Occasionally progress comes in leaps and bounds (thank you Mr. Burbick for your Phoenix project downtown) but most of the time it inches its way forward tripping, slipping and sliding along the way. Traction can be hard to generate even on the easy stuff, much less the hard stuff, but either way without good traction applying the petal to the metal does nothing more than spin our wheels faster (or at least that’s what the Engineers tell me). As impatient as I get I do understand that we citizens set up our government to be slow moving on purpose, we didn’t want hasty action when it comes to our community so we put a lot of controls on how our city operates.  That’s not to say we can’t improve, we absolutely can, but our DNA will always be more donkey than thoroughbred.  Just remember that the tortoise beat the hare so there’s hope for this donkey yet.  Here’s some updates from our Engineers on some topical Kent issues.

Updates From Engineering

Crain Avenue Buildings Bid
There were no proposals received to remove any of the structures to be demolished by the Crain Avenue Project. We are still working on getting the remaining occupants moved. Once the structures are empty, the regional S.W.A.T. team will be using them for training prior to demolition.

Old Red Diner Downtown
We received 4 proposals to demolish what remains of the old Diner. The asbestos abatement is complete and we are sending the contracts out for signature today (Jan 23). We will be able to authorize the contractor, Roberts General Excavating, to proceed as early as February 3, 2009. Dave Roberts said he will have it cleaned up in a day.

Demo Old Houses on SR 59
The asbestos survey is underway for the old houses on SR 59. If asbestos is found, it will be removed per EPA regulations. We will have the building demolition package put together for early spring. Once it is warm enough to get grass established on the graded site, we will authorize the demolition. (early April)

Crain Avenue Bridge Re-Opening (posted on the Blog Jan 24)
Midwest Mole has made the following progress completing the repairs necessary for the City’s storm sewer since the last update of Jan 12, 2009:

Directional drilling through the rock under the rails is complete
Manholes have been installed on the river side and wall side of the tracks
Pipe has been placed between river and the east side of the rails
Headwall at river outfall partially completed
Vertical pipe connecting to City storm sewer is partially completed

Work is progressing today attempting to make the final tie into the City’s upper storm sewer pipe. Remaining to be done is the completion of the tie in at the City’s storm sewer, completion of the headwall at the Cuyahoga River and site cleanup. Currently Midwest Mole is projecting their work to be completed by Friday January 30, 2009.

I will forward an update as Midwest Mole’s work progresses and if they complete their work early or experience delays requiring the bridge to remain closed past their current estimated completion date.

City Trash Service Bid
Gene Roberts received 3 bids from contractors (R&R Sanitation, J&J Refuse, and Waste Management) interested in providing citywide trash service in Kent.  Gene is reviewing the bids and preparing a tabulation that will go to City Council for discussion at their February 4th Committee meeting.

Thanks to Old Man Winter our snow crews have had plenty of practice over the last month putting our snow operations plans into action.  With all due respect to our Fire and Police crews, snow removal is the most visible and depended upon service we provide for about 4 months a year.  The Police and Fire can’t do their job if the plow operators aren’t doing theirs so that puts them firmly seated at the top of the city service food chain.  Ensuring public safety on city streets is hard enough on dry sunny days but spin the roulette wheel of weather and you better grab your Rolaids because it’s going to be a long 4 months.  We’ve got great snow operations plans and we rely on our procedures as much as possible but unfortunately the weather rarely follows the script so much of what we do in the field comes down to supervisor judgment and operator experience.  Here’s a look inside the cab of a snow plow truck and our City snow operations.

Earlier this month the City’s Public Service Director, Gene Roberts, provided City Council with a refresher on our City Snow Operations.  As usual, he did a great job — so good in fact I figured that I had to share it here.  Keep in mind, Gene’s a well trained engineer which means his presentation is full of facts, figures and analytic details.  After his presentation I had one observer say that they never knew that snow plowing was so complex and sophisticated.  I’m not sure how often our plow drivers get accused of being sophisticated but there’s no doubt they are professionals — so don’t try this at home.

