A lawyer representing Akron Municipal Judge Joy Malek Oldfield attacked the credibility of a Copley police officer, saying he “turned into a teenaged boy” when he found the judge with a female attorney in a parked car.

Attorney George Jonson said Tuesday the officer is “simply not credible.” He asked a three-member panel of the Ohio Supreme Court’s disciplinary board to dismiss ethics charges against Oldfield that arose from the incident.

Jonathan Coughlan, the disciplinary counsel who lodged the charges against the judge, requested a stayed six-month suspension of Oldfield’s law license based on four alleged judicial canon violations. If granted, the discipline would not affect Oldfield’s position on the court.

A decision from the disciplinary panel is not expected until next month.

In his closing argument, Jonson implored the panel to end the months of “hell and hurt” Oldfield has endured since allegations of misconduct arose more than 18 months ago.

“End this today,” he said. “Make it stop.”

Jonson took to task the observations, writings and testimony of Copley Patrolman Thomas Ballinger.

It was Ballinger who found Oldfield and assistant public defender Catherine Loya parked together at 2 a.m. Feb. 5, 2012, in a strip mall near the judge’s residence. He repeatedly has said Oldfield was in a state of undress and in the backseat with Loya when he walked up to their car.

Coughlan alleged in his complaint that Oldfield tried to use her position to stop Loya from being arrested on charges related to drunken driving.

Loya later was convicted and fined.

For two weeks following the incident, Loya continued to represent indigent defendants in Oldfield’s courtroom. It wasn’t until around Feb. 17 — when a supplemental police report surfaced — that Loya was transferred to a different judge.

Jonson argued to the panel there was no personal relationship between Oldfield and Loya, and thus no ethical violation. He said allegations that the two women were being intimate in the backseat is “not possible.”

Jonson cited the Scion xB’s tinted windows, its small interior compared to the full-figured judge and Ballinger’s initial notes and texts to fellow officers as “an overwhelming mountain of evidence” that Oldfield was not in the backseat.

He specifically cited a series of text messages, sent at the time of the incident between Copley officers, which appear to poke fun and hint at a potential lesbian encounter Ballinger had found. He said Ballinger became like a boy and made jokes. Eventually, the officer became locked into a story he couldn’t alter.

“Officer Ballinger is not a credible witness. Judge Oldfield is being polite when she refuses to call him a liar,” Jonson said. “He’s simply not credible.”

Coughlan defended the officer and reminded the panel that Ballinger had no motive to lie. He pointed to Ballinger’s decision in keeping Oldfield’s name out of the public police report as well as his initial reporting of the event.

Coughlan then characterized Oldfield as a “gifted actress” who tried to use her position to save Loya from being arrested. The judge then compounded her problems by not requesting Loya be moved to another court, he said.

He said Oldfield, who had been a judge for about a month, should never have told the Copley officers about her professional position.

“The reality is, we don’t want judges to ever use that card,” he said.

He further took Oldfield to task for opening her home to Loya for four days after the incident. The judge also drove Loya to and from the courthouse during that time frame. He said the arrangement created an appearance of bias that Oldfield should have recognized.

“And if you add in being in the backseat, then there’s no doubt,” he said.

Loya testified Tuesday, however, that neither she nor Oldfield were ever in the car’s backseat.

In other testimony on Oldfield’s behalf, Joe Kodis, the chief public defender for Summit County, and Gertrude Wilms, a candidate for Akron municipal judge who at that time was assigned as a prosecutor in Oldfield’s court, both said they did not see any conflict with Loya continuing to work with the judge.

Coughlan, nonetheless, implored the panel to find that Oldfield violated the canons through her relationship with Loya, her conduct during the arrest and her delay in seeing Loya transferred.

“If a judge is not held to a higher standard, the public won’t respect the judicial system,” Coughlan said in his closing remarks.

Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PhilTrexler.

Ray Cox was barely out of the starting gate of life when the telephone rang in his parents’ home. It was August 1963 and the March on Washington was just a few days away. His mother answered. Someone from the church was calling to say there was an extra seat on the train headed to D.C.

His dad had to work, but having recently graduated from high school in Beaver Falls, Pa., the 18-year-old had no plans for the day. Pulling on his blue jeans and stretching his long arms into a khaki jacket with patches on the elbows, the eager young man boarded the train with a contingent from Pittsburgh.

“There was an aura of excitement, but anticipation, too. I don’t think anyone realized how many people were coming and the magnitude of the gathering.

“I can remember coming into D.C. We had to quickly get off the trains. They were taking the engines down to the roundhouse, turning them around and pushing those trains back out again so somebody else could come in,” said Cox, who moved to Canton shortly after the civil-rights march 50 years ago.

“New York coming in! Los Angeles coming in!” a conductor called as Cox and 150 members of his group exited the train.

At the march, in the sweltering heat, Cox and a buddy wormed their way through the crowd until they were just a few feet from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would give his historic I Have a Dream speech. Performers such as Sammy Davis Jr., Odetta and Peter, Paul and Mary, as well as various speakers, entertained the 250,000 who had gathered.

The event drew news coverage from Western Europe to Akron. A story inside the Beacon Journal reported that participants “sat cheerfully on the grassy mall under a balmy sky ...

“Hundreds took off their socks and shoes to cool their feet in the waters of the pool at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.

“Teenagers in matching jackets and caps chanted freedom songs — tirelessly swaying and clapping their hands. Oldsters stretched out for a rest, or chatted with new friends from every corner of the nation. A white boy held out a hard-boiled egg so a negro boy could crack his egg on it.”

On the same day that the primarily black marchers carried signs demanding freedom and guarantees for things like integrated education, voting rights and decent housing, real estate agents ran classified ads in the Beacon Journal that offered homes for sale in certain areas of the city to either “colored or white.”

On the front page the next day, a picture showed a sea of humanity peacefully pleading for freedom, jobs and the end of racism.

“When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’ ” King’s speech concluded.

Afterward, Cox headed home. He sensed that what he had witnessed was a huge moment, but he had no clue just how big.

A better life for others

Today the Rev. Ray Cox, 68, who worked at the Timken Co. for 37 years and is co-pastor with his wife, Mary, at Light of Christ Church in Canton, realizes that the march changed him in many ways.

“Having been a part of an event of that magnitude allows you to stay more in tune with those things happening around you,” Cox said. “I can’t say 100 percent how things would have turned out if I had not attended the march, but I do feel that my commitment to be involved and see what we can do to make a better life for others is greater.”

Sitting in his church — which also serves as the Community Drop-In Center, providing food, programs, clothing and encouragement to the community — Cox chatted about King’s speech and what still needs to be done to make the late civil-rights leader’s dream come true.

Progress made

“We don’t have the massive mistreatments that we used to have in that era,” Cox said, noting that there was a time when African-Americans who traveled to the South were routinely prohibited from eating in a restaurant or using public restrooms.

“And they had to change their language to ‘yes sir, no sir,’ ” he said, sighing. “Grown men talking to other men.”

During King’s time, justice in the courtroom was often elusive for African-Americans, Cox offered. And that’s an area that still needs to be improved upon, he added, pointing to the Trayvon Martin case.

