Community Dinner Poem...

The Kent Community dinner, sponsored by All Together Now, keeps on growing and venturing out into new areas of community interest.  About 3 years ago the Kent Community dinner was featured in Cleveland’s Plain Dealer as a great local example of unity in action and I’m pleased to report they haven’t slowed down a bit. 

Each month the Kent Community dinner brings together folks from around our region for an old fashioned community meal.  Bring a dish to pass, a smile and a genuine interest in getting to know your neighbor and you’ll fit right in. 

In September, I understand that in addition to breaking bread together, they scripted a poem with a little help from the Kent State University Wick Poetry Center, that they entitled Welcome to Kent.  This is exactly the kind of interesting, eclectic, only in Kent kind of thing that makes Kent, well, Kent. 

Here’s the story behind the poem, and of course the poem. 

Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center led the
Kent Community Dinner participants in writing a group poem
for visiting dignitaries from Viet Nam.

Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center director David Hassler and outreach coordinator Nicole Robinson led the September Kent Community Dinner participants in creating a poem to be read on November 1, 2010, in the Kiva Auditorium to visiting dignitaries from Viet Nam. The poem entitled, “Welcome to Kent,” was inspired by Holden Elementary School 5^th grade student Shreya Basu’s poem “I Want to Be,” which appears in the exhibit Speak Peace: American Voices Respond to Vietnamese Children’s Paintings. A collaborative, international project created by Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center and School of Art Galleries, in collaboration with Solder’s Heart, Speak Peace features original poems written by American children, veterans, and established poets in response to Vietnamese children’s paintings on peace and war that are currently on loan from the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. As part of the evening’s program the participants viewed slides of the paintings and wrote lines for a poem which has been ”stitched together” by Mr. Hassler and Ms. Robinson. All ages participated together. The evening offered a timely testament to the emotional truth of war and peace.

The Kent community’s poem will be read to visiting dignitaries from Viet Nam as part of a program on Monday, November 1, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kiva at Kent State, sponsored by Kent State Univerisity’s Wick Poetry Center, Honors College, and the Office of the Provost. During the program and reception audience members will have an opportunity to hear from and meet the following Vietnamese officials:

• Mr. Tran Song – ARVN air force veteran, re-education camp survivor, fluent English speaker, former teacher, Vietnam Cultural Guide and Liaison, Soldier’s Heart representative in Viet Nam
• Ms. Minh Thai –  Chair, Dept. of Journalism and Communications, University of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hanoi, poet and journalist
• Mr. Tam Tien – Viet Cong veteran, owner/host of B&B in Mekong Delta, veterans’ reconciliation advocate

Below is the Kent Community Dinner poem: 

Welcome to Kent
Inspired by Speak Peace and the visit of Vietnamese officials on November 1, 2010

We want to share the colors of life
that pull and hold us together 

We want to know the
resilience of people
who are survivors of war,
how their hearts can forgive,
even a little 

We want to be the ox
that plows your fields
to sow the seeds of peace 

We want to be all the colors
of your paintings, to have
no restrictions or boundaries 

We want to be the thread
that sews together
the broken pieces of our hearts 

We want to be the light
that peeks out of
the darkest of shadows 

We want to be a door,
not a wall, so we
can open to love 

We want to be a bridge
that takes you to the other side,
a gift that helps you on your journey 

We want to be a tuning fork
to raise the world’s vibrations 

We want to be a table
with bountiful food shared by all

Written by Kent Community Dinner Participants

September 18, 2010

David Hassler
Director
Wick Poetry Center
Kent State University
301 – C Satterfield Hall
Kent, Ohio 44242
330.672.2067 (office line)
330.672.1769 (direct line)

dhassle1@kent.edu
www.kent.edu/wick
www.travelingstanzas.com

Laura Mazur
Director

Kent Community Dinner
All Together Now, Inc.
P.O. Box 178
Kent, OH 44240
330-678-8760
lauralgreen@sbcglobal.net

Longmere Drive Closed for Paving...

The City’s paving contractor will be busy over the next couple of weeks partially rebuilding and repaving Longmere Drive, so be forewarned that the street will likely be closed to anything but local traffic.  Thanks for your cooperation.

Here’s the official press release:

Main Street Halloween Family Fun...

