CEDARVILLE: In the era before President Donald Trump, Republican Mike DeWine’s status as an easy favorite to win Ohio’s governor’s race would have been assured.

The 70-year-old attorney general, who announced his long-anticipated bid Sunday, is one of the state’s most familiar and high-profile public figures, a former U.S. senator and lieutenant governor with a big wholesome-looking family, an extensive political network and $2.5 million already in the bank.

But it remains to be seen how DeWine’s traditional political profile will play in a national political climate that’s been upended by President Donald Trump. DeWine’s two announced Republican challengers are already employing some of Trump’s populist campaign tactics.

U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci of Wadsworth is pushing himself as a political-outsider businessman and hiring up former staffers from Trump’s successful presidential campaign. Secretary of State Jon Husted, despite his record of bipartisan compromise, launched his campaign with ads that capitalized on divisive remarks that came back to haunt high-profile Democrats, including saying his family “would firmly fit in Hillary Clinton’s ‘basket of deplorables.’ ”

“It’s a different political world that we’re looking at,” said Cedarville University political scientist Mark Caleb Smith, while predicting that DeWine will still at least begin the race as the presumed front-runner.

“I’m not sure there’s another candidate in the race that can really exploit that [populist strategy] like a Donald Trump could,” Smith said. “They may be going full Trump stylistically, but I’m not sure it will hurt DeWine as much. The race, for DeWine, is going to come down to a very basic question: Will his experience be a strength or a weakness. If it were a normal year, I’d say a strength.”

DeWine chose to make his campaign announcement during the DeWine Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Social, an annual event at his historic Cedarville homestead in southwest Ohio. Thousands attended the event, a mainstay of summer politics in Ohio.

DeWine said he wants to use the bully pulpit of the governor’s office to assure every Ohio child has the chance to achieve their potential — including through quality education, the prospects of a good living and freedom from the state’s scourge of opioid addiction and death.

“We have an obligation to rescue Ohio’s sons and daughters of addiction,” he said, adding, “Their pain is real, their suffering is unimaginable.”

Besides Husted and Renacci, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor of Green is also contemplating a run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination next year. Republican Gov. John Kasich has said if she gets in, he’ll back his lieutenant of seven years. Kasich, a 2016 presidential contender, has positioned himself as one of the president’s most vocal critics.

CANTON: One man was killed and four others injured in separate shootings Sunday morning, as gun violence continues in Stark County, the Canton Repository reports.

In the most recent incident at 3:49 a.m. Sunday, four men were shot in the 1700 block of Edwards Avenue NE. One of them later died at Mercy Medical Center, the newspaper reported.

In the other incident, a man was shot at 3:29 a.m. Sunday in the 700 block of Alan Page Drive SE and suffered nonlife-threatening injuries, the newspaper said.

A week ago, two men were killed and five others injured in shootings in Canton. Earlier this month, an elderly couple were shot to death in Lake Township and a son and mother were killed in an apparently double homicide-suicide attempt in Bethlehem Township.

Read the full Repository report here.

The Autism Society of Greater Akron’s Autism 5K Run and Walk, held in Lock 3 earlier this month, attracted more 2,000 participants to support individuals and families living with autism in the community. The event raised more than $108,000 while serving as a community-wide rally day to show support for people living with autism. This year’s presenting sponsor was Bevan and Associates. The top fundraising team was Team Samboat (team organizers Jennifer and Tim Piatt of Green), which so far has raised $10,819. Team fundraising continues through July 31. The T-shirt contest winner was Team Star Speeder (team organizer Elizabeth Jackson of Spencer). Christian Hendricks, 18, of Fairlawn was the overall male winner of the 5K run; Theresa Hagey, 14, of Fairlawn was the female winner.

The Summit County Developmental Disabilities Board recently participated in its second Annual Community Give Back Day. More than 140 Summit DD staff members volunteered at several local organizations including, Haven of Rest, Emerge Counseling Services, Lakemore Parks and six Goodwill stores throughout the county. The initiative is part of Summit DD’s strategic direction to build inclusive communities. The agency’s board launched a new policy in 2016 giving all full-time staff a paid volunteer day to give back to the Summit County community.

Fifth Third recently announced that it provided more than 1 million meals in May to fight hunger during its annual “Feeding Our Communities” initiative. The monthlong effort included employee and customer donations, canned goods drives and employee volunteer activities. Fifth Third partnered with more than 65 organizations across its 10-state footprint to provide employee volunteer opportunities in May. Each region identified needs in their local communities and designed volunteer efforts to support. Northeast Ohio employees served 23,000 meals through a food drive at the bank’s financial centers, volunteer efforts at various food banks and monetary donations from customers and employees.

The following St. Sebastian Parish School students recently qualified to compete in the Power of the Pen State Tournament at the College of Wooster: eighth-grader Matthew Dennee and seventh-graders Mia Khayyat, Sawyer Huckabee and Cassia Chivers.