“We have accomplished a lot … but there still is so much to do. Until the heart is changed,” King’s dream won’t be realized, he believes.

“If we could only get to a child’s heart. A child’s innocence. We need to get to that point. Where we see a person as a person — not color,” Cox added. “If the change of heart comes, dialogue is open and you can work everything out.”

But how do you change a person’s heart?

There was no hesitation. The pastor raised his arm, pointed to the sky and answered.

“The Lord.”

Kim Hone-McMahan can be reached at 330-996-3742 or kmcmahan@thebeaconjournal.com.

CLINTON:

Two Navy recruiters and a Marine recruiter stood at attention Wednesday and saluted over a newly placed black granite marker inscribed with the names of two Navy SEALs killed in Libya nearly a year ago.

Standing with the recruiters, also saluting, was Don Maurer, 66, of Canal Fulton, who served with the Marines in Vietnam and who had the idea to memorialize the two SEALs at the Ohio Veterans Memorial Park.

The park includes a wall with the names of all 3,095 Ohioans killed in Vietnam, honors Ohioans killed in other wars and lists all those from the state killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“This is an excellent thing,” Petty Officer 1st Class Justin J. Orahood, 35, said of the new marker. He works out of the Navy’s recruiting office in Canton.

The 8-by-16-inch marker is inscribed with the names of former SEALs Glen Doherty, 42, and Ty Woods, 41, who were killed in the terrorist attack in Benghazi last Sept. 11 along with U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and foreign service worker Sean Smith.

“We felt even though those boys weren’t from Ohio they need to be honored,” said Ray Arnold, 66, an Army Vietnam veteran and president of the board of trustees at the park.

On Sept. 21, a POW-MIA wall and reflecting pond will be dedicated at the park, and next year a Gold Star father statue will be added. A Gold Star mother statue already exists at the park.

Marine recruiter Sgt. Amy Hastie, 31, a Louisville native, called the marker remembering the two SEALs and the park itself “probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. The fact that they are taking the time to remember and recognize these guys is awesome. They don’t get it enough.”

Lee Schreckengost, 81, and his wife, Barbara Midcap, 76, watched the short ceremony.

His brother, Fred Schreckengost, was taken prisoner in June 1964 in Vietnam and died trying to escape two days later. His remains were not found until 1990.

Also watching the ceremony were Larry and Janice Fernandez of Louisville.

“We have been upset about the Benghazi tragedy and we wanted to come here and honor” those killed, Janice Fernandez, 64, said.

Maurer, retired from the Ohio Department of Transportation, said he felt the two SEALs have not gotten the accolades they deserved.

“It brings tears to my eyes looking at it,” he said of their marker.

The memorial park is located at 8005 S. Cleveland-Massillon Road in Clinton. For more information, go to www.ovmp.org or call 330-773-2385.

Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.

The University of Akron marked five years of a scholarship program on Wednesday with a pep rally and the pledge to make it a model for wider student success.

UA officials said the state-funded Choose Ohio First scholarship program for science, technology, engineering and math students has produced high graduation and retention rates that it aims to export to the rest of campus.

“This is the story — that these students are saying, ‘Without this program, I wouldn’t be an engineer, I wouldn’t have gone to medical school,’ ” said Adam Smith, assistant vice president for student success, who oversees the program. “Not only are we graduating folks, we’re graduating the right people in the right stuff.”

Choose Ohio First is a state effort to build the number of graduates in the STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and math — to bolster the state’s economy in such fields as aerospace, energy and computer science.

Since the inception of the program in 2008, the state has allocated more than $60 million to more than 5,000 students at 41 Ohio public and private colleges and universities.

In the program’s first five years, UA has received $16 million that it divvied up into scholarships of about $4,500 each. This school year, 620 UA students are receiving $2.1 million.

But UA says it goes further than just funneling money to students. It also provides extra advising, peer mentoring and cultural events — a model it has advised other institutions on how to emulate. The results have been encouraging: a five-year graduation rate of 74 percent, almost double UA’s six-year rate of 40 percent for all first-time, full-time undergraduates.

So Smith’s office also has been given a new task: guiding UA students who might be underprepared for college studies.

Since July 2012, Smith’s office has been in charge of the so-called “emergent” students — those with low ACT scores or grade-point averages. UA has determined that students with ACT test scores of 17 to 20 or with high school grade-point averages of 2.5 to 3.0 need more hand-holding than students with higher scores.

Smith is modeling his program for emergent students on what has worked with Choose Ohio First participants.

“We’re extremely intrusive, and I think that’s a great thing. We’re providing support for students before they ask for it,” he said.

That’s a big task. UA has about 4,000 emergent students this fall, Smith said.

At the pep rally at InfoCision Stadium, Smith told them that they are the “pace car” to show other students how to graduate.

Carol Biliczky can be reached at cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3729.

The city of Cuyahoga Falls has posted a really cool video on YouTube.

This summer, as the city was removing two dams in the Cuyahoga River to improve water quality and clear the way for recreational activities, a camera set up at both sites fired off 15,000 time-lapse photographs.

Strung together in the video, you can watch two weeks of work completed in a mere 2 minutes, 20 seconds. (Could have saved a lot of labor costs that way.)

The first segment shows the demise of Mill Dam, the one right behind the Sheraton Suites. That 99-year-old structure, 10 feet high and 50 feet wide, was the first to be attacked, at the end of July.

The second segment follows the trashing of the Powerhouse Dam, next to the late, great LeFever’s restaurant. That beast, 11 feet high and 100 feet wide, was pounded into submission in mid-August.

Like the Mill Dam, the Powerhouse Dam was built in 1914, back in the days when water did a lot of our work for us.

In fast motion, the big yellow track hoes (as many as three at a time) look like enormous creatures from outer space having their way with the trivial man-made structures in their path.

Even the soundtrack is way cool: the William Tell Overture, punctuated by the sound of hammering jackhammers.

To find the video, go to YouTube and type “Cuyahoga Falls time lapse.”

Basic rights

When Kent State University prof Fran Collins gave her advertising/public relations law-class students a survey created by the First Amendment Center, some of the results were entertaining.

Two students asserted that one of the five basic freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment is:

“The right to bare arms.”

Nice to learn that Lady Gaga did not die in vain. And that the Second Amendment wasn’t necessary.

Bridge-sign fever

My buddy Mark DeCapua, a part-time, unpaid, unofficial investigative journalist, has detected an extremely troubling trend overtaking Ohio.

He emailed me two photographs of bridges that bear the names of their cities.

In days of old, the only thing we Ohio drivers had to contend with was the Easton bridge in northeast Columbus, a rather tasteful display in wrought iron above Interstate 270.

Then, of course, came 2001, when we were assaulted by the notorious AKRON AKRON AKRON bridge at the White Pond exit on Interstate 77.

Ten Akrons on each side. Ten Akrons, coming and going. One hundred brown, plastic letters, affixed to the gray concrete with anchors and stainless steel screws, at an estimated taxpayer cost just south of $10,000.

Then, perhaps as a result of the AKRON AKRON AKRON backlash, there was a great stillness upon the land.

Today, however, we are facing some troubling developments.

During recent journeys, DeCapua came across an ASHLAND ASHLAND ASHLAND bridge and a WOOSTER WOOSTER WOOSTER bridge.

