Doing Shakespeare Proud...

I’ve put up blog posts in the last couple of months announcing the growing grass roots theater/educational/social/cultural movement in Kent that is otherwise known as Our Hamlet, and it’s fearless hometown leader Hal DuBois keeps sending me updates that are too good not to share. 

In our version of Avon in Kent, here’s a note from our Bard, Mr. DuBois:

 I just returned from Boulder, CO, where I was a special guest of the Shakespeare Theatre Association.  This is a group of all the 24/7/365 Shakespeare festivals and companies around the U.S., with a growing international membership.  It was simply an incredible experience, and has drawn many new friends to the project.  This is especially important because, as I look for resources for local readers, there’s no sense in trying to reinvent the wheel.  You could fill the Kent Free Library with the literature that has been generated about Hamlet (estimated now to fuel the publication of over 400 critical essays and articles every year!), and these human resources know what it is to put the words into action with a clear voice, the ultimate purpose and intention of dramatic literature.

The Cuyahoga River Trail Meeting...

 Last week I provided an update on the status of the river projects in Kent and I gave a quick shout out to the folks that are working on a region-wide initiative that they are calling the Cuyahoga River Trail.   That 100 mile river trail concept seemed worthy of more discussion so I’m following up with the notice of the River Trail Workshop that is scheduled for February 15th. 

I know that Kent Parks and Recreation and Kent State University will be represented at that meeting but the meeting is open to any kayakers, canoeists and river enthusiasts of all persuasions who want to learn more about the project and find a way to contribute to the cause. 

Kent has spent a fair amount of dollars to open up the Cuyahoga River to create more active and passive recreational opportunities of the great stretch of river that runs through our downtown — so we’re pretty excited about the prospects of the River Trail initiative. 

Here’s the details on the workshop:  

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CUYAHOGA RIVER WATER TRAIL WORKSHOP – February 15^TH

We would like to invite you to a workshop on the Cuyahoga River Water Trail.   This one day workshop will explore establishing the 100-mile Cuyahoga River as a water trail.

The workshop participants will:
• Learn about water trails and their potential on the Cuyahoga River.
• Review opportunities and constraints along the Cuyahoga River.
• Discuss potential regional collaboration & economic benefits.
• Evaluate the necessary next steps to establish a water trail.

 The event will be February 15^th from 8:30am to 4pm at the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium.  Thanks to our sponsors, especially, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Friends of Crooked River, and Floyd Browne Group, this event is being held at no cost to participants.

Please feel free to forward this to others that might be interested in attending.

If you can attend, please fill out the attached workshop registration and send it back. 

We look forward to your continued interest and participation.

A Look Under the Hood of a Kent Snow Plow...

Unless you and Rumplestiltskein just woke up after a long nap, you probably know all too well how busy the Kent snow plow operators have been this year because you’ve been equally busy behind your shovel taking care of your little corner of Kent.

Make no mistake about it, Old man winter has been on a roll and we’ve been busy chasing, pushing and scooping up his snow flakes all over town.  LiveScience reports that each cubic foot of snow contains approximately 1 billion snowflakes so with 8.5 feet of snow so far this year we’re talking an unfathomable number of flakes. 

Given those numbers, the cost of snow operations on a per snowflake basis probably isn’t too bad but if we look at it on a per inch basis, it can start adding up pretty quick.  The bulk of the costs are in the labor (running around the clock for days at a time is never cheap) and materials (mainly salt with truck fuel thrown in the mix too).  

In 2009, the Public Service Director reports that he spent $317,919 to handle 62″ of snow — that works out to about $5,127 per inch. 

The bad news is that we’ve already had 102″ of snow this year, but thanks to some mechanical innovations in the snow operations this year (mainly increased use of steel blades which requires less salt application) the crews have spent $317,852 for 102″ which works out to $3,110 per inch. 

From a productivity perspective that’s nearly a 40% improvement which has saved an estimated $200,000. 

Steel plow blades are rough on snow which means we get back to pavement quicker without as much salt application, but they can also be rough on the surface of the street too so we’ll be monitoring the impacts this change has on our street repair budget to make sure we’re not just moving one cost to another cost center in our budget.  So far we’re way ahead and we plan to stay that way.

