Water Plant Operations Report...

Last month the City’s Water Plant Manager, Steve Hardesty, provided City Council with a very informative and insightful presentation on the state of the operations at the City Water Plant.  In the course of an hour Steve walked through a long list of operational challenges that he and his staff have wrestled with and in each case they solved the problems and saved the City money.  Unfortunately they don’t control the cost of electricity and the chemicals that they use in the water purification process and that’s what’s putting a lot of pressure on City water rates.

The City is in the process of conducting a utility rate study to evaluate the City’s rates in order to come up with a rate stabilization plan that ensures the City has safe drinking water that is also affordable. 

Water Treatment Plant Computer Operations Screen

By their nature, utility systems rely on expensive treatment equipment that gets used 24/7, 365 days a year.  That’s a lot of wear and tear, and even with our aggressive maintenance programs we routinely face significant replacement and repair costs which are paid for out of the funds generated by the water rates. 

The costs for that equipment and the power to run it keeps climbing higher leaving the City staff fewer and fewer options or resources to respond with.  All of that is a long way of saying no one on City staff wants to raise rates but more than that no one wants to produce bad water — which means we (as a community) have got to determine what we are willing to pay to ensure our water quality remains excellent — and that’s the mission of the rate study. 

To help to begin to understand the dynamics of water plant operations I thought I’d share Steve’s powerpoint that he provided to City Council.  Unfortunately I don’t have a tape recorded version of Steve’s narrative because he did an excellent job at explaining complex, technical matters in plain english that everyone could understand.  However, Steve did provide his notes in the power point and while they are a bit cryptic you can read them by scrolling over the upper left corner of each slide. 

After Steve’s presentation I received a note from Councilman Ferrara that is a great testament to the quality of Steve’s work:  

Kent Companies Come Up Big in 3rd Frontier Awards...

The State of Ohio 3rd Frontier techonology awards were announced for this year and two of Kent’s favorite liquid crystal start-ups were recipients once again – Kent Displays and Alpha Micron will both receive $1 million.   That means out of $5.7 million provided statewide, Kent companies got 35% of the total State allocation.  That’s an impressive statement for high tech commercialization in Kent.  

These companies are two great examples of what the future holds in store for Kent’s economy.  With research born in Kent State’s liquid crystal institute labs these two companies have roots in Kent and they have chosen to stay and grow their businesses here.  When it comes to keeping these companies in Kent, the CEO’s of both companies have emphasized the importance of re-energizing the downtown and making Kent a more vibrant place for the employees and their families that they are bringing into Kent from all over the world — which explains the sense of urgency we have to keep the downtown project rolling forward. 

Here’s an excerpt from the news article in Crains that referenced the Kent 3rd Frontier Awards: 

Among the businesses receiving advanced material awards was Kent Displays Inc. of Kent, which got $1 million. Kevin Oswald, the company’s communications director, said the funding will be used for the development of flexible liquid crystals.

A consumer application includes creating an electronic skin that would permanently be integrated to the surface of, say, a cell phone, allowing the user to change the phone’s color by pressing a button.

“If I am wearing an orange shirt today and wanted to change my phone orange, I could do that,” he said. “If I change my shirt tomorrow to red, I could change my phone to red. It allows dynamic appearance change of an object.”

Oswald said the company previously received about $12 million in Third Frontier funding. He said the money helped to take the company from about 40 employees two years ago to about 70 today. The funding also helped to launch the Boogie Board, an electronic writing tablet that uses unique liquid crystal display technology and needs virtually no power to operate.

Other companies receiving advance material program awards included:

– AlphaMirror Inc. of Kent, in collaboration with AlphaMicron, Elbit Systems and Magna Mirrors, $1 million to manufacture an affordable and environmentally friendly plastic film, auto dimming rear view mirror.

Rediscovering Plum Creek...

Ever since the dam was installed in Plum Creek, way back in 1887, the creek has been more of a series of ponds than a stream, but that is changing and we’ll all have a chance to rediscover the original Plum Creek later this year. 