Recent Hoover High School graduate Isabella Pete of North Canton was selected as a 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholar. Pete was one of 161 high school seniors selected who demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, artistic excellence, leadership, citizenship, service, and contribution to school and community. The U.S. Presidential Scholars were honored for their accomplishments last week in Washington D.C.

A fundraising program to support a “special prom” for students with special needs at Revere High School was one of four statewide to win a $1,000 contest through GoFundMe. Last month, GoFundMe announced a $100,000 fundraising contest. The winning Richfield fundraiser was “WeLoveTeachers 239 Special Moments” at https://www.gofundme.com/revere-rm-239-special-moments

Akron Public Schools this month recognized these employees for years of service: Mary Adams, central office administrator, 32 years; Ellen Rollin, child nutrition, 32 years; Michael Dozier, custodian, 37 years; Raymond Hinton, educational assistant, 37 years; Michael Visich, foreman, 35 years; Patrice Mikula, office support, 32 years; Nancy Perry, transportation, 43 years; Kimberly Wilson Field, administrator, 33 years; Mary Batyko, elementary school teacher, 35 years; Beth Howe, middle school teacher, 31 years; Timothy Zolyniak, high school teacher, 32 years; and Patricia Tschantz, special education teacher, 30 years.

The weekly Good News column features awards and recognitions, military and scholastic achievements, civic accomplishments and other good works. Please fax information to 330-996-3033, email it to goodnews@thebeaconjournal.com or send it to Good News, Akron Beacon Journal, 44 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44309. Include a photograph if one is available.

CUYAHOGA FALLS: City police and the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office are investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a retention pond Sunday night.

His death doesn’t appear suspicious, authorities said.

The man has been identified as Rudolf Hinderegger, 87, of Cuyahoga Falls. The pond is near Cobblestone Lane, where he owned a condominium.

Hinderegger was found partially submerged in the pond at about 6:50 p.m. The person who found him called 911, with Cuyahoga Falls firefighters responding.

Hinderegger was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:15 p.m., according to a press release from the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office.

A Salvation Army pastor caught in the crossfire during a triple shooting at an Akron barbershop in December told the man who shot him Monday morning that he forgives him.

“I’m going to be praying for you,” Corps Officer Captain James Jones said to Robert L. Rodgers during his sentencing in Summit County Common Pleas Court. “I don’t hate you. But, you did some damage.”

Rodgers, 25, of Akron, pleaded guilty last week under an agreement with prosecutors to charges stemming from the Dec. 1 shooting and an unrelated fentanyl overdose death.

Judge Jill Flagg Lanzinger sentenced Rodgers to 12 years in prison, the agreed-upon time between prosecutors and Rodgers’ attorney, Charles Quinn. Rodgers could have faced up to 23 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Rodgers provided fentanyl to Kevin Snyder in August 2015 and Snyder died after taking it.

In an unrelated incident, police said Rodgers was in RP Blade Academy, a barbershop on West Exchange Street, on Dec. 1 when a man walked into the barbershop and he and Rodgers began to argue. Rodgers pulled a gun from beneath his barber’s cape and started shooting, striking Jones and two other people in the barbershop. All three survived.

Read more later today on Ohio.com and in Tuesday’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.

Summa Health plans to eliminate about 300 positions and discontinue and consolidate some services because it’s “facing staggering operating losses” of more than $60 million this year, interim President and CEO Dr. Cliff Deveny wrote in a memo sent to employees Monday.

“While we have considerable cash in reserve to protect us for the short term, this trend must stop immediately,” he said.

About half of the positions in question are filled now. The health system, which operates Summa Akron City Hospital, SummaCare insurance and other businesses, has about 8,000 workers now.

In his memo, Deveny warns that unless everyone works to improve the health system, “I can assure you the name on our badges will no longer say Summa Health, our employees at all levels of the organization and our community will see unprecedented change, and our independent physicians will be faced with the reality of what it means to practice in a community that no longer has an independent, local option for them.”

The memo does not state specific services that will be discontinued or consolidated.

The health system had posted a profit of $30 million last year, the memo says.

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan released a statement Monday urging the community to stand behind Summa as it repositions itself, and said the city would work closely with the health system as it takes its next steps.

“Just as our community depends on the care and services Summa provides for its health and welfare; Summa cannot succeed without the support and trust of the community,” Horrigan said. “I have pledged to continue to work with Dr. Deveny and the Summa leadership team to do everything necessary to ensure the organization remains a strong and independent pillar for years to come.”

Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro also released a statement pledging support to Deveny and Summa.

“The actions taken by Summa today, while certainly unfortunate for the impacted employees and their families, are also necessary to ensure that Summa Health remains a successful, independently-owned organization in our community,” Shapiro said.

Akron City Councilwoman Tara Mosley Samples, the Ward 5 representative, said “it is always extremely difficult to watch people lose their jobs when they have families to take care of.”

“I am not happy about people losing their jobs, but understand streamlining of services,” she said.

