With SR43 milling complete, I expect the paving train to be rolling into Kent any day now to lay down a couple of inches of new hot asphalt.  In that spirit, I thought I’d share a listing of the ODOT projects that they recently sent me for information purposes.  You’ll see that the Kent project contract is nearly $900,000 so it’s great to see our gas tax dollars coming back for investment in the infrastructure in our community.

Here’s sections of ODOT’s Transportation Improvement Plan:

Those volunteers that work so hard to put a little swing into Friday’s downtown have announced that Festive Friday will start up another summer season beginning this Friday night (June 29).  So pull out your favorite Hawaiian shirt, flip flops and whatever else gets you moving, and get yourself to downtown Kent to enjoy live music at the Home Savings Plaza from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm.  Then you can kick back on the lawn and watch the showing of ET for the Sidewalk Cinema at 9 pm.   Again, this is an all volunteer effort, so come support your downtown and your friends that are working hard to put some fun back into your life.

A Photo Flavoring of the Festive Friday Experience

If you know someone who owns property in Kent that may at one time have had an old service station on it, now is the time to tell them to contact the City and apply for funds to evaluate the extent of any petroleum based contamination.  The City successfully lobbied for assessment funds from the Environmental Protection Agency and now we need to spend it, so let your neighbors know that these dollars are available.  This is part of the City’s effort to jump-start redevelopment of properties that have had longstanding environmental issues.

A web site has been created that allows people to apply for use of the grant funds.  It is located at:

Kent Grant Link

This is not an environmental witch hunt. The idea is not to get people into the program to hunt them down — it’s a chance to help property owners understand what they’re dealing with on their property.

The Grant Funds gives property owners a chance to do the upfront legwork so that down the road they can get the property cleaned up and bring in new businesses and new jobs.

The term Brownfields refers to real estate whose expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant, according to federal law.  This first phase of the grant targets petroleum based pollutants, but City staff is already working on applying for the next round that would make a broader range of hazards eligible.

The Brownfields Assessment will facilitate long-term investment and improvement in areas around the City that have been hand-environmental problems.  It is not unusual for these environmental problems to cause lenders to exercise caution when considering loaning money for redevelopment projects in former industrial areas — so this program is designed to help the community improve unused and underutilized properties.

The current round of funds will not be used to complete clean-up projects; however, the City plans to apply for further EPA grants if the assessment finds any areas with environmental concerns.

Participation on the part of property owners is strictly voluntary and no one will be forced into following federal regulatory requirements.

The idea is to find out information, evaluate it and move on.

Thanks.

Cities are always working to leap frog over the next city — to get a leg up on the competition so to speak, to be the place that shows up at the top of all those “best places” lists.  Everybody is working an angle to gain a competitive advantage.  It’s serious business, but sometimes I think cities fall victim to taking themselves too seriously, so in that spirit I thought I’d share how some cities are using frog jumping contests (amphibious and human kind) to leap frog ahead of the competition.

I admit, frog jumping isn’t exactly the high brow stuff that one would think of using to market a university city like Kent as a tourist destination, but I had a professor of marketing who said you should always start by asking yourself, “what would you never do.”  I’m guessing that frog jumping might be near the top of that list.  So let’s start there.

Believe it or not I discovered that there is actually a World Frog Jumping Competition, as well as a National Frog Jumping Tournament here in the states.  I guess it’s like having a Miss America contest followed by the Miss Universe competition. There’s even a “Frog Hop” of Fame.

The whole frog jumping thing started back in 1928 in Angel Camp California to celebrate paving of Main Street.  Reminiscent of Kent’s DICE events today, they decided held a frog jump competition to bring people downtown to see the newly paved street.

The frog jump competition was modeled after the frog jump in the famous short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, written by Mark Twain who it turns out spent a great deal of time in Angels Camp and first heard the jumping frog story at the Angels Hotel that still stands today. The event became known as the Jumping Frog Jubilee. Every year since 1928, with the exception of 1933 during the great depression, the Jumping Frog Jubilee has been hold in Angels Camp.

In 1938 the County Fair and the Jumping Frog Jubilee were combined. Today this internationally renowned event draws competitors from around the world as hundred jockeys and their frogs compete. The winner receives a trophy, $750 and a plaque honoring the jockey and his or her frog is embedded into the sidewalls of downtown Angels Camp. World record holders
recieve special recognition on the plaque as a world record holder in addition to a trophy and $5,000. The current world record is 21′ 5 3/4″.

