Rotareminder for the Rotary Club of Kent
Meeting on October 21, 2025.
President-Elect Stacey welcomed the group by calling the meeting to order at ~12:10pm. Our patriotic song of the day was the National Anthem, followed by the leadge of Allegiance.
The Invocation for today’s meeting was offered by Randy Smith. Nithya will be handling photos and Brian is the Rotareminder author.
There were no visiting rotarians.
Student of the Month
This afternoon, THRS principal, Dennis Love, presented this month’s award recipient, Hannah Hido. Not surprising, Hannah is a very active student with an excellent grade point average. She leads by example and is looked upon by her peers. She is a scholar athlete that maintains a humble attitude. Her college plan is to attend Geneva College where she will major in actuarial science. She was accompanied today by her parents, Aaron and Robin Hido.
Visitors / Guests
- Lee Higgins introduced his grandson from Oxford England, Charlie Hood.
- John Flynn was joined by his spouse Connie.
- Anne Moneypenny, once again, brought her quest, and prospective rotarian, Ryan Brannan.
- The newly-appointed mayor, Jack Amrhein was in attendance.
Announcements
- Next Wednesday is the Bowman Breakfast, where fellow rotarian and past president, Asad Khan will be presenting.
- Tickets remain available for the upcoming Tree City Awards banquet. Reach out to the chamber office for more information.
- Doug Fuller announced the next (tonight) Tap Talk speaker at North Water Brewing Company to be Mark Semon. He will be making a presentation on surveys in the Western Reserve and how it lends itself to some insight into how the climate in Portage County has been changing.
- This Saturday is “Kent Clean-up Day”. All interested are encouraged to come downtown this Saturday morning at ~9:00am ready to work.
- Alice Hurd, spouse of late rotarian, Jack Hurd, died last week on the 18th. Information on her service is still forthcoming. Also, the spouse of the late Bruce Bain, past president of rotary, also passed away last week. Bruce was the club president in the 80’s.
- On Saturday, October 25th at the Cleveland Marriott East in Warrensville, Disctrict 6630 will be holding a Club Experience Summit. There are two members of our club attending. Should any additional members wish to attend please register through the Rotary District website.
Program
City of Kent
Downtown City Hall
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Dominique Bollenbacher
This afternoon, fellow rotarian and current Community Engagement Coordinator, Dominigue Bollenbacher, delivered remarks about the newest building in Kent – City Hall.
This building was the result of over a decade of planning to modernize and consolidate the majority of city administration employees on what would become a true municipal campus (including the fire and police departments that are adjacent and were completed across the past decade).
The building itself is twenty-five thousand square feet of finished space, built to LEED Silver Standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), and is solar-ready should the city decide to convert to solar power.
Not surprising, city council played a meaningful role in the design of this structure. They scheduled nine bus trips to nearby communities to see the latest in municipal building designs, as a way to devlop their own ideas. Open spaces, windows, and the appearance of transparency were three characteristics that weighed on their minds.
The actual construction process, which started somewhere in late 2022, early 2023, was not spared the usual vagaries often accompanied with a complex construction project. Labor and material shortages were two of the contributing factors that extended the completion date until sometime in 2025. (Perhaps not coincidentally, our speaker was the very first person to move into this building.)
Today, what we see is the result of a combination of ideas that address these design needs merged with a more tech-savvy structure, that makes communication more efficient; creates an inviting atmosphere for visitors; and is built for future growth. (A construction beam on the third floor, above the law directors office, was autographed by many city administrators before it was sealed into posterity as the building was being completed.)
As mentioned by Dominique, the building is available for public use, as there are numerous spaces for meeting. One need only reach out to Dominique to make those arrangements
Fellow rotarian and past president, Roger Sidoti, delivered the club’s response.
Respectfully submitted,
Brian K Bialik
