Dave's Blog

City Council has been revisiting the Blue Ribbon Panel report which has caused a bit of a stir among people who don't want to see the City implement the tax increases that the Panel recommended. Heck nobody likes taxes, and even the Blue Ribbon Panel members said it pains them to make such a recommendation but they want to see Kent move forward and after 8 months of study they saw no other way to do that without money to invest in City services and projects that the community is wanting to see happen. It's been 2 years since the Panel released their report so the Council asked me to give them an update on what's been happening financially since then and I thought I'd share that update here as well.

In the spirit of being the best we can be, the staff and I have been tracking the items we bring to City Council to make sure we're keeping Council focused on the top comunity priorities. To do that we've created a Council Activity Report that lists what Council has been doing and how much time they've been spending on various items to be sure that we're making the best use of their time and staff time. Here's a look at the half year Council Activity Report.

We've had some good news business stories lately and I thought I'd keep the ball rolling. Last week I mentioned that Kent's Alpha Micron received the largest single award from the state of Ohio in the latest round of Third Frontier Grants (try $5 million on for size) which speaks volumes for the growth potential of this company that is creating a whole new industry for its liquid crystal technology in our backyard. Go team go! Not to be outdone however is another grant award winner, Pathogen Systems Inc., which won $3 million from Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy to research and commercialize an instrument that uses liquid crystal technology to detect pathogens in water. Did I mention that they'll be opening up shop at Kent's Centennial Research Park -- go team go!

Certainly these are trying days for some parts of the economy but don't let the headlines fool you -- there's plenty of successful business ventures going on all around us. Quietly some of Kent's biggest businesses have been posting record setting sales and production numbers and now we're gaining a new business whose growth has has been so fast they need to expand in a hurry and they picked Kent as the best place to do for that to happen. Welcome to Kent DipTechSystems Incorporated!

Its that time of year when all of us Olympic dreamers lace up the shoes (or in my case clip in the bike pedals) and line up to test our mettle and training regimens against our friends and neighbors in local races. One of the great things about living in northeast Ohio is that rarely a summer week passes without some local race so if racing is your thing, our region is for you. And this year is no exception. Kent had three running races in town last weekend and I just got notice of a Duathalon scheduled by Portage County for Sunday, July 27th at 8 am. As a fan of the race I offered to post the details and spread the word.

At the risk of stating the obvious, one of the great benefits of being in a university city is the amount of educational resources that are available in your hometown. What may not be so obvious is that these resources aren't limited to just the traditional areas of the curriculum -- they include lifelong learning opportunities in crazy things like bouldering, wilderness orienteering, camping, backpacking, and kayaking. The university isn't just for young adults it's a place for the young at heart of all ages who want to try new things and learn new skills. I heard this morning that there's still 5 spots open for this weekend's kayak trip down the Cuyahoga so if you've always wanted to strap yourself in and ride the waves now is your chance.

Anecdotally I'd say that there's a lot of Kent Roosevelt High School graduates that end up going on to Kent State. I haven't seen the data but I'm guessing many of the Kent kids choose that path because of financial reasons. It may be because their parents work at Kent State or it's a short commute so they can save money and live at home. Any way you look at it, it makes sense, which is why I've been so impressed with other cities that have taken that common sense approach to a higher level and have started offering townie kids scholarships to attend their hometown university. It's a pretty savvy way to take advantage of the local supply of kids and at the same time offer a great reason for living in the town that hosts the university. In a way it takes the town/gown friction and turns it on it's head making the town a supplier for the gown.

Retail is one aspect of the economy that tends to be succeptible to a lot of different economic variables ranging from consumer confidence to gas prices and everything in between -- which is to say it's a pretty volatile business that is prone to unnerving mood swings and anxiety provoking fads. The effect of the current real estate, stock and gasoline troubles is certainly causing those in the retail world to pay attention but it seems too soon just yet to draw any conclusions. Some retail sectors seem to be slowing yet surprisingly others seem to be thriving. The good news is that following the completion of our Kent retail market assessment the companies that came out on top of the list for good fit in Kent are growing and they're coming to our market. The frustrating news is that we keep coming up short on available space so they keep opening new stores in our trade area but just outside our boundary.

With the July 4th holiday weekend upon us, Kent will be in full swing with the annual Heritage Festival on Saturday, July 5th. This all day celebration features the Jeff Graham Memorial Fireworks, Kent Idol Singing Contest, Kent Historic Train Rides, Ducks over the Falls, Live music and entertainment all day on three stages, 5K & 10 Race & one mile fun run, Children’s Play area, well over 100 food and craft booths, and many more local displays. And as expected for anything in Kent, the people watching is a great show in and of itself. Don't miss it.

In case you missed it, I'm pleased to report that Kent's Alpha Micron was awarded $5 million in the most recent round of Ohio Third Frontier grants for continued product development of their liquid crystal technology. This is just another reason why Alpha Micron has been Kent State's and the City of Kent's poster child for technological research commercialization. The City worked hard to find Alpha Micron a research and development site in Kent 5 years ago and with this recent grant award I'm sure we'll be working hard to find them a new site to grow into. Maybe I'm oversimplifying economic development strategizing but I have always found that when you have a company that is as successful as Alpha Micron you hitch your wagon to them and do everything you can to help them grow their business. It looks like the State of Ohio sees the same thing we do in Alpha Micron and they've rewarded them with the largest single grant in the state. Now that says something.