During the competition, the frogs are allowed to jump three times while their jockeys scream and yell at them and beat the ground. Frogs are kept in bins of warmed water to maximise their jumping potential and handlers guard fiercely the exact temperature they like the amphibians to reach.

Apparently many of the competitors spend the days leading up to the contest scouring surrounding ponds and wetlands for the perfect long-legged entrant.

In researching frog hopping I discovered that there’s some controversy between the national event sponsors and the judges, so I was thinking now’s our chance to bring all those frog jockey’s to Kent.  I knew that Portage County has more wetlands than any other county in Ohio, so I figured that means we’re bound to have lots of Michael Jordanesque bull frogs hanging around.

I checked around to see what other frog competitions are out there and the field is actually more crowded than you might think.  The Governor of South Carolina even weighed in on the topic by declaring Springfield, South Carolina’s official frog jumping capital.

With that in mind, I thought maybe we should just focus on being Ohio’s frog jumping capital but believe it or not, somebody already beat us to it — Valley City.

With nearly all hope lost, I then found a reference to human frog jumping.  What is human frog jumping you ask?  A “frog jump” is when you hold both of your big toes while jumping.  (See picture below to get the full effect).

It appears that Ashrita Furman, 52, of Queens, New York, broke the Guinness Book world record for the fastest frog jump on March 28 at the Boston Frog Pond on Boston Common. He did the frog jump for 10 meters in 9.50 seconds. The former record was 11.58 seconds, set five years ago by Bastien Lecomte of France. Furman has broken records in all seven continents and holds the title for having the most number of Guinness records held by an individual (140 since 1979; 57 in the year 2007).

So grab a frog, or your toes, and let’s make a splash in sports tourism in Portage County.

As a former Solid Waste Division Chief in Alexandria Virginia, I speak from first-hand experience when I say that you don’t mess with people’s trash service.  We ran a fleet of 10 trucks and collected 1,000 tons a day, but God forbid, if we were 5 minutes later than normal on one of the routes, the phone lines would start lighting up.  That was when I realized how important trash service is in people’s lives.  So I guess that’s why I thought I should be sure to let you know that we’re looking to change trash cans downtown.  Thanks to Main Street, we’re going to be able to upgrade the look and quality of the trash cans we use downtown this summer.

The Main Street Kent organization has been working with Gene Roberts, Public Service Director, to investigate options to replace the current home-made wooden trash cans that have been in use downtown for about 30 years.

In the course of those 30 years these cans have been damaged, burned, broken and repaired many times. At this point, the cans have exceeded their service life and have become a high maintenance item that many of the merchants complain look bad and reflect poorly on both the city and their business.

Without a capital budget to replace the 17 wooden cans, Gene has been working with a small committee of downtown merchants and Main Street representatives to see what could be done collaboratively. Everyone on the committee agreed that the old cans served a good purpose but it was time to modernize the look and function of the cans. After reviewing the various types of cans available today, the group agreed upon the same trash can that is currently used on Kent State campus.

The Victor Stanley trash can is an attractive fluted-steel can that is one of the most commonly used cans in downtowns all across the country (including downtown Ravenna).

The Main Street organization surveyed the locations of the current cans and talked to the area merchants to see if they felt more cans were needed and where those should be placed. Based on that information, Main Street presented Gene and I with a proposal to purchase a total of 55 new Victor Stanley cans.

The cost for the cans will run close to $50,000, of which the city will pay 1/3 ($15,000) and Main Street will pick up the costs for the rest. Main Street is hoping to solicit business sponsors to buy-back the cost of as many cans as possible, but they are fronting all of the cash for the new cans.

At nearly $1,000 a piece, this collaboration enables the city to get 55 new cans at the price of 15 cans. We consider this a great deal for the city and I agreed to contribute the city share upon delivery of the new cans.

At this point, Main Street has put the order in and the company expects to ship the cans in late July. Later this summer, Main Street will also be purchasing (at their cost) cigarette disposal containers for downtown as well.

This is the kind of leveraging of resources that we were hoping participation in Main Street would make possible.

