Kent 360 - Kent, Ohio

• KSU Construction in High Gear
  Reading that Kent State University is buzzing with construction activity this summer is hardly a news flash but seeing it all on paper gave me a new sense  of appreciation for what a lot of construction works translates into on a building by building basis.   Wow. KSU Summer Construction Schedule CAMPUS-WIDE ENERGY CONSERVATION PROJECTS: Kent Campus Classroom, Laboratory, [...]
  
  
• Safe Spring Party Season
  For as long as students have crammed for final exams, students have also celebrated the completion of the academic year with that other rite of matriculation – spring parties. Spring weekends in college towns are notorious for year-end parties that begin as a well deserved break from the daily grind of student-hood but have an unfortunate tendency to mutate into something more spirited. School spirit is a [...]
  
  
• Bump in the Road
  Nothing says Spring better than tulips, daffodils and pot holes. Unfortunately, with temperatures staying colder longer this year, the local asphalt plants waited to fire up their burners so fresh hot mix asphalt was harder to come-by, leaving mostly cold patch to fill winter’s damage to City streets — which is at best a temporary band aid. [...]
  
  
• Paid Parking Downtown
  We’ve worked hard to bravely go where governments offer fear to go — into the perilous world of social media. Kent was an early adopter of blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and mobile apps in order to stay connected with our residents in the ways that they like to connect.   Citizen engagement was a dying art but modern technology has [...]
  
  
• Second Hand Retail
  Earlier this year the Kent Police Chief, Michelle Lee, presented City Council with recommendations to tighten the City’s regulation of second hand retail shops, e.g., pawn shops, thrift stores, etc. The new regulations put more burden on store owners to gather information and keep records of the transactions that occured at the point of re-sale, in order [...]
  
  
• Kent Gratitude
  Maybe it’s the beautiful spring weather, or the opening of the PARTA parking garage, or the sight of structural steel for the new courthouse popping out of the ground, or the color of the new esplanade pavers that stretch as far as the eye can see from campus to downtown, or tracing the arc of the cranes as they swing the [...]
  
  
• Kent Construction Value
  Even a casual look around Kent reveals a lot of new investment. New commercial buildings.  Restored historic buildings.  Renovated commercial buildings.  New apartment complexes.  New commercial research buildings.  The list goes on — and there’s more to come. From a strategic perspective, the City Council joined the staff in taking a leap of faith 5 years ago choosing [...]
  
  
• Internet Sales
  With the rapid growth in internet sales and customer comfort levels with buying items directly from the web, the City has been riding the cyber-sales wave with our annual surplus property auction — and it’s paid off in leaps and bounds in our auction revenues. As a category on the City’s ledger, “surplus” City property refers to all those [...]
  
  
• Downtown Project Coming Together
  Tuesday, April 30th, marks the passage of a major milestone for the downtown redevelopment project — the PARTA transit center and parking deck will open it’s doors at 7 am and welcome customers for the first time. That’s big news for all of the retail shops and restaurants that have been elated with the customer excitement over all [...]
  
  
• 50 Years of Town Gown
  Technically, Kent State University has called Kent home for 100 years so we’ve actually got a century of town/gown experience, but last week we celebrated the 50th year of the Town/Gown Bowman Breakfast so I’m going with 50 years to match up with the title of the speech given by resident historian and editor of the Record [...]