The Ashland bridge is on U.S. 250 as it passes over I-71. The Wooster bridge is on Spruce Street as it passes over U.S. 30 (aka East Lincoln Way).

You’d think, with all the GPS devices in use these days, we’d have a pretty good idea which city we’re approaching. Apparently not.

Fortunately, both of the new signs are visually appealing. Both are made of metal, in attractive fonts, and there’s only one reference to the city on each side. A quantum leap, aesthetically speaking, above the AKRON AKRON AKRON bridge.

Personally, I’m still holding out hope for a WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE bridge.

Miracle stat

Now here’s some news that’s really discouraging.

Allstate Insurance says Akron has some of the best drivers in America.

Are you kidding me? Can you imagine what the drivers must be like in other places?

The study ranked the 200 largest cities in terms of the frequency of car collisions. Akron came in 52nd.

Perhaps we’re also among the front-runners in crashes that go unreported.

Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.

AKRON

Robbery arrest

AKRON: A homeless Akron man was arrested after police say he robbed a credit union Tuesday afternoon.

Efrem Twitty Jr., 25, is being held in the Summit Count Jail on felony robbery charges.

He is accused of robbing the Buckeye State Credit Union, 197 E. Thornton St., of an undisclosed amount of cash.

Police say he went inside the credit union about 3 p.m., walked up to a teller and demanded money. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, ignoring a credit union security guard who had followed him out of the building, police said.

Twitty continued to walk until an Akron patrolman found him near Sumner and East Thornton streets. The officer ordered the suspect to the ground and fired his stun gun when Twitty ignored his order, police said. He was then subdued and taken into custody.

BARBERTON

Canoeists sought

BARBERTON: Mum Fest organizers are looking for canoe race participants.

The fundraising event will be held 3:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at Lake Anna, and will be reminiscent of similar races held on Sundays in Barberton during the Victorian era.

Barberton Beautification is looking for groups of two people per canoe to race in heats, leaving the east shore, turning midway and returning.

Registration fees are $20 per canoe for the general public, $40 per canoe for nonprofit organizations and $60 per canoe for businesses. All equipment will be provided, and participants will receive a T-shirt.

A trophy listing the winners’ names will be displayed in the Barberton Parks and Recreation offices, and winners will receive an individual plaque.

To register or for more information, call 330-848-6653 or send an email to lmclean@cityofbarberton.com.

CUYAHOGA VALLEY

Bridge opens

The National Park Service is opening a new pedestrian bridge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

The nearly $1.36 million bridge is at the Rockside Station at the northern end of the park and will be dedicated today.

The 240-foot-long bridge will take park visitors across the Cuyahoga River to link the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad’s Rockside Station to the Lock 39 Trailhead on the Towpath Trail.

The new bridge will eliminate the need for hikers and bicyclists to use busy and dangerous roads.

GREEN

Public meeting

GREEN: Ward 4 Councilman Skip Summerville will host a public meeting for all residents at 7 p.m. today in City Council chambers, 1755 Town Park Blvd.

The hourlong meeting will begin with an overview of council’s role and a brief update on current Green events.

Guest speakers will include Summit County Sheriff Steve Barry, who will update residents on safety as well as crime statistics and tips for residents; county Prosecutor Sheri Bevan Walsh, who will share the variety of services for families and victims of crimes; and city Deputy Service Director Paul Oberdorfer, who will speak about completed stormwater improvement projects and upcoming projects.

Refreshments will be served.

Reservations are not required but would be appreciated by calling 330-896-6604. The meeting will be streamed at www.cityofgreen.org.

STARK COUNTY

New dog warden

CANTON: Stark County commissioners on Wednesday hired as their next dog warden a man who formerly held the same job in Portage County.

Jon Barber of Edinburg Township in Portage County was hired at a salary of $50,000, which is set to increase to $52,500 after successful completion of a 90-day probationary period.

Barber, who will start Tuesday, said his first priority will be to make the pound cleaner and brighter to make it more attractive to people who visit to adopt a dog. He said he also intends to work with pound volunteers and rescue groups.

Commissioners Thomas Bernabei and Richard Regula approved the permanent replacement for Reagan Tetreault, who resigned. She temporarily had been replaced by Toni Middleton, the former Alliance fire chief and mayor.

Commissioner Janet Weir Creighton, who did not attend Wednesday’s meeting, sent word through county Administrator Brant Luther that Barber possesses the skills and temperament for the job.

Barber, 51, also has worked in Portage County as a deputy sheriff, director of security services and director of homeland security and emergency management.

Portage County commissioners released him from the last position in June. He ran unsuccessfully for county commissioner as a Democrat in the 2012 primary.

In addition to his professional work, Barber said he has rehabilitated animals with Happy Trails Farm Animal Sanctuary in Ravenna.

SUMMIT COUNTY

Rape conviction

AKRON: A Summit County jury convicted a 28-year-old Northfield man of rape, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition for abducting a girl who had been baby-sitting, authorities said Wednesday.

John M. Muzic, of Cranbrook Drive, faces a maximum term of life in prison at his Sept. 6 sentencing hearing before Common Pleas Judge Alison McCarty.

In late January, prosecutors said, Muzic stopped at an acquaintance’s home while a baby sitter was there and brought her back to his house after she asked to see his dogs. He then grabbed the girl, dragged her to his bedroom and raped her after threatening to kill her.

Prosecutors said Muzic’s DNA was identified by investigators at the scene of the attack.

Town hall meeting

AKRON: Summit County Councilman Frank Comunale will host a Highland Square town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Highland Square Public Library, 807 W. Market St.

Guest speakers include Phil Nabors, owner of Mustard Seed Market and Cafe, and representatives from the Highland Square Neighborhood Association.

Refreshments will be served.

Comunale also will host office hours from 5 to 6 p.m. at the library.

Both meetings are open to the public.

WADSWORTH

Food festival

WADSWORTH: The 10th annual “A Taste of Wadsworth” will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the area between the public library on Broad Street and the Cool Beans Cafe on High Street.

Jack Ollom, executive director of Downtown Wadsworth, sponsor of the event, said 19 vendors have registered to participate. A few are from out of town, with local entrants ranging from the Galaxy Restaurant to pizza shops.

Those who want to sample the range of foods available purchase tickets for $1 each. Ollom said up to 13,000 tickets are sold each year.

When the event is concluded, the vendor with the most tickets is declared the “winner” with the prize being “bragging rights,” he said.

In case of rain, the event will be held Sept. 11.

GREEN: The administration and the union representing city employees must resume negotiations after the membership rejected a fact-finder’s recommendation by a single vote and Mayor Dick Norton withdrew an acceptance resolution from City Council’s agenda Tuesday night.

After an executive session on the matter, Norton withdrew the fact-finder’s nonbinding recommendation that if approved by both sides would have given a 2 percent wage increase in each of the contract’s three years to the 48 members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2741. An agreement would have been retroactive to April 16, when the previous contract expired, and continued through April 15, 2016.

The recommendation also called for modest increases in employees’ insurance premiums.

Human Resources Manager Jeanne Greco and Norton said the sides will go back to the bargaining table to negotiate the contract’s two sticking points: compensation and premiums for health care and life insurance.

