NewsCity CouncilVOLUME 1 2014

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When you drive by a machine that displays your speed, do you slow down if you are driving over the posted speed limit? If you haven’t in the past, you better start.

There is a consensus among all of Council that the number-one complaint among citizens is speeding in residential areas. The police are well aware of the problem, but officers often have two or three calls backed up and can’t respond to speeding complaints. It’s not that they don’t consider speeding important, but crimes against persons – domestic disputes, burglaries and drug activity – take a priority over running radar.

Council Representatives Marilyn Keith and Bob Hoch have spearheaded an effort to acquire 10 “smart machines” that display your speed as you drive by. The smart machines also record top speeds, average speeds and data that allows us to identify the most offensive areas and the worst time of the day.

We are going to start following up the alerts delivered by the machines with enforcement. I will ask Council to appropriate additional money to the Akron Police Department specifically to pay officers overtime to run radar.

When you see a smart machine, consider it a warning that there have been speeding complaints in the neighborhood, and the police will soon be there running radar.

We are sending speeders a message and backing it up with some teeth. We will give our residents the peace of mind they want in their neighborhoods. I hope the warning the machines provide slow everyone down, and we won’t have to start issuing citations.

I admire the message that Cuyahoga Falls has sent to speeders. When you cross a bridge into Cuyahoga Falls, don’t you slow down right away? Let’s start doing the same when you drive into an Akron neighborhood.

Will “smart machines” slow speeders?

Garry Moneypenny Council President

PUBLISHED BY:Akron City Council166 S. High St., Ste. 301Akron, Ohio 44308Garry Moneypenny, President330-375-2256Ward10@akronohio.gov

PRODUCED BY:WhiteSpace Creative 24 N. High St. Ste. 200Akron, Ohio 44308Robert Zajac, Ex. VP330-762-9320bob@whitespace-creative.com

NewsCity Council

VOLUME 1 2014

Council paves the way for food trucks

To appeal to users as well as family members and friends of users to GET HELP, At Large Council Representa-tives Jeff Fusco, Ward 6’s Bob Hoch and Council President Garry Moneypenny have launched a campaign to curb abuse of these deadly drugs. And they’ve recruited a bevy of media partners to help them get the word out.

ClearChannel Outdoor has agreed to donate 20 poster billboards and five of its highly coveted digital billboards over the next several months. The Akron Beacon Journal and Ohio.com are providing space for print and online advertisements. Radio stations running public service announce-ments recorded by Mayor Don Plusquellic, Juvenile Court Judge Linda Teodosio, Akron School Superintendent David James and Akron Police Chief James Nice include WNIR, WAKR, WONE and WKDD. 91.3 The Summit will air announcements recorded by its own on-air talent, and Time Warner Cable will play public service announcements in the Akron market.

Metro busses will display posters on the inside and outside of its buses, Community Learning Centers will display posters, and Akron garbage trucks will carry four-by-eight-foot signs on their sides.

“This campaign is the culmination of a lot of collaboration and cooperation among elected officials, law enforcement agencies, social service organizations, the court system, the private sector and city hall,” said Moneypenny. “Meth and heroin

abuse are a serious problem that we need to confront openly and publicly to educate our citizenry about getting help for themselves and family members.”

M o n e y p e n n y said the campaign partners have anteed up about $20,000 primarily for

producing billboards and printing posters, water bill inserts and cards to hand out to citizens. Most of the advertising space is being donated by the media partners.

A child’s deathThree separate events combined to

become the genesis of the anti-drug campaign: the death of 17-month-old Patrick Lerch, legislation aimed at recov-ering the cost of cleaning up meth houses, and legislation approving Clear Channel’s request to erect digital billboards in Akron.

Lerch was found in his crib dead from methamphetamine poisoning in 2012. The police responded by cracking down on meth houses, and Council passed legisla-tion making property owners respon-sible for the clean-up costs. The money collected went into a fund that is now contributing to the campaign.

The groundwork was completed last year when legislation was approved allowing ClearChannel Outdoor to erect

five new digital billboards in Akron. ClearChannel agreed to donate some space on those billboards to the city for public service announcements.

Council Representative Fusco spon-sored both pieces of legislation. He also led the ad hoc committee that planned the campaign. In addition to Moneypenny and Hoch, the committee included ClearCh-annel Vice President Dave Yale, Akron Police Chief Jim Nice, ADM Board Executive Director Gerald Craig, Deputy Clerk of Council Connie Genevish and Whitespace Creative Executive Vice President Bob Zajac.

“The campaign is meant to startle people with graphic images. It is meant to start conversations between parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors. Hopefully, we will spare some families of grief with this collective effort,” said Fusco.

“We want to create awareness of this growing problem,” said Hoch. “We’re not trying to get people arrested, we want to help people. We want to get them into a program that will get them off drug use and into a normal lifestyle.”

“That’s what City Council is here for. To help people and our citizens.”

Summit Lake neighborhood gets Save A Lot

Discount grocer Save A Lot is coming to an underserved neighbor-hood in South Akron.

Council approved the sale of city-owned land at the intersection of South Main Street and Miller Road to a developer who will build the grocery store there.