The City Engineer, Jim Bowling, dropped me a note on the status of the Plum Creek Restoration project this week and I thought it would be helpful to share it.  As you can see in the picture above the ponds are no more and the original stream bed channel has re-emerged.  

The Dam was removed on February 19, 2009 and some people may be wondering why no work is being done at this time.  No work is currently being done in order to allow time for the sediment to dry. This also allows us the ability to get more accurate measurements on the amount of sediment that needs to be removed. The contractor has installed an orange safety fence around the entire work area to keep people from getting stuck in the exposed sediment while it is drying.  The contractor will mobilize in the beginning of April, and by mid April work will resume at the site.

Project Background

In March 2009, the City of Kent applied for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus funds for the Plum Creek Stream Restoration Project.  The City of Kent was awarded $1,366,527 for the planning, design, construction, and construction management for the project.  The Project includes the removal of the Plum Creek Dam, replacement of the Mogadore Road Culvert, and the restoration of approximately 2,200 linear feet of stream (upstream of the dam).

The Plum Creek Dam was built in 1887 and no longer serves its original purpose.  The dam is a Class III structure under the jurisdiction of Ohio’s Dam Safety Laws regulated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) through periodic inspections.  The last inspection of the dam performed in 1995 resulted in recommendations for the City to: prepare an Emergency Action Plan, prepare an Operation and Maintenance Manual, perform hydrologic and hydraulic studies to determine modifications needed to increase the discharge/storage capacity of the dam to pass the design flood, prepare plans and specifications for the necessary modifications, and rehabilitate the lake drain and install an adequate silting basin.  No action has been taken on these recommendations to date.

The existing Mogadore Road Culvert is over 20 years old and is in poor condition.  The 2008 Bridge Inspection Report noted the following existing issues: several bolts rusted, the culvert is bulging in two locations, water is running under the entire culvert length, the ground is washed out at the outlet 4.5 feet deep, both headwalls need replaced.  Many of the existing conditions mentioned above go back at least as far as the 1985 Bridge Inspection Report.  The conditions have deteriorated over the years.

The Plum Creek Reservoir, adjacent to Plum Creek Park, was last dredged in 1978.  Approximately 24,000 cubic yards of material was removed from the reservoir in dredging and rechanneling operations and a 40-foot x 9-foot silt basin was constructed.  The reservoir was reportedly in need of being dredged again by the early 1990’s.  In 2009, the estimated amount of sediment in the reservoir is 12,000 cubic yards.  The soft sediment poses safety and aesthetic concerns.  The impoundment also negatively alters water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity (relative clarity).  The resultant water quality and physical barrier of the dam negatively impact the diversity, quantity and quality of fish and macroinvertebrates in the stream.

Counting Down To The Grand Opening of 5 Guys Burge...

It’s been a moving target but it appears that the owners of the soon to be opened 5 Guys Burgers and Fries in Kent will officially be opening their doors in April.  5 Guys fanatics are rejoicing everywhere. 

I say fanatics because that’s the kind of following this restaurant chain has enjoyed.  It is one of the fastest growing franchises in the country and it’s funny because I can remember when the first 5 Guys restaurant opened in the Washington DC area and I had moved there after graduating from college.  It wasn’t fancy but it sure was popular.  So I expect great things for the Kent store. 

It turns out that the 5 Guys media man is a Kent State grad (2001) and here’s his press release announcing the opening of the Kent store.

March 24, 2010

 Five Guys Burgers and Fries Kent to Open in April

KENT, OH – Wed, March 24 – Five Guys Burgers and Fries will open its newest store in Kent in early April, in the highly popular E Main Street corridor.

The menu at Five Guys Burgers and Fries is simple: burgers, hotdogs, fries, grilled veggie and grilled cheese sandwiches and beverages. The select menu is a reflection of Five Guys’ philosophy of focusing on a few items, and serving them to the best of their ability. The décor is purposely simple so that it does not take away from the most important part of this restaurant – the outstanding quality of the food.