When I was in downtown Kent this weekend I noticed a small table set up outside The Loft that appeared to be selling small jewelry items, much like the kind you’d find at Heritage Fest.  There were actually people at the table looking like they were going to make a purchase (which is always a good thing) and that sight prompted me to think about the success of outdoor air markets that sell everything from food to hand made jewelry and everything in-between.  Hands-down my personal favorite outdoor market was on the eastern side of Washington DC, coincidently called the Eastern Market which has been operating since the turn of the century.  Of course, Charleston SC and New Orleans have longer seasons and great outdoor venues, but for me they feel more commercial, than authentic (they sell lots of $5 sunglasses).  Maybe that’s something we need to look at expanding here in Kent since it is a really good fit with our home-grown authentic flair.

From what I’ve seen, open air markets are in the same family of the retail town centers that try to distinguish themselves from the rarified stale mall air.  And as much as I like the town/living centers, I think the open air markets take the concept even further.  They feel more organic than the town centers which are great alternatives to malls but can still feel a bit contrived sometimes.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of the living retail centers, but I hope there’s room for more authentic, unchoreographed, bazaar-types of markets in our future.  That to me, is really a big part of Kent’s niche — we’re that uncontrolled, a bit chaotic, unexpectedly surprising alternative to the Hudson’s of the world.

Likewise, I’m also not really looking to do the whole “flea” market thing either.  There’s plenty of those (think Hartville) and I’m glad they’re nearby but that’s not Kent.  Kent has more of an artisan edge.

Here’s a few places, including Cinncinnati Ohio, that have developed their open air markets into an important part of their economic niche.

Even small towns, like Ithaca NY, home to Cornell and Ithaca colleges, have developed great eclectic markets.

Eugene Oregon Market

Here’s some great photo’s of Eugene Oregon’s market experience – Click Here

Ohio’s Oldest Outdoor Market

Watch a video clip about Findley Market in Cinncinnati. (scroll down towards bottom of page to find the video link)

Findlay Market is Ohio’s oldest continuously operated public market and one of Cincinnati’s most cherished institutions. The Market is located just blocks from downtown in Over-the-Rhine, a dense historic neighborhood rich in 19th century architecture. Open Wednesday through Sunday, Findlay Market is home year-around to about two dozen indoor merchants selling meat, fish, poultry, produce, flowers, cheese, deli, and ethnic foods. On Saturdays and Sundays from April to November the Market also hosts a thriving farmers market, dozens of outdoor vendors, numerous street performers, and lots of special events.

Findlay Market is a gathering place for people from all over the city. It routinely attracts perhaps the most socially, economically, racially, and ethnically diverse crowds found anywhere in Cincinnati. They come for the sights and sounds and smells of an old-fashioned public market, for the great variety of fabulous fresh foods, for bargains, for people watching, and for a quintessentially urban shopping experience

Washington DC Eastern Market

Eastern Market is one of Washington’s most important cultural resources. It is one of the few remaining vestiges of Washington’s 19th and early 20th century public market system, and the ONLY operating historic fresh food market left in the city. Located in the heart of the Capitol Hill Historic District, Eastern Market is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated local landmark. It is housed in a handsome brick building built in two stages and designed by two notable Washington architects.

The South Hall, which still functions as a public market, was designed in the Victorian style by Adolf Cluss and constructed in 1873 as part of the post Civil War program of civic improvements. The T-shaped Center Connector and the North Hall were designed in the classical revival style by Snowden Ashford and built in 1907. The two-story Center Connector was built to house a separate fish market with a “tea room” and rest rooms above it. The tea room is now a pottery studio and the food operation has moved to the first floor. On the front of the Center Connector was an arched opening or “loggia” designed as an outdoor stall. The stall is now used as the kitchen for the Market’s restaurant. The North Hall, now called the Market 5 Gallery, serves the Capitol Hill community and the city at large as an arts and community center.

Both halls need restoration work, but the building is in a remarkable state of preservation in that it is so little altered from the time of its construction. At Eastern Market one can observe how public markets worked in the 19th and early 20th century when such markets were an essential part of social and commercial life.

Eastern Market is living history. For more than 100 years the market-day scene has been reenacted at Eastern Market every Saturday. Farmers from Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia bring fresh produce, baked goods, and flowers to the Market’s farmer’s line. Among these farmers are families that have been coming to the market since it was built.

“Summer in the City” was one of my favorite turn-up the car radio and rock-out tunes from my teen years — but it doesn’t quite have that same born-to-be-wild effect when you’re cranking it up sitting in a traffic jam.  Traffic jams are an unfortunate part of the summer paving season.  We’re getting ready for our big paving job in Kent — milling and paving SR 43 from SR 261 into downtown — so turn up the radio, kick back and please be patient with the delays.