Deveny blamed the losses on a variety of factors, including the changing health care industry, some doctors not referring patients to Summa claiming concerns over the quality of care and the health system “not working hard enough across our entire system to make patient access a priority.”

He also acknowledged the “turmoil at the beginning of the year,” when Summa abruptly switched emergency medicine physicians in its ERs, “certainly worsened the situation.”

The health system is working on solutions, he added.

Return to Ohio.com and read Tuesday’s Akron Beacon Journal for more on this developing story.

To read Deveny’s full memo, see below:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I finish my first 100 days back at Summa Health, I continue to absorb all that I’ve heard from you – the good, the bad and the expected. I have consistently heard that, while you have concerns about Summa’s cultural shift, you remain passionate supporters of Summa Health and our community. Now, more than ever, we need your passion and spirit of collaboration because Summa Health’s future as Akron’s locally controlled adult hospital and the area’s largest employer depends on us working together toward unified goals.

This year, inpatient and outpatient volumes are dramatically down and, as a result, we are facing staggering operating losses. Our current projections show us going from a profit of $30 million last year to a loss of more than $60 million this year. While we have considerable cash in reserve to protect us for the short term, this trend must stop immediately. In response, you will see several changes over the next month:

• We are eliminating approximately 300 positions. Roughly half of these positions are currently open and we will work closely with those impacted individuals to provide outplacement services. While the primary goal is to eliminate administrative layers in the organization, all functions are affected.

• We will be discontinuing certain services that are better provided in other more appropriate settings. We have to stick to our core mission to the community.

• We are reevaluating our ongoing capital needs. All new projects must be evaluated against our critical strategic goals. The West Tower project will continue as scheduled because, as we’ve noted, this investment is necessary to help Summa achieve its long-term mission.

• We will consolidate units and services to make sure we are operating as efficiently as possible. We cannot afford to maintain multiple half-full units or have duplicate operations in multiple functions.

While some might be quick to place blame, there are multiple factors, both internal and external impacting our organization. As far back as the middle of last year, leadership warned that 2017 would be a challenging year financially — far below the positive outcomes in 2015 and 2016. These projections came before the turmoil at the beginning of the year, which certainly worsened the situation. What are these factors?

• The healthcare industry is changing rapidly, and hospital systems are being hurt by what is occurring in Washington and in state capitals across the country. As a smaller, locally controlled health system, we suffer disproportionately.

• When a patient enters one of the larger systems in the region, they tend to utilize other caregivers and specialists within that system. Too often, that is not the case here. As an organization dedicated to population health, we must do a better job of providing for the complete health needs of patients within our system.

• A growing number of independent physicians, including some larger private practices, have admitted they are intentionally not referring their patients to Summa Health and claiming concerns about our quality of care. Despite these assertions, the quality of our care has been validated by external accreditation bodies, and we continue to deliver high-quality, compassionate care in our community. Ultimately, this goes back to our need to strengthen and repair relationships, and the time has come for Summa and our independent physicians to come together and commit to working more closely with one another for the betterment of our community. • We are not working hard enough across our entire system to make patient access a priority. Simply put, the number of days that pass before our patients are able to see their physician must improve immediately.

It’s time to get past assigning blame and work toward shared ownership of a solution. We are developing a plan with your input on solutions that we will execute together. I ask everyone to look in the mirror and ask what we can do within our own sphere of influence to improve our situation.

As we do so, we need to use the three guiding principles I laid out last month as our North Star. They are:

· The Best Care for Patients and Members

Our quality is good, and we can and should always focus on making it even better. SummaCare has returned to a 4-star rating and many of our services have recently been cited for their exceptional outcomes. We all must spread the word to counteract misinformation in the community.

Everything we do is, and should always be, about delivering high-quality care in a compassionate setting, without exception. If you are not serving the patient, you should be serving someone who is.

We take care of each other. These are difficult times, and we must be there for our co-workers as well.

• A Great Experience

Experience is about more than just the quality of care we provide. It’s about the feeling our patients, visitors and health plan members have when they enter our facilities and interact with our employees, both clinical and non-clinical.

It is the responsibility of everyone in the organization to make our patients, visitors and members feel welcome and well cared for.

Go above and beyond to offer great service and always remember to be kind.

• Growth

While we’ve focused on operational synergies over the past few years — with great results — we need to put our energy toward volume growth initiatives.

We have created a new management structure that is designed to allow for greater opportunities for growth across the organization.

To be successful, we must all start working more collaboratively to eliminate barriers to swift and decisive actions.

If we don’t do these things, I can assure you the name on our badges will no longer say Summa Health, our employees at all levels of the organization and our community will see unprecedented change, and our independent physicians will be faced with the reality of what it means to practice in a community that no longer has an independent, local option for them.

I believe today, as strongly as I did when I decided to come back to Summa, that we can be successful. Yet we must do it with eyes wide open, and I send you this letter so you can understand what is at stake and what we must do, not only for Summa but for our community. As I’ve said, many of you have expressed to me your dedication to Summa Health and the Akron community. I believe that commitment is real, and now we will all have to demonstrate it through our actions in the months ahead.