View Gene’s Snow Ops Powerpoint

Here’s a few of Gene’s highlights:

Any City that wants to put itself on the travel and tourism circuit has to have a good old fashioned visitor’s bureau working hard behind the scenes putting out the good word for all the great things going on in the City.  In the dog eat dog world of visitor attraction there’s no room for humility so you’ll have to forgive their Barnum and Bailey-esque shameless promotion on our behalf — that’s their job.  Convention and Visitor’s Bureaus come in all shapes and sizes, and here in Kent we’ve hooked up with Portage County to showcase the many attractions not just here in Kent but also within a short drive around Kent.  Here’s a look back at what the Central Portage County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau did for us in 2008.

The Visitor’s Bureaus are often affiliated with the Chambers of Commerce since they share a common interest in attracting people (and their money) to come visit us — and that’s exactly how we’re set up here in Kent.

The Central Portage County Visitor’s Bureau was first incorporated back in July of 2001 as a non-profit corporation with a mission to increase the exposure of Central Portage County, promoting business and family travel, area attractions and regional tourism.  The Visitor’s Bureau is supported through legislation adopted by the City of Kent and the Brimfield Township that collects a 1.5% bed tax from hotels/motels specifically for the Bureau.

The Visitor’s Bureau has a $66,000 a year budget generated from the bed tax.  At this point, 99% of that bed tax comes from from hotels/motels in Brimfield since the last remaining hotels in Kent have essentially been converted to student housing.  The Kent Area Chamber of Commerce manages the Visitor’s Bureau and runs the programs and services at a cost of about $12,500 a year.

I suspect that in the good old days when Shamoo was still doing back flips up in Aurora we didn’t really have to work that hard at visitor attraction — it happened almost on its own.  But then, as we all know, Shamoo headed south and even the Geuaga Lake Amusement Park has closed it’s doors so now we’ve really got our work cut out for us which is we enlisted the help of the Visitor’s Bureau.

For a City that prides itself on being slightly off-centered and quirky, hosting the international short film festival is a great way to show it off.  Look, if you want mainstream formula plot lines of big studio mass-produced movies, go to the Regal multiplex in Hudson — but if you want a chance to participate in the creative expression of independent film makers (aka artists) in an intimate and personal setting then you need to go to the 6th Annual Standing Rock International Short Film & Video Festival in Kent this weekend. It’s really that simple.

Standing Rock Cultural Arts is pleased to announce The 6th Annual Standing Rock International Short Film & Video Festival. This event will take place at The Kent Stage, a beautiful historic theater in downtown Kent, Ohio on Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 8pm.

There are three parts to the festival:

1) Independent short films from around the world. This portion includes documentaries, animation, short comedy, collages, music videos, and short drama. It features work by filmmakers from as close as Northeast Ohio and from as far away as Italy, The Netherlands, Israel, and England, Opening Remarks for this part will be made by Internationally Acclaimed Filmmaker and former Kent State University Film Professor, Richard Myers. He will also screen a short excerpt of his work later in the program.

After these films are screened, we will offer ballots to the audience for them to select a People’s Choice Award. The winner shall receive a cash prize and be invited to be featured filmmaker for our festival in 2010.

2) Featured Filmmaker, Julia Pott. Last year’s “People’s Choice” award winner, Julia, has recently graduated with honors from Kingston University and currently works as an illustrator in Central London. We will be previewing her latest animations.

3) Live Music to Films:

a) “is” – Joe Culley, with live musical accompaniment by Joe Culley and Madhu Anand (12:00)

b) “Mandala #2″ – Mike Hovancsek, with live musical accompaniment by Joe Culley, Madhu Anand, and Mike Hovancsek (5:39)

We hope you’re able to come out and enjoy the world of innovative filmmaking. This unique event promises to be an extravaganza of audiovisual adventure.

Richard Myers has always lived in Massillon, and Kent, Ohio. Since 1960 his films have synthesized his own dream world with that of America’s collective unconscious, creating films that, while deeply personal and ‘site-specific,’ nevertheless resonate within the larger American landscape.