The burgers are hand pattied daily and made to order with 100% American Beef that is preservative free and never frozen. The Boardwalk-style fries are hand cut daily from Russet Burbank potatoes grown above the 42nd parallel – creating the perfect texture, soaked in water and then cooked to order in no-trans- fat peanut oil and may be ordered with or without Cajun seasoning. The rolls are shipped in fresh from our bakery and do not contain fillers or artificial preservatives. All toppings are free and include crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes, juicy pickles, sautéed mushrooms, green peppers, fried onions, A1 sauce, jalapeno peppers, hot sauce, mayo, raw onions, ketchup, mustard, relish and barbecue sauce. Kosher hot dogs are served split and grilled plain, or topped with cheese and bacon. Customers also enjoy complimentary in-the-shell peanuts served in bulk containers.

“As a Kent alumnus and a native, I am thrilled and honored to open our first store in Kent, “ said Matthew Mikola, General Manager of Five Guys Kent. “We are excited to see so many talented local applicants across the spectrum applying for our part-time and full-time positions including culinary/hospitality professionals, college students and high school students. With outstanding service provided by local talent, our award winning product and a fabulous location, we think the Five Guys Kent is going to be a favorite destination for this amazing community.”

Five Guys Burgers and Fries at Kent will be open for business daily from 11 am to 10 pm and is planning to stay open for extended hours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It is located at 623 E Main St, Kent, OH 44240, across Rockwell Hall/The Fashion School.

Five Guys has been voted “The #1 Best Burger” for the past nine years in Washingtonian Magazine, rated number one “Bang for the Buck” in Zagat Survey and The Washington Post calls them “the Willy Wonkas of burgercraft.” Outside the Washington DC Metro area, Five Guys has won Best Burger awards in over 35 cities.

For more information, visit www.fiveguys.com or contact Matthew Mikola at pr@wholesomeburger.com.

About Wholesome Burger

Wholesome Burger, LLC is a restaurant development company that is developing 40+ Five Guys Burgers and Fries across NorthEast Ohio and Pittsburgh markets.

Contact: Matthew Mikola

Stimulus Lightning Strikes Again In Kent...

There was a lot of electricity in the air Monday night that brought rain but Tuesday that rain turned into sunshine as Kent learned that our stimulus funding application for $501,0517 was approved in full to retrofit City buildings for improved energy conservation and efficiency. 

We’ve been working for about the last 18 months with a professional energy firm to audit our City operations and buildings in order to come up with a plan to upgrade outdated appliances, mechanical systems, etc. to save money on City utility bills.   City Council has set energy reduction goals and put policies in place authorizing staff to make strategic investments in energy equipment in order to control rising utility costs and to serve as a model for progressive energy management programs. 

The plan came together late last year and with a payback period from utility savings projected at 6 to 7 years City Council approved the plan as part of the 2010 capital program at a cost of $677,026.  Being an opportunistic bunch City staff began looking for possible grant sources to fund portions of the energy upgrades.  As luck would have it, just about that time the Federal government announced a round of energy stimulus grants and we jumped at the chance to leverage some of those dollars towards our projects.

And it worked.  Here’s the note that I sent City Council as soon as I heard the news this Tuesday evening:

_______________

The CIP included the Energy Conservation Project with requested funding in 2010 of $663,000 for The Brewer-Garrett Company.  The Energy Conservation Project was proposed to reduce the City’s cost for energy, both electric and natural gas. 

The current cost break down per City facility is as follows:

Additionally, at the request of City Council, Brewer-Garrett has investigated the installation of solar hot water heating for Kent Fire Department Station One and the potential of a funding source to offset the cost of the heating unit.  The cost estimate for the hot water heating unit is $33,600 which typically has a payback period of between 20 and 30 years.  Using a 25-year payback the annual natural gas savings would be in the neighborhood of $1,344 per year.  The cost and payback of the solar hot water heating system is not included in the information provided above but will increase the total Energy Conservation Project cost to $686,555 and increase the total payback period from 6.5 to 6.8 years.