Sincerely,

Cliff Deveny, M.D.

Interim President and CEO

The Akron area has too many new hotel rooms and not enough guests, a prominent local hotelier says.

The addition of about 1,000 new hotel rooms in the last three years in the greater Akron area has resulted in low occupancy rates, says Rennick Andreoli, whose RDA Hotel Management Co.’s local holdings include the Sheraton Suites in Cuyahoga Falls and the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn and DoubleTree hotels, both in Fairlawn.

“This is not Orlando, Las Vegas,” Andreoli said. “You don’t add supply to a shrinking market. ... What makes us nervous is we still have people talking about new hotels. I don’t see the demand there to justify the new construction.”

A big fear is a room glut will lead to a price war that in turn hurts local hotel operations — while coming during a period when Andreoli and others recently spent millions of dollars to upgrade their properties to attract and retain customers.

As many as 84 new hotel rooms will be added to downtown Akron by the end of next year when renovations to the now-closed City Center Hotel are complete. And further south, just outside the Akron metro area, two hotels are being planned as part of the $600 million Johnson Controls Pro Football Hall of Fame Village project in Canton.

“We’re saying, be very, very careful,” Andreoli said.

Andreoli cites the latest industry numbers to back his thesis of an over-saturated market.

A firm that tracks, slices and dices national hotel data says that so far this year through May half of all hotel rooms in Summit and Portage counties went unbooked on average each and every night. Local occupancy rates are down from a year ago, according to the company, Tennessee-based STR Inc.

The number of major hotels in the Akron metro area grew from 73 at the start of 2014 to 80 now, STR’s figures show. Available rooms over that period increased from 6,323 to 7,031 at the end of 2016; the number of rooms available dropped slightly with the closing of the City Center Hotel in December.

Jan Freitag, senior vice president at STR who analyzes hotel industry figures, said the more recent Akron metro area numbers show declines while in Ohio and nationally numbers have been increasing.

“Occupancy [in the Akron area] has declined year to date,” Freitag said. “Half of available rooms have been empty the first five months of the year.”

STR figures show Akron metro-area hotels averaged a 49.9 percent occupancy rate for the first five months of 2017 compared to 50.9 for the same period a year ago.

Gregg Mervis, president and chief executive officer of the Summit County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the latest data he has looked at show hotel room occupancy levels slowing. But he said the last four years also have shown growth in revenue per available room, called RevPAR in the hotel industry.

“Certainly there’s been a slowing,” Mervis said. “I do believe the market is nearing a saturation point. ... Solid years of significant growth have slowed. There’s a realization that those numbers had to plateau.

The select service hotels in the Akron market are doing better than full-service hotels, he said. Select service, or limited service, hotels provide fewer amenities than full-service hotels.

Mervis said his hope is room demand generation will increase for all. Hotels need the money to reinvest in their properties and stay attractive, he said.

While hotel growth rates nationally are slowing, “in general, life in the hotel industry is good. It’s not great,” Freitag said. “We’re still growing room demand.”

According to STR, there are 189,000 hotel rooms now under construction across the nation that will open this year or in 2018.

About two-thirds of the under-construction rooms are for limited service or select service hotels, Freitag said.

“That’s where the action is,” he said.

Not everyone thinks the Akron area hotel market is doom and gloom.

For one, work is continuing on plans to convert the now-closed City Center Hotel at Cascade Plaza in Akron’s downtown into a combined apartment building and limited service hotel aimed primarily at the millennial generation. The developers hope to open the soon-to-be renovated property no later than early fall next year.

Joel Testa, president of Testa Companies in Cuyahoga Falls, opened the select service 10-story Courtyard by Marriott hotel on the north side of Akron’s downtown last year. He is now working to finish plans on the 19-story City Center property his firm, along with business partner David Brennan, intends to redevelop at a cost of $25 million.

The new Courtyard is doing well, Testa said.

“Business travelers are the majority of our guests,” he said. “We don’t capture much of the leisure traveler.”

Testa said he has narrowed the choice of hotel franchises for the City Center property to two brands; he said the success of the nearby Courtyard property led to hotel companies approaching him.

The City Center site will be renovated into 106 one- and two-bedroom apartments on its upper levels. Apartments will rent from $900 a month for the singles to $1,200 for the doubles. The still-unnamed 84-room hotel will be on the first four floors, Testa said.

The hotel and apartments are being designed with millennials in mind, Testa said.

The project also will involve changes in and around Cascade Plaza to make it easier to get in and out of the property and to make it more attractive, Testa said. Construction work inside and outside the hotel should start within the next couple of months and lead to an opening in either late summer or early fall 2018, he said.

Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ  on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ.

Sgt. C. Otis Smith knew he had to time his leap perfectly.