Of course, a little help from Old Man Winter would go a long ways. 

Taking Matters In Their Own Shovels...

With more snow predicted to come our way in the next couple of days it seemed like a good time to mention a new initiative that some Kent residents have taken up to get more sidewalks shoveled, especially in the commercial district on SR59 where a number of popular local businesses have had a less than stellar track record of keeping their front sidewalks cleared.   If it takes a village to raise a child, the Pritt family is showing how a couple of kids can raise awareness in a village with some salt and a couple of shovels.   But first lets review what we’re working with here.  The City Code says that all of us who reside or do business in Kent must not push or pile snow in such a way as to block or impede safe passage on City sidewalks.  If you pile and block it, you can get a ticket.    If mother nature left piles of snow on the sidewalk the Code says that all of us who reside or do business in Kent are responsible for clearing that snow within a reasonable amount of time after the snow storm has ceased.  The trouble is, there’s really no effective means of enforcement on the books to inspire better compliance with shoveling sidewalks so many are left untouched.    City Council wrestled long and hard over the last 3 years to find a better ways of compelling compliance with sidewalk shoveling but at the end of the day there was not enough support to pass legislation that would force property owners hands by putting more enforcement mechanisms in place.  Which means Council relies on an appeal to good citizenship and civic responsibility to encourage property owners to do their part.    Sidewalk shoveling has been better this year, particularly in residential neighborhoods, but the highly visible commercial district on SR59 remains a sore spot as many folks who walk this route are almost forced to walk in the street due to the lack of shoveling on the sidewalks.    Recognizing this problem, Kent resident Mike Pritt enlisted a little help from his two sons to take matters into their own hands.  Fed up with poor shoveling compliance, the three shoveling amigos headed out and put in a little civic duty overtime, shoveling the sidewalks in front of the businesses on SR 59.  Mike and his kids felt so good about what they did they started telling other people about it and before you know it — they’ve got the making of a grass roots shoveling brigade.    Mike dropped me a note to fill me on his cause and he’s trying to spread the word a bit to perhaps enlist some other like minded community volunteers to join him.  I’ve excerpted some comments from Mike to me below and if you’re interested you can track this discussion at Sidewalk Shovel Initiative.          Morning Dave:    I think I may have the beginings of a movement here.    I started this Snow Shoveling Initiative a few weeks ago and it is begining to ge some legs underneath it.  I even have people wanting to give me money!   I think this could be a good maybe great thing if I manage it correctly.  If you check out some of the comments that I’ve received, people are becoming passionate.    My idea is to make this a community initiative.  I really did not want the city government to be involved.  You guys have enough to do already.  I perfer the carrot instead of the stick approach to getting people/businesses to shovel their walks.  It is much unlike my nature but I’ve been working on being patient lately and have had some success.  I would rather foster good feelings of community spirit rather than ill will.    I actually feel the same way but passing laws in this circumstance should be a last resort.  I think peer pressure might work.  If you have any suggestions or comments let me know.

• Organization: Kent for Clean Sidewalks
• Causes: Health
• Date(s): Saturday January 15, 2011
• Contact person: Mike Pritt
• Phone: 330-554-7333
• Email: 5235open@sbcglobal.net

This project is to clean the sidewalks of snow along Main St between Willow St and Dubois Book Store.  This is a high foot traffic area that just doesn’t quite understand snow shoveling.  There are a few good examples along the street (5 Guys,Faith Lutheran and Dubois) but for the most part the walks are unshoveled.  Why do I care you ask?  Community spirit, town and gown and get r done; I think it would be a cool thing to do for those who have to trudge through that stuff everyday on there way to school and work.  Maybe we can shame the businesses that are located there to actually shovel the walk themselves or start a movement!  High noon, Saturday, meet at the abandoned gas station.  Bring shovels, salt etc. If we get enough people it will take less than a few hours.  Peter Panino might even show up, he loves shoveling snow.  It’s fun!

Lights, Camera, Kent...

