LAFAYETTE TWP.: Martin Warchola, owner of the Best Paws Forward Dog Training Academy, has been appointed to the township board of trustees, the Medina Gazette reports.
He replaces former Trustee Bryon Macron, whose body was discovered in Chippewa Lake last month.
Warchola was one of six candidates seeking to fill the vacancy. Voters will elect a new trustee in November to serve the remainder of Macron’s term, which ends in 2019, the newspaper said.
CUYAHOGA FALLS: The talking is done.
After three years of research, a dozen community meetings and a road trip through the Midwest, Cuyahoga Falls officials say it’s time to break ground on a nearly $10 million project that will return two-way traffic to the struggling Front Street pedestrian mall.
While City Council will not officially vote until Monday, council members and about 100 residents who attended a final review of the project Monday appeared universally in favor of legislation that will grant a contract to the design-build team of Akron-based H.R. Gray and Hammontree & Associates.
The ambitious construction schedule calls for work on the north end of Front to begin April 3, with the entire project wrapping up by New Year’s Eve. That also includes turning one-way Second Street into a two-way street.
The clock tower will be preserved; the street will divide to go around it. Existing fountains will be saved or rebuilt. The plaza and amphitheater will remain on the east side of the road.
Officials also reassured festival lovers that the street can be closed on summer weekends to make room for the many annual events that have taken root there.
In the design-build concept, the city provides 40 percent of the design plans. Gray and Hammontree, selected from among five bidders, will handle the rest of the engineering and architectural duties.
Planning Director Fred Guerra noted that Gray’s proposal to complete the project in nine months was “five to six months quicker than anyone else.”
The makeover will cost $9.89 million — more than $1 million less than previous estimations.
“It’s taken 40 years to get to this chapter of resurrecting our downtown,” Mayor Don Walters said.
Cuyahoga Falls banned traffic to create the pedestrian mall in 1978. Hundreds of cities across the country attempted the maneuver to win back consumers that were favoring the then-new shopping mall movement.
But pedestrian malls turned out to be a fad, and even most indoor malls have been struggling. Modern consumers now look favorably on traditional downtowns where they can park within sight of their destination, said consultant Robert Gibbs of Gibbs Planning Group.
Especially in cold-winter climates, people tend to avoid retail areas that require them to park in a deck and walk a block or more to reach a store.
While this latest effort to return Front Street to its historic downtown footprint began in 2014, it’s an old idea. Just seven years after the pedestrian mall opened, local planners were already suggesting it be removed.
“It’s time to make this a reality,” Walters said.
Guerra said the city “didn’t really have a choice” if it wanted to generate new interest in Front Street.
He showed photos of historic Front Street with cars lining the street and parades marching through downtown. Then he showed images of the modern mall on typical business days with not a human being in sight.
Traffic studies have counted more than 100,000 cars traveling daily within a block or two of Front Street, including Portage Trail, Broad Boulevard and state Route 8.
The fact that motorists aren’t making their way to Front “tells us there’s a problem,” Guerra said.
Gibbs said Cuyahoga Falls has the opportunity for a “highly unusual, highly desirable” business district, combining historic architecture with a modern street and the rolling Cuyahoga River running the length of it.
He also called for patience. Retailers won’t necessarily be lined up in January when the street opens to traffic, “but they will find you,” he said.
Brent VanFossen, owner of Metropolis Popcorn in the center of the mall, said he was on the verge of relocating. Customers always had concerns on where to park, and he didn’t like having to answer their questions about what else there was to do on Front Street with “not a lot.”
When he learned the street was reopening, he decided to stay and “be part of the transformation.”
Coinciding with this project, the city will spend $3.75 million to renovate the three parking decks that serve the Front Street area, including repairing elevators and installing a street-level board that tells motorists how many spaces are available in each deck.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
CANTON: The Canton Repository newspaper, 500 Market St. S, will host a town hall discussion at 6 p.m. Thursday on a Stark County sales tax renewal on the May 2 ballot.
The half-percent sales tax funds law enforcement and safety.
By Betty O’Neill-Roderick
Special to the Beacon Journal
The 25th annual Celebrity Cuisine drew 1,700 people Tuesday for an evening of fine dining. Faith Barbato and Julie Carpinelli co-chaired the event which featured 40 food and beverage purveyors providing samples.
Proceeds went to Community Harvest, which “rescues” prepared, perishable food from restaurants, caterers and the food industry and distributes it to shelters, soup kitchens and hot meal programs.