A runaway horse and Amish buggy with no driver were barreling toward him westbound in the wrong lane on U.S. Route 250 near state Route 83 in Wayne County around 7 a.m. Sunday.

He and the other officers who had gathered there outside their vehicles to try to stop the horse were worried that if the animal continued running to U.S. Route 30 and into Wooster, there could be a serious accident or even fatality.

So Smith, who works for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, decided to jump aboard the passing buggy to bring the horse and vehicle to a safe stop.

“You have that second when it goes by you and you grab hold [of the buggy] and jump on,” Smith said Monday morning, recalling the incident. “I had to be quick.”

A body camera from a Wooster police officer captured Smith leaping aboard.

When he got into the buggy, Smith pulled the reins, bringing the horse to a stop.

“The horse kicked up and was so exhausted that it collapsed to the ground,” Smith said.

The horse had ran about 10 miles from Apple Creek. It was seen by a veterinarian and was not injured, just tired.

Smith estimated that the horse was going anywhere from 20 to 25 mph.

The horse was running westbound in the eastbound lane of the road. Fortunately, the traffic was light at that time of day.

As the horse approached authorities, they waved their hands and yelled “Whoa!” But that didn’t slow it down.

That’s when Smith jumped aboard. Other officers can be heard laughing as he’s taken for a ride before climbing in the buggy.

Everything happened so quickly that Smith said he didn’t have time to think about a 2,000-pound animal potentially running him over or getting dragged by the buggy.

“It didn’t go through my mind,” he said.

Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ .

Akron police arrested a 30-year-old Akron woman on drug charges and charges related to a robbery at the Citizen’s Bank at 1165 E. Waterloo Road Friday.

Police say the woman entered the bank about 5:30 p.m. and handed a teller a note that said, “$50 and $100 only.” She said she was armed. The teller gave the woman an undisclosed amount of money and she fled in a gold Buick, according to the Akron Police Department’s daily report.

About 7 p.m. Friday, an officer saw a gold Buick parked on East South Street near Sherman Street. As the officer approached the vehicle, he noticed a hat and a large purse matching the description of the robber’s items.

The officer removed the woman from the car and patted her down. He found $550 in her pants pocket and a pair of sunglasses, a shirt and three notes in her purse, all items used in the bank robbery, according to the report.

Officers charged Elizabeth M. Ennemoser with aggravated robbery, possession of meth, possession of heroin, possession of drug instruments and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was booked into the Summit County Jail.

The Akron Board of Education voted Monday to cut 31 teachers, three administrators and more than 50 other staff positions for the 2017-18 school year.

The decision came after the board recessed into executive session after its regular board meeting. The reductions 
are due to the closing of Kenmore High School, Kent Middle School and Bettes Elementary.

“These educators had a positive impact on our students, and these decisions are never easy,” school board President Patrick Bravo said. “The board remains committed to operating in a fiscally responsible manner, continuing to 
make adjustments as we transform the way we provide opportunities for teaching and learning.”

The 93 staffers affected are scattered throughout the district. Those positions include three administrative positions, 31 teaching positions, 35 tutor positions, five office support positions, 13 custodial services positions and three full-time and three part-time 
hearing impaired interpreter positions.

The layoffs take effect July 14.

The reductions of several administrative positions, all of the office support positions and all of the custodial services positions have been accomplished through attrition, the district said.

“We must continue to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars,” Superintendent David James said. “… It is most unfortunate that we must let go of outstanding educators and staff due to our economic position. My hope is that the staff will be recalled to vacancies that occur to enable them to continue their service to our students and families.”

As additional openings occur, staff will be eligible for recall per their collective bargaining agreements and board policy, the district said.

Those being laid off have already been notified, said Pat Shipe, president of the Akron Education Association teachers union.

“We’re hoping those layoffs will be called back through attrition and staffing,” Shipe said. “We found out a week or so ago. It’s always concerning, class sizes go up, already thin resources are spread even thinner. We’re hoping for the best.”

She said the teaching cuts are mostly at the secondary level in various subject areas.

“Following the closures of three buildings it is unfortunate that we must reduce staff as we have reduced our footprint,” said district Chief Financial Officer Ryan Pendleton. “It is also unfortunate that the 
reductions touch every area of the organization.”

Monica L. Thomas can be reached at 330-996-3827 or mthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @MLThomasABJ  and www.facebook.com/MLThomasABJ.

The Summit County Board of Elections has certified all but one candidate who filed for the September primary — and that candidate might have lost her chance at a Tallmadge City Council at-large seat because of last year’s presidential election.

Carol Kilway has been Tallmadge’s Ward 4 representative for five years, and she’s got more than two years left on her term.

But after At-large Councilwoman Kimberly Ray decided not to run for re-election, Kilway threw her hat in the ring for the broader office.

A lifelong resident of Tallmadge, Kilway said she often fields calls from people in every ward because of her deep connections in the community.

“I feel like I’m already representing the whole city, so I thought I’d make it official,” she said. “I wouldn’t have run for it if [Ray] was running because she’s a great asset to the city.”