Norton said the actions by both sides “now permits us to go back to the table and rehash some of the issues. I don’t know what the time lines are, but we’re not very far apart.” He said there could be action as early as council’s next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 10.

“I would say that I think it’s a very rational, fair and generous offer,” Norton said of the city’s position, “and I am shocked that they didn’t accept the fact-finder’s decision. I’m very surprised by that.”

Local 2741 President Mike Young on Wednesday said his only comment is that “we’re still negotiating.”

The city wanted Highway/Service Department employees plus city office and clerical staff to increase their insurance contributions from the current 5 percent to 10 percent the first year, 12.5 percent the following year and 15 percent in the third year.

Raises of 1.5 percent annually were included in the city’s offer.

AFSCME sought a new employee health-care compensation rate increase of 6 percent of the COBRA rate the first year and 10 percent each of the next two years. The union asked for 3 percent wage increases each of the three years.

Fact-finder Robert Stein said in his 16-page report that the union believes the city’s financial position is very strong, and “unlike other municipalities across the county, the city of Green steadily grew its reserves throughout the economic downturn” and can afford the union’s positions on the two sticking points.

The report noted that the city’s ending balance in fiscal 2012 of $22.6 million exceeds 100 percent of the city’s cash expenditures in fiscal 2012.

Regarding the insurance premiums, Stein recommended the union pay 6 percent this year, 8 percent next year and 10 percent in the contract’s third year.

The union also noted that nonbargaining-unit employees this year received merit raises that mirror the union’s proposed general wage increase.

The city, meanwhile, credited its sound financial position to fiscally responsible management. The administration said no city employees were subjected to loss of work days through furlough nor were there wage or benefits reductions.

George W. Davis can be reached via email at mediaman@sssnet.com.

Nationally endorsed education standards known as the Common Core are coming under fire in the Ohio legislature and state school board as schools begin implementation this year.

Endorsed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Common Core sets rigorous benchmarks for Ohio and 45 other states, with the goal to raise the quality of education and student performance.

However, critics — some of them strange bedfellows — are raising concerns about an invasion of personal privacy, an attack on states’ rights, a federal takeover, an unfunded mandate and a tool that could be used against teachers unions.

In public meetings and on blogs, the terms “Commie Core” and “the Obamacare of Education” can be heard and read. Tea party groups are organizing opposition. Glenn Beck told viewers: “It teaches that Communism is fantastic” and dumbs down math. Some state officials say constituents and parents confuse Common Core with eye scanners used in some Florida schools.

In Ohio, a bill sponsored by 14 Republicans seeks to block implementation, although the ranking Republicans on the House and Senate education committees say the proposed legislation has no legs.

Republicans in Indiana and Michigan have introduced legislation to defund or stall Common Core.

In Pennsylvania, the teachers union has joined the tea party in labeling the movement as an unfunded mandate.

The first round of Common Core test scores in Kentucky and New York raised concern about the level of U.S. student achievement using the more rigorous standards — even though the curriculum is not yet fully implemented.

Network of opposition

An offshoot of the Cincinnati chapter of the Ohio Tea Party, Ohioans Against Common Core, formed in March to oppose a perceived national takeover.

Posts on the group’s website characterize the curriculum as an “overt subversion of parental authority and statist indoctrination.”

The group claims no allegiance to big business or big government. “We are not lobbyists, nor are we paid organizers,” the mission statement reads. A single-issue advocacy group and its founder, along with the Ohio Tea Party, take credit for designing House Bill 237 and educating the Republicans who sponsor the bill.

“They’re looking for information and we’re educating them as fast as we can,” said Heidi Huber, founder of Ohioans Against Common Core.

The group draws on research conducted by Boston-based Pioneer Institute, a think tank that promotes “effective, limited and accountable government.”

Akron’s representative

Sarah Fowler, the State Board of Education representative for Summit, Portage and other counties east of Cleveland, quotes the Pioneer Institute in her questioning of the Common Core.

In a Beacon Journal interview, Fowler said she was not knowledgeable about the Common Core when she took office in January. She’s not alone. A PDK-Gallup poll released last week indicates that two in three Americans have never heard of Common Core.

“There’s concerns that it’s possibly the federal government removing more control from the local school districts to make decisions instead of helping them make better ones,” Fowler said, stressing that she speaks only for herself, not the entire board.

A home-school graduate elected in November, she was quoted in an article by the Education Action Group, a Michigan-based conservative advocacy organization, as saying she promised to reinstate parents’ “God-given” right to educate their children.

Tom Zawistowski, Ohio Tea Party president, applauds House Bill 237 supporters as “the most conservative Republicans in the House,” among them Kristina Roegner of Hudson and Matt Lynch — who represents a portion of Portage County.

Lynch in turn applauds Fowler as “probably the leading critic of Common Core on the State Board of Education.”

National reform

In 2008, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, two bipartisan coalitions backed by funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, set the stage for what is now referred to as Common Core.

The report, Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education, cited the need for higher quality education. Incomes for college graduates rose seven times faster than non-college graduates as developing countries flooded the globe with a competitive workforce. Meanwhile, U.S. high school graduation rates, once the highest in the world, slipped 18 spots on a ranking of 24 industrialized countries.

President Barack Obama added his support — a move that mobilized opposition.

“To be really candid, the opposition is to the fact that the current president of the United States has applauded Common Core standards and I think if he rejected them the tea party would be on board with it,” said Gerald Stebelton, R-Lancaster, the House Education Committee chair.

Stebelton said stalling Common Core in Ohio would negate investments. In Akron, officials have administered countless professional development hours for staff and teachers and invested more than $4 million this year to upgrade online capabilities and computer networks to meet state testing requirements for Common Core by 2015.

“We’ve spent a lot of money and got a lot of people up to speed,” said Akron Public Schools Superintendent David James. “Then the legislature wants to pull the rug out from beneath us. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

A withdrawal would place Ohio among the nonparticipants — Texas, Virginia, Nebraska, Alaska and Minnesota — although Minnesota will partially implement some standards.

Opponents allege that Ohio was coerced into adopting Common Core by make-or-break federal grants through the Race to the Top program.

“The state didn’t have any idea what they were signing [with the Common Core]. There was a lot of double talk. There was a lot of confusion,” said Zawistowski, leader of the Ohio Tea Party.

Fowler, the state board member, said that House Bill 237 provides “an opportunity for legislative members to have an open and honest debate regarding the concerns many Ohioans have raised over the past six months, including: the loss of local input and direction in education, the creation of ‘one-size-fits-all’ standards and tests, the use of student assessment scores in teacher evaluation, the potential misuse of private student information, and the unknown costs associated with the online assessments including the statewide need for increased bandwidth and computer access for implementation to be effective.”

As for Gov. John Kasich, spokesman Rob Nichols said: “We don’t take a public position on every bill that enters the legislature.”

On this one, however, he has.

“Constantly raising achievement is essential to helping prepare our children for brighter futures, just as we must always stand up for Ohio’s tradition of local, independent, sovereign schools and the rights of parents and students,” Nichols said.

And, while aware of the arguments on both sides, Kasich says that if the bill were to pass through the legislature and land on his desk, he would not sign it.

Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com.

An appeals court has sided with a hospital that wants to force a 10-year-old Amish girl from Medina County to resume chemotherapy after her parents decided to stop the treatments.

The court ruled that a county judge must reconsider his decision that blocked Akron Children’s Hospital’s attempt to give an attorney who’s also a registered nurse limited guardianship over Sarah Hershberger and the power to make medical decisions for her.

The hospital believes Sarah’s leukemia is very treatable but says she will die without chemotherapy.

The judge in Medina County had ruled in July that Sarah’s parents, who live in Spencer Township, had the right to make medical decisions for her.

The appeals court ruling issued Tuesday said the judge failed to consider whether appointing a guardian would be in the girl’s best interest. It also disagreed with the judge’s decision that said he could only transfer guardianship if the parents were found unfit.

The family’s attorney, John Oberholtzer, said Wednesday that the ruling essentially ordered the judge to disregard the rights of the parents.

Andy Hershberger, the girl’s father, said the family agreed to begin two years of treatments for Sarah last spring but stopped a second round of chemotherapy in June because it was making her extremely sick.

“It put her down for two days. She was not like her normal self,” he said. “We just thought we cannot do this to her.”

Sarah begged her parents to stop the chemotherapy and they agreed after a great deal of prayer, Hershberger said. The family, members of an insular Amish community, shuns many facets of modern life and is deeply religious.

“Our belief is, to a certain extent, we can use modern medicine, but at some times we have to stop it and do something else,” Hershberger said in a telephone interview.

They opted to consult with a wellness center and treat Sarah with natural medicines, such as herbs and vitamins, and see another doctor who is monitoring their daughter, Hershberger said.

“We see her every day. We watch her really close,” her father said. “She runs, plays. She crawls up ladders. She’s got a lot of energy, more than she had when she was doing chemo.”

Hershberger said they have not ruled out returning to Akron Children’s Hospital if Sarah’s health worsens. “We told them if it gets to the point that we cannot do anything for her, we would come back,” he said.

After the appeals court decision, the hospital said in a statement Wednesday that its goal is to ensure that the girl receives the most appropriate care based on scientific evidence and added that the allegation has never been about “parental unfitness.”

Robert McGregor, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said last week that it is morally and legally obligated to make sure the girl receives proper care. He said the girl’s illness — lymphoblastic lymphoma — is an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but there is a five-year survival rate of 85 percent if she continues treatment. Some of the girl’s tumors had gone away after the first round of chemotherapy, but she isn’t yet in remission, he added.

Wadsworth police used the county emergency notification system and social media to track down a man who fled police during a traffic stop Wednesday morning.

Police say there were about 1,300 robo-calls to residents made through the Medina County Emergency Notification System.

The alert resulted in calls from citizens offering information on the suspect.

Police also posted the news on its Facebook page after the man fled from officers.

The chase began about 9 a.m. when officers stopped a North Dakota man driving a rental car on North Lyman Street.

The driver, David R. Jimison Jr., 40, had an arrest warrant pending for receiving stolen property in Medina County, police said.

Police say Jimison fled the scene, driving away and leading officers on a short chase that ended for public safety reasons, police said.

Officers say they saw the man again in the area of Memorial Park and they laid down spike strips that punctured at least one tire on Jamison’s car.

Undaunted, Jamison continued to drive until crashing on State Street near Seville Road, where he fled again on foot. At about 10:15 a.m., Jamison was found near Isham Elementary. He ran, but was nabbed by officers.

He is now charged with failure to comply and is being held in the Medina County Jail.

AKRON

Service delayed

AKRON: Akron will have no curb service Monday in observance of Labor Day.

There will be a one-day delay of trash and recycling pickups for the remainder of the week, with service resuming Tuesday and continuing through Saturday.

For more information, call 311.

Ward 5 debate

AKRON: A debate for the Akron City Council Ward 5 candidates will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at East Akron Community House, 550 S. Arlington St.

The five Democratic candidates running for the seat in the Sept. 10 primary were invited to participate, though only Councilman Ken Jones and Lucille Humphrey have agreed to participate.

Richard Montgomery, an Akron native who co-founded culturelovefamily.com, a website dedicated to addressing minority issues, will be the moderator.

He said he will ask the candidates questions on public safety, economic development and urban planning.

He will allow them to rebut the other candidate’s statements.

Videos of the debate, indexed by question, will be posted on akronward5debate.com and culturelovefamily.com.

BRUNSWICK

Parking lot fight

BRUNSWICK: A Brunswick man faces a menacing charge after an argument in a grocery store parking lot.

Authorities say a “traffic altercation” Wednesday afternoon resulted in one of the combatants pointing a BB gun pistol.

George J. Sliman Jr., 72, was charged with aggravated menacing.

CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Democrat picnic

CUYAHOGA FALLS: Ward 4 Councilwoman Mary Nichols-Rhodes will host a neighborhood picnic with other Democratic candidates at the Oak Park Pavilion, 2250 12th St., from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

The public is invited to “vote” for what issues are important to them.

Picnic food and activities will be provided. Mayoral candidate Don Walters, Stow Clerk of Courts Diana Colavecchio and other Cuyahoga Falls Democratic council candidates will attend for a meet and greet, organizers said.

Ice cream social

State Rep. Zack Milkovich, who is running for Barberton Municipal Court Clerk, will again host ice cream socials this Saturday.

The events will be from noon to 1 p.m. at Torok Community Center Pavilion, 4224 Massillon Road in Green, and 2 to 3 p.m. at Galluch’s Pizza, 5949 Manchester Road in New Franklin.

Milkovich hosted ice cream socials last Saturday in Norton and Barberton.

He is running against Jon Poda, a former Summit County councilman who now works for the county, in the Democratic primary on Sept. 10.

CUYAHOGA FALLS

Fall cleanup

CUYAHOGA FALLS: The annual fall cleanup for city sanitation customers will begin Tuesday and continue through Sept. 13.

Items should be placed at the curb by 7 a.m. on regular pickup days for collection with regular trash and recyclables.

Grass clippings, garden waste, leaves and similar outdoor debris should be placed in yard waste bags to be collected separately.

There is no additional charge for extra trash collected on the regular pickup day during the fall cleanup. For additional information, call 330-971-8010.

GRANGER TOWNSHIP

‘Marketplace’ set

GRANGER TWP.: Granger Historical Society will host “Granger’s Marketplace” on the green in front of the museum, 1261 Granger Road, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 21.

Residents may sell crafts, produce or antique items.

Area organizations may pass out information or sell fundraiser items.

Those wishing to participate should call 330-239-2691.

Also Sept. 21, the historical society will hold a cemetery walk at Coddingville Cemetery, on Dunsha Road, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Costumed enactors will tell about the lives of seven people buried there.

The museum will have an open house, displaying items that belonged to the featured “cemetery residents.”

NORTH ROYALTON

Officers threatened

NORTH ROYALTON: A North Royalton man was arrested Wednesday afternoon and charged with making threats against officers called to his residence.

Officers responded to a home on Titan Drive for a report of an intoxicated man who was out of control.

The man’s father told officers that his son pushed him and was throwing furniture.

