Kent
The Haymaker Farmers’ Market will return to its summer location
Kent City Council considered Covid safety measures, park updates, health clinics and more at Wednesday’s meeting
By Wendy DiAlesandro
Kent’s Haymaker Farmers’ Market is headed back to its summer home, and all it took was a dollar bill.
Kent City Council inked its annual agreement with the outside market, accepting a single dollar to lease the farmers’ market its usual space near the intersection of Summit Road and Franklin Avenue. Keeping social distancing protocols in mind, during market hours (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) Franklin Avenue will be closed from south of West College Street to just before The Pub’s parking area.
The market is set to open from the first Saturday in April until the last Saturday in November, when it will move back indoors for the winter.
The market includes some 40 vendors of fresh food, all located within 50 miles of Kent. Live musicians have also performed each market day from 10 a.m. to noon, but the entertainment was canceled last year because of Covid concerns. Kent has not yet renewed its funding for the market’s music program, so “we are seeking sponsorships from local businesses,” market manager Andrew Rome said.
Anyone or any business that wishes to donate funds to continue the live music program should contact Rome through the market website.
“We plan to continue Covid safety measures this year, such as our mask requirement. There have been a range of responses to Covid that we’ve seen throughout the pandemic. The market is one of the places in Portage County that has taken it seriously. We are committed to the safety of our customers,” Rome said.
Rome told council that the Haymaker Farmers’ Market lost some vendors last year because of safety concerns, but “this year we have a great crop of new vendor applicants.”
Not only is social distancing in place, people worried about Covid can shop at the market knowing fewer people have handled their food. Many market vendors offer online ordering, accessible via the market’s website. Anyone with specific concerns may contact any vendor, he said.
Also Covid related, another lease agreement: The city will increase the space the Kent Health Department currently occupies in the PARTA Central Gateway building downtown. The Health Department has been using space on the second floor of the building, but now it will rent additional space on the ground floor. The Covid connection? Plans are to use the additional space as a vaccine distribution clinic and to provide other patient services, Kent City Health Commissioner Joan Seidel told council.
Seidel said she does not wish to duplicate services already provided by Townhall II and does not see significant overlap between the two entities.
“When health care and preventative care increases, everyone does better,” she said.
Placing the clinic at the Central Gateway building allows people who may not have access to private transportation easy and affordable access to services, she said. Clients who do have their own transportation can park in the PARTA deck.
Covid testing could begin immediately, Seidel said. Eventually, the clinic could provide blood pressure screening, blood sugar screening and health education programs.
“I’ve had some wild ideas about working with the chefs in downtown Kent to do healthy cooking demonstrations and eating use, maybe get Andrew [Rome] in from the farmers’ market with some produce to show people what you can make out of things that are locally grown and available readily,” she said.
Seidel also envisions housing the WIC program at the clinic once a week, which she said would eliminate the burden of clients having to travel to Ravenna. The clinic could also conduct drug screenings for new hires, which would be more convenient as new hires currently need to go to Hudson, Stow or Akron. City employees could get their drug tests and required vaccines at the clinic, as well as have minor injuries treated. The occupational health aspect would represent a revenue stream for the city, she said.
Council member Garrett Ferrara raised concerns.
“There’s certainly a stigma about bus stations and public entities and government entities and government clinics in those areas. That’s not something we would want in downtown Kent or that I would foresee that we would want,” he said. “I think we have to make sure that we have to define what the clinic does and the type of clientele that we want down there with all the other businesses down there.”
Ferrara admitted that his comment was not politically correct, but maintained that “it’s the fact of the matter, and I’d be the first to say it.”
None of the council members responded to him. The health commissioner said, “Hm.”
Council passed the measure with one abstention by Jack Amrhein, whose wife is PARTA’s general manager.
Council also renewed the ability of engineering department staff members to work directly with downtown businesses that wish to create outdoor seating areas. The staff members’ authorization ended Dec. 31, 2020; this authorization extends to Dec. 31, 2021. Working directly with the staff members saves businesses from having to wait until city council meetings for approval.
The Brady’s Leap portion of the Portage County Hike & Bike Trail will be getting a facelift as council approved a loan of up to $460,000 to Kent Parks and Recreation, which will oversee widening the trail. The total project cost is $1,460,000.
The parks department had expected to cover the entire cost but did not receive a grant it had expected, City Engineer Jim Bowling told council. Work is expected to begin April 1, and is expected to be complete by October. Kent Parks and Recreation must pay the city back in five years.
The project will include enhanced lighting and new steps from the end of the Main Street bridge to the trail.
While Kent Parks and Recreation is part of the city administration, it is a separate legal entity from other departments, relying on separate tax levies and funding sources. Council member Heidi Shaffer Bish suggested the department may have come up short because of increased competition for grant money from other cities.
While he supported the legislation, Council member John Kuhar voiced concerns about Kent Parks and Recreation’s finances.
“Over the 10 or 12 years I’ve been on council, it seems like Parks and Rec is always having a shortfall financially, whether they’re renting a house or they’re buying property or something they think is going to go through, or they’re anticipating money that they’re getting,” Kuhar said. “They need better eyes on that. It’s not our money, it’s not their money. It’s the money that belongs to the city of Kent. This is a good project, but why are they always on the short end of it?”
Councilman Roger Sidoti sees the shortfall as part of a bigger problem.
“I think there’s a bigger conversation in terms of council’s role in Parks & Rec,” Sidoti said. “I think that at at some point in time down the line maybe a bigger conversation has to be had about the role the city should be playing in terms of the support or the lack thereof of the Parks and Recreation board, or maybe the city should be in essence having more of a little bit of an oversight on those things.”
When that conversation will take place was not specified.
Council also took steps to require all vendors of tobacco products — and there are over 20 of them within city limits — to post a quitline phone number on their premises. The city will provide the signage.
According to the legislation council passed, tobacco companies spend $9.1 billion annually (that’s $1 million per hour) to market their products. Ohio spends $38.7 million a year to combat those ads, some of which (depending on which part of which lawsuit you’re looking at) may be aimed at youths. Health experts agree that vaping counts as smoking.
The National Cancer Institute’s Quitline phone number is 1–800-QUIT-NOW.
Quitlines help tobacco users quit through a variety of service offerings, including individual counseling, practical information on how to quit, referral to other cessation resources, mailed self-help materials, information on FDA-approved cessation medications and, in some cases, free or discounted cessation medications, such as nicotine replacement therapy.
Vendors that do not post the quitline phone number will face health code violations.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.