But on Saturday, Kilway learned from the election board that 12 of the 57 signatures she submitted as registered Democrats were not, and that caused her to fall below the required 50 signatures she needed to be a candidate for the Democratic Party primary.

Kilway said she suspects many of those signatures were Democrats who had taken a Republican ballot in last year’s presidential primary, not realizing it had changed their status with the board.

Voters are allowed to take the primary ballot for either party, and it’s not uncommon for people of both parties to temporarily switch allegiances in order to try to sway the other side’s outcome.

Officially, the voters then become a member of the party for which they took a ballot, with no opportunity to change until the following primary.

Fortunately, Kilway said, she will be able to serve the remainder of the term on her Ward 4 council seat and run for re-election in 2019.

Kilway’s disqualification means Tallmadge will no longer have a Sept. 12 primary.

There are only three Democrats left on the ballot, so all three will advance to the general election in November. They are Michael Carano, Chuck Victor and incumbent James Donovan.

They will face off against Republican candidates Bill Laymon and incumbent John Rensel, and independent Dennis Loughry for the three available at-large seats.

Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.

Seeing a couple celebrate 50 years of marriage is wonderful, but not tremendously unusual. This is tremendously unusual.

Linda and Dick Hackathorn have celebrated each of their 50 wedding anniversaries in a different state.

Which means — yep — they’ve covered them all.

Dick grew up on the Portage Lakes and graduated from Archbishop Hoban in 1963. He and Linda were married in 1967 in California and were living there during their first year, but they returned to Akron on their anniversary for his brother’s graduation.

One down.

The Hackathorns didn’t start thinking about the different-state-each-year concept until they realized in Year Four that, just through happenstance, they were four for four.

Year Two was in Colorado because Dick was stationed there in the Army, working at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, the 5-acre nuclear-bomb-proof military installation built below 2,000 feet of granite.

Year Three was in New Mexico for a wedding, and during Year Four Dick was in grad school at the University of California at Irvine.

The first “planned” state was Utah, where they stayed in a cabin at Zion National Park.

The final stop, about two weeks ago, was Branson, Mo.

The Hackathorns documented each anniversary and have posted photos and the 50-year itinerary on an elaborate website, http://hackathorn50x50.com.

But now they’ve run out of states. Maybe next year their relationship will finally sour and, with a tip of the dusty hat to Jackie Gleason, that trip will be “straight to the moon.”

SERIOUS OFFENSE

The evil mainstream media strikes again.

A TV station in Fort Myers, Fla., is being sued by a state attorney because it aired a story that left the prosecutor with “hurt feelings.”

The WBBH story was prompted by a report from the U.S. Justice Department that essentially said Prosecutor Stephen Russell had a habit of not issuing arrest warrants for suspects unless a conviction appeared to be a sure thing.

Because of that policy, the report said, Fort Myers has a much-higher-than-average number of unsolved murder cases.

The suit said the prosecutor “suffered and will continue to suffer humiliation, mental anguish, hurt feelings and injury to his reputation.”

Which led to this quip from Rubber City Radio honcho and longtime local political provocateur Ed Esposito:

“I must’ve missed [news of] the former mayor becoming a prosecutor.”

CRIME TURNABOUT

Colleague Mark J. Price copy edits dozens of stories per day, so he has a good handle on local events. And he has noticed something that goes against conventional wisdom.

“With all these recent killings in the suburbs — Copley, Lake Township, North Royalton, Beach City, Hinckley, etc. —maybe it’s time for people to start moving back to the city where it’s safer.”

McMYSTERY

Bob: Maybe you can answer this for me.

Once in a while, I will stop by McDonald’s for a sausage biscuit or just a plain biscuit.

I go to different McDonald’s depending on where I am traveling. Whether the chain is owned by the corporation or owned by an individual, the price is the same.

Sausage biscuit sandwich is $1.39. HOWEVER, and I mean a big HOWEVER, if you buy a plain biscuit, is it $1.40. A penny more for the biscuit without sausage.

I questioned this at two different McDonald’s in two different cities and both answers were, “The prices are set by the corporate office.”

You spend the same amount of time making the biscuits and less time wrapping the plain biscuit, since you do not have to take five seconds to put the sausage on it.

I am a senior and have been out of school for almost 50 years, but this doesn’t make sense to me. Because you have been in school more recently than me, I am sure you will come up with a funny answer.

Sharon M. O’Neil

Sharon Township

Sharon: You’re really putting the pressure on me to be funny.

I can’t think under pressure. I break out in a sweat and quiver and twitch and drool and expel gas and my brain freezes up. So I have no answer.

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

Summa Health and its CEO, Dr. Cliff Deveny, got strong statements of support from local government leaders Monday after the Akron health system announced hundreds of job cuts as part of a plan to return to financial viability.

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan urged the community to stand behind Summa as it repositions itself.

He said the city will work closely with the health system, which is Summit County’s largest employer.

