Residents get peek behind curtain of Cleveland’s News 5 from West Akron anchor

• Ward 2 City Council Member Phil Lombardo started the meeting at 6:01 p.m.
  • Ward 10 City Council Member Sharon Connor and Akron Public School Board Member Nathan Jarosz were also present.
  • Lombardo said his campaign manager helps to schedule meetings.
• Lombardo said the Ward 2 baseball game will be in July at 7 17 Credit Union Park with $8 seating in line with third base and a free hot dog. The first 1,000 fans will get a free Jose Ramirez bobble head.
  • Keep Akron Beautiful is looking for a volunteer for a month to water a flower bed at the corner of Dan Street and Glenwood Avenue in North Hill. 
  • The annual Ward 2 cleanup is May 9 at 8:30 a.m. at Patterson Park Community Center, led by Keep Akron Beautiful, to make “this place look sparkling despite the orange barrels.”

Channel 5 anchor graduated from Firestone High School

• DiTirro said she graduated from Firestone High School, Akron School for the Arts Visual Art program, and participated in choirs and musicals. She studied TV Broadcasting at Ohio State University and has worked in broadcasting in Wheeling, Cincinnati, Grand Rapids and now in Cleveland since July 2023.
  • She said she has long ties to Akron and lives in West Akron, her parents live in West Akron, and she loves Dontino’s in Akron.
  • She hosts Good Morning Cleveland on Channel 5 on Saturdays at 8 a.m. and Sundays at 10 a.m. Stories come from her listening to residents and reading social media, the Akron Beacon Journal and Signal Akron posts. She works with a photographer and producers to write 90-second to two-minute segments. Lombardo gives her some stories, she said, like the street light outage story. 
  • She works from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday through Friday and 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekends.
• Lombardo asked if she works on investigative or feel-good reporting
  • DiTirro said News 5 has an investigative team that she’ll sometimes pass ideas to. Still, she has the freedom to focus on community stories and accountability pieces as a morning news anchor.

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DiTirro fields questions about news decisions

• A community member asked her to cover the National Night Out against crime on Aug. 4. 
• A community member asked what her favorite story has been.
  • DiTirro said in 2024, they covered the recycled Cleveland E-Scooters that were refurbished at Summit E-Waste Recycling (the company no longer rehabs scooters), which led to people across the country buying all of them.
• Lombardo asked how hard it is to switch between sad and feel-good stories.
  • Ditirro said, “It is tough,” but her producer helps her write a balanced show with smooth transitions.
• A community member asked if she goes to churches and communities that read to children.
  • DiTirro said she goes but doesn’t usually make stories out of it.
• A community member asked how community concerns turn into a story.
  • DiTirro said she’ll take larger community concerns to a team of producers and executive producers. Stories come from curiosity usually, but timely news such as crime usually takes precedent. She said the E-Scooter story came from curiosity.
• A community member asked her to cover speed tables.
• Connor asked how community members can spread good news.
  • She said that community members elevating good news to her helps.
• A community member with Progress Through Preservation said they need more time to find investors to save Firestone Plant #1. She said Tony Troppe hasn’t been given enough time for projects like saving St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in University Park. 

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Residents raise concerns about Cuyahoga Street safety, vacant houses

• A community member asked for a plan for Cuyahoga Street and asked why Sackett Avenue has a speed trap trailer.
  • Lombardo said it was added after resident requests.
  • The community member said his 31 calls have been ignored even after a family was killed on the 1600 block of Cuyahoga Street. He said he’s been asking for help since 2025, and a dead-end road got action before a street with an issue of head-on collisions and deadly speeding issues.
  • An Akron Police Department (APD) officer said there were multiple resident complaints on Sackett.
• A community member said they are putting a permanent speed table next to his house on Gorge Boulevard and said people will speed after passing it.
  • Lombardo said the maintenance with the rubber tables is too much, but if anybody has concerns about asphalt speed tables, they can speak to the city council on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. during the public comment period.

Issues with vacant houses, potholes also raised to council member

• A community member asked Lombardo about a vacant corner house in the community.
  • Lombardo said the house should have come down. He doesn’t know the schedule since about 50 homes are demolished annually, but the city can’t schedule them since fire-damaged homes always take top priority. 
  • He said when he was riding with the police once and they checked on a vacant house at 857 Gorge Blvd., and when they knocked on the door, they were greeted by a squatter who had removed the condemnation sign.

Go deeper: Read our full explainer on how Akron decides which derelict houses to tear down next.

• A community member said panhandlers near state Route 8 are getting close to cars.
  • An Akron Police Department officer said they need a vendor’s license and may not go beyond the curb, but people shouldn’t pay them because it will be spent on drugs. 
  • A community member said people could give out “blessing bags” with toiletries and basic needs. 
• A community member said kids have been hiding money in hole in a rotted tree in her yard. She asked when the city would remove the tree.
  • Lombardo said there isn’t a schedule, but if he gets an address, he can check with the municipal arborist.
  • A community member said it can take up to six months to remove a tree.
  • A community member asked why the city removes devil strip trees.
    • Lombardo said it is usually a disease or sidewalk damage.
  • A community member asked who’s liable for damage if a devil strip tree falls on their house.
    • Lombardo said that is what home insurance is for.
• A community member said a pothole keeps reopening near North High School on Tallmadge Avenue.
  • Lombardo said they are looking for repaving grants in 2027, but it also needs utility work. 

May speaker will be Akron Chamber of Commerce president

• Lisa Mansfield from Vantage Aging said the Senior Summit Expo on May 6 at St. George’s Fellowship Hall in Fairlawn will have more than 75 vendor booths. 

• Lombardo said Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce President Steve Millard will be the meeting guest in May, WAKR will be at the meeting in June, and University of Akron President R.J. Nemer will be a guest speaker in July or August.

The meeting ended at 6:54 p.m. 

Find your neighborhood news: See all of our reporting on Ward 2 neighborhoods North Hill, Merriman Valley, and Chapel Hill in one place.