Local celebrities were dishing up. At Lucia’s booth, Stark County Commissioner Janet Weir Creighton served antipasto; Judge Frank Forchione offered Moroccan barbecued pork over couscous from AA Executive Catering to Cheli Curran; and Tricia Ostertag, Larry Suter and Zack Cobb served lobster bisque from Lobster Louie’s.
Canton Mayor Tom Bernabei enjoyed the variety of food. “This is such a great event, and Community Harvest helps so many people,” he said, while greeting friends Jean Stanbro, Kim Hostetter and Joe Dopler.
Dan Flowers of the Akron/Canton Regional Foodbank was busy serving Sherry Schie’s Steak Diane Soup from Shy Cellars. The foodbank recently merged with Community Harvest, and “we enjoy seeing the community support for this event,” Flowers said.
Stark County Sheriff George Maier recommended chocolate baklava from Papa Gyros; Mark Shaheen offered the Desert Inn’s mini egg rolls; Shawn Isner and Sean Ostapack had blueberry martinis from Sparta Steak House; and Sherry Kolbl and John and Theanna Orr served sunshine punch from T.D.’s Tailgate. Owner Scott Shapiro said he will also reopen the popular Three Gringos restaurant at Lake Cable on March 29.
Ryan Humbert played with his band Shooter Sharp and the Shootouts. His mother, Judy Humbert, joined friends Vicki and Craig Hamilton, Pattie and Dan Bacik, Gregg Schultz and Stacy Gorbin. Gabrielle and Isabel Lombardi enjoyed the event with their parents, Mike and Melissa Lombardi, grandparents Sam and Cynthia Sliman, and Judi Humphries and her daughter, Jenna.
Todd Civiello, president of the Community Harvest board was in charge of the Giving Tree; nearby Peggy Howley joined friends Jim Little, Barbara Bryand, Bette Meier and Sue Little.
Gary Rivers of WHBC Radio introduced Lindsay Cardy — “She’s the singing ice cream server” — as they served Taggert’s cookies and crème ice cream, and Judge Eddie Elum offered Chocolates by Erin.
Associated Press
CHARDON, OHIO: Authorities said a woman confessed to burglaries against the Amish in Northeast Ohio after detectives arrested her and found jars of loose change, cash and other items in her vehicle.
The Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said detectives stopped the vehicle last week after a burglary victim in Portage County reported the license plate information. Investigators say 39-year-old Lisa Bishop confessed to burglaries in Ashtabula, Geauga, Portage and Trumbull counties but didn’t provide a possible motive or explain why the Amish were targeted.
At least a dozen burglaries are under investigation. One alleged victim tells WJW-TV that his wife’s purses were taken from their home and his children had trouble sleeping afterward.
Bishop is charged with burglary. Chardon Municipal Court records listed no attorney for the Montville Township woman.
An Akron man’s sentencing for shooting and killing another man became so emotional Wednesday morning that even the judge got teary.
Family members of Darien Mingo, who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter last month, and Erick Hunt Sr., the man he killed, packed a Summit County courtroom while representatives from both sides gave tearful statements.
“I didn’t come here to beat you down with hateful words nor to wish hell upon you,” Chinille Hunt, the victim’s wife, said to Mingo during the sentencing. “But I’m praying for you. I’m praying you will make a change.”
Hunt paused to wipe away tears.
“You have an opportunity for better choices in your life,” she continued. “Erick can’t.”
Mingo, 23, pleaded guilty Feb. 9 to involuntary manslaughter with a gun specification.
Judge Joy Malek Oldfield, who had tears in her eyes as she spoke, sentenced Mingo to nine years on the involuntary manslaughter charge and another year on the gun specification, for a total of 10 years. He faced up to 12 years.
“You will be a younger man than Mr. Hunt was when he died when you get out of prison,” the judge said.
Prosecutors say Mingo shot Hunt, 47, of Akron, four times in December 2015 at an apartment on West Long Street in Akron. Read more later today on Ohio.com and in Thursday’s Beacon Journal.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @swarsmithabj and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/swarsmith.
The Akron Urban League building was struck with a bullet some time in the past week, according to police.
According to reports, a double-paned window on the building’s west side was struck. The bullet pierced the first pane but did not penetrate the second pane.
An employee of the Urban League, 440 Vernon Odom Boulevard, said the shooting happened some time between March 17 and 21. No one was injured and no suspects have been arrested.
