Kent will add a fountain by the historic river dam

Kent’s iconic stone arch dam is slated to see more changes.

City Council on May 21 approved an undetermined amount of money to install an 11-foot fountain in the now algae-rich, relatively stagnant water directly below the dam.

The water trough added to the lip of the dam to create the illusion of a waterfall will remain empty as Service Director Melanie Baker works with Kent’s Park and Recreation Department to consider what to do with it.

The fountain will spray water 40 feet in all directions and could be lit at night, Baker told council members earlier this month. She estimated the cost of the fountain to be $12,000 to $14,000.

It will aerate the water pool directly below the dam, taking the place of the fake waterfall powered by pumps that started wearing out three years ago and finally quit altogether last year.

Having received pump replacement estimates of $400,000 to $500,000, and noting that new ones would have to be lifted by crane over the Main Street Bridge, Baker earlier this month suggested the fountain as an alternative. She proposed the fountain as a stopgap measure while she searches for a more permanent solution.

On the National Register of Historic Places since 1977, the dam was originally constructed in 1836. At 125 feet long, it consists of hand-cut sandstone blocks stacked 14 feet high. It is the only known stone arch dam with a similarly constructed sandstone canal lock attached to one side.

The lock connected the dam to the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal, making shipping goods to and from the area convenient.

Water flowed over the dam for more than 160 years. Then, enter the EPA, which determined that Kent’s section of the Cuyahoga River was negatively impacted by a dam that was no longer serving its original purpose: flood control and power for mills and factories.

Citing dam pool stagnation, lack of proper aquatic habitat and hindrance of fish migration, the EPA threatened to impose more stringent permit limits on the city’s water reclamation facility unless the city removed or modified the dam.

Faced with spending dollars it didn’t have to improve already stellar water quality in the facility’s outflow, and wishing to balance environmental concerns with Kent’s heritage, in 2004 the city rerouted the river through the lock channel and created a recirculating waterfall that pumped river water into a small trough added to the lip of the dam’s stone arch.

The pumps were originally delivered via an access road that no longer exists. Asked prior to meeting what the plan was for when the pumps wore out, Baker referenced the high emotions prevalent at the time and noted that no one who was involved with the decision remains employed in city administration.

Council Member Heidi Shaffer Bish recalled the sometimes heated discussions at the time and called the completed project “a historic compromise.”

“We built a kind of symbol of Kent’s heritage, a monument,” she said, adding that it saddened her to see the waterfall nonfunctional and the lower dam pool in such poor shape.

Calling the fountain a good “stopgap” measure, she encouraged community members and city engineers to come up with ideas as to how the waterfall over the dam could be restored.

“When we get together, we come up with some pretty amazing ideas. What could we do to maybe bring back the original intent or to make it at least similar in some way to celebrate that historic compromise, and really that symbol of our heritage?” she asked.

Council’s decision to install the fountain came minutes after Cass McKay Walker, owner of McKay Bricker Framing in Kent, presented council with a framed photograph of the reconfigured dam and the area surrounding it.

The photograph will be displayed in city hall, Mayor Jerry Fiala said.