The City of Kent is moving forward with the next phase of their river restoration project on the Cuyahoga River AW Brady's Leap Description. As a follow-up to the initial presentation by Recreation Engineering and Planning and the positive feedback from paddlers and the general public; Kent has contracted REP to provide some conceptual designs in 2008, Whitewater Update.
A series of meetings with the various stakeholders were held on December 4th and the feedback was positive as outlined in the various articles published in the local newspapers. Everyone reading this should consider themselves a stakeholder since this park will benefit all of us whether its used to work on basic skills or as a potential park and play spot close to home. Ohio boaters always get laughed at with our registration decals and numbers on our boats, but there may be some payback. The whitewater park in Kent is looking to get funding from the ODNR and guess where it may come from? Boater registration fees! Grant may fund whitewater park. We are looking to add boater access points near the Riverbend Development on property owned by the City and just upstream of Standing Rock cemetery. This access point would allow canoes and rafts an alternative putin to the current seal launch option at Brady's Leap. In addition we are considering another access point near the location of the "new" Crain Ave bridge scheduled for construction in 2009.
It helps that many of the agency representatives are "paddlers" and understand what is being proposed and the potential opportunities.
Kent Whitewater Concept Presentation
FEBRUARY 28, 2008
Last night the City's whitewater park consultant (Mike Harvey of REP in Boulder, Colorado) provided City Council with an overview of his firm's conceptual recommendations for what could be done in the Cuyahoga River corridor in downtown Kent to enhance river recreational opportunities. At the meeting I promised to upload Mike's draft report and conceptual renderings but he hasn't provided the draft report in electronic format yet so I can only post the graphic illustrations. Of course, it's easier to make sense of the graphic if you have the report available but I figured I'd go ahead and put the images up online anyways for those people who were at the meeting and they should have an idea of what they're looking at. As soon as I get the report from Mike I'll post that as well.
Mike Harvey of Recreation, Engineering and Planning (REP) consulting has completed a draft of his report on the river recreational opportunities in downtown Kent so we invited him back to present his findings. Main Street Kent paid for the white water consultant to come to Kent back in December 2007 to do more on-site investigation of the opportunities available to expand public access and usage of the river across a range of activities -- from walking along the banks to canoeing and even kayaking. The consultant gathered maps, existing plans, photos, data, etc., and he met with stakeholders in both private and public meetings to better understand what would fit in the Kent community.
Based on the data collected and the input received from the stakeholders, the consultant performed analytical and conceptual work to further develop some river concept design options that we could use to go after State grant funds that are available for these sorts of river improvements. Main Street and Parks and Recreation have already been coordinating with State agencies to give them a sense of how we hope to use this project to continue all the work we started with the Dam project and the initial feedback has been favorable from these agencies.
With the Dam project we made a significant impact on improving the water quality, and the idea of this project is to open up access to the new and improved river so that residents, students and visitors can enjoy it all year long. From the City's perspective I continue to see this eco-friendly outdoor-activity as a unique business opportunity for us to capitalize on in our region that is both a quality of life enhancement and is also a part of the economic revival of the downtown. I can't think of a better way to celebrate our river heritage than by having a plan for expanding river use in a way that connects the public investment we made to revitalize the West River Neighborhood to the redevelopment work we are now pursuing in downtown.
The concept design work will give us a list of improvements that we can consider, including ranges of costs, regulatory issues, etc. One of the tasks included in the scope of work was to begin to outline the possible economic impacts of a white water park with a range of examples of new business activity and local spending spawned by these types of parks. The purpose of this data is to give us a better sense of the costs/benefits and the rate of return of the improvements should we eventually choose to pursue any or all of them.
Here is the Proposed Cuyahoga River Park Plan - 43 page documentStay tuned for more updates.
Read why Friends of the Cuyahoga and the Keel-Haulers oppose the Damn project. This document provides a great summary of information about the dam details, organizations opposed to the project, historic photos, and why this project makes no sense. Friends Oppose the Dam a very large (6 MB) PDF file. It looks like everyone's hard work has paid off (for now) since the FERC pulls the plug on Cuyahoga. There is always the potential for the applicant to submit a new Notice of Intent, but the public is much better informed about the Integrated Licensing Process and prepared to continue the fight should it be required in the future. All submitted documents on this project can be accessed through the FERC website under the Documents & Filings heading, eLibrary, general search using Docket Number P-12484. If this project would have been completed, the power house would have been constructed near Butterfly Rapid and lines like this would not be possible.
During the lower summer flows, some of the accumulated wood has been removed and the sewer manhole below the Blue Suspension bridge (State Road) was reconstructed. Thanks Ohio EPA and City of Akron! The American Whitewater site was updated with some new photos, maps of put in and take out locations, and provides details on the river including description of the rapids, Lower Gorge. A new gage was installed by the applicant (Metro Hydroelectric Company) at the dam so it should provide accurate readings every 30 minutes and is available online at Gauge Readings from Adv Hydro.
So now you have no reason not to get out and paddle this local gem. Contact me if you can assist with future wood removal/cleanup projects or want to paddle the section. I'll post updates as conditions change or Contact me if you have any questions, send e-mail to David Hill or Mobile Phone 330-221-0270
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