Street Markings and Re-Striping – You may have seen cones and city crews blocking off parts of streets around town so that they could refresh the paint at intersections.  In case you didn’t know it, the Central Maintenance Division performs all the “small” paint markings around town. This includes Stop Blocks, Crosswalks, Arrows, RR crossing, and School Zones. Last year we spent 860 hours on painting these areas and we used 680 gallons of paint costing us a total for labor and supplies just under $25,000.  As far as the long line painting in the City (centerline stripes, shoulder stripes, etc.) we contract that out to the low bid contractor because we don’t have the specialized equipment. Last year we spent just under $24,000 on long line street painting.

Street Patch Repairs — As we all know, Old Man Winter is not kind to our streets.  Between water lines that burst beneath the streets thanks to the cold temperatures or the potholes that pop from the freeze-thaw cycle, city streets take a beating each winter.  That means each summer city crews are busy trying to undo the damage and put our streets back in good driving condition.  It isn’t always pretty looking at a patchwork of patches, but city crews work hard to repair all those temporary patches that were done in the winter with a good hot mix asphalt repair.  To give you an idea of the magnitude of all these “little” jobs, city crews used close to 600 tons of asphalt for these spot repairs in 2006.

I have to say, our city crews are masters at the fine art of street patch repairs.  And if you don’t believe me, ride across the repairs they did at the top of Summit Street where pipes broke last winter — you don’t even feel a hint of a bump going over them, which is the mark of a true patch craftsman.

The street work can be frustrating while you’re in traffic behind it, but it really is a great example of your tax dollars hard at work.

On Kent State Campus

TERRACE DRIVE CLOSED TO THROUGH TRAFIC FOR CONSTRUCTION MERRILL CIRCLE AND BOWSHER CIRCLE ALSO CLOSED BEGINNING THE WEEK OF JUNE 11 AND CONTINUING THROUGH AUGUST 17

Starting the week of June 11, 2007, contractors will begin mobilizing on-site to construct a new utility tunnel leading from Oscar Ritchie Hall to Merrill Hall on the Kent Campus of Kent State University. The tunnel will cross Terrace Drive just east of the “Behind the Brain at Merrill Hall” sculpture south of Merrill Hall. This work will effectively close Terrace Drive to through traffic during its construction. Signs will be posted at SR 59/East Main Street and Summit Street to indicate the street closure to through traffic. Fencing will be installed around the entire construction zone. Contractors are currently waiting to receive scheduling information from the supplier providing the precast tunnel sections. These tunnel sections should start to arrive as early as the week of June 11, 2007.

When delivery schedules are confirmed, further information will be provided. The exact date of street closure will depend on the delivery schedule of the tunnel sections. Every effort will be made to reopen the road and sidewalks as early as possible; however, work is anticipated to continue until August 17; unknown underground site conditions and weather constraints could also potentially affect the project. Utility work will require several water shut downs to buildings in the vicinity of the tunnel work. Notices will be sent when plans and dates for that work are scheduled.

In addition, Merrill Circle (the loop drive behind Merrill Hall) and Bowsher Circle (the entry to the R-19 parking lot will be temporarily closed during tunnel construction. During that time, PARTA transports will be able to make a three-point turn at the west end of Merrill Circle, vehicles may turn around at Flemming Circle on the east side of the construction. Entry to the R-19 parking lot will be available at the paved temporary drive between the Art Annex and Van Deusen Hall. Please note that this drive is one lane wide and is a steep grade. Signs will be posted to warn drivers of conditions and for protection of pedestrians on the Terrace Drive sidewalk. Pedestrians are urged to use the University Esplanade and Commons walks leading to the east side of Engleman Hall to avoid this area and traverse campus in the north/south direction. Across North Campus, walks on the north side of Lowry, Merrill, Cartwright, and Kent halls will be the means to bypass the excavation east-to-west.

OSCAR RITCHIE HALL TO CLOSE FOR MAJOR RENOVATIONS
While Oscar Ritchie Hall is under renovation, the Department of Pan African Studies is scheduled to temporarily relocate to the Lincoln Building during the week of July 16, 2007. The building is scheduled to be turned over to the Demolition/Abatement Contractor the week of July 23. Site work and other mobilization will begin within the next few weeks.

Detailed descriptions of construction project can be found on the Office of the University Architect’s Web site at: www.kent.edu/universityarchitect/DescriptionofCurrentProjects.cfm.