Upon initial design of the solar hot water project at the City of Kent’s Fire Station No. 1, Brewer-Garrett looked at the possibility of Solar Thermal Grants from the Ohio Department of Development, Energy Office.  These grants are available at the rate of $30 per kBTU of capacity. The system for Station No. 1 was designed to provide 92 kBTU of capacity for the fire station, enough to meet all of their hot water demand in the summer. Unfortunately, the state requires a minimum of 200 kBTU of capacity to qualify for these grants.  To install a system of sufficient size to take advantage of this rebate would require more than doubling the size of the current proposed project.  This 200 kBTU size would then qualify for $6,000 in state grant money, which would be far less than the increased cost of the project.  Brewer-Garrett recommends against making the system any larger, as costs of increasing its size would not only greatly overshadow any grant money, but most of the capacity of the larger system would go wasted.

Fill Out That Census Data, Please....

I guess this would be the 3rd national census in my lifetime that I personally would have been old enough to pay attention to and I have to say that I don’t ever remember such a heavy advertising campaign before – of course I don’t ever remember the economy ever being this bad either and with access to federal dollars at stake it’s no wonder that the race for cash is on. 

Even in City Manager circles the census world has historically been left to folks with little fashion sense, thick glasses and pocket calculators to extrapolate and masticate over while the rest of us were busy attending to matters in the real world.  Well, guess what, the winds of change have blown that out the window.  It’s a new day and when it comes to the census it’s hip to be square.  It’s now a matter of civic duty.  Do it for the children.  It’s farm aid in 2010. 

I’m not saying filling out the form may not be a little boring but in these troubled economic times it’s a price worth paying and it really is an important message: everyone counts.  It’s Dr. Suess’s littlest who down in whoville that has to be heard.  Make yourself count, fill out the form, be heard.  Get up, Stand up.

One of the shining star employees on the City staff is Bridget Susel.  She practices alchemy turning lead into gold — aka she’s our City grant writer.  She’s the City’s official prospector mining the state and federal hills for those golden nuggets and with all the stimulus dollars being discovered these days it feels a lot like being in the Yukon in the late 1800s. 

Bridget’s track record for bringing grant dollars into the City speaks for itself  and because of that she’s become our City version of EF Hutton — when she talks, we all listen. Last week she talked, sending around a note to all City employees urging them to fill out the census and I listened.  And at the risk of repeating a message you may have heard already I’d say take a minute to read Bridget’s note, then take 5 more minutes to fill out your census form.  It will be the fastest $10,000 you’ll ever make for your community.

____________________

Good Morning,

2010 is a decennial census year and the U.S. Census Bureau is currently mailing out surveys to households across the country. I wanted to take a moment to encourage all of you to take a few minutes to complete and return your census survey. Many of you are aware that the census plays a role in determining congressional representation, but the census also plays a primary role in determining federal funding levels for many critical grant-funded programs that support needed services in the community. Information gathered through the census with regards to population, household income, and even the age of the housing stock, is used to determine funding levels for many grant programs in the City of Kent and in Portage County. This federal funding supports a myriad of programs and services that cannot be adequately funded with limited local tax dollars, including affordable housing initiatives, crime prevention, public improvements, employment training, and supportive services for those most in need in the community.

My job here at the City requires me to work closely with representatives from many nonprofit and government agencies and I keep hearing about funding cuts and limited budgets at a time when the needs of many are increasing as individuals struggle to support families and keep their homes. All of us are fortunate to have good jobs during these challenging times and while we cannot assist everyone in need, we can make sure the maximum amount of federal funding is made available in our community by taking the time to complete the census survey.

I will get off of my soap box now, but I hope this e-mail will encourage you to take the time to complete your census form when it arrives in your mailbox. Every completed and submitted census survey equates to approximately $10,000 in federal grant support coming into our community over the next 10 years and it would be unfortunate to lose any of that funding because we couldn’t find the time to complete our census survey.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

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

Crain Avenue Bridge Traffic Getting Complicated...

At the start of next week (March 29th) the engineers are saying that the traffic patterns around the Crain Avenue Bridge project (click here for a brochure summary of the project) are going to get complicated.  If you haven’t been over there recently they’ve made some great progress as Phase 1 is about a month away from wrapping up but before it’s done it’s going to cause some traffic troubles. 