Police said that when officers attempted to talk to the son, he refused to cooperate and was taken into custody.

“The subject, who just loves the NRPD, began asking the officers what types of bullets could penetrate their ballistic vests,” according to police. “He even told one officer that he had mafia connections who would take care of the officer and his family.”

The man was charged with domestic violence, resisting arrest and two counts of aggravated menacing for threatening officers.

PLAIN TOWNSHIP

Meeting changed

PLAIN TWP.: Anticipating a large crowd, township trustees have changed the time and location of their meeting Sept. 24.

That meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. in the GlenOak High School auditorium, followed by a public hearing on a controversial zoning amendment at 7 p.m.

The amendment would rezone property along Market Avenue North that now is the site of Edgewood Golf Course.

Developers requested the zone change to allow them to build apartments and senior housing on the parcel.

The township Zoning Commission recommended denial of the change after Stark County planners had recommended approval.

Trustees will make the final decision after the public hearing.

The trustees’ next meeting, Sept. 10, will be held at its usual time and place: 6 p.m. in township hall.

In other business Tuesday, township Administrator Lisa Campbell told trustees that Plain has received a check for $20,428 from the Hall of Fame City Challenge to cover the costs of road department, fire department and sheriff’s office work related to the marathon Sept. 8.

SUMMIT COUNTY

Judicial shortlist

AKRON: Former Judge Tom McCarty is the Summit County Republican Party’s top pick to fill a vacant seat in common pleas court.

The party, which met Wednesday night to choose candidates, selected Barberton Municipal Judge Chris Croce and Scott Stevenson, an attorney whose wife is Diana Stevenson, the Barberton court clerk, as its other choices.

The party will submit its list of candidates to Gov. John Kasich, who will choose the replacement to fulfill the term of Summit County Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter, who retired July 31.

Her term runs through February 2015.

“Any of them are qualified to be judge,” said Alex Arshinkoff, the county party chairman.

McCarty, a former Akron municipal judge, lost his seat in 2011 to Joy Malek Oldfield. He is married to Common Pleas Judge Alison McCarty.

Hunter, the most senior member of the Summit County Common Pleas bench, served as a county judge for 16 years, first in juvenile court, then in common pleas, where she was appointed to a seat in 2003.

Before that, she was clerk for Akron Municipal Court for five years.

Road to close

HUDSON: Hines Hill Road will be closed at the railroad tracks so that Norfolk Southern Railroad can make repairs.

The road closure will begin Tuesday and last a maximum of 30 days. A detour route will be posted along Walters Road, Twinsburg Road and Valley View Road.

Autism awareness

AKRON: The Autism Society of Greater Akron and the FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby are hosting an Autism Awareness Day at Derby Downs from 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 8.

The family-oriented event is designed for children ages 5 and up of all abilities. Participants will ride with a trained partner in a two-person derby car. Riders must be able to wear a helmet and remain seated.

Cost is $10 each for riders and adults and includes lunch at Derby Downs, at 1000 George Washington Blvd., Akron.

Registration and a signed waiver form are required by Wednesday.

For information, go to www.autismohio.org/greaterakron or call 330-940-1441.

FAIRLAWN: Councilwoman Kathleen Baum has taken back her Ward 6 seat at least until the end of the year.

Baum resigned July 31 to make sure she got her full retirement benefits.

By giving up her seat before Aug. 1, Baum said, her retirement would take effect before changes in the state pension kick in. She estimates she would have lost $160 a month with her PERS (Ohio Public Employees Retirement System) if she waited to retire.

Baum, 66, taught in the Akron schools for 30 years then worked as an administrative secretary to Fairlawn police Chief Kenneth Walsh for another 10 years.

Council met in a special session Thursday night and unanimously voted to name Baum to the interim post by a 6-0 vote.

Council had 30 days to name her replacement.

According to Fairlawn’s charter, she had to terminate her position then go through the process of being re-elected. She was the only candidate to apply for the interim position.

Baum, who was elected in 2011 to serve a four-year term, will now have to run again in November to fill out the remaining two years of the term.

Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.

MEDINA

Biegel, Raymond J. Jr., 71, of Medina. Died Thursday. Waite & Son.

Hetrick, Hallie M., 96, of Medina. Died Wednesday. Waite & Son.

Neumann, Cody, 22, of Wadsworth. Died Thursday. Hilliard-Rospert.

PORTAGE

Davidson, Ada June, 81, of Streetsboro. Died Thursday. Bissler & Sons, Kent.

On Saturday, Akron’s Highland Square neighborhood will have another opportunity to strut its community art, music and crafts stuff with the annual Squarefest.

The event follows the success of the inaugural Highland Square Porch Rokr Festival in June and is advancing the Arts in the Square event scheduled for October, giving the eclectic neighborhood a fun, creativity driven, community friendly festival triptych.

This year's Squarefest will feature more than 30 local acts in a variety of genres spread across five strategically placed stages. Acts performing on the main stage will get an hour while side-stage acts will perform 40-minute sets with a 20-minute break between acts. It will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on West Market Street between Portage Path and Casterton Avenue. Admission is free.

In addition to the music, there will be a few classic cars on display and plenty of activities for the kids, including a bounce house and obstacle course, a Hula-Hoop contest, make-and-take crafts and train rides. For the grown-ups, Highland Square mainstay Annabell's Bar & Lounge will have a beer garden in the back parking lot while fellow neighborhood anchor Mary Coyle’s will host a Best of the West Pizza Contest.

Here is the schedule of musical acts with the names and locations of their respective stages along West Market Street.

Main Stage
(at Portage Path)

11 a.m. — 11 After

Noon — Rachel Roberts

1:30 p.m. — Ozone

3 p.m. — Misery Jackals

4:30 p.m. — Rooster Jones

6 p.m. — Umojah Nation

Fusion Stage
(at Casterton Avenue)

11 a.m. — Nick Wilkinson and the Featured Players

Noon — C-Level

1 p.m. — Matt Haas

2 p.m. — Acid Cats

3 p.m. — Applesauce

4 p.m. — Time Cat

5 p.m. — Maid Myriad

Variety Stage
(at South Highland Avenue)

11:30 a.m. — Johnny G.

12:30 p.m. — Brandi Whitehurst

1:30 p.m. — Mike Lenz

2:30 p.m. — Fast Molasses

3:30 p.m. — Jovan Wilder and the Wild Things

4:30 p.m. — The Poplars

5:30 p.m. — Light of the Loon

Family Stage
(library parking lot)

12:15 p.m. — Johnny and the Applestompers

1:15 p.m. — RiverFall Folk Rock

2:15 p.m. — Fergie and the Bog Dogs

3:15 p.m. — The Michael Weber Show

4:15 p.m. — The African Connection

5:15 p.m. — Zobapago

Annabell’s Beer Garden

Noon — The Stems

1:15 p.m. — Morgan Phelps with his Warr Guitar

2:15 p.m. — Colin John

 4 p.m. — Angie Haze Project

5 p.m. — The Midnight Railers

6:15 p.m. — The Bleeding Feathers

7:30 p.m. — Eddie Doldrum

9 p.m. — Apryl Red DeBord & the Friendly Fire Tribe

Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Read his blog, Sound Check Online, at www.ohio.com/blogs/sound-check, or follow him on Twitter @malcolmxabram.

An Akron woman arrested for refusing to come down from a tree won’t be spending any more time in jail.

The city of Akron decided to drop the charges against Sharon Pritt, 31, of Balch Street. She was charged with obstruction of justice and criminal trespassing, both misdemeanors, following a June incident in which she initially refused to climb down from an ash tree in Highland Square.

Pritt was protesting plans to cut down the tree.

“The property owners wanted to move forward,” Assistant City Prosecutor Craig Morgan said, referring to the Nemer family, which owns the site. “We followed suit. Nobody wanted to labor on it.”

Morgan said this wasn’t a reflection of the quality of the city’s case.

“We could have proceeded further,” he said. “We chose not to.”

Pritt was arrested June 4 and briefly jailed. Her refusal to get out of the tree delayed the start of cutting it down by about an hour.

The protest started a week earlier, when residents learned the tree would be taken down to make way for a 25,000-square-foot retail and apartment building planned for the north side of West Market Street at the former site of the Von and Crescent apartment buildings. Protesters remained in the tree 24 hours a day until Pritt’s arrest. A tree-trimming company then immediately began the removal.

Protesters said they were allowed on the property because they had permission of a tenant who lives in a house near where the tree was located. The Nemer family owns the property with both the house and where the tree stood, however, and plans to develop it into the retail and apartment complex.

Emily S. Durway, Pritt’s attorney, previously said her client was innocent of the charges. She could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.

One man was killed and a second man was wounded when gunfire erupted Thursday afternoon behind a convenience store at Lovers Lane and South Arlington Street in Akron.

The wounded man was taken to an undisclosed hospital for treatment. An autopsy on the deceased man was expected to be performed today at the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office. The identities of the victims were being withheld pending notification of family.

As a large crowd gathered and some schoolchildren were walking home, police blocked off Lovers Lane at South Arlington Street where the shooting occurred.

Police said the shooting appears to have taken place during a fight involving several young males gathered behind the Lovers Lane Market shortly before 4 p.m. police Capt. Sylvia Trundle said detectives were interviewing witnesses and canvassing the neighborhood in an effort to identify a suspect.

Officers called to the store found the dead man lying in a rear parking lot of the store. Crime-scene investigators used small yellow placards to denote shell casings found in the lot.

The wounded man was found at a business a block away in the 700 block of South Arlington. He was taken by paramedics for treatment. His condition was not immediately available.

No one among the neighborhood crowd gathered at the scene following the shooting could recall hearing gunfire.

Trundle said witnesses discovered the dead man after a group of males ran from the parking lot. It appears a fight among the men preceded the shooting.

“One witness is describing a fight in the back of the market,” Trundle said at the scene Thursday. “Someone [nearby] apparently sounded their horn to try and distract them and stop what was going on.

“At that point, several individuals ran from the scene. Our witness at the time didn’t even realize that someone had been shot.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Akron police detectives at 330-375-2490. Anonymous tips can be left at http://ci.akron.oh.us/ASP/tip.html.

Information also can be provided anonymously by calling Summit County Crimestoppers at 330-434-COPS(2677). Tipsters may qualify for a cash reward for information leading to an arrest of the suspect.

Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PhilTrexler.

A former Akron dentist who also became known as a political activist, staunch civil-rights leader and chairman of the Akron NAACP’s civil-rights committee died Tuesday in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Dr. Eldridge T. Sharpp Jr. also was a business leader and chairman of Akron’s Model Cities Neighborhood Commission. He was 93.

Edwin L. Parms, recently retired Akron attorney and a former president of the Akron chapter of the NAACP, recalled with clarity riding the bus with Dr. Sharpp and others from Akron to the historic March on Washington, where they heard the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his I Have a Dream speech in 1963.

“He and I worked together closely in the Akron NAACP,” Parms said. “It was decided I would concentrate on the legal area and he on the civil-rights area. ... He was forthright in terms of everything he did. He didn’t back down on any position he felt he was right on, but he was not a hard head.

“He had the ability to see the best step to take. And as busy as he was, Dr. Sharpp was always available when he was needed. At the same time, he had family that he never overlooked,” Parms said.

A native of Cleveland who lived for a time in Chicago, Dr. Sharpp graduated from the historically black Fisk University and its associated Meharry Medical College in Nashville. Tenn. He practiced in Lima for two years before moving to Akron and setting up a dental practice in 1948.

Dr. Sharpp retired in 1989, when he and his wife, Laurita Collie Sharpp, moved to West Palm Beach.

“His dentistry was admired by patients as well as others in the practice of dentistry who didn’t even know him,” recalled his daughter Karen Sharpp Kaigler, who lives in Boston. “When I went away to school and had to have some dental work done, I would get inquiries about who did the work and how excellent it was.”

Not one to be satisfied with the status quo, Dr. Sharpp and two of his college classmates — Drs. Wilfred and Eleanor Bozeman — built their own medical-dental center: the Wooster-Mallison Medical Center, in 1963 at 762 Mallison Ave., just off Wooster Avenue.

Wilfred Bozeman was an obstetrician/gynecologist; his wife specialized in internal medicine.

Dr. Sharpp was active and effective in a number of arenas, including fair housing and the desegregation of Akron schools, according to Beacon Journal archives. He also was a leader in the YMCA and the Frontiers Club.

Of all the hats Dr. Sharpp wore in the Akron community, including that of grand polemarch of the graduate chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, he was most fond of his role as family man.

“He loved his four children and always focused on our well-being,” said Sharpp Kaigler, a neighborhood business manager of a program with the city of Boston. “He always wanted the best for us, and he paid for our college educations with cash. We never had to take out any type of student loan.”

Sharpp Kaigler said exercise always played a key role in her father’s life.

“He swam at the local Y on his lunch hours,” she said. “When my brothers took martial arts, he took it with them. He golfed regularly until he developed back problems. And he biked at a minimum of 10 miles daily until his late 80s.

“We have pictures of him on his bike with his helmet on.”

A son, Kurt Sharpp, chief inspector of the public transportation system in Boston and a professional photographer, said his father was an extremely intelligent person and always a staunch defender of civil rights.

A second son, Warren Sharpp, is a certified public accountant in Miami. A third son, Eldridge Theodore “Pug” Sharpp III, died tragically when he was hit by a car in 1969.

In addition to his three children and wife, Dr. Sharpp is survived by six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are pending at Akron’s Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home.

Metro Parks, Serving Summit County, is ready for hikers to embark on the system’s 50th annual Fall Hiking Spree.

Amy and Frank Mitch have been there every step of the way.

“We just do lots of walking,” said Frank Mitch, who with Amy successfully has completed the first 49 autumn hiking extravaganzas. “We walk a mile and a half every day in the neighborhood.”

His wife added: “It’s a good time for us to be together.”

The husband-and-wife walking team from Bath Township has matching staffs, each affixed with 49 shields, to prove their fall hiking prowess.

“It’s something that we look forward to every year,” Amy said.

His favorite trail: Quarry Trail at Deep Lock Quarry Metro Park in Peninsula. Hers: Spring Hollow Trail at Hampton Hills Metro Park in North Akron.

