Aside from the fact that the Mayor suddenly looks frazzled and desperate, there is little encouraging about Akron’s Mayor Don Plusquellic’ s latest political maneuvering. He accuses Warner Mendenhall of expecting taxpayers to foot the bill for his personal political obsession.  That is not only unfounded, since Mendenhall has already said he will not run for Mayor, but would better describe what has been happening in this City for the past 23 years.  Talk about expecting taxpayers to foot the bill; the Mayor’s call for a vote to sell our sewers might be admirable if he or his sponsors were paying for it but they expected you taxpayers who already owned it to pay for it again!  The 2 for 1 deal didn’t mean you got 2 for the price of 1; instead you would have paid twice for 1 sewer.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Untold Story of “Father Don” who has been shepherding the citizens and taxpayers of Akron into what was referred to in the 70’s as a commune.

  We received a reprimand from the Akron Beacon Journal today (5/8/09) about infringing on their rights to a letter which was published on May 5^th, 2009 in the Editorial “Voice of the People” section titled “A mayor of vision” We agreed to remove it from this site but you can read it by following this public link which ties into our own editorial as printed below.

http://www.ohio.com/editorial/vop/44341062.html

Our rebuttal to that “Voice of the People” editorial is an editorial of our own….

Read the rest of this entry »

[EDITORS NOTE: This section was on the original AkronWatch.org before we moved the website allowing comments directly published to the story ]

Star says…
at 9:10am April 15, 2009

Just like to say that at 338 Perkins St. where the Akron Auto Mall was to be was the home of Henry B. Perkins whom had built his home there around 1900 turn of the century. Henry School had been named after him and is where Summa had torn it down a year or so ago and there’s a new building on the block today. Dad had told me that on the deed as he remembered had said that it was an addition to Akron by Col. Simon Perkins? Henry had been his son or grandson? But once when I had gone through the maps of that area I seen Henry B. Perkins as the owner of 338 Perkins St. a white Frame and stone house with wood floors of rare wood had all gone to a dump site somewhere over the horizon? I knew of the house because that was our families first home my parents had owned. One of the most important places on that block in my opinion is 109 N. Union St. across the street.

Read the rest of this entry »

Naysayers Beware !

Well, Well, Well, to all the Pro-Plusquellic people in Akron (We know, only a few exist) and to his friends such as Chrissy Hynde and Tony Troppe, we here at Akron Watch want to let you know that the team effort to recall Mayor Don did a great job in petitioning in Akron.

We are told that today at 1 pm Change Akron Now headed up by Warner Mendenhall have collected over 5,000 signatures.  5,000 you say? Yes, that’s 60% more than is needed.   We thank all the hardworking volunteers who circulated the petition.  We resoundingly thank the citizens who were willing to step up and be counted who are screaming their commitment to “dare to be different.”
Be proud for you are filled with integrity!  You cared and did something about it.

Read the rest of this entry »

SIX years and nearly $12 million dollars later and we still don’t have an Akron Auto Mall that was once planned at the corner of Market and Forge, so we decided to take a look into what is new on this early model story.  Back in June of 2005 Akron Watch added a story titled “Akron Changes Land-Buying Tactics for Fred Martin” that covered what cost the taxpayers $7.95 million through August 2004 that ousted 961 people from 410 households from what became razed houses and buildings. After the story broke, another $400,153 in 2005 and in 2006 another $356,485 which brought it to a total addition of $756,638 spent on this project. Once you add in an estimated interest, it brings the addition to $1,172,789. To bring it all together- that brings this to a total of $9,122,789!!!

All of this money was spent on one idea – to keep auto dealers in Akron. On March 10, 2003 City Council had given this a first reading to propose rezoning the Market/Forge area to commercial. Here we are SIX years later and nothing, yes! nothing has happened. Story gets better though- the city in recent years bought the Fred McIntyre property for $1,702,660 plus $7,454 for title fees and $1,915 for taxes for a total of $1,712,029, but add in interest and you have an estimated total of $2,653,645. Although they were the anchor tenant for our 20.5 acre auto mall, where are they now?

Read the rest of this entry »

The Beacon Journal April 2, 2009 editorial…

“Warner’s Wobbly Recall Wagon”

by Mr. Steve Hoffman

   Mr. Hoffman wrote that Max Rothal, City Law Director, reminded Mendehall that this was the third time he has charged campaign finance violations.

Did you ask yourself why nothing has ever been done about the first two times?  Did you do any investigation to see if the law was or is being broken?  Or are you supporting the Mayor since you have received tax abatements and also lease a building that is abated all at the expense of the taxpayers?

Have you ever asked yourself or had your investigating reporters ask why Ray Kapper was never prosecuted for the $10′s of thousands of dollars he took from local taxpayers and contractors?  Yes, he was convicted and admitted he stole $464,000.⁰⁰ from AMHA and Childrens Services.  That’s all he admitted to but believe me there was $10′s of thousands of dollars more.  The Federal Courts protected their Federal Funds that went into these two City of Akron Services.  But, he was never prosecuted by the City, Why? 

Read the rest of this entry »

This is “no kids” game.  My advice to my readers is never get in a battle of wits without ammunition and having a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent is not really a battle at all.  IT’S LIKE TAKING A KNIFE TO A GUNFIGHT!  THE war is won. 

Come Out, Come Out Whoever you are!

We here at Akron Watch are rolling all over the floor laughing at a new website called  www.watchingakronwatch.org. While we don’t know what they are looking for and frankly do not care we are amused to say that at least.  It appears that after some Pro-Plusquellic bloggers on www.ohio.com could no longer bear to read all of the discontent that residents of Akron have with our Mayor, they just had to take a stand against what they perceive as haters.

Well, as expected Akron Watch was caught in the political crossfire. Taking aim at a website that exposes the truth of behind closed doors tax dollar funded deals, the Pro-Plusquellic bloggers started up a little ditty called www.watchingakronwatch.org  – HOW DARN CUTE!

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally posted: March 13, 2009

If it is supposed to be Spicertown Village, situated in a multi-block area anchored at Power and Brown streets, you will be a very unhappy taxpayer when you read this. This private development, a project of ASW Properties, once touted by Mayor Don Plusquellic as an example of the success the city has had in attracting new development, has fallen flat on it’s face. The $32 million project has yet to sell even ONE townhome, which range in price from $173,900 to $339,900. I don’t know who whispered into the city or ASW’s ear, “if you build it they will come” because no one is coming! These townhomes have been on the market since May 11, 2008, yet here we are almost a year later and no one has come.

The city initially offered up $4.5 million dollars that the City doesn’t have nor should not be spending, but what’s even worst is that the latest figures, including the projected interest, bring the taxpayer’s contribution to at least $6,606,842. How could the city see something in this private project and decide to pony up funds to fund this private project at our expense?  Just how does this townhouse complex help the taxpayers of Akron? How does it stimulate our city?

Read the rest of this entry »