Note to readers:

The following item is a written record of the Ward 6 Akron City Council meeting from May 21, 2026, compiled by Akron Documenter Wittman Sullivan. It is not a reported story.

Documenters are residents who are trained to observe and document local government meetings. Their notes are edited before publication for clarity and accuracy — unless quotation marks are used, all text is paraphrased.

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalakron.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line.

Summary

  • Community members voiced their concerns about a nuisance property on Alaho Street in Akron’s Ellet neighborhood, where residents are playing loud music, shooting BB guns into neighboring fences, and letting dogs out without leashes. Neighbors have video evidence of the offenses and have been reporting issues to the Akron Police Department. APD Officer Eric Wagner asked residents to continue collecting evidence and reporting the issues. 
  • Members of the City of Akron Tree Commission explained the commission was created by a 2016 ordinance to enforce best practices for tree planting, removal and maintenance. They work on neighborhood plans for educating residents through community tree-planting events in city parks. 
  • Residents and Ward 6 Council Member Brad McKitrick are concerned about off-road motor vehicles trespassing and breaking traffic laws, putting the riders and others at risk of injury. 

Documenter follow-up questions

  • What are the punishments for residents who violate city policies around devil strip trees? 
  • Are neighborhood planting plans publicly released?

Ward 6 meeting overview 

  • Before the meeting, community members sat in an auxiliary space in the Ellet Community Center, since a yoga class was in the main space until 6 p.m.
  • Ward 6 Council Member Brad McKitrick started the meeting at 6:07 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Moped, four-wheeler drivers create safety concerns on High Grove Boulevard

  • Akron Police Officer Eric Wagner said there was a targeted shooting into a structure after a man started dating a new girl, and the ex-boyfriend, after being blocked by the girlfriend, came to the new boyfriend’s house with an accomplice and fired into the house. They were arrested. One 17-year-old was charged with unlawful possession and the other with felonious assault. 
  • He said the department has gone from 24 community engagement officers across 12 districts to just six. He is not ignoring issues, he said, but staffing challenges and neighbor-to-neighbor disputes make it difficult to get to every case. 
  • A community member asked about kids riding off-road motor vehicles (mopeds, dirt bikes, four-wheelers, etc.) playing chicken with vehicles and running red lights on High Grove Boulevard.
    • Wagner said if they can call the department with details about the vehicles or where the kids live, the police can safely intervene without vehicle chases. 
  • McKitrick asked how properties are designated as nuisance properties.
    • Wagner said that after three nuisance code citations, it is declared a nuisance property — fines after that are based on administrative and hourly employee wages, including for police interventions.
  • A community member asked about the police officer shortage.
    • Wagner said recruitment has dropped from thousands when he joined to just 200 taking the entrance exam recently. That, with retirements, makes it difficult to maintain 400 officers at a time. 

Go deeper: Read our full explainer on how and where to report nuisances in your neighborhood.

Noise, trash, roaming dogs cause problems in Ellet neighborhood

  • A community member said he has complained about a house on Alaho Street, including issues with noise, unleashed dogs, trespassing and destruction of property. Four adults and three kids live in rented rooms with a baby on the way. The house is not a rental property. He said they’ve never had an issue in this Ellet neighborhood until now.
    • McKitrick said there are trash and bikes in the yard.
    • A community member said police officers have visited 15 times.
    • A community member said when they try to talk to the neighbor, he turns up the music and laughs.
    • A community member said the kids shoot BB guns through their fences and siding.
      • Wagner said it’s legal to possess a BB gun in Akron but not to fire it within city limits.
    • A community member said they are worried that another neighbor with an alcohol problem may harm the residents of the Alaho Street house.
    • Wagner said community members should continue to report the issue to 311 or the police non-emergency line in order to build a record of complaints, including through paper and recorded records that, if reported as evidence to an officer, can be taken into evidence through an officer-provided link.
      • He said juvenile cases like this are difficult since juveniles are often released quickly after a crime.
        • Community members raised questions and concerns including jail overcrowding and if parents are being held responsible for their childrens’ actions. 
  • A community member said they are not frustrated with police because they understand the understaffing issue they face. 

