AkronWatch.org will be returning shortly. As you can tell the website is going through a makeover process.

If you are curious, please feel free to watch as the website comes alive (and becomes fully functional). (Please note that obviously not all of the features of the website are or will remain operational until the website is completed.

AkronWatch can be reached at info@akronwatch.org.

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 »

In one of the mailers being sent out by the Anti-Recall group in Akron, it says, “The Mayor has helped revitalize our city…and generated enough revenue to provide for 100 additional police officers in our neighborhoods.”

Huh?  Where are they Mayor Don Plusquellic?  Numbers don’t lie, but you do!  In order to decipher the truth and the lies about just how many Akron police officers we have here in Akron and to see just how many have or have not been added, we complied a chart of the number of sworn officers going back to 1986, where his reign began.  These statistics are from the Akron Police Departments Annual Reports.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the Mayor’s Anti-Recall campaign literature, he boasts to the Taxpayers of Akron he brought in 31,000 new jobs plus 5,200 more jobs from his International efforts.  Which is a total of 36,200 jobs.  Where are they?

The following chart is information printed in the City of Akron, Ohio Annual Informational Statement prepared by the Director of Finance for the City.

Read the rest of this entry »

Goodyear demands that the taxpayers of Akron pay them to stay here and the Mayor & City Council approve anything they seem to ask for with their promises they fail to keep.

In the mid 1990′s see the following “Actual Investments Subject to Abatements”

Read the rest of this entry »

Have the mayor’s Worldwide travels helped Akron’s housing economy or is it a disaster?

Seeing that the Mayor likes to hype his international travels as a push to boost Akron’s economy, we here at AkronWatch thought we would take a quick look at home sales in the Akron area and compare them to the national figures to get an idea of just how prosperous our Mayor is making our town. AkronWatch visited the National Association of Realtors website (www.realtor.org) to compare Akron to other metropolitan areas in the United States.

Read the rest of this entry »

The “Mayor grounds self” article was published the 26^th of April, 2009 in the Akron Beacon Journal and included statements I do not understand.  To read the entire article click the link below.

http://www.ohio.com/news/politics/43734522.html

1. The Mayor states; “We’ve put Akron on the Map!” “I can show- not a couple of million – but tens of millions that we have received as a city as a direct result of my travel.”Mr. Mayor please, please, please share with us how you arrived at the tens of millions statement. Who are they, where are they located, how many employees do they have, and what are their gross sales?We taxpayers would really like to know about these accomplishments. It could make a difference in the Recall vote.
2. Bob Bowman, the mayors deputy mayor for economic development, in the same article states; “Since 1994, the city’s international efforts have resulted in the creation or retention of more than 5, 200 jobs at 40 companies in the Akron area that have combined annual sales of nearly $3.4 million.”"Creation or retention” – how many jobs were created and how many were retained? How does travel around the world help in retaining workers already here? What companies were retained? How much of taxpayers dollars were used to accomplish this?Mr. Mayor please, please, please give us taxpayers names and numbers so we can better understand these accomplishments. It could make a difference in the Recall vote. 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 »

After posting our story on the stimulus money that Akron expected to receive, what it will receive, and what it will be spent on, we thought it would be a good idea to keep our readers up to date on just what is happening with those stimulus dollars floating around. The stimulus dollars are not only a national buzz, but a hot topic here in Akron because our hard-working mayor has worked so diligently and has spent so much of our taxpayer money in order to secure some of those floating stimulus dollars. Although money was spent on lavish accommodations and dining at some of the finest places you can find, turns out that Ohio ranked number FORTY-EIGHT in the country for pork barrel spending (Citizens Against Government Waste, www.cagw.org). Although it sounds like it is great that Ohio is not spending money on pork projects, at the same time sounds like we here in Akron are not getting the pork dollars our Mayor set out to receive, while on our dime. Sounds more like we are receiving pork pennies which do not match up to the dollars we have spent to send our mayor on numerous trips to D.C.

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 »