A Wadsworth man has been arrested on charges of exposing his private parts to a 14-year-old girl while she walked to school in Medina earlier this month.
Trevor Freeman is charged with public indecency. Police noted he has two similar charges pending in Wadsworth Municipal Court from incidents in December and February.
According to Medina police, the teenager in Medina copied down a partial license plate, which police used to track down Freeman.
Freeman is being held in the Medina County Jail on $25,000 bond.
Consider this.
Cedar Point boasts some 70 rides.
Kings Island, 48.
The I-X Indoor Amusement Park has some 60 or so.
Granted, the attractions and rides tucked under the weather-proof roof of the giant exposition center nestled by Hopkins International Airport do not reach the stratosphere heights of those in Sandusky, but this gathering of rides does offer all the sights, sounds and tastes of a summer night at the amusement park.
The temporary park takes up a good portion of the former military tank plant and opens for the spring break season on Friday and runs through April 17.
The popular Crazy Mouse Spinning Coaster is back to take riders on a spinning roller coaster experience.
And there’s a second coaster this year called the Wacky Worm Roller Coaster that offers a bit more gentle family-friendly ride.
Another new ride added to the lineup is the Drop ’N Twist that takes young riders high up in the air and instead of just dropping them back down, it drops in increments, then twists, so they can get a different bird’s-eye view of the park.
A new kiddie ride for youngsters is Charlie Chopper, which takes kids some 30 feet high in the air while riding inside of a helicopter.
A fair number of the rides found at the I-X Center are your typical fair and carnival variety that either spin really, really fast or shoot you up in the air and back down. There are also some fun-house type attractions with bouncy floors and spinning barrels you have to crawl through that cost an additional fee.
The I-X Center’s tall signature Ferris Wheel, which pokes its way through the roof and offers a great view of the airport and the Cleveland skyline, is included in the $23 gate admission for adults and $20 for children.
The center’s Soaring Eagle Zipline will also be open.
The thrilling — OK terrifying for some — attraction whisks two riders at a time backward up and into the center’s rafters, where they dangle for a moment or two and then are sent in a free fall toward the floor below.
This one is not a sound choice for those averse to heights or death-defying thrills.
There’s also a nice blend of classic carnival rides, from a giant slide to the Tilt-A-Whirl to the Yo-Yo.
Show manager Rob Attewell said great care has also been taken to consider those — insert the name of your mom or dad here — who are not fans of thrill rides.
To cater to the whole family, Attewell said, the popular Beach Street area is back, where roaming performers from Eric Haines’ one-man band to balloon artists can be found.
The Sea Lion Splash Show is back again, and once again, the seating arena has been expanded to accommodate some 1,000 guests.
“The sea lion show has been so popular we have had to expand the seating every year,” he said. “The demand to see this show has been unbelievable.”
A newcomer this year is Tyzen Master Hypnotist, who combines comedy and hypnotism with guests becoming stars of the show.
Other shows sprinkled throughout the amusement park’s run include:
• Roberto the Magnificent, who combines juggling and stunts.
• Thriller BMX bike show with high-flying stunts.
• Bengal Tiger Encounter, featuring a show of big cats.
• Zuzu Acrobats with a high-energy acrobatic routine.
Also look for the Butterfly Encounter, where guests can get up close and personal with butterflies, and appearances by Jungle Terry, who is bringing a variety of creatures and critters for guests to interact with.
Attewell said the park has purchased extra equipment for its Bubble Soccer area, where guests of all sizes and ages can play soccer while running inside a giant inflated bubble.
“This was really, really popular last year,” he said. “The kids had a blast.”
Each year, Attewell said, they try to swap out some of the rides and shows for new ones.
“We want to mix things up.”
Craig Webb, who is a fan of the Tilt-A-Whirl, can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547.
An Akron man who jumped into a cruiser and tried to run over a police officer in November 2015 was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday.
A Summit County jury found David Duffield, 23, guilty in January of felonious assault, grand theft and obstructing official business.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands sentenced Duffield to four years in prison. He faced up to 11 years.
Prosecutors said the altercation between Duffield and Akron police occurred Nov. 27, 2015, when officers were attempting to arrest Duffield on an outstanding warrant for domestic violence and violating a protection order.
Officers tracked Duffield, who was hiding behind a home on Ivor Avenue. As they approached on foot, Duffield jumped into a police cruiser, put the cruiser in reverse and drove toward an officer. The officer jumped out of the way and fired several shots at Duffield, striking him once in the shoulder, according to a news release from the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.
