Kettering is a beautiful community to call home. What makes us unique is our high quality of life for residents in every stage of life. Whether you are a young student, a young couple, a couple raising children or empty nester, Kettering offers housing and recreational opportunities that are unmatched in the region.
The City of Kettering Government Center is located at 3600 Shroyer Road. Our architecturally significant facility represents our progressive ideals toward all facets of community life. As an inner ring suburb and the second largest City in Montgomery County, we take great pride in our proactive approach to staying relevant in housing, business and amenities. Come and visit our Government Center and you will notice our attention to customer friendly operations as well as our purposeful use of open areas and open spaces that embrace natural light and promote open and public local government operations. Our Council Meetings run the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month at 7:30 and I encourage you to come and attend.
Amenities such as the Fraze Pavilion, the Kettering Recreation Complex, the Rob Dyrdek/DC Shoes Skate Plaza, the Adventure Reef Water Park and our more than 21 parks draw residents and non-residents from every age group. I can confidently say that you will not find a network of comprehensive amenities as diverse and impressive as ours – anywhere.
The Fraze is a nationally recognized outdoor amphitheater that has consistently offered the Summer’s Best Music for the last 25 years with artists like Sheryl Crow, Colbie Caillet, Jewel, Vince Gill, Willie Nelson and B.B. King. Not only is the music great but scenic Lincoln Park makes for the perfect setting. We believe it’s the successful combination of the beautiful environment and enthusiastic crowds that draws performers back again and again.
The Kettering Recreation Complex is one of two City run fitness centers. While the Kettering Fitness and Wellness Center is an affordable option for fitness only, the Kettering Recreation Complex offers a diverse array of fitness and recreational options like extensive summer camps, a wide variety of programs, a state of the art fitness room and fitness classes like zumba, cycling and TRX. The Complex is also home to Adventure Reef Water Park, the area’s best and most affordable pool and water park combination. And the Kettering Ice Arena is a unique facility for hockey and ice skating.
With the help of one of our more famous residents, professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, the City has the nation’s first street skating skate plaza. Dyrdek and sponsor, DC Shoes, helped to make the Plaza a reality and we have had visitors from all over the world visiting our park as well as some professional competitions. Even if you don’t know how to “ollie” you might want to check out this one of a kind park.
The City of Kettering is home to the state’s largest art center, Rosewood Arts Centre. Rosewood offers classes to art enthusiasts, whether working artists or complete novices. You can learn painting, stained glass, pottery, anime and folk dance just to name a few of the diverse samples of programming at Rosewood. Rosewood also hosts the Rosewood Gallery. The gallery specializes in the exhibition of contemporary art by local, regional and national artists. But the City’s devotion to art isn’t confined within the walls of Rosewood. Our 1% for the Arts and CitySites committee ensures that the entire community can benefit from public art pieces that are interspersed throughout the entirety of the City. Remarkably, we placed 3 public art pieces in 2011 alone.
Youth in Kettering are able to grow and flourish through a comprehensive network of services and programs through the City and Schools. Many years ago the City Council and School Board decided that it was in the best interest of our youth for us to work closely together to provide a community in which they can thrive. As a result the Partners for Healthy Youth was formed and now people from every faction of the City are involved in creating positive opportunities for Kettering youth.
Our Charles I Lathrem Senior Center boasts the largest senior membership in the State. Members of the Lathrem Center can take part in dance classes, softball leagues, computer courses and travel. We have very active and very involved seniors in our community. Additionally, we staff a full time Senior Services Coordinator who link seniors in Kettering with services that they need.
But it’s not just about quality of life amenities in Kettering. We are also particularly proud of our public safety police and fire services, our housing stock and our economic development efforts. We offer a progressive and customer oriented government. These are the types of services that allow us to provide the amenities mentioned above. Because our neighborhoods are safe, because our residents love their homes and because we are a great environment in which businesses can thrive and people feel like their government is working for them, we can provide residents with the perfect community to call home.