This week we put the finishing touches on our proposed 2011 City Operating Budget so I’ve been too busy to keep up with the blog posts but I can’t let another day go by without mentioning the Main Street Kent Family Friendly Halloween event planned for Friday, October 29th at from 6 to 8 pm. on the Home Savings Bank Plaza (where else!)    

Downtown Kent’s late-night Halloween festivities (Saturday, October 30th) is epic adult entertainment but Main Street has taken it upon themselves to create an equally epic family Halloween event on October 29th.  This event is all about the kids so if you’ve got some, dress’em up, and bring’em on down to the plaza for old fashioned family fun.

Here’s the announcement that I received from Mary Gilbert, Executive Director of Main Street Kent:     

Downtown Kent’s Family Friendly Halloween
Date changed due to Kent State Football Game/Josh Cribbs Day

Kent, Ohio- Main Street Kent is sponsoring a Family Friendly Halloween on Friday, October 29 from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. The event will take place in downtown Kent and Home Savings Bank Plaza. The event is taking place the day before Kent’s “unofficial” downtown Halloween.

Family Friendly Halloween will include trick-or-treating at participating local businesses, a costume contest, treat bags for all children, games, activities and prizes. A variety of games and activities will include a spider ring toss, Halloween disk drop game, pumpkin bowling, magic color scratch Halloween shapes, eyeball bounce, word scrambles and much more.

The Arctic Squirrel is sponsoring a candy guessing game where participants will guess the number of candy corn pieces in a jar. The exact guess, or the closest guess without going over, will win the jar and a gift certificate to The Arctic Squirrel. There will be free pizza provided by Bruno’s Pizza, Europe Gyro, Guidos Pizza and Guys Pizza.  

At 7 p.m. the costume contest will take place at Home Savings Bank Plaza.  A special guest will be on hand to judge the contest. A grand prize will be awarded to the child with the best costume.

The event is free and open to the public. Maps and trick-or-treat bags will be provided at Home Savings Bank Plaza to all children in attendance. For more information visit http://www.mainstreetkent.org/ or call 330-677-8000.

Main Street Kent is a non-profit organization focused on the revitalization of downtown Kent. It is an affiliate of the national Main Street program and the Heritage Ohio program.

(Not) The State of City Report...

I was recently asked to give a State of the City Report to a room full of my favorite Kent businesses and since I went to the effort of writing a short speech for it, I thought it might make sense to share it on the blog.  The only thing I’d add is that I rarely follow my script so the speech below doesn’t include all the ad lib comments I made — which could be good or bad , but it definitely makes it look shorter than it was. 

(Not) The State of the City Address

Understandably people want to know how their community is doing and I’m happy to tell them – but don’t be surprised if I don’t call it the state of the City address. 

I know that’s the common terminology but the state of the City sounds too static to tell the story of something that is in perpetual motion like our community.  A snapshot makes a nice postcard but life in Kent is 3-dimensional, eclectic and dynamic – that’s what makes us so interesting. 

The socio-economic trends that shape our community change every day, so offering a snapshot runs the risk of being outdated the minute I make it.  I’d rather talk about our strategic trajectory — our flight path — offering insights into where we’re at, how far we’ve come and what’s ahead.  I want to know whether we are on the right path and heading in the right direction. 

If you follow the headlines it would be easy to start and finish this discussion with a commentary on the downtown redevelopment efforts.  For obvious reasons economic development is a top priority for the City and a lot of that focus has centered around the revitalization of the central business district.  

The goal is to re-energize the Kent economy by bringing back some of Kent’s most successful corporations into downtown and re-connecting that business hub with the Kent State University campus.  Within that mix lies Kent’s future and if you drive through the downtown you can see that we’re well on our way to what is turning out to be a transformation of historic proportions.  In this economy it can’t come soon enough.

Demolition of Kent Hardward Store

A lot has been written about the downtown and as significant as that is, I think it’s important to point out that the City is not a single act play; we’re a full service City with a wide range strategic priorities.  Admittedly in this economy job creation has been a dominant theme but we’ve been busy across all of our strategic priority areas. 

Quality of life, neighborhood preservation, public safety, community building, and environmental conservation may not be as exciting as the bold economic initiatives that are underway but they are just as critical to our mission.  Like any ecological system the City is all about balance.  Our parts and pieces have to work together, and they all have to move forward together, bound in purpose and inspired by our community values and aspirations.

