Kent City Council has big plans for coming months

By Heather Inglis and Rachel Godin

Kent’s City Council focused on roads and sidewalks at this week’s meeting. With tough Ohio winters taking a toll on pavement and new construction happening around campus, the city has made quite a few adjustments.

In terms of residential areas, the city of Kent has finished a few projects. Area Q received its Phase V Storm improvements. Collaborating with Stow to complete the project, a 35 foot deep tunnel was constructed to ease flooding from storm water. This project began in April 2015, ended August 2015 and cost roughly $2,230. Kent also completed repainting its Fairchild water tower. The project, which began in May and ended in July, cost $350k.

Beginning in November the Summit Street improvements will begin. Construction will span from Lincoln Road to Loop Road and will cost $14.2 million to complete. Announcements regarding the construction will be available online, via social media and through print outlets like brochures and the Tree City bulletin.

Kent is also doing more work on sidewalks in comparison to previous years. Data has shown the city has done two times more work since 2004, with their peak year being 2012. Complaints for the sidewalks haven’t peaked since 2008.

City Council will still be addressing updates for the Summit Street improvements at later meetings. They also will keep an eye on the annual street program, Pine Street Reconstruction, the Hudson Road waterline replacement, the Tonkin Court reconstruction and the State Route 43 signalization.

See the Storify here.