“Myers’ films often times depict journeys to places that seem close by, but that virtually explore vast distances within the terrain of dreams and fantasies. His films are like reconnaissance tours through middle America, melancholic searches for something – an object, an idea, a person, a feeling. And the milieu of his films is often that of the carnival, the medicine show, or the movie theater.

“Myers started out as a painter, printmaker and photographer. As he puts it, ‘What excited me most about film was the idea that it could all be done by one person, that he or she could do everything: conceive of the idea, shoot the film, make the sets, edit the film, do the sound, etc. Film allowed me to do all these things, and ‘paint’ images from my dreams, and personal memory.’ For Myers, ‘film is poetry, painting, and photography, all in one.’

“His first film, THE PATH, established his ‘palette.’ ‘THE PATH, was a short silent film based on a dream,’ Myers explains. ‘I tried to direct the viewer through forms and substances, rather than with narrative and story. I thought of the film as a myth, – myth as an intermediate and indispensable stage between conscious and unconscious cognition.

The film visually and rhythmically evolved from unconscious direction, and most of my subsequent films have done the same.’ “Few American filmmakers equal Myers in breadth of work and perseverance of vision, built upon self-examination and a deep love of cinema. In articulating his own reality, his own dreams, Myers has created a body of work that constitutes one of the outstanding achievements in American filmmaking.” – Ruth Bradley

*Richard Myers will be screening a 10 minute trailer from his award winning film “37-73″.*

Thank you for supporting independent film!

Although the pot of Federal dollars that the City is eligible to receive through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program has declined slightly over the last 5 years (down to $298,000 from $325,000) every penny still counts and with the real estate market a bit of a mess right now it’s more important than ever to use these dollars wisely.  How those dollars get used depends in part upon who applies for them within the City and that’s where you come in.  If you’ve got a good idea for how to transform an old dilapitated property and make it new again so that low to moderate income families can have a place to call home, now is the time to let us know.  Here’s the details on the grant application process.

Good Afternoon:

The CD Department is beginning the 2009 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) submission process. As part of that process, the CD Department is seeking proposals in order to identify eligible projects that will be included in the City’s application to HUD.

Proposals need to be submitted by February 18, 2009 and the specific submission requirements and actual proposal form have been attached for your review.

If you have any questions after reviewing the attached, please contact me at 330.678.8108.

Thanks.

Bridget O. Susel
Grants & Neighborhood Programs Administrator
City of Kent Community Development Department
930 Overholt Rd., Kent OH 44240
(330) 678-8108

SUBMISSION CRITERIA & REQUIREMENTS
The City of Kent participates in the federally funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As part of the City of Kent’s 2009 CDBG submission to HUD, the City will identify activities which will be funded with the City of Kent’s proposed PY2009 CDBG funding allocation. To be eligible for funding through this source, all applicants must address one or more of the following overall objectives as a component of their proposed activities:

CITY OF KENT CONSOLIDATED PLAN OVERALL OBJECTIVES
1. The expansion of economic opportunities for low and moderate income persons that promote long-term economic and social viability within the community. 2. The provision of decent housing through:

a) The retention of existing affordable housing stock; or

b) Providing assistance to homeless persons in obtaining appropriate housing and necessary support services; or

c) Increasing the availability of permanent housing that is affordable to low and moderate income persons; or

d) The provision of housing, and/or related support services, to persons with special needs including, but not limited to: disabled persons, elderly, persons with HIV/AIDS, or persons/families at or near the poverty level.

3. The provision of a suitable living environment through improving public safety or the revitalization of neighborhoods. Such activities may promote access to public facilities or services, the restoration or preservation of historic or architecturally significant properties, or the preservation of energy/water resources.

PROGRAM APPLICATION PROCESS
The City of Kent will review and consider proposals for inclusion in the City’s proposed PY 2009 CDBG funding allocation from interested neighborhood planning groups, social service agencies, community agencies, and other groups or interested persons. Eligible applicants must complete their proposals on the attached application and submit a completed copy to the address listed on the first page of the application. All applications must be received on or before 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18, 2009. Faxed copies of either the application or one or more of any attachments will not be considered.

Download the Full Application Package