It's funny, I've been a number of different meetings over the last couple of weeks with different people talking about different things but they all pointed out the convergence that they see happening in Kent. Some people referred to Main Street Kent and how the merchants were all pulling together (aka converging) around a goal of revitalizing downtown. Others mentioned the new initiatives coming out of the University and the new spirit of converging the town/gown into a single entity that was simply Kent. We had a speaker offer up that "college downtown's rock" and Kent in particular is in a position to really benefit from the investor interest (like the Phoenix project or the Fairmount project). I did a post yesterday about the favorable impact rising gas prices has had in getting people to live in smaller, walkable cities like Kent. And then today I bumped into an article that said that more and more students are choosing to live on campus (and spend more money in the town).

As a driver and City Manager of a City with a fleet of vehicles I have to say that I share in the frustration with rising gas prices. There's no question that it has put a dent in both personal and professional budgets. We always budget based on an average year's worth of fuel which means this year we will be over budget -- although I noticed our police patrols on bicycles recently which is good for both their cardio and our fuel costs. Obviously we still expect our emergency personnel to be able to respond to emergency calls in a matter of minutes so the bikes have their limits but I like the effort. About the only thing I like about the gas prices is that it is making more people want to stay in town to shop, eat and live. National and regional news reports note the growing popularity of city living and it's not necessarily big cities, it's the smaller cities like Kent that have the greatest potential to score big in these tough times.

With the repair of the Middlebury Road bridge in 2007, the Spaulding Drive bridge took top honors as the bridge in the worst condition in the City. I know there are some that would have guessed the Crain Avenue bridge as the worst, but believe it or not, structurally the Spaulding Drive bridge has it beat. Admittedly Crain Avenue carries more traffic but as you probably know we've got the largest bridge replacement project in Portage County history underway for Crain Avenue so now it's time to take care of Spaulding Drive which is why this Monday, June 30th, some preliminary engineering work will have the bridge reduced to a single lane so you may want to avoid Spaulding Drive if you can.

In the realm of good causes there are few better than feeding the hungry. And this Saturday, June 28 from 8am to 4 pm I have been told that you can help feed the hungry by going to your local grocery store and filling a PARTA supplied bus (that will be in the lot) full of food that will be used to supply pantries and hot meal programs in Portage County. Sadly, hunger is an issue in our county although it may not be as evident so please help support those in need here in our own backyard.

The mountain bike season should be in full swing in northeast Ohio but the truth is all the rain we've had has kept the trails too wet to ride. Not that I haven't tried -- mud can be a lot of fun -- but the truth is the worst thing you can do for the trial is to ride when it's this muddy so being the responsible mountain biker I work hard to live up the credo of leaving the trail no worse than when you found it. That means delayed gratification and a lot of weather channel watching. Given the serious problems in the mid-west I have no right to complain about the lack of riding time as we watch homes floating downstream just a couple hundred miles west of us. I'm all for sharing and with 80% of the country in a drought I'd be happy to trade a little bit of this for a little bit of that. Since I still have mountain biking (and downtown redevelopment) on the brain, I'd like to share an interesting article that sure sounds like a good fit for Kent.

One of the reasons I continue to be an advocate for the role of the Main Street Kent organization is the willingness of it's members to roll up their sleeves, tackle problems and get things done. Sure they talk a little theory and strategy but they still seem to understand that their value comes more from what they get done than what they say. That's why I want them in my bunker and that's why I was encouraged to hear that Main Street is continuing what it started with the downtown trash cans project by taking on the growing cigarette litter problem. Unfortunately we're beginning to see how a little act of flicking a cigarette down on the sidewalk can add up to a significant problem. Thankfully Main Street is stepping in with a couple of new efforts that we all hope will work.

Earlier this year our new City Engineer (Jim Bowling) was able to fill an engineering staff vacancy with a civil engineer (Jon Giaquinto) who happens to specialize in traffic engineering and he's been a great addition to our team. Every city I've worked in we've had a traffic engineer on staff and I can't tell you how good it is to have one here now. I say that because when you get right down to it City government is about local issues and quite frankly many local issues end up involving traffic in one way or another. Whether it's signal timing, locations of stop signs, or site distance safety --traffic issues are a big part of the service that local governments provide so it's great to have an expert on staff to help us provide it. Here's an example of what Jon brings to the table as he tries to come up with solutions for neighbor's concerns with safety at the Fairchild Avenue and Stonewater intersection.

After their seasonal opening a couple of weeks ago the Kent Farmer's Market is back in classic Kent style with a free concert performance by the band the River Bottom Bushwhackers this Saturday, June 21, at 10:30 am at the corner of Franklin Avenue and Stow Street. The concert is being held in conjunction with Farmer's Market so you can eat and dance to your heart's content.

Over the last month we've been working with some folks up on campus to figure out how we can put up an electronic bulletin board that we could share and use to publicize events on campus and around town. This isn't a new idea but it's definitely got some new life recently thanks to the interest from the new Provost. The City looked at electronic bulletin boards pretty closely a couple of years ago but it just didn't get enough traction to overcome the cost issue (roughly $30,000). That's where the Provost comes in. As the new guy in town he gets to ask the obvious question like why don't we work together to get a community bulletin board and perhaps share the cost. That's the kind of talk that gets our attention. Hopefully we can get this deal done but until then I'll do my best to keep you posted on events around Kent.

One of the things I most admired about the late Councilman Bill Schultz was his commitment to his principles which included using the power of government to help people. Both personally and professionally Bill was in the business of helping people and he carried that value with him into his job as City Councilman. I have fond memories of conversations with Bill where he made it clear that City Social Service funding had to protected at all costs despite our financial constraints. Bill was always fair about it though and when money got really tight he conceded some reductions in funding but he would argue until his last breath that counties and townships fill potholes but Kent separated itself by its allegiance to helping the disadvantaged so we must never lose sight of that distinction. Which is why to this day we still set aside $100,000 a year to support social service agencies in Kent. Here's who we support and why.