Kent 360 - Kent, Ohio

Blog of Dave Ruller, Kent City Manager

Concrete and Sidewalk Repair Update

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Knowing that sidewalk repairs remain a high priority in Kent, I wanted to share the notice from Engineering that they have the concrete repair contractor on board and they are gearing-up to get started on this year’s concrete repairs.

Here’s the Notice from Engineering, including the streets that will be seeing most of the action:

The City is beginning construction of the above referenced project, which includes work on several streets. The work will consist of removing and replacing existing concrete sidewalk, concrete drive aprons and concrete curbing.

The following streets are a part of the 2018 Annual Sidewalk Program:

Street Name             From                     To

W. College Ave.      S. Water St.         Franklin Ave.
Dansel St.               cul-de-sac            Steele St.
S. Depeyster St.    Day St.                 Williams St.
Dodge St.              Franklin Ave.       Pine St.
W. Grant St.        N. Mantua St.       end of Grant
S. Lincoln St.      Summit St.            550 S. Lincoln St.
Sheri Dr.             Sunrise Blvd.         end of Sheri

City Audit with Distinction

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The State Auditor’s Office announced Thursday afternoon that Kent is one of 5 cities that qualified for the Auditor of State Award with Distinction.
 
That recognition is a credit to everyone on the City staff for their diligence in following the rules, and to the leadership of the Finance Department in making sure we’re operating in accordance with best practices.  
 
With the public trust invested in the City to manage public funds properly, this is a great way to show we’re living up to that trust.  It takes so little for mistakes to happen, even honest ones, that we take great pride in making the State’s list for distinction.  
 
My thanks to everyone that earned Kent this recognition.
Auditor of State Press Release
For Immediate Release:
July 26, 2018
Contact
Beth Gianforcaro
Press Secretary
(614) 644-1111
Five Cities, One Transit Authority
Qualify for Auditor of State Award with Distinction
Columbus – Recent financial audits of the following entities by Auditor of State Dave Yost’s office have returned clean audit reports. Their excellent record keeping has qualified them for the Auditor of State Award with Distinction.
·         Central Ohio Transit Authority (Franklin County)
·         City of Clayton (Montgomery County)
·         City of Fairborn (Greene County)
·         City of Huber Heights (Montgomery County)
·         City of Kent (Portage County)
·         City of Lebanon (Warren County)
“Clean financial books are vital to accountability in government,” Auditor Yost said. “These governments are clearly committed to maintaining accurate records, and I am proud to present them with this award.”
The Auditor of State Award with Distinction is presented to local governments and school districts upon the completion of a financial audit. Entities that receive the award meet the following criteria of a “clean” audit report:
•          The entity must file timely financial reports with the Auditor of State’s office in the form of a CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report);
•          The audit report does not contain any findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, Single Audit findings or questioned costs;
•          The entity’s management letter contains no comments related to:
o    Ethics referrals
o    Questioned costs less than $10,000
o    Lack of timely report submission
o    Reconciliation
o    Failure to obtain a timely Single Audit
o    Findings for recovery less than $100
o    Public meetings or public records
•          No other financial or other concerns exist that involve eligible entity.
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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio, is responsible for auditing more than 5,900 state and local government agencies. Under the direction of Auditor Dave Yost, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies and promotes transparency in government.

Kenko’s Suishi Officially Open for Business

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In the spirit of “good things come to those who wait” the City’s economic development director reports that Kenko’s at the corner of Depeyster and Haymaker (in the Avant 220 building) is now open for business.  

After a lengthy remodeling to make the space work for a restaurant, I understand that Kenko’s received their official certificate for occupancy this week so they went ahead and opened up as a “soft” opening. 
Word on the street says that their Teriyaki bowl is excellent.  
Please support our newest addition to the downtown Kent food scene.  

City 911 Dispatch Making the Move

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Police Captain Jayme Cole announced that he’s satisfied that the new police station is ready to handle our 911 calls so starting the week of July 30th, the Kent Police will be relocating the dispatchers and the equipment into the new police building.

During the move, dispatch will be working out of both buildings so if residents want to go to the Police station Jayme is recommending they call the non-emergency number (330 673-7732) to confirm which building they should go to.

Chief Lee says that after the dispatch move is complete, patrol and the remaining personnel should be able to follow shortly thereafter.

Moving 911 is always a bit nerve-wrecking but we won’t flip the switch until we know everything is running as it should.

City Investment Earnings

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We’re in the early stages of next year’s budget preparations and in looking at our investment earnings, the Budget and Finance Department reported a glimmer of good news.

It turns out that we’ve been able to increase our investment earnings 250% from 2013 to 2017.

Admittedly some of that is due to the slowly climbing interest rates in 2017, but the bulk of our gains come from the re-organization of our investment portfolio following the advice of our investment bankers.

Here’s a look at the interest earned by year:

2013 $127,397
2014 $188,207
2015 $307,867
2016 $367,729
2017 $452,212

What I’m not showing is that we made $1.4 million in investment earnings (just on bank CDs) back in 2007.

At least we’re making us some ground back.

Contact

Contact me: Dave Ruller: RullerD@kent-ohio.org