One of the best parts about living in Kent is having access to big city cultural amenities in a smaller, more personal setting. 

Whether its top tier Division 1 sporting events compliments of the athletes at Kent State University or art shows at the McKay Bricker Gallery, Kent is right sized for cultural engagement and entertainment. 

Some places have a musuem quality where you’re allowed to peer through a couple of panes of glass to view great works, but Kent invites you in, shakes it up, and offers a level of cultural experience that is hard to find anywhere else.

This weekend, one of Kent’s icons of cultural engagement, Standing Rock Gallery, has announced their 8th Annual International Short Film Festival to be held in downtown Kent.  Here’s all the details. 

WHO: Standing Rock Cultural Arts

WHAT: 8th Annual International Short Film Festival

-Independent Short Films from around the world!

-Animation, music videos, short comedy, experimental films, documentaries and more!

-Silent films with live music accompaniment!

WHEN: SATURDAY, JANUARY 29TH, 2011 at 8:00PM

WHERE: THE KENT STAGE, 175 E. MAIN ST., KENT, OHIO www.kentstage.org

ADMISSION: $10 = general / $7 students and seniors. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online from www.kentstage.org

CONTACT INFO:

Mike Hovancsek (Director) 330-677-0333 / point@neobright.net
Jeff Ingram (Producer) 330-673-4970 / info@standingrock.net
Website: www.standingrock.net

Standing Rock Cultural Arts is pleased to announce The 8th Annual Standing Rock International Short Film Festival. This popular annual event becomes even bigger this year with films from as far away as The Netherlands, Turkey, Israel, and from as close as Kent, Ohio.  It will include Animation, music videos, short comedy, experimental films, documentaries and more.

The first part of this event will feature short films from around the world. The second part will be made up of films by last year’s People’s Choice winner, Ilana Yahav. The last portion of the night will feature silent films by Mike Hovancsek which will be accompanied live on stage by legendary singer/songwriter Hal Walker!

Here is a list of the films we will be showing this year:

*INTERNATIONAL FILMS *

1. Umbra –Director/Animator Malcolm Sutherland. Montreal, Canada  www.pascalblais.com

2. Actor’s Diaries, part 1 – Kate VanDevender. co-produced by Amy Peterson. Los Angeles, CA  www.actordiaries.com

3. Pilot – Peter Philip Luckner collaborating with Melissa Barrett.
Columbus, OH. http://wearehomer.blogspot.com/

4. The Evil King – Kai Klempp and Jack Harris. Kent, OH
Kai: dinaharley@sbcglobal.net Jack Harris: deirdreh@stny.rr.com

5. Soup – Amos Mulder. Utrecht, Netherlands.    www.amosmulder.com

6. FLUX – Candas Sisman. Istanbul, Turkey.    www.csismn.com

7. Hard Road – Paul Falstad. Long Beach, CA.  www.2040news.net/

8. Homeless Love – Roger Hill. SanFrancisco.
www.mentalrev.com

9. Actor’s Diaries, part 2 – Kate VanDevender. Los Angeles.

10. Breakthrough – Peter Philip Luckner. Columbus, OH

11. Riverwash – Luke Beekman. Mansfield, OH.
www.youtube.com/user/VoKateMusic

12. Un Vida Majeur – Luis Fernandez Reneo. Spain.
http://www.kronos-films.com

13. Fish out of Water – Alison Dobbins. Lansing, Michigan.
www.theatrebeans.com

14. You Make the Rain Fall – Alexandre Moors. New York City.
www.lifelongfriendshipsociety.com  www.aikofilms.com

15. Mother and Daughter – Cindy Penter and The Students of The Fine Arts
Class of Hiram College. Hiram, OH.

16. Sonny Mails a Letter – Miles Kalbach and Anthony Serge.
Philadelphia, PA.  www.mileskalbach.com

17. Actor’s Diaries, part 3 – Kate VanDevender. Los Angeles.

——-

FEATURED FILMMAKER, ILANA YAHAV. ISRAEL.
www.sandfantasy.com
-One Man’s Dream

SILENT FILMS BY MIKE HOVANCSEK WITH LIVE MUSIC BY HAL WALKER
http://mikeh.8m.com/
www.halwalkermusic.com

-Lunar
-The Adventures of Otis

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

Thank you for supporting independent film!