The cruiser drove over a curb into a fence, hit a fire hydrant and stopped. The officer wasn’t injured.
Multiple-newspaper reader Linda Runion of Orrville choked on her coffee the other morning when she picked up her copy of the Wooster Daily Record and read this:
“LOUDONVILLE — You are invited to ‘Laugh the Night Away’ March 24-25 at 7:30 p.m. either night at the C.E. Budd Auditorium in Loudonville.
“Tickets are $5 both nights, $4 for snipers and students.”
And only $3 for ax murderers and toddlers.
Bionic pets
The Daily Record isn’t the only newspaper capable of typographical errors. (As if you hadn’t noticed.)
My favorite paper produced a beauty the other day in a promotional ad for classified ads:
“Did your car have kittens? Did your dog have puppies?
“Place your ad here 24/7 to find a home for the pups and kittens.”
Missed it by one lousy letter.
Reader Vickie Wine of Suffield was among those who thoroughly enjoyed the typo:
“Wow... if my CAR had kittens, I’d be a millionaire, touring the country showing off the litter of car-kitties!”
Newsroom colleagues tittered as well. Metro Editor Cheryl Powell said something about “the purr of an engine,” while Deputy Metro Editor Joe Thomas suggested the car in question must be a Mercury Cougar.
Not sure how many classified ads we sold, but smiles are priceless.
At least that’s what we’ll tell the owner.
Gross guys
This arrived in response to a column in which a reader criticized Terry Francona, saying every time the Indians manager appears on camera he “is either drinking water, spitting or chewing like a mother cow in heat with a big bull approaching.”
Bob: Your column gave me the perfect opening to ask you something I have been wanting to throw out there.
Question: Why do guys spit?
Not talking about ballplayers who are obviously using tobacco of some type. Just normal guys walking down the street who aren’t chewing anything.
As for Francona, my daughter went to Spring Training this year and my fee for dog-sitting was a T-shirt signed by him. She got it. Only problem is I have no idea what he wrote; maybe “Tito”?
My granddaughter told me she asked him once and he walked away but she persisted so he came back and signed.
I just wonder how long his teeth will last with all that chewing. And knowing it’s a combo of tobacco and bubble gum is disgusting.
But, hey, I love what he is doing with the Tribe.
Sue Fuller
Wadsworth
Sue: At least he didn’t give the shirt back with tobacco stains.
As for “Tito,” that’s his nickname, same as the first name of his father, who played for the Indians from 1959 through 1963.
No, the Tribe didn’t win a World Series when the younger Tito was here. Or since the older Tito arrived. Or any year in between. But we’ll see.
Why do guys spit? Because they are more concerned about the environment than women. Women use Kleenex, which ends up in landfills and sewage plants and septic tanks. Instead of blowing their noses, men just snort in and spit out. End of problem.
Hey, don’t blame me. You asked the question.
Tax scofflaw
Bob: I recently received a certified letter from the Stark County Treasurer stating I am delinquent in my taxes, and that my tax liability is to be sold by tax lien certificate at the next sale unless I get my behind over to the tax office and pay my delinquent taxes. Oh, and by the way, there is also a $200 reinstatement fee.
Believe me when I tell you I was stunned, as I have owned this property since 1989 and have always paid the taxes. So I immediately went to the auditors website, entered the parcel number and I discovered that I really was delinquent. I owed three cents. I must have written the wrong amount when I paid last July.
So off to Canton I go. As everyone knows, this requires a day trip because the treasurer’s hours are not very consumer-friendly.
When I arrive, I am sent to see a deputy treasurer who will, I suppose, set me up on a payment plan. I said I was pretty sure I could come up with three cents, but the $200 reinstatement fee had me worried.
Being the nice man that he was, he said I didn’t have to pay that. I was relieved. So I decided to ask why all this fuss over such a small amount? He said,“I have no idea. That all comes from upstairs” — whatever that means.
I guess the powers-that-be have decided that no expense shall be spared to send the message that Stark County will not put up with delinquent taxpayers.
So now you have my three cents worth.
John Workman
Canal Fulton
John: You got off easy. I would have locked you up.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com. He also is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bob.dyer.31.
To avoid conviction, William Knight’s attorneys will have to show he or his family were in serious danger when he shot and killed an Akron man selling his son-in-law’s stolen dirt bike Monday night, a legal expert said.
