CLUB NEWS
ATTENDANCE: President Jim praised club members for their good attendance reciting numbers he had received
from Bruce and David Hansford. He said 49 members last year attended 80 percent or more of the meetings, 22 members 90 percent
of the meetings and 10 percent 100 percent of the meetings. He said one member missed only one meeting for a 98 percent attendance
record. Those with perfect attendance last year were: Brian Bialik, Carol Crimi, Duane Fitts, Joe Giancola, Tom Hall,
Bruce and David Hansford, Walt Strawman. Those whose attendance exceeded 90%, but was less than 98%, were as follows: Sue Hetrick,
98%; Dick King, Cass Mayfield, both 96%; Tom Hatch, Sherry Joy, Mary Beth Harper, all 94%; Jim Bear, Bill Childers, Dave Dix, Scott
Flynn, Lee Higgins, Hal Loughrey, Ernie Mastroianni, Bob Stevenson, Gene Wenninger, all 92%; Leon Fenstermacher, Ralph Kletzien, Tom
Myers, Roberta O’Keefe, and Bill Shallenberger, 90%.
90-YEAR Coins: President Jim reminded us that 90-year coins marking
Kent Rotary’s 90th are available for those who want them and they are for free. He said a supply is available and that
Rotarians are welcome to pick one up.
DUES DUE: President Jim reminded everyone that dues are due. They are $150
for the year.
PARTNERING WITH THE TRIBE: District 6630 is partnering with the Tribe August 13 at Progressive Field at 7:05
p.m. for the contest with the Mariners. Adult ticket and meal is $30. Ticket alone is $13 and meal alone is $20.
Children get in for $25 including ticket and meal and $13 for one or the other. Forms are available through President
Jim. They go to our district governor, Steve Zabor in Hiram, See President Jim for more details.
REPORT ON DOWNTOWN
REJUVENATION
Brian Smith gave Rotarians a comprehensive overview of the plans for Kent’s downtown rejuvenation Tuesday and it
included PowerPoint and printed illustrations of the project’s various phases. Smith, manager of Business Development
for the Portage Area Regional Transportation Association, said the $20 million earmark from the federal government for the multi-modal
transportation complex is already in hand. He said the city of Kent is supplying an additional $3 million to get the project
down and the city will cover the second and third floors of the parking deck. He said the $20 million federal grant will build
the rest of the structure, re-do the infra structure along East Erie including a lighted intersection with Haymaker and a huge four-story
retaining wall to retrain the hill of East Main Street which slants at a 40 degree angle down to Erie Street. The multi-modal
transportation center, he said, will serve as a 10-bus hub for exchanges in routes going on to Akron or Cleveland. It will also
promote pedestrian traffic in the downtown by providing more than 300 parking spaces and bike transportation by including bike racks.
He said a LEEDS architect will build the structure so that the latest environmental methods are used. Construction itself will
provide more than 200 construction jobs. More importantly, it will stimulate an estimated 703 permanent jobs. The time
frame for construction is October this year spread out over 24 months. Smith provide architectural general drawings that
he went through showing the new hotel for the downtown, the new conference center, the newly built Haymaker block, and overviews of
the entire program of downtown renewal.