Vote Early and Often...

As City Manager it’s important to the integrity of my job that I stay out of the political fray.  Admittedly my job requires me to swim in partisan waters but that doesn’t mean I have to drink the water.  

My task is to help the professional politicians safely navigate turbulent seas and unchartered waters, steering the good ship Kent smoothly towards those ports of call that this community wants to enjoy.   During the course of my day I’m equal parts captain, first mate, ship engineer, deck swabber, petty officer and coxswain.

I do my ship cadet’s work like the Swiss, keeping my political neutrality central to everything I do.  With that in mind, you can imagine my trepidation in asking you to cast a vote — but that’s exactly what I’m going to do. 

Before you march me down the gang plank, please note that the vote I’m asking you to make is not for a local political race, it’s for the Environmental Club at Kent Roosevelt whose video entry in the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow Contest has put them on the top 10 list nationwide.   

I’ve been asked to conscript you to vote early and often for your fellow Kentians who happen to be a particularly nice shade of green.  For this cause, I’ll don my pirate garb and shiver your timbers to get you to vote for the Kent student’s video.  Just follow the instructions below from the student’s advisor at the High School and no one gets hurt.  Aaaargh!

_______________

You can vote FIVE TIMES PER DAY until February 18th, so please vote for us as much as possible! Also, if you could forward this to your friends and family and ask them to vote as well, that would be fantastic.

Crain/Fairchild Avenue Bridge Construction...

If you’ve driven on SR 43 recently no doubt you’ve noticed that for the most part, traffic patterns around the Crain/Fairchild Avenue Bridge are back to a more normal routine.  There’s still a little shifting around some construction barrels but life behind the wheel through this part of town is much better now that Fairchild Avenue has been re-opened (even with the addition of the new Sheetz store). 

There will continue to be intermittent utility and bridge approach work on the west side of the river but the focus of the bridge construction over the next 6-9 months will now jump to the roads on the east side of the river. 

That has led to questions about the impacts to businesses, motorists and residents whose daily commute takes them through the east side of the bridge. 

To that end, the City Engineer passed around a short list of construction expectations for the next phases that seemed appropriate to share. 

  

Quick Look At City Water Meters...

 The City’s water rates are set at a level where the City can cover it’s cost of producing water, transporting it to your house and handling the necessary meter reading and billing costs.  Anything we can do to reduce our costs at any point in this production and consumption cycle will save us, and more importantly our customers, money. 

Over the last two decades we’ve consistently invested in new technology in the area of meter reading because meter reading has a well deserved reputation for being a labor hog.  Water line breaks can be labor hogs too, but they bring direct value to the customer so we consider that time well spent. 

As you might imagine it can take a long time to physically walk the City reading water meters on a house by house basis so we’ve tried to stay current on technology advances.  You can’t run a water system without meter reading but the time it takes to read the meters doesn’t have any inherent customer value so we consider less as much more. 

That’s why we’ve been transitioning the old fashioned meters to phone line meters and now to radio meters.  With each upgrade in technology we save time, and in this case, time is money. 

Here’s a summary from Gene Roberts that he scripted to answer a resident’s questions about the status of water meter reading in Kent.  Gene starts with a reference to the budget that has been set up to buy more modern meter reading technology.  As you can see there is nothing cheap about upgrading the meter technology which is why we’ve been spreading it out over many years.

__________________

The 1995 Budget reported:

In 2009 a concerted effort started to upgrade the current inventory of manual read water meters to radio read meters. This process does not require removal of the meter if it is found to have been replaced in 1995 or is determined to be defective or reading an incorrect volume of water. The process does require removal of the current backflow meter read heads and replacement with an updated head which is radio compatible and installation of the radio transmitters. Once fully deployed the radio read system will require one staff one day to read all meters in the City which equates to again gaining one additional employee to start to decrease the back log of work in the Central Maintenance Division.