“It has to be a pretty significant threat. It can’t be minor harm,” said Jonathan Witmer-Rich, an associate professor of law at Cleveland State University.
According to police and 911 recordings, 63-year-old Knight killed 24-year-old Keith Johnson with a gunshot to the head at about 9 p.m. Monday.
Knight’s son-in-law had his dirt bike stolen from an unlocked garage last year, and he found it for sale online — possibly on Facebook or Craigslist. Johnson’s family said after his death that he bought the dirt bike from an acquaintance last year and didn’t know it was stolen.
Knight, of Streetsboro, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault. He’s being held at the Summit County Jail on $500,000 bond. More serious charges could be levied against him when the case is heard by a grand jury.
Knight told dispatchers Johnson tried to flee on the dirt bike when confronted by Knight and his son-in-law. Knight’s son-in-law grabbed hold of the bike to stop Johnson from driving away.
Knight told a dispatcher he feared his son-in-law or his daughter — who was on the phone with dispatchers when he fired — could be hurt, so he “had no choice” but to fire.
Knight has a permit to carry a concealed weapon (CCW).
Witmer-Rich said Knight’s attorneys likely will argue he was protecting himself and his family when he opened fire. But self-defense is a hard legal standard to prove, the professor said.
“The legal standard for self-defense,” he said, “is that the defendant had to reasonably believe he was facing an imminent threat of death or bodily harm.”
Witmer-Rich said it’s likely to matter that it appears Johnson was unarmed. If a weapon was present, an imminent threat would be easier for attorneys to show. Still, Witmer-Rich said Knight’s attorneys might argue Johnson was using the dirt bike as a weapon in the moment.
Knight’s CCW permit likely won’t matter in court, he said.
“It’s not particularly relevant. All it means is he was allowed to carry the weapon,” Witmer-Rich said. “It has no bearing on whether he was permitted to use deadly force.”
The professor also said killing someone to recover stolen property is not a defense in Ohio.
In one of the calls, Knight’s daughter said she, her husband and her father were supposed to have a police officer with them to retrieve the bike, but the officer had to go to another call. The family opted to meet up with Johnson anyway.
“You’re not permitted to use deadly force to get your property or prevent someone else from taking your property,” Witmer-Rich said.
Nick Glunt can be reached at 330-996-3565 or nglunt@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGluntABJ and on Facebook @JournoNickGlunt .
By Marilyn Miller
Beacon Journal staff writer
The University of Akron’s president talked to fifth- and sixth-graders at Seiberling elementary school about the time he tried to build a stock car after finding some leftover wood, nails and screws in the garage.
“I was about your age and I thought how cool it would be to build and ride in one, but the car never worked,” UA President Matthew Wilson said. “I did it by myself and it didn’t work.”
Wilson told the students it takes teamwork as he announced Wednesday that UA’s College of Engineering is partnering with the All-American Soap Box Derby on its Gravity Racing Challenge (GRC) STEM Team Competition. The college is the sponsor of the competitions in Akron, Cleveland, Columbus and Marysville.
The partnership is for $30,000 per year for three years. UA’s College of Engineering also will match scholarships awarded to the champions of the FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby in 2017, 2018 and 2019 — up to a grand total of $36,000 per year — for champions who decide to attend UA and major in engineering.
Wilson said getting students interested in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program by making math and science fun can spark a passion for discovery. He said it would also lay the groundwork for critical thinking skills and the familiarity to come together as a group and solve problems.
“We are looking to build bridges into the university, which starts with elementary schools,” Wilson said.
Seiberling fourth-grade teacher Diane Fuller said the school was asked to take part in the GRC event five years ago. “It’s been a huge group effort,” Fuller said, pointing out that the students have built three cars so far and the box for the fourth was just delivered.
“We use problem-based learning activities in the classroom. We had 60 kids working in groups of three and four. First they created mini cars and had to use them on ramps, where they learned about gravity rules, velocity, speed and force and motion, all that science stuff and taking the pieces apart making sure all the pieces were working, the brakes and steering. They also learned to cooperate with each other and by the end of the day they were successful.”
Seiberling students Marleena Banks, 11, a sixth-grader, and Landon Kilbel, 10, a fifth-grader worked on the project last year.
“It took a lot of teamwork when we learned how to build the car,” said Marleena, who plans to go into the STEM program. “It’s the first time I got to work with tools, a screwdriver and wrench and nails.”
Landon said they also used drills, a box of nails and sandpaper.