“Just as our community depends on the care and services Summa provides for its health and welfare, Summa cannot succeed without the support and trust of the community,” Horrigan said. “I have pledged to continue to work with Dr. Deveny and the Summa leadership team to do everything necessary to ensure the organization remains a strong and independent pillar for years to come.”

Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro also pledged support to Deveny and Summa.

“The actions taken by Summa today, while certainly unfortunate for the impacted employees and their families, are also necessary to ensure that Summa Health remains a successful, independently owned organization in our community,” Shapiro said.

Akron City Councilwoman Tara Mosley-Samples, whose Ward 5 includes Summa Akron City Hospital, said, “It is always extremely difficult to watch people lose their jobs when they have families to take care of.

“I am not happy about people losing their jobs, but understand streamlining of services,” she said.

NELSON TWP.: A 21-year-old man drowned Sunday night at the Kool Lakes Family Campground on Nelson Ledge Road, the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier reports.

Joseph Zook of Kinsman attempted to swim across the lake and didn’t make it, the newspaper said.

Read the full Record-Courier report here.

After 35 pitches and two innings of a simulated game Monday at Canal Park, Indians pitcher Danny Salazar smiled as he walked back into the dugout.

He’s just a year removed from reaching 11 wins and earning a spot on the All-Star Game roster before an elbow injury derailed the tail end of his season. His return to health and to the Indians rotation was supposed to bolster a team that nearly won the World Series.

Instead, the Indians entered Monday second in the AL Central and are again without Salazar, who’s sidelined by an injured shoulder with a 3-5 record and a 5.40 ERA.

But as Salazar threw Monday, things felt different. He said he regained command of his pitches. He worked his change-up and fastball effectively against two RubberDucks hitters. When one of his throws missed the mark, he confidently threw hard with the next pitch. Above all else, he said his shoulder felt pain-free.

The Indians haven’t announced anything yet, but Salazar expects to pitch three innings in a live game Saturday to continue his rehab.

“I saw the ball coming out good. Some of the things I’ve been working on, they were there today,” Salazar said. “I’m pretty positive right now.”

His recent plights contrast with how his career took off in Akron just four years ago. He pitched seven games for the then-Aeros in 2013, but by the end of the year he was pitching against the Tampa Bay Rays in a wild card playoff game in Cleveland. He struggled in just four innings against the experienced Rays, but his future as a starter was bright.

“That was amazing, especially with starting here and moving to Columbus [Clippers] and then from there to Cleveland,” Salazar said. “I think all that, if you have a great routine, if you stay healthy, if you work really hard, you can do that anytime.”

After Salazar’s session ended Monday, he huddled with a coaching staff that included Ruben Niebla, the minor league pitching coordinator in the Indians system.

At the end of May, the Indians moved Salazar into the bullpen, a move that was widely considered a demotion. However, Niebla said the staff wanted to try to re-familiarize Salazar with the physical demands of being a starting pitcher.

“We were trying to make sure that we continued giving him some rest and seeing if we could get him past it, but the best thing ultimately was to give him an extended breather,” Niebla said.

He said catcher Juan De La Cruz and infielder Mark Mathias, both of whom hit in Monday’s simulated game, provided the coaches with optimistic feedback on Salazar’s performance. Salazar brought high intensity to the session and repeated delivery mechanics the coaching staff has recently preached, all good progress in Niebla’s eyes.

“He’s healthy and he felt good. A lot of his confidence goes back to how healthy he feels,” Niebla said of Salazar. “I think what we can expect is basically getting him back into a starter routine now.”

Akron police are asking for the public’s help in solving a June 4 theft at the Victoria’s Secret store at Chapel Hill Mall.

Three suspects entered the store at 4:50 p.m. and grabbed a large amount of clothing and ran out.

Police posted a video of the theft on Youtube and Facebook.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact Akron detectives at 330-375-2490.

CLEVELAND: Mike Napoli had one of the best seasons of his career in 2016, but that isn’t what he remembers most about his time in Cleveland.

To a greater extent, it’s the relationships he built. Napoli was often praised as a leader in the clubhouse and a positive influence on many of the younger players. He said in April that he had stayed in touch with many players and manager Terry Francona.

It’s also the good he was able to do with the Party at Napoli’s promotion, which raised well over $100,000 for 
Cleveland Clinic hospitals.

“Well, everyone just looks at the baseball part, and it was a special year or me on the baseball field,” Napoli said Monday when he returned to Progressive Field as a member of the Texas Rangers. “But the relationships I created on and off the field, being able to do the charity stuff, the whole Party at Napoli’s thing was unbelievable with how the fans took to it and to raise all that money.

“Overall, it was a special year and it’ll be something I can hopefully tell my kids someday about. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Napoli has brought the Party At Napoli’s charity with him to Texas, effectively adding an Arlington branch to the venture started by Nate Crowe, an Indians fan originally from Parma, and his well-known signs.

Prior to the game and his ring presentation, Napoli spent time in Francona’s office on Monday.