We’re proud of the fact that in the last 5 years we’ve had more public and private investment in the Kent economy than we’ve seen in the last 25 years but we’re just as proud to point out that at the same time we’ve developed more neighborhood initiatives, enacted more proactive legislation and expanded more neighborhood services than we’ve done at any other time in the last 25 years. 

We’ve raised the bar on our environmental stewardship, surpassed our sustainability goals, and adopted green building as standard practice.  The Kent Dam project received national and international acclaim for being at the forefront of river restoration and our aggressive trail building has made the rejuvenated river a staple of outdoor recreation opportunities in Kent.     

Despite the budget crunch, the Kent Public Safety forces have introduced community based policing programs to engage City residents to take pride in their neighborhoods and work together with the Police to keep their streets safe.  The results speak for themselves – in nearly every category of crime activity Kent ranks safer than our peer cities. 

We’ve waged our own internal war against the impacts of the great recession.  As City revenues have declined we’ve cut vacant positions, we’ve re-bid contracts, we’ve partnered, we’ve collaborated, and we’ve created productivity and efficiency savings well over $3 million from our operating budget. 

I’m fairly certain that we’ll be talking about jobs for years to come but we’ve got to make sure that we don’t allow jobs to define us.  Kent is more than the dollars and cents of a paycheck; it’s a lifestyle, it’s a community, it’s a place we’re proud to call home. 

That’s what government service is all about – cultivating community potential, one person at a time.   It’s living up to a promise to be there when people need us.  A promise that parks and homes are safe, bridges strong and fires prevented.  Making sure people thrive.  That’s our flight path.

No Abduction Attempt After All...

The Kent Police Department is relieved to report that the attempted child abduction reported on Oct. 6th in the Silver Meadows neighborhood has been determined to be unfounded.

The Small Business Industry...

Tuesday (October 19th) a professor from Kent State University was the featured speaker at the Rotary Club.  Interesting guy, originally from Spain, got his advanced degrees in the states, worked in private industry, and has found his niche in Kent State College of Business as their strategy guru. 

His topic was the MBA industry but I thought the best part of his discussion was his demonstration of the strategic framework that he applied to make observations, aggregate facts and draw conclusions about Kent State’s strategic position in the higher education MBA market. 

That got me thinking about the elements of our City’s strategic positioning, particularly as it relates to the economy and jobs.  We think about this stuff all the time and it was actually this kind of thinking that formed the basis for our decisions to push forward with the downtown revitalization projects, but his presentation was a great example for the way strategic thinking applies to real world applications — and what’s good for Kent State’s College of Business seemed good for the City of Kent.   

We saw the downtown as an underperforming asset with big upside and a lot of room for market cap growth.  Not necessarily because of the direct job creation (although that’s great stuff) but more because of the way it fulfills the kind of lifestyle that study after study has shown to be a marker for entrepreneurship — and we thought we had a chance for a bigger piece of that action if we get the downtown right. 

It’s sort of like looking at fallow farm fields — put in a little irrigation and the place blooms into fields of gold.  In many respects, the downtown is our field and it just needs some better sources of irrigation that we think will multiply the harvest exponentially.   

Face it, for small businesses it’s a jungle out there so we felt that our downtown needs to become that place where all those smaller animals could safely wander up to the watering hole (I guess that’s both literally and figuratively) and flourish in a habitat custom designed for them.  In other words, we think Kent’s strategic advantage is in the small business industry.

In looking at how the small business garden grows, it’s clear that time, resources and expertise are limiting factors for them – which is why we’ve tried to adopt the tactic of doing for the little guys what the big guys would do for themselves.  It’s our way to help level the playing field to give the small guy a fighting chance. 

Everybody needs a little help from their friends and small businesses in Kent have staff from the Kent Regional Business Alliance (KRBA) and Kent State University to help them get started, manage their trajectory, and land on both feet.  Here’s a couple of upcoming small business support services that are good examples of small business assistance that can be found right here in town:

Brady’s Leap Adventure Race...

If you’re a runner or a biker this is prime racing season.  Cool temps, cadio fitness peaking, and lots of races to choose from.  Life doesn’t get any better than that. 

If you’re looking for something a little different, Kent State and Portage County Parks have announced their 3rd annual Brady’s Leap Adventure Race.  Adventure in the title pretty much says it all.  It’s got a little of this, a little of that, and a whole lot of unpredictability.  Here’s more details:

Brady’s Leap Adventure Race – Oct. 23
Starts at 10 a.m. at Kent State’s Student Recreation and Wellness Center, Kent.
$30 for Kent State students and Student Recreation and Wellness Center members; $40 for non-members.