These aren’t permanent traffic troubles but while they’re here they are unfortunately going to be frustrating.  Remember, we’re doing the bridge project because it is the most congested intersection in all of Portage and Summit counties so when the contractors start closing lanes it’s going to get ugly.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I figure the only thing worse than getting stuck in a traffic jam is being surprised by a traffic jam and not giving yourself enough time to get to your destination.  

 Here’s an update from the engineers:

Phase 1 Construction continues with the following:

 Temporary pavement construction on S.R. 43 begins Monday, March 29^th .

·         Private Utility Relocations are nearing completion:

o        Ohio Edison has minor work to be completed on S.R. 43 and Lake St.

o        Dominion East Ohio Gas has completed their mainline work throughout the project.

o        AT&T has completed their work.

o        Time Warner Cable continues to transfer their services to new poles on S.R. 43 and Lake St.

·         Construction of the new Sheetz at the corner of S.R. 43 and Fairchild Avenue continues, and is being coordinated with the Fairchild Avenue Bridge Project.

·         Fairchild Avenue Bridge Construction continues with the piers and the east end foundation of the bridge.

 Construction Traffic Update:

• Beginning Monday, March 29^th, Northbound traffic on S.R. 43 will be reduced to one lane.
• Phase 2 will begin in early May with the Fairchild Avenue detour and lane closures on S.R. 43.
• The Brady Lake Road Bridge Detour is currently in effect and will continue into the summer. This traffic detour is being coordinated with the Fairchild Ave. Bridge Project.

Art Spark...

My mention of the Haymaker Farmer’s Market interest in an art mural on the columns beneath the Haymaker Bridge earlier in the week sparked a fair amount of interest from folks.  People seemed to feel that the Market was on to something good and they were letting me know that we (aka the City) needs to do more to promote public art projects like this since art runs deep in Kent’s DNA — both formally with the art education programs and professional galleries like the KSU Gallery and the McKay Bricker Gallery, and at the other end of the spectrum with a glom of  indie artists randomly found around town doing their own thing in unexpected places (like streetcorners or at the Professor’s Pub). 

I tend to agree that the City needs to do whatever it can to advance the arts — both the formal and informal forms of creative expression.  I don’t make that statement to be politically correct or for some philanthropic agenda, rather if we’re serious about selling the Kent experience as an eclectic mix of characters, places and sensory stimuli then art has to be part of the community conversation and stake it’s claim at the alter of eccentric Kent.  The adjectives and descriptors of art — quirky, surprising, confusing, thought provoking, and even shocking — also happen to pop up when talking about many aspects of Kent so in that regard art resonates and even amplifies the Kent ethos (or milieu for the high brow artists among us.) 

Our efforts to market the Kent lifestyle is not unique to us — it’s the core of a lot of city development efforts.  Those bold Texans in Austin have taken it so far as to proudly adopt the tag line “Keep Austin Wierd” in a national campaign to be the world headquarters of everything odd.  You can’t help but admire the lengths they’ve gone to realize their aspiration — the video of the 6’4″ cowboy walking down the street in his raw hide boots and matching thong did me in but clearly they have no fear in embracing their unique sense of style. 

Another ambitious city that has embraced the off-beat is Asheville North Carolina.  They’ve carved themselves a unique place in the mountains of North Carolina that is equal parts hippie and hill-billy – and it works really well.  Great art, great street scene, great restaurants and a surprising mix of people of all kinds of dispositions. 

It turns out that Asheville is one of the sources of inspiration for the Kent art mural project that has been adopted by the Haymaker Farmer’s Market.  They’ve got their own infrastructure art thing going on.
 

 Here’s a few good links to learn more about the Asheville project

Asheville Story Archives

Kent still has a long way to go to catch Asheville but it’s nice to know that we’re in good company.

Get Your Passport Here...

One of the public services that the City Clerk for the City of Kent picked up on behalf of all our international travelers was providing passports.  That may not strike the casual observer as unique but passports are not a traditional city service — it turned out to be an opportunity that our City Clerk saw the need for and she has been filling ever since.

