City Spent $8.5 Million on Construction Work in 2011

Kent saw an almost unprecedented level of public construction in 2011.

The work ranged from the new , to the , the addition of and on S.R. 59, for the downtown redevelopment and .

Add it all up, and the city spent $8.5 million through the middle of November on capital improvement projects. Yet $6.2 million of that, or about 73 percent, came from state and federal grants and other sources.

Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling said for every $1 the city spent Kent received $2.69 from other sources.

"So that total, over 70 percent of that $8.5 million is being funded by other sources," Bowling said.

In one example, Bowling pointed to the restoration of Plum Creek and the removal of the dam near Plum Creek Park. The city put the final landscaping touches on the project this spring. In total, the work cost $1.5 million, but the city only paid $150,000.

Bowling estimated the city will spend about the same amount in 2012, $8.5 million, on capital improvement projects as the Fairchild Avenue Bridge project is finished and street and utility work picks up on the downtown projects.

"It’s been a very busy time for the engineering division, and staff’s doing a wonderful job making this happen and keeping crises down to a minimum," he said.

The work, and it's level of completion, earned praise from members of Kent City Council during their last meeting of the year on Dec. 14.

Kent Mayor Jerry Fiala thanked the city's residents for being supportive of the city leaders and the redevelopment of downtown.

"It has been a tremendous year for the citizens of Kent as a whole," Fiala said.