This race consists of biking, paddling (canoeing/kayaking), orienteering, rock climbing and trail running. Racers will have to use navigation skills as they are given a satellite image map and topographic map of the area and need to plot out how they will reach each checkpoint.

Taking Care of Our River...

The old Cuyahoga River has sure had it’s hands full through the years with the effects of civilization.  From spills, dumping and even a river fire, human development has taken a toll but it’s great to see that change for the better over the last 10 to 20 years. 

From manufacturing remediation, to volunteer clean ups, the Cuyahoga has been rediscovered and celebrated for not only it’s historical significance but also its natural beauty.  At the age of the river, natural beauty isn’t quite as natural as it used to be — it takes a lot ecological nips, tucks and lifts to keep the river looking great, and I’m pleased to report that the river has lots of help. 

In addition to the formal watershed management programs that the cities in our region perform, there’s also a healthy population of naturalist volunteers that give up their time and energy to restore the river’s brilliance.  Every so often those river fans gather during the course of the year to pull-on a pair of waders and honor the spirit of the river the old fashioned way — by pulling out tons of trash and debris that have become entangled in the river bottom. 

Here’s a summary of last month’s river clean up that I hope would bring a tear of pride to the 1070′s Indian icon for the environment:

Street Paving Update...

Seeing the street paving trucks roll into town is always a welcome sight.  Of the many government services that we provide, street paving is one of my favorite because it’s so tangible and straight-forward: Pick a street, then get’r done.  

As the tv commercial says, “so simple even a caveman can do it.”  While that’s a bit of an overstatement, paving remains one of the least administratively encumbered functions that we do which is one of the reasons why we like it so much. 

Dump trucks, rock aggregate, asphalt binder, a couple of rollers, and throw in a few flaggers for good measure and you’ve got an official paving train.  Climb aboard.

According to our street condition data, our primary streets (SR 43, SR 59, etc.) are in quite good shape.  Our secondary streets are a little less good and our neighborhood streets (as a whole) are probably the least well maintained.  That’s not to say all secondary and residential neighborhood streets are bad — they’re not, and there are many that are in great shape, e.g., Vine Street; but there’s also some that desparately need resurfacing, and we’re doing our best to work our way down that list each year for as long as the funds hold out.

Our goal is to make sure that we keep all the roads in Kent safe — which means that the roads most traveled have to be in the best shape, which is why SR 43 and SR 59 look so good.  From there, we look at the condition of the collector streets and while some of those are in good shape, there are admittedly some others that will need some work over the next couple of years. 

If money wasn’t an issue we’d take care of all those collector streets too and jump right into the older neighborhood streets that are showing their age but with money tight we are forced to make choices about where to spend limited funds and it’s hard to justify fixing a neighorhood street that may only carry a couple hundred vehicles a day versus a collector street that carries thousands of vehicles a day.  The good news for our streets is that thanks to some additional grant funds that we received for other Kent capital projects, we could actually devote more funds this year to taking care of streets than ever before.    

This week the City’s paving contractor will begin resurfacing a couple of collector streets that really need the work; Summit Street (from Loop Road to SR 261) and Longmere Drive.  As an old county road Summit Street is carrying far more traffic than it was originally intended and all those vehicles have taken a toll on the street.  It may be the most potholed street in our street inventory but that’s about to change.  

Here’s the Paving Contract Manager’s summary report for this year’s paving projects:

Tentative Start Date: 10/18/2010

Anticipated Completion Date:  Both streets should be completed in 2-4 weeks.  The latest completion date should be November 19^th, 2010.

Project Location
Summit Street              From 250’ East of Loop Road to SR261.
Longmere Drive          From Middlebury Road to West Main Street

Project Description

Summit Street:
The contractor will be removing and replacing the top 2” of the asphalt pavement.

Longmere Drive:
The contractor will be removing and replacing 6” of asphalt pavement.

Project Traffic Disruptions and/or Detours

Summit Street:

Traffic will be maintained by the contractor although the traffic will be reduced down to one lane in either direction where the work is taking place.  Motorists can expect temporary delays from 5 to 15 minutes.  The work being performed is a moving construction zone so portions of the street may be inaccessible for small durations of time.  Access for emergency vehicles and safety forces will be maintained on Summit Street.  It should be noted that Summit Street may be closed temporarily to through traffic in order to install the 1.5” surface course.  “Road Closed to through traffic” signs and detour signs will be posted if the road is closed for paving.   The road closure will vary in length from 2 hours up to 8 hours and will be reopened at the end of the day.  If the contractor decides to close the road, a press release will be sent to everyone to inform them of the date and time of the closure.