“It was fun to learn how to build it,” Landon said. “When we finished it I was one of the ones who got to drive it down the hill [at Derby Downs].”
Both boasted that they get straight A’s in math and science.
Soap Box Derby vice president Bobby Dinkins said the new partnership is a continuation of an ongoing relationship with UA. In 2015 the National Science Foundation awarded a $750,000 grant to UA’s College of Engineering and LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education, the Soap Box Derby and Akron Public Schools to design and evaluate a program that uses replica derby cars.
“It’s such a great fit throughout the history of the Soap Box Derby dating back to the ’30s we’ve found that thousands of kids who have gone through our program have gone on to become engineers,” Dinkins said. “This is just another step in that, recognizing that the Soap Box Derby provides a nice vehicle for students who want to get into STEM-related fields and become engineers, so we want them, with this partnership when they think engineering, to think of the University of Akron.”
The chairman of the Soap Box Derby Board, Kevin Thomas, is thrilled by the new partnership.
“We have to be in a stable, comfortable position and having the university come on board at a time like this with a three-year commitment helps to solidify the strong position that we’re in and helps to elevate our brand and their brand,” said Thomas. “It’s a powerful and meaningful relationship that we already have and this takes it to a whole ’nother level for us.”
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.
AKRON
Bullet strikes Urban League
AKRON: The Akron Urban League building was struck with a bullet sometime in the past week, according to police.
According to reports, a double-paned window on the building’s west side was struck. The bullet pierced the first pane but did not penetrate the second pane.
An employee of the Urban League, 440 Vernon Odom Blvd., said the shooting happened between March 17 and 21.
No one was injured and no suspects have been arrested.
MeDINA COUNTY
Trustees fill Macron’s seat
LAFAYETTE TWP.: Martin Warchola, owner of the Best Paws Forward Dog Training Academy, has been appointed to the township board of trustees, the Medina Gazette reported.
He replaces former trustee Bryon Macron, whose body was discovered last month in Chippewa Lake. Macron had been missing since December.
Warchola was one of six candidates seeking to fill the vacancy.
Voters will elect a new trustee in November to serve the remainder of Macron’s term, which ends in 2019, the newspaper said.
Girl says man exposed self
MEDINA: A Wadsworth man has been arrested on charges of exposing his private parts to a 14-year-old girl while she walked to school in Medina this month.
Trevor Freeman is charged with public indecency. Police noted he has two similar charges pending in Wadsworth Municipal Court from incidents in December and February.
According to Medina police, the teenager in Medina copied down a partial license plate, which police used to track down Freeman.
Freeman is being held in the Medina County Jail on $25,000 bond.
NORTHEAST OHIO
Woman admits Amish thefts
CHARDON: Authorities said a woman confessed to burglaries against the Amish in Northeast Ohio after detectives arrested her and found jars of loose change, cash and other items in her vehicle.
The Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said detectives stopped the vehicle last week after a burglary victim in Portage County reported the license plate information.
Investigators said Lisa Bishop, 39, confessed to burglaries in Ashtabula, Geauga, Portage and Trumbull counties but didn’t provide a possible motive or explain why the Amish were targeted.
Bishop is charged with burglary. Chardon Municipal Court records listed no attorney for the Montville Township woman.
STATE NEWS
Help for drug addicts’ kids
COLUMBUS: Children hurt by their parents’ addictions to painkillers and heroin will get help under a pilot program announced Wednesday targeting 14 southern Ohio counties hit hard by the state’s opiate epidemic.
The $3.6 million effort will provide intensive trauma counseling and other services to children abused or neglected due to parental drug use.
Parents of children referred to the program unveiled by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine will also receive drug treatment.
One of every two children placed in foster care in 2015 were there because of abuse and neglect associated with their parents’ drug use, according to the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.
The announcement comes as the deadly epidemic shows no signs of letting up and in fact may be worsening.
The Franklin County coroner said last week that nearly a person a day is dying in central Ohio by overdosing on the painkiller fentanyl.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said a record 60 people in that county died from opiate overdoses in February.
Counties targeted by the program: Athens, Clermont, Clinton, Fairfield, Fayette, Gallia, Highland, Jackson, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Hocking, Ross and Vinton.
Interstate 76 in Medina was closed in both directions Wednesday morning for a suspected, serious hazardous chemical spill, the Medina Gazette reports.
Authorities later discovered that a liquid leaking from a semi-truck was a car-wash product, the newspaper says.