The cost for the conversion from phone read to radio read is the cost of the meter head, the radio transmitter and staff time to convert totaling less than $100 per location on average. For the approximate 800 customers remaining on the phone read system this equates to $80,000 of which the City has received a NOPEC grant for $73,162 to offset the cost of the remaining phone read meters replacement. The cost of the phones read systems that have been previously replaced have been spread out in the budget from year 2001 through 2008 by using maintenance funds and additional funds provided of approximately $65,000 per year for 2009 through 2011. The total cost estimated to complete the radio read conversion for all users is $660,000 spread out over 10-years at an average of $66,000 per year.

Staying On Track...

Time, and what we do with it, has been a topic for poets and singer song-writers to muse about for generations.  The Rolling Stones said time was on their side — of course that was easy to say when they were 21, I wonder if they still feel that way in their late 60′s?

I’m not sure that I ever felt that time was on my side, but these days I’m definitely feeling the Hootie and Blowfish vibe – time, why you always punish me?  

Seriously, time has turned out to be a cruel cosmic joke.  And yeah, I know that Einstein and Stephen Hawking have mathematical equations that demonstrate that time is not an absolute.  That’s great and when I learn how to travel at the speed of light I’m sure I’ll feel good about that, but until then my time feels awfully absolute and getting shorter by the day. 

Before you chalk this post up to a mid-life crisis confession (although you may have a point there) I actually started down this path to make a point about spending time wisely.  My point was meant to be professional not personal – speaking to the issue of being strategic as a City Council and City leadership team. 

For the past 3 years the City Manager’s Office has tracked the issues that City Council has deliberated upon in Committee and work-sessions to make sure that the staff and Council are focusing on those items that are most relevant to the achievement of the City’s strategic priorities.   With so many responsibilities potentially falling within the reach of the City’s mission, the tracking framework  offers a way for Council and the administration to continually test for mission creep and ensure that the majority of the City’s resources are staying focused on the primary goals of the community. 

In this way, the tracking framework serves as a tool to manage the direction of City affairs consistent with the strategic trajectory desired by the community.  If the community or Council expectations change, the staff can use the continuity of the framework to change activities right along with them without disruption. 

Cities are needed in many different ways by residents, businesses and visitors and one of the greatest challenges for Council and the administration is sustaining adequate attention, focus and activity levels necessary to advance the communities top priorities.  It takes discipline on the part of Council and the staff to make strategic choices, and the tracking framework helps to identify and inform those choices within the context of the City’s goals. 

Part of the City’s mission is to be prepared for the unexpected and be ready to respond at a moment’s notice.   The City takes pride in its role as community responder, safety net and line in the sand between safety and harm.  But as visible and important as the reactive function is, successful cities know that reacting must remain a small percentage of what they do so that the Council and staff can devote the majority of their effort to making decisions that promise to create prosperity moving forward.

That prosperity is defined by the categories and activities contained within the City’s strategic priorities.  These priorities are a cumulative product that evolved through years of community visioning exercises, citizen surveys, strategic planning retreats and annual strategy updates. 

In 2010 City Council met in Committee for a total of 28.2 hours to set policy, allocate resources and authorize programs and services to achieve the community’s strategic priorities.  Here’s a look at how those hours were played out:  

Over the last 3 years City Council has devoted over 117 hours in Committee to policy decisions aimed at achieving the community’s strategic goals.   There has been good balance between hours spent on Economic Development (32%), Planning & Community Development (32%) and Financial Affairs (23%) as noted in the adjacent charts. 

If City Strategic stuff is your thing, we have plenty more for you on our Strategic Planning pages to read at your leisure.

Kent Police Community Advisory January Meeting...

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Since we’re talking Police matters here, I thought I’d share a couple of Police stories that came across my desk last week from Chief Peach:

Kudos to Dominic Poe and his fellow Night Shift officers for their vigilance, detection and quick apprehension of five felons located in Kent who were involved in an armed robbery and home invasion in Stow.   The detection, investigation and subsequent arrests were commendable.  Night Shift officers and dispatchers are also to be commended for their collective and outstanding performance in removing these dangerous miscreants from the streets of Kent and northeast Ohio.   Thank you for your quality performance.