“That area has been a food desert,” said Ward 3 Council Representa-tive Margo Sommerville. “I’d heard from residents about how much they wanted a store in the area and the opportunity and right developer presented themselves.

“The residents are very excited to know that a place where they can buy fresh produce and on-site butchered meats is coming soon.”

Sommerville said Save A Lot is dedicated to local hiring and will bring 11 new jobs to the commu-nity. She also said Council is now exploring opportunities to create additional retail development around the new grocery store.

Akron Property Survey Begins

A survey to determine the number of vacant residential structures and the condition of all properties is underway in Akron.

The citywide survey will cover about 90,000 parcels and take three months to complete. The results will be used to prioritize demolitions, determine if additional demolition funding is needed and help plan for the re-use of vacant land.

Surveyors will work during normal business hours. They will wear bright green vests and work in teams of two to gather information and take photo-graphs of properties from sidewalks and public rights-of-way.

The images are graphic and shocking, but the reality is worse. Methamphetamine and heroin abuse are at epidemic proportions nationwide and in Akron.

At Large Council Representative Jeff Fusco, Ward 3 Council Representative Margo Sommerville and Downtown Akron Partnership President Suzie Graham were members of the committee.

“We began by exploring what was happening in other cities,” said Fusco. “We looked at their legislation, consid-ered the concerns of our restaurant owners and talked with food truck opera-tors to understand what it was that they really wanted from new legislation.

“What we learned was that food truck operators were more interested in gaining a foothold near Akron’s three hospitals than the traditional downtown area where the restaurants are located,” he said.

Summa, Akron General and Children’s Hospital are three of the 10 biggest employers in Summit, Medina and Portage Counties. Together they employ almost 20,000 people.

The new food truck legislation drafted by the committee uses the biomedical corridor boundaries to define the “downtown area.” Within that area, it establishes two locations near the hospitals that will be reserved for food trucks: Locust Street south of Cedar Street and Park Street west of Forge Street.

Food truck operators will have to obtain a permit from the city for $225 and rent a designated parking spot and the adjoining sidewalk for $1,750 per year.

“Akron routinely rents street parking spots and sidewalk space to construction companies when they are erecting or reno-vating a building,” Fusco said. “This is no different. They will need to pay parking

like anyone else.”“It’s a fair compromise for both food

truck operators and brick-and-mortar restau-rateurs,” said Sommerville. “Food truck legislation is not one-size-fits-all. We came up with something that we believe fits our

unique situation. We tried to find a happy medium.”

Graham said that she thinks the policy is fair and balanced for both the food truck operators and the downtown busi-ness owners.

“It will create new entrepreneurial ventures and we

certainly want to encourage that, but at the same time we are protecting our brick-and-mortar vendors who work very hard to keep their businesses open 365 day a year.”

Fusco said the committee did not favor restaurant owners or food truck operators. Rather, it sought balance.

“I believe we accomplished our mission,” he said.

He also said that he would not be opposed to making changes to the legis-lation after a trial period.

“If you look at Cleveland’s food truck legislation, you’ll see that it is consid-erably different today that what was originally passed. We will evaluate our legislation after this season and make adjustments if necessary.”

Additional funding keeps UPA operating

City Council approved spending $158,000 to help pay off debts owed by University Park Alliance. Several other UPA partners also are giving the non-profit organization similar amounts to pay off creditors. “The funds will allow UPA’s good work to continue on the near east side of Akron,” said Mayor Don Plusquellic, who sponsored the legislation. “The city has invested millions of dollars in UPA, and we can’t let lawsuits from creditors over small amounts of money delay our progress,” he said. “We can’t just walk away from this area.”

Food trucks already serve parts of Akron outside of downtown. Co-owners Renaldo Goijosa and his wife, Makizol Garcilazo, have been cooking up Mexican fare in the El Paso Taco Truck at 1813 South Main Street for three years.

Council campaign targets drug abuse

Jeff FuscoAt Large

BriefsCity Council

Bob HochWard 6 Representative

Graphic images of the ravages of drug abuse are meant to attract attention to billboards, radio and television public service announcements, newspaper ads and other media in a citywide campaign to curb heroin and methamphetamine use.

Originally, the campaign was to target methamphetamines, but heroin use has taken center stage as the drug of choice.

“Meth use and production in Akron was epidemic,” said Chief Nice. “We were going to a meth house a day until we got our arms around the problem. Then heroin took over, the result of Mexican cartels getting into production and selling at low costs.

“We are working hard from an enforcement standpoint, but this educa-tional piece is equally important. The effort here is to stop the next generation of meth and heroin users from starting,” he said.

The campaign is scheduled to run through September.

“It will be a constant barrage of anti-drug messages throughout the summer,” said Moneypenny. “Then, in September, we’ll revisit the funding to determine what more we need to do,” he said.

Food trucks are now allowed to operate on public property in Akron. Following

nine months of research into food truck legislation in other communities and after assembling a special committee of government and civic leaders to evaluate options, Council voted unanimously to allow food trucks to operate in designated areas.

Margo SommervilleWard 3 Representative