The Mitches are among 13 known participants who have completed all the Fall Hiking Sprees, according to park officials.

The park district has not kept records for how many people have completed the spree over all its years, spokesman Nate Eppink said, but that total is likely approaching a half-million.

The spree is billed as the largest and longest-running event of its kind in the United States. In recent years, about 12,000 hikers have completed the spree annually.

Last year, the number was 12,736. The record year: 2003, when 14,865 hikers completed the series of walks.

This year’s spree officially begins Sunday and runs through Nov. 30.

Arthur T. Wilcox created the spree in 1964. The park district’s secretary-director at that time, Wilcox saw it as a way to acquaint Summit County residents with local trails and parks, says Bert Szabo, 92, a retired park district naturalist who was involved in the first spree.

But first, Wilcox ordered work on the trails to improve them for hikers, Szabo said.

Szabo, who retired in 1991, said he is surprised by how big the event has become. He said he is convinced that trail use is increasing as young people get away from their computers, at least temporarily, and get outdoors for fun and fitness.

You can get a head start on this year’s spree Saturday.

The park district is staging a one-day sneak preview, and you can hike trails at five parks included in the first spree and get credit for this year’s spree.

The five parks are:

• Firestone Metro Park, Akron.

• Sand Run Metro Park, Akron.

• Goodyear Heights Metro Park, Akron.

• Deep Lock Quarry Metro Park, Peninsula.

• Gorge Metro Park, Cuyahoga Falls.

A park naturalist and costumed mascots will be on hand from noon to 3 p.m. at the Tuscarawas Meadows Area of Firestone Metro Park, which sits off Harrington Road in South Akron.

Park mascots will be at the other four parks from 1 to 3 p.m.

First-time hikers must complete at least eight designated trails to earn hiking staff and shields. Veteran hikers receive shields. The rewards are free for Summit County residents. Others must pay a fee: $10 for first-year hikers and $5 for veteran hikers.

Forms are available at: Seiberling Nature Realm, 1828 Smith Road, Akron; park offices, 975 Treaty Line Road, Akron; all Acme Fresh Market stores in Summit County; online at www.summitmetroparks.org.

For more information, call 330-865-8065.

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.

By the numbers

Traffic patterns on South Main Street in the area of the recently repaved road in Coventry Township:

Average daily traffic count: 15,100.

Highest morning traffic southbound occurs between 11 a.m. and noon and averages 335 vehicles.

Highest morning traffic northbound occurs between 7 and 8 a.m. and averages 915 vehicles.

Highest afternoon traffic southbound occurs between 5 and 6 p.m. and averages 815 vehicles.

Highest afternoon traffic northbound occurs between 5 and 6 p.m. and averages 550 vehicles.

Source: Summit County

Engineer’s Office

A pain management doctor, already accused in a civil lawsuit of sexual offenses against several patients, was named Thursday in a 23-count criminal indictment.

Dr. James Bressi, 59, of Hudson, is accused of rape and 11 counts each of gross sexual imposition and misdemeanor sexual imposition. His patients were his victims, prosecutors said.

Bressi is accused of sexually assaulting the female patients, some in their 70s, while working at Summit Pain Specialists in Stow.

The indictment contains the initials of 10 female victims. The offenses allegedly took place as recently as March, just prior to Bressi’s departure from the clinic. Some of the charges date back as far as September 2011.

Prosecutors allege some of the patients were forced to submit through force or threats of force. Other charges accuse Bressi of preying on patients who are physically or mentally impaired from age or illness.

“These women put their trust and faith in a medical professional to alleviate their pain,” said Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh. “Instead of finding relief from chronic pain, they were sexually assaulted. My office will work to ensure Dr. Bressi is held accountable for his actions.”

No arraignment date in Summit County Common Pleas Court has been announced. A defense attorney for Bressi could not be immediately identified. Bressi has denied any wrongdoing, according to court papers from the civil lawsuit and disciplinary records released by the state medical board.

One Summit County woman, who is part of the pending civil lawsuit, said she was relieved by the news of an indictment. She was in her early 70s when she said Bressi fondled her during an appointment.

“He made me feel so terrible, so dirty, like it was my fault or that I did something to make him do that,” the woman said Thursday. “I think it’s wonderful that he has finally been charged and he cannot do that to anyone else ever again.”

The Beacon Journal does not typically identify individuals listed by law enforcement as victims of sex crimes.

So far, eight former patients have filed suit against Bressi, a medical partner and the clinic. An attorney representing the women said earlier this month that at least 10 more are likely to join the lawsuit.

Earlier this month, the State Medical Board of Ohio suspended Bressi’s medical license. A report found “clear and convincing evidence that [Bressi’s] continued practice presents a danger of immediate and serious harm to the public.”

Stow police had been investigating allegations of sexual misconduct involving Bressi and several patients, including elderly women, who visited him at the Summit Pain Specialists office. The pain clinic’s website acknowledges Bressi’s departure from the practice March 15.

“The charges against Dr. Bressi are deeply disturbing,” clinic CEO Dean Rombach said in a statement Thursday. “We are sorry even one individual might have been subjected to this kind of behavior at our practice. We will not tolerate abuse of any type by any member of our staff and we want to thank those who had the courage to voice their concerns.

“We know physicians enjoy a special level of trust in our society. It is very disappointing when someone abuses that trust, especially when that person compromises the safety and well-being of a patient or an employee.”

Rombach said the clinic will continue to cooperate with law enforcement.

The eight former patients filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in May against Bressi and the clinic. The civil suit claims sexual abuse by Bressi that dates back to at least 2011.

Bressi’s attorneys in the civil litigation have said in court papers that the doctor “vehemently denies” the allegations brought against him.

His attorneys filed papers saying the women “have presented no evidence to suggest that they are likely to obtain a judgment against Dr. Bressi. Notably, absent is any fact supporting [the women’s] claims of ‘non-consensual touching.’ ”

The state medical board said in its report that the decision to suspend Bressi’s license indefinitely was based on testimony by five women who alleged Bressi “perpetrated non-consensual ‘sexual activity’… during medical office appointments.”

State medical records show Bressi, an osteopath specialist, denied the sexual allegations while being interviewed by the board.

The doctor said, however, that in 2012 the clinic changed its policy and required a female to be present while he treated some female patients. The chaperon policy change was based on complaints by patients and staff that Bressi “engaged in inappropriate conduct” while treating his patients. The board said Bressi was fired from the clinic amid allegations that he forced a female patient to fondle him. In another allegation, Bressi is said to have sexually assaulted a female invalid during a visit to her home earlier this year. More allegations of sexual misconduct are contained in the medical board’s investigative file released to the Beacon Journal as a public record.

The arrest of Bressi brought an immediate response from the director of the Rape Crisis Center of Summit and Medina counties, who said the agency had received “numerous anonymous callers who were patients of Dr. Bressi.”

The center is encouraging victims to contact rape crisis counselors, regardless of whether they wish to pursue criminal charges. The Rape Crisis Center hotline is open 24 hours a day at 877-906-7273.

“We are appalled at the exploitation of these patients who put their trust in this doctor,” said center director Dana Zedak. “We wish to encourage all survivors of sexual violence to reach out to us for support and healing.”

Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PhilTrexler.