It may be a little thing but it’s an important little thing that helps us achieve all those cultural and economic benefits that I’ve blogged about this week related to Kent’s international scene.  International travel is a two-way street and she helps make sure that Kent residents and visitors have an easy way to safely get where they want to go and return home when they want.  Sounds small from the comforts of your lounge chair but when you’re 2,000 miles away from home it’s definitely not such a small thing.   

Last week the City Clerk sent around a notice that the US State Department was increasing passport fees.  She said that if you have a passport that needs to be renewed, the cost of renewal will increase by $35.00.  For first time applicants, the cost for an adult passport will be $135 and for those under 16, $105.  Currently, those fees are $100 and $85, respectively.  The US Dept. of State has not told us the exact date of these impending increase but she says that past experience tells her it is in the not-so-distant future.

Here’s the State Department notice:

International Students and Entrepreneurship...

On Monday I rattled on so long about the cultural value that international students, faculty and business people contribute to the Kent lifestyle that I ran out of gas before I got a chance to throw in my two cents on the economic value of those foreign born folks that call Kent home.  So I’d like to return to the topic of the current wave of immigration and the rather significant role it plays in our economic recovery.

The Kent State strategic planning summit focused more on the higher morale purpose of engaging international students in education and life long learning so we didn’t really dig too deeply into the economics but as much as I like group hugs, at the end of the day we still have to pay the bills and that leads us into a more practical discussion of what’s in it for us economically?  It turns out quite a lot actually.

I didn’t necessarily know all this heading into the Kent State meeting but I figured if I’m going to speak to a room full of academics I better do my homework and that’s when I discovered what an economic engine our foreign born neighbors have turned out to be.  Let’s look at the numbers.

__________________________________

1.  Economists predict that in the next decade 70% of our economic growth will come from small business entrepreneurs.

2.  The rate of entrepreneurship among immigrants living in the US is double the rate of native born entrepreneurship — 5 out of 1,000 vs. 2 out of 1,000.

3.  Economists predict that as manufacturing and labor intensive industries move off-shore the US economy will increasingly depend on high tech and scientific discovery.

4.  Immigrants represent only 10% of the total US workforce but they represent 25% of scientists and engineers, and 50% of the PhD’s in the US workforce.

5.  A reported 50% of the Silicon Valley Tech companies were founded by someone born outside of the US — by comparison 14% of Ohio companies were founded by an immigrant.

6.  The rate of patent filings from foreign born is double the rate of patents filed by native born in the US.

7.  Every year since 1980 immigrants have been more likely to be self employed entrepreneurs than native born US residents. 

8.  Since 1995 1 out of 4 US venture-backed start up company was founded by an immigrant.

9.  Researchers report that the annual economic impact that international students bring to the US each year is greater than $15 billion — they list Kent State international students as injecting $17 million to our region’s economy. 

10.  The greatest immigrant economic contributors are reported to come from Syria, Iran, Greece, Korea, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey. 

11.  Approximately 5% of the population in Northeast Ohio has advanced degrees.

12.  A reported 62% of foreign students that obtain their PhD’s here stay here to begin their business careers — 9 out of 10 Chinese doctoral students stay in the US, 8 out of 10 Indian students and 7.7 out of 10 Russian born students also stay in the US.

_________________________________

With shining stars like Alpha Micron and Kent Displays in our backyard we’ve touted high tech entrepreneurship as the economic niche that is in Kent’s wheelhouse and a walk through each of these companies is like a walk through Kent State’s international student hall of fame.   These small companies are growing fast and they’re full of foreign born graduates of Kent State from all over the world that now call Kent home. 

So the formula works — grab an emerging technology, hire a bunch of smart people from around the globe, think big, start small, test your business plan, commercialize, and then scale like crazy.  That life cycle usually takes a good 10 to 15 years and we know that Kent — thanks to our close proximity to the University and the cultural mix that comes with it — is ideally suited to serve that business niche.  And if that business niche is predicted to be the centerpiece of economic recovery we’re more than happy to be help fulfill that promise.