Longmere Drive:

The contractor will attempt to maintain traffic on Longmere Drive when possible but it is anticipated that there will be several road closures in order to remove and replace the pavement on this street.  Access for emergency vehicles, safety forces and local traffic will be maintained on Longmere Drive during the road closures.  “Road Closed to through traffic” signs and detour signs will be posted when the road is closed for the pavement replacement.  The road closures will vary in length.  The contractor is working on a tentative road closure schedule for Longmere Drive.  Once the schedule is determined, a press release will be sent to everyone to inform them of the date and time of the closures.

It should be noted that the work schedules on both streets may be affected by inclement weather.  Due to this, road closures may be extended or postponed until there are better work conditions.

CONTRACTOR INFORMATION

Name:              The Perrin Asphalt Company, Inc.

Address:           525 Dan Street, Akron, Ohio, 44310
Project Manager:   Chuck Perrin                Phone:  330-253-1020 

CITY STAFF
Project Manager
Patrick  Homan                                 Office               330-678-8106

Public Safety Citizens Advisory Committee...

One of the toughest parts of running a city these days is stretching dollars that are already paper thin.  Paper is only so thick and there’s no question that at some point, all that pulling and tugging is going to produce cracks, rips and holes in our city services.  I’m all for government transparency but I don’t think this is what the pundits had in mind. 

It turns out that the laws of physics apply to local government, and for every action there is an equal and opposed reaction — which in good times means that we might lose a little depth in what we do in the community, but still, nothing gets left behind.  

However, in tough times, a decision to pull the bed sheet further one way or the other is likely going to leave us exposed somewhere.  And in the City’s case that exposure might mean potholes don’t get filled as fast or hours of operation are cut back. No matter how might try to spin it, it still comes up as an erosion of City services. 

The great recession has left both the city customers and city service providers feeling frustrated.  At the very time when people most need city assistance as a safety net, the city’s net is smaller and thinner than it’s ever been before.  That may be temporarily ok in some areas of city services but it’s definitely not ok in the arena of public safety.  

People might be willing to let the clock roll a little longer on a pothole being filled but when you dial 911 there is no time to spare, ever, no matter how bad the economy may be.  That’s the approach we’ve taken as a city — pushing limited resources around to make sure that public safety has no gaps.  Part of our ability to do that comes from talking directly with our customer base – Kent residents.  

Earlier this year the Public Safety Director, the Police Chief, and Fire Chief began an effort to reach out to the community to talk all matters of public safety.  By design this has been a 2 way information exchange, with the City laying out the realities of securing public safety in this economic climate and the residents offering input into what is most important in city neighborhoods and on city streets.  Out of that mix we hope to be able to continue to meet the critical public safety needs by keeping our focus on what city residents need the most.      

Here’s the notice for the next Public Safety Citizens Advisory Committee meeting where these conversations are sure to continue:

Dear Safety Director’s Community Advisory Committee Members, 

Thanks to all of you who were available to attend the July meeting, in which we reviewed a lot of the budgetary concerns of the city, and how they may impact the Fire and Police Departments.  I know that we discussed a wide range of items and concepts in a brief amount of time, but I hope you could get some sense of the concern we have in order to continue to provide high levels of service

Our next meeting is scheduled for October 19.  To continue our discussion of local safety services, we will present to you the programs and concepts that will be incorporated into the police department’s community outreach programs during the next two years.  These are primarily our programs to work with the neighborhoods, and with resident groups.  These are the programs that enable the department to create deeper, more meaningful relationships with many of the residents and businesses in the community.  Many of these programs have been funded through various grant funds, which have been programmed in this fashion as one of the most effective means to serve the community.On the second page of this letter, you will see a list of the programs that will be covered in the discussion the morning of the meeting.  We’re looking forward to see all of you at the Fire Department training room at 7:30 AM. 

Respectfully, 

James A Peach                       James A. Williams                   William Lillich
Police Chief                             Fire Chief                                Safety Director   

Future meeting date:
December 21, 2010                Portage Area Fire & EMS Study group “Blended Services Report”