AKRON
Loan for grocery
AKRON: Akron is in line to receive a $3.8 million federally guaranteed loan to build a two-story grocery store in the Highland Square neighborhood.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon Lake, said the Community Development Block Grant loan is expected to help create the equivalent of 57 full-time jobs.
The Highland Square area has no green grocer, although neighbors in the West Market Street area have been clamoring for one. Some social scientists consider the area a “food desert” because of its lack of a store selling fresh food.
The store is expected to be leased to the operators of the Mustard Seed Market.
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Debates planned
AKRON: The Sutton for Congress campaign said Wednesday it was trying to finalize as many as three debates between candidates Betty Sutton, D-Copley Township, and Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth.
The sitting U.S. representatives will face each other in the redrawn 16th Congressional District in November.
Sutton has committed to both the City Club of Cleveland and the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute for debates on dates to be determined in October, the campaign said.
NORTHEAST OHIO
2nd West Nile case
CLEVELAND: The city’s Department of Public Health on Wednesday announced that a 48-year-old Cleveland man is hospitalized with Ohio’s second confirmed case of West Nile virus this summer.
The state is reporting a marked increase this summer in the number of mosquito samples testing positive for the virus. Experts say the Culex mosquito that carries the virus thrives in hot, dry conditions.
This year, the virus has been found in 374 mosquito pools across the state. Last year at this time, the Ohio Department of Health lab had recorded only 59 pools.
The other human case of West Nile virus reported this year occurred in southwestern Ohio.
PORTAGE COUNTY
Pot farm found
RAVENNA: A Ravenna Township man is accused of cultivating a large-scale indoor marijuana farm on his property.
Mark Hagy, 52, fled his Indian Canoe Trail property Monday in a one-ton dump truck just as Portage County Drug Task Force members, the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration and the Ohio Bureau of Investigation were arriving to investigate a suspected marijuana farm.
Hagy was caught after a high-speed chase that ended on Peck Road, authorities said. He is charged with cultivation of marijuana, a felony.
Portage Sheriff David W. Doak said the task force, along with federal and state investigators, were in the area searching for marijuana farms when they spotted several plants growing outside Hagy’s Indian Canoe Trail residence.
Agents said they also found grow lights, transformers, drug paraphernalia and more marijuana inside the residence. In all, 56 plants were seized.
Doak said that during the countywide search, an additional 150 plants were found.
Immunization clinic
RAVENNA: The Portage County Health Department is holding its Back-to-School Childhood Immunization Clinic from 2 to 4:30 p.m. today at the Downtown Ravenna Farmers Market.
The cost is $10 per shot, but vaccines will be provided for free to those who cannot pay. Medicaid, Buckeye, Care Source and United Health insurance plans also are accepted.
Parents are asked to bring immunization records.
For more information, call 330-296-9919, ext. 137.
STARK COUNTY
Cougar sightings
NORTH CANTON: North Canton police said Wednesday the department has received three reported sightings of a large, cat-like animal resembling a cougar or mountain lion in the city in the past week.
The department forwarded information to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources wildlife officer serving Stark County for review.
Included with the information were several pictures a police officer took of a cat-like paw print he observed near the West Branch of the Nimishillen Creek that flows through the Stark Parks trail areas in the city.
Anyone with information is asked to call the department at 330-499-5911.