A closer look at Ellet

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Akron Tree Commission supports plantings across city

  • City of Akron Tree Commission Vice Chair Gabe Forte said the commission does outreach and education about city street trees and general beautification. They also help residents with trees planted in the devil strip.
    • City of Akron Tree Commissioner Sandy Agosta was also present.
  • City of Akron Arborist Matthew Knull said Frederick Law Olmstead‘s apprentice, Warren Manning developed tree-lined streets and city parks in Akron in the 1910s, including Goodyear Heights. Manning also designed the gardens at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens.
    • In 2016, Akron passed a tree ordinance that established street tree removal, maintenance and planting guidelines and created a new tree commission. It started meeting monthly in 2021 — meetings talk about urban forestry and are virtual on Zoom and YouTube. The tree commission can be reached at treecommission@akronohio.gov.
    • Akron is the largest city to complete a comprehensive smart tree inventory, in which Davey Trees tracked 55,000 street trees and 4,000 park trees.
    • The inventory will help manage the 10-year cycles of pruning, which is more than the five-year state-recommended cycle.
    • Currently 1,800 trees are planted annually, 850 removed, and 2,000 pruned, with a goal of increasing pruning to 4,000 annually. Between 2017 and 2025, Akron’s tree canopy increased from 33% to 36%. The city is trying to fill every devil strip with street trees. While pruning, the city also completes risk assessments for health and stability. 
  • Forte said the commission does programming like Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts planting trees at Lane Field on Arbor Day and a community tree planting at Patterson Park in the fall of 2025.
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Project ACORN trains aspiring arborists

  • Project ACORN trains young people in urban forestry, where some project members are hired full-time by the city. Akron is the smallest ACORN city.
    • Knull said ACORN is grant-funded and just completed its second eight-week cohort with six to seven students.
  • Forte said they do oak management programming to prevent tree diseases from spreading in local communities and destroying entire blocks of trees at once.
    • Knull said black knot attacks certain smaller non-native cherry trees and is spread by beetles and roots. In Ellet, 40 cherry trees on one street need to be removed. The disease, if caught early, can be stopped by cutting infected twigs 1 foot beyond the infection. 
  • Knull said they still rely on 311 for urgent tree issues, and people can request tree planting and removals on 311 or report other issues. 
  • A community member asked if the removed trees are automatically replaced?
    • Knull said they aren’t, since tree planting is usually part of small neighborhood planting plans, as neighborhoods will have similar tree planting best practices determined by devil strip designs, but residents can still request a tree. 
  • Knull said “vicious V” tree trimming, where trees are trimmed away from power lines, are conducted by utility companies and not the city. 

Ward 6 updates

  • A Freedom BLOC volunteer said the Black-led organization for racial and economic justice is proposing two housing ballot initiatives. 
  • McKitrick said the post office food drive in Ellet collected 2,000 pounds more food than last year.
  • In September, McKitrick said ward meetings will change from the third Thursday of every month to the second Tuesday of every month.
    • There will not be an August ward meeting during the council’s summer recess.
  • McKitrick said Akron Fire Station #15 earned the Star of Life Award for responding to a breech birth.
  • A community member asked about street paving.
    • McKitrick listed the Ward 6 resurfacing list.
  • A community member asked if the skate park at Derby Downs has a dirt bike track.
    • McKitrick said there is a bicycle track being misused by dirt bikers and he is worried that somebody will die or be seriously injured by the vehicles. He said he watched an ATV crash into a hydrant.

The meeting ended at 7:22 p.m.

Akron Documenters trains and pays residents to document local government meetings with notes and live-tweet threads. We then make those meeting summaries available as a new public record.