“We had to determine which material was leaking,” Seville-Guilford Fire Chief Jerry Winkler told the newspaper. “That’s what caused the delay. Once the hazmat team identified the product, we opened the roads and got things back to normal.”
Northeast Ohio continues to bleed people — and it can no longer lay claim to being home to the largest county in Ohio.
A 14-county region that includes Akron, Canton, Cleveland and Youngstown lost a combined 10,949 residents last year, according to new county and metropolitan estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Since 2010, the population in the region has fallen by 46,842 — nearly the entire size of Cuyahoga Falls.
Cuyahoga County accounted for more than half of the regional decline between July 2015 and July 2016, with 5,673 fewer people calling the county home.
Cuyahoga experienced the fourth-largest decline in the nation, trailing only Cook County, Ill.; Wayne County, Mich.; and Baltimore, Md., the census said.
With the latest dip, Cuyahoga is no longer the most populous county in Ohio.
That honor now goes to Franklin, home to Columbus, which grew by 14,249 people and now boasts a population of 1,264,518.
Cuyahoga has 1,249,352 residents.
Since 2010, Cuyahoga has lost more than 30,700 people, while Franklin has gained more than 101,100.
Northeast Ohio
The Beacon Journal examined 14 counties for population gains and losses: Ashland, Ashtabula, Columbiana, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, Trumbull and Wayne.
Summit and Stark counties saw their populations dip over the one-year period by 1,016 and 1,253, respectively — two of the largest numerical declines in Ohio.
The four biggest drops in the state were in Northeast Ohio (in order): Cuyahoga, Trumbull, Mahoning and Stark. Summit was sixth. Clark County, home of Springfield, was fifth. (See graphic for totals.)
Only four of the 14 counties in Northeast Ohio posted gains: Lorain, Medina, Wayne and Ashland. They are all west and south of Cleveland.
Not shocking
The regional decline didn’t shock Akron Planning Director Jason Segedy, who has studied census trends and is trying to grow the city’s population.
He also noted that Northeast Ohio still has a large population, with 3.9 million people living in the 14 counties.
“As a percentage, it’s not a crippling decrease but everyone would like to see, myself included, the region as a whole rebound with people moving here,” he said.
Segedy added that regional leaders should pay attention.
“It is a call for the region to work together more closely,” he said.
“We’re holding our own with jobs but we’re not seeing a big influx of jobs that would bring more people to the region,” he added.
Experts attributed the decline in Northeast Ohio, in part, to its once strong reliance on manufacturing and a slower economic rebound.
Some growing
Other areas of the state have fared better. Central and Southwest Ohio have gained people.
Franklin County’s population grew the most, gaining nearly four times more than the next closest county of Delaware with 3,579.
Ten Ohio counties grew by more than 1,000 people. All of them were in Central or Southwest Ohio.
John Honeck, senior policy fellow at the Greater Ohio Policy Center in Columbus, said people in Northeast Ohio “should not look at this all as doom and gloom.”
As an example, he noted that more people are living in downtown Cleveland than before.
“Northeast Ohio has a lot going for it,” he said. “It’s just getting focused on some of the anchor industry and workforce development and economic development drivers.”
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ .
A 38-year-old Akron man reported Tuesday afternoon that he was pistol whipped and shot in the calf while in a driveway in the 1200 block of Dover Avenue in the city’s West Akron neighborhood.
The incident took place at 4 p.m.
The victim was taken to Cleveland Clinic Akron General, where he was treated for what was believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said the victim was uncooperative and would not provide a description of the individual who shot him.
HINCKLEY TWP.: State Road, just north of Ledge Road, will close Monday for a bridge replacement project as part of the Ohio Bridge Partnership Program, the Ohio Department of Transportation said.
The road is expected to reopen June 26.
JACKSON TWP.: The United Way of Greater Stark County will host its Annual Meeting Breakfast from 7:30 to 9 a.m. March 30 at the Kent State University Conference Center at the Stark campus, 6000 Frank Ave NW.
The agenda will include announcing the 2016 fundraising campaign results and campaign recognition awards.
The event will also include presentation of awards. United Way’s DeHoff Emerging Philanthropist Award for 2017 will be presented to Joel Daniel Harris, while the Gold Key Service Awards will be presented to Helen Syrios and Mary Beddell.
Tickets are $20 or $160 for a table of eight. To register, go to www.uwstark.org/AnnualMeeting or call 330-491-9986.
Akron now has the last of three housing studies. And some findings have floored even its experts.
For example, new home loans continue to trickle into the city’s poorest neighborhoods. But in the wealthiest parts of town, banks are approving mortgages like it’s 2006.
In some neighborhoods, median home values are priced at $9,000 or less. “I know we have houses with low values. But to be that low,” said Akron City Planner Jason Segedy, who sat in a crowd of real estate agents, developers, bankers and government administrators at the Akron Urban League on Tuesday morning to listen to a presentation by the reports’ authors.
Researchers from the Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia firm hired by the city and JPMorgan Chase to conduct the final housing market analysis, continued to pile on the statistics.
Of the 42,912 workers earning $40,000 or more in Akron, 81 percent (34,742) live somewhere else.
“That shocked me,” Segedy said. Typically a glass-half-full kind of guy, the city planner focused on the next number in that troubling slide: 51 percent of these workers (who make about $10,000 more than the median wage in the city) live less than 10 miles away.
If Segedy and his boss, Mayor Dan Horrigan, are to hit their goal of adding 50,000 residents by 2050 (a 25 percent increase), they won’t have to look far to find working-class families to fill an abundance of cheap housing.
But they’ll have to persuade them to start living where they work, like people used to do in Akron.
‘Where we are’
City administrators in charge of economic development and planning will add Tuesday’s data dump from the Reinvestment Fund to two other studies released earlier this year.
The first study, performed by the city, offered a comprehensive housing strategy that included proposed tax abatements for residential construction. The Greater Ohio Policy Center and DiSalvo Development Advisors released the second study weeks later. In it, Akron’s two dozen neighborhoods were sized up based on housing affordability and readiness to develop.
JPMorgan Chase chipped in $33,643 and the city added $48,783 in federal grants for the final study. It diced Akron into 200 census blocks. Then it put each under a microscope to assess the marketability of housing, which in Akron is paradoxically too affordable.
“There’s good and bad to that,” said Ira Goldstein, president of the Reinvestment Fund. Basically, cheap homes are good for buyers but bad for sellers.
Akron’s current administration has sobered to that reality. “Rather than look at what we’ve done in the past 50 years,” said Horrigan, who attended the first half of the presentation, “this is where we are.”
With the right balance of incentives and public-private collaboration, Goldstein said there’s hope for Akron, which he added isn’t as bad off as many of the 40 cities his firm has analyzed since 2001.
‘Nodes of strength’
Goldstein said each neighborhood must find its “node of strength” — often an anchor institution such as a hospital or university.
This gives stakeholders time to think about how to keep new employees of the Akron City Hospital expansion from living elsewhere or students at the new Akron campus of Stark State from leaving when they graduate.
But nodes of strength, Goldstein continued, also can be nearby jobs or public transit, or natural resources like rivers and lakes. In Baltimore, it’s engaged residents. “I can tell you that the node of strength there is a group of African-American ministers who are working to hold us accountable.”
Mapping Akron
In planning their study, the Reinvestment Fund partnered with 20 organizations: prominent philanthropic foundations from GAR to Knight, big names in private design and development like Testa and DeHoff, quasi-governmental agencies like the Summit County Land Bank, three major banks and Realtors’ associations.
Then, they scrubbed the city and county for home values, sales, construction permits, reports on blight and vacancy, owner occupancy rates and other housing characteristics.
Next, they covered the city by car for three days to validate that what they saw matched municipal records. Adjustments were made. Finally, they dropped the data into census blocks, some with only a couple of hundred residents.
Each was analyzed to create a map of the most and least marketable neighborhoods (about 25 percent of Akron live in each). The other 50 percent of Akron exists in well-maintained neighborhoods that could slide up or down a category with neglect or investment.
In all, nine categories of marketability were mapped.
Diverse neighborhoods such as North Hill contain five or more categories: high home values with no renters; both; cheap housing with high vacancy rates; and other variations.
Lastly, Akron’s 200 housing markets were cross-referenced with property or personal crime, out-of-town landlord ownership (banks and limited liability companies own 15,276 parcels), access to credit based on mortgage applications approvals and denials, single or family dwellings, and income.
Segedy said the full data set will eventually be made available to the public. For now, maps and charts contained in the presentation slides are available online with this article.
The data will be used to make “evidence-based decisions” on where to demolish homes, invest capital, enforce housing codes based on need, prioritize land bank acquisitions and more.
And, of course, how to start building more houses than are torn down each year.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug .