries that have sent people here to Kent to learn tactics from our officers.

In a world of ”ever present danger” it’s nice to know that we have men and woman recognized around the world for what they do, and how well they do it.

As you might imagine, it’s not easy to get into such a well credentialed police force. There’s a lot of testing that you must pass long before you get a badge. I came across a sample of the kinds of physical testing that are done and I thought I’d share it.

FACTS ABOUT THE TRI – C PHYSICAL FITNESS TEST

BACKGROUNDThe college, in recognizing the importance of physical fitness status for job performance, has established physical fitness standards for police department applicants and recruits. The college conducted a validation study to determine what areas of physical fitness are important for doing the job of a police officer and the level of fitness necessary to perform the strenuous and essential functions of the training and the job. You will be expected to meet the physical fitness test standards when entering the agency.

WHAT IS PHYSICAL FITNESS?

Physical fitness is having the physical readiness to perform the strenuous and critical physical tasks of the job. The physical fitness areas that have been determined to be the underlying factors for your capabilities to do the job consist of six (6) specific and different areas.

1. Aerobic power or cardiovascular endurance. This is having an efficient heart and cardiovascular system so that you can perform physical tasks over a sustained period of time. It is an important area for performing job tasks such as engaging in foot pursuits and long term use of force situations.

2. Anaerobic power. This is having the ability to make short intense bursts of effort. This an important area for performing job tasks such as short sprint pursuit situations.

3. Upper body absolute strength . This is having the upper body strength to make maximal efforts against a resistance. This is important for performing physical tasks that require lifting, carrying and pushing.

4. Upper body extensor muscular endurance. This is having the capability to make repeated muscular contractions with the upper body without getting fatigued. This is important for pushing and many use of force job tasks.

5. Trunk muscular endurance. This is having the capability to make repeated muscular contractions using the muscles of the trunk including the abdominal, hip flexor and low back muscles without getting fatigued. It is important in many tasks involving lifting, pulling and dragging.

6. Agility. This is having the ability to make quick movements with sprinting. This is important for making movements and changes of direction around obstacles during pursuits.

WHY IS PHYSICAL FITNESS IMPORTANT?

First, physical fitness is important because the six physical fitness areas determine an individual’s capability to do strenuous job tasks. Physical fitness is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ).

Secondly, physical fitness is important to minimize health risks for health problems such as heart disease, stroke, and obesity – all of which can affect job performance capabilities.

HOW WILL PHYSICAL FITNESS BE MEASURED?

There are six (6) physical fitness tests that will be given as a battery of tests.

1. 1.5 mile run. This measures aerobic power or cardiovascular endurance (the ability to have stamina over time). The test consists of running/walking as fast as possible the distance of 1.5 miles.

2. 300 meter run . This measures anaerobic power or the ability to make an intense burst of effort for a short time period or distance. The test consists of sprinting 300 meters as fast as possible.

3. 1 Repetition Maximum (RM) Bench Press. This measures the absolute strength of the upper body. The test consists of lying on a bench and pushing up as much weight as you can one time.

4. Maximum push up test. This measures the extensor muscular endurance of the upper body. The test consists of doing as many push ups from the front, lean and rest position with no time limit.

5. Maximum situp test. This measures the muscular endurance of the trunk muscles including trunk and leg flexors and lower back extensors. The test consists of doing as many bent knee sit ups as possible in sixty seconds.

6. Agility run. This measures agility. The test consists of sprinting and dodging around one foot obstacles (traffic cones) over a 60 yard course as fast as possible.

WHAT TEST STANDARDS MUST I MEET?

You will be given the tests in the following sequence. There will be rest periods between each event. Each test is scored separately and you must meet the standard on each and every test in order to pass the entire battery. The standards are as follows:

TEST STANDARD

Maximum push ups 27

Maximum sit ups 31 in one minute

Agility run 19 seconds

1RM bench press Push 78% of your body weight

300 meter run 62 seconds

1.5 mile run 16:36

Kent Music History Question...

Posted by dave in Recent Releases on December 17, 2006 | No Comments

I know that Kent has a great rock-n-roll legacy dating back into the 1960s. What I don’t know is whether anyone kept any information on those old bands. The reason I’m wondering is because I received the following email last week and after I hit a brick wall, I’m hoping you might have some answer to this guy who wrote: “I am looking for information on Kent rock bands from the 1960′s. Is there any archival information on groups like “The Lime” and “Smile” or any of the other bands that played in “JB’s” or “The Fifth Quarter” ???” Can we help him out? Let me know and I’ll let him know. Thanks.

Middlebury Road Bridge — Opening Sunday Dece...

Posted by dave in Services News on December 16, 2006 | No Comments

The old adage says good things come to those who wait — and considering how long everyone has been waiting for the Middlebury bridge to reopen, I guess this ought to be one amazing hunk of bridge. The truth is, it may not win any bridge design awards but I have a feeling it wil bring great accolades from anyone that has had to drive the long way around for the last 3 years. So come join City Council to officially cut the ribbon on Sunday at 12 noon at the bridge. Even if you can’t make it, hopefully you’ll smile knowing that the Middlebury Road bridge is back in business.

Gene Roberts and Chris Tolnar, your Public Service Director and City Engineer, did a terrific job making this bridge happen. Once agreements with the railroad were signed they got everything rolling in order to finish the job before the end of the year. So when you drive across the bridge, think of them and remember to thank them the next time you see them for a job well done.

The bridge is a testament to what engineers can accomplish once the attorney’s get out of their way.

The new bridge is now open!! See photo below: