KENT: Hoping to boost recreational tourism and better exploit the Cuyahoga River, city and community leaders in Kent are exploring whether they can turn the waterway downtown into a canoeing and kayaking attraction.

‘‘People enjoy being on the water or near the water,‘‘ said David Hill, a Portage County resident and volunteer with American Whitewater, a national group dedicated to improving rivers for recreation and the environment. ‘‘It's a natural draw.‘‘

The city already has created Heritage Park near the dam downtown and built a brick trail along the river, which runs through a gorge in the center city. The park and path are in the gorge, but hover above the river and there isn't easy access to the water itself.

The city and Main Street Kent, a group dedicated to improving downtown, have partnered to figure out how to change that and make the area friendlier to visitors who want to play in the river. They enlisted the help last week of Mike Harvey, an engineer with Recreation Engineering & Planning of Boulder, Colo. The company has built river parks across the country and is now working on projects in Dayton and Springfield.

Harvey toured the waterway and offered his initial impressions, saying the area has potential because of the free-flowing water and location downtown.

‘‘There's a transition going on in communities everywhere,‘‘ he said during a tour with local government and civic leaders. ‘‘The industrial function that rivers served for the last 100 years or so is fading so dams are being decommissioned and removed.

‘‘Communities like Kent are looking at their downtown and saying, ‘What can we do to revitalize downtown?‘ and the river is right there.‘‘

Those pushing the project aren't interested in developing a whitewater course for expert paddlers only, just an area where people can canoe, kayak, fish or even splash around for fun.

‘‘Ohio is certainly not known as a destination for paddling, but the potential here is almost greater than anywhere in the country because there are plenty of rivers and plenty of water,‘‘ said Harvey, a native of Cleveland Heights. ‘‘And there are so many pointless dam structures and things in the river that could be modified or could be altered . . . And there's a real strong paddling community, especially around Cleveland.‘‘

It can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $5 million for a city to modify its waterway, depending on the project, he said.

The city and Main Street Kent plan to ask Recreation Engineering and Planning to develop a cost estimate for a formal plan that would include specific recommendations.

‘‘I really think we have the excitement and enthusiasm for this project,‘‘ said Mary Gilbert, director for Main Street Kent.

Elaine Marsh, a paddler and a member of Friends of the Crooked River, a grass-roots group devoted to the Cuyahoga River, said she likes the idea because it encourages people, especially children, to return to the river.

‘‘Most of us growing up wanted to jump in the river and we couldn't because of the water quality,‘‘ she said.

Any effort to create a canoe and kayak attraction is complicated by Akron controlling the water flow in the river from Lake Rockwell, which is a city reservoir.

Hill, who has been lobbying the project for years, said he hopes Akron and other communities downstream may jump on board if the project is successful.

Akron has little interest in any project that calls for additional releases of water from Lake Rockwell to the Cuyahoga River, said Michael McGlinchy, head of the Akron Public Utilities Bureau. The city considers such projects ‘‘not feasible and not practical‘‘ from Akron's perspective, he said.

For more information about Recreation Engineering & Planning, go online to http://www.wwparks.com/index.html. For more information about the project, call Main Street Kent at 330-677-8000.