“He came over here, he was sitting on my couch for a while and it was funny because the guys would walk by and see him and just the reaction, like a couple guys came in and almost tried to tackle him — tried,” Francona said. “It was just funny. It was fun to see their reaction to him because he’s so well thought of, myself included.

“And he knows we don’t want him to beat us. I think he probably would respect that. I respect it in him that you’re competitive, you want to win. But that doesn’t take away any of the fondness or respect or appreciation that we have for him. And that’s all in the present tense, not just the past tense because he was here.”

Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians.

NORTH CANTON: A full-time city firefighter and part-time police officer was killed in a one-vehicle accident Sunday night in Southeast Ohio.

Dru Rhodes, 39, of North Canton, was partially ejected and suffered severe head trauma when his pickup lost control on a curve on County Road 59 in Monroe County, WTRF (Channel 7) reported. He was not wearing a seat belt, the television station said.

An 8-year-old passenger suffered minor injuries.

“Officer Rhodes will be greatly missed and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family,” the North Canton Police Department posted on its Facebook page.

COLUMBUS: One of the nation’s largest online charter schools has been ordered to stop using taxpayer dollars on television ads attacking a state effort to claw back $60 million in funding.

The Columbus Dispatch reports Ohio Auditor Dave Yost sent a letter to the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow on Friday, saying spending on the commercials is “impermissible.”

ECOT spokesman Neil Clark confirmed the school was using state funds to pay for the ads. Clark says ECOT has a right to try to convince the Ohio Department of Education and lawmakers to abandon the repayment effort. School officials have said being forced to pay back the funds could be crippling for the cyber school, which has 15,000 students.

The school has been running commercials for at least a year. In one of the latest, a former ECOT student says, “The Ohio Department of Education wants to end school choice and stop parents from deciding what’s best for their children. That’s why I and the over 36,000 students and alumni of ECOT are hoping our elected leaders fix what’s broken and save our school.”

The education department says the e-school didn’t have documentation of student logins to justify more than half of the nearly $109 million it got for the 2015-16 school year and should return that portion.

ECOT has argued the department improperly and retroactively changed attendance-tracking standards and that its original agreement with the state allowed logging attendance differently.

The school plans to lay off 350 employees next month including teachers, administrators and support staff.

Clark declined to say how much the school has spent on the ads, but said stopping the commercials would not save any jobs.

CLEVELAND: A seven-run deficit turned into a three-run lead in two innings. Thirteen unanswered runs. An ill manager who had to leave the dugout. Some scattered showers. An apparent beatdown transformed into a memorable come-from-behind victory.

Monday night’s game just about had it all, ending with the Indians pulling off a wild comeback to beat the Texas Rangers 15-9 at Progressive Field.

The win snapped the Indians’ three-game losing streak — meaning they still haven’t lost more than three in a row since July 2015 — and, coupled with the Minnesota Twins’ 4-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox, lifted them back into first place in the American League Central.

The Rangers (38-39) pummeled Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco. The first four batters of the game scored, highlighted by Nomar Mazara’s RBI double and Adrian Beltre’s three-run home run to make it 4-0. In the second inning, Elvis Andrus added another three-run blast, putting the Rangers up 7-1.

Joey Gallo ended Carrasco’s night in the fourth with a solo home run. Carrasco gave up eight runs in only 3⅓ innings. Dan Otero entered but the barrage continued with Andrus’ second home run of the night, a solo shot that made it 9-2 in the fourth.

By the end of the sixth inning, the Indians (41-35) had erased that deficit and then some, scoring four runs in the fifth and another five in the sixth to take a 12-9 lead.

Within those two innings alone as the Indians slashed away at the Rangers’ lead, Lonnie Chisenhall drove in three runs on two singles, Francisco Lindor drove in two with two singles, Roberto Perez walked in a run, Bradley Zimmer scored a run with a fielder’s choice, Jason Kipnis drove in one with a sacrifice fly to center field and Carlos Santana singled home a run.

Now with the lead, the Indians continued to pile on in the seventh, bludgeoning the Rangers with four doubles and three runs. Santana, Perez and Zimmer all doubled to score runs in the inning to extend the Indians’ lead to 15-9 on a season-high 19 hits.

In the end, the Indians scored 13 unanswered runs. All nine hitters in the starting lineup had at least one hit and reached base at least twice. Kipnis was the only starter to not record at least two hits. The night also included some scattered rain showers that threatened a delay.

After arguably the worst offensive stretch of their season over the weekend against the Twins, the Indians lineup put it all together Monday night. After they went 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position against the Twins, the Indians were 11-for-28 on Monday. It was the most at-bats with runners in scoring position in a single game by the Indians since 1974.

Indians manager Terry Francona left the dugout at some point prior to the fourth inning with an illness and did not return. Bench coach Brad Mills managed the rest of the game. Francona also left the dugout on June 13, when he experienced dehydration and a faster-than-normal heart beat. No further details were available.

Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ.