Congresswoman Sykes Fights for Akron/Canton Railway Stop

It's the Akron podcast for Friday, September 12, 2025.

Our website, akron podcast.com today on the show, was putting all that money into Lock three worth it?

We've also got a story about the sewer prices maybe going up in Akron.

Bridgestone is maybe offering some free driving classes.

And we're going to start with Congresswoman Amelia Sykes.

Actually doing something like this is, you know, as much as I make fun of our politicians, this one makes sense.

And she's seeking an Akron Canton passenger rail stop in Ohio.

It turns out that Congressman Sykes, who also serves as vice ranking member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, she sent a letter to government government governor Mike DeWine and ODOT.

The director there, Pamela Borton, and she expressed a concern that an Akron Canton stop wasn't included as part of the 2025 state of Ohio rail plan.

The draft was released on the 26th and is expected to be finalized on the 18th.

The Akron Canton region is the fourth largest region in Ohio and the only large metropolitan area without a proposed passenger rail line, wrote Sykes.

She's a Democrat whose district covers all of Summit county and half of Stark county, and she said the region offers travel connections through the Akron Canton Regional Airport, higher education opportunities at five district institutions, several health care systems, countless manufacturing companies, and various attractions such as, duh, the Pro Football hall of Fame, the Akron Art Museum, the Akron Zoo, the Cuyahoga Valley national park, she said.

Furthermore, the business community, led by the Akron Canton Advocacy alliance, has united to advocate for the additional of a passenger rail service to stop in the region, recognizing the economic benefits and increased connectivity it would bring to the area.

So, you know, as much as I make fun of our congresspeople and everybody else, to me this seems like a no brainer.

And kudos to Ms. Sykes for sticking up for us.

As I said in the last episode, I was down in downtown Akron, went down to the Civic and got to see the new Lock 3.

And if you remember, they invested $17 million in improvements and they received funding from three different sources, the Akron Knight foundation and some private donors.

And so the question is, you know, does it really help?

Because, you know, it looks pretty and all, but in the end, what are the benefits?

And they said an estimated 85,000 people have visited the park for concerts and festivals, including the Akron Pride Festival, which brought in about 40,000 people.

And the concerts down there have generated about $250,000 in ticket sales.

And they said both the revenue and the crowd size are about double what Lock 3 has seen in several recent years.

And at this point, it's only September.

And so it's really interesting to see how.

I mean, I'm here to tell you, they got parking.

They've got some cool stuff going on down there.

I know they just had the Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival.

So check out the.

I'll put a link to lock three.

I'm sure that's on our resource section.

But downtown Akron has some cool things going on.

Well, as you know, Akron had to do a lot of updates.

That's why downtown was ripped up for a long time, fixing a lot of sewer lines.

And the there's some legislation going through that intends to avoid a $10 million shortfall expected by 2027.

So we made all these repairs.

Apparently, they probably came in a little over budget or in some cases, a lot over budget.

But if you're an Akron household, you should expect to see your bill rise from roughly $7 a month up to $22.

And then by 2029, yeah, it's going up to probably $37 a month, depending on upcoming federal court decisions in the city's consent decree with the Environmental Protection agency, which initiated $1.2 billion in sewer fixes over the last decade.

And City Council is expected to vote later this month on the rate increase legislation.

Now, this is not something that has happened lightly, says the mayor.

He says the city had to do decades of work in one decade because of previous underinvestment.

The mayor also said the sewer system needs to fund itself, and this legislation creates some level of consistency and expectations for residents with billing.

So again, the average month, the residential sewer bill, according to calculations from the city, would increase to 4,639 in 2025.

So that first thing we read, I don't know where that came from, but that's.

Now we're up to 46 bucks.

And they say in 2026, $53.63.

2027, 55, 56 bucks.

Basically $63 or $78 in 2028.

So in 2029, only four years from now, your bill is going to be somewhere between $69 and $84.

The project sewer bills are based on an annual 5.3 usage rate increase over the next four years and a flat monthly charge of $5 in 2026 and 2027.

Basically, you better start putting money away if you want to be able to flush your toilet.

I just discovered this if of Big Chuck and Little John.

Little John, because Big Chuck, unfortunately passed away at the age of 90 back in January and Little John is presenting the Big Adios Muchacho show.

This is on September 13th through the 14th at Emedio and Sons Banquet center on Bath Road in Cuyahoga Falls.

He says we never said goodbye to the fans.

Adios Muchachos is a goodbye to the fans.

This is it.

Thanks for the ride.

He joined Big Chuck as a co host back in 1979 as a direct descendant, I didn't know this.

Of Ernie Gulardi Anderson's Shock theater from the 1960s.

A 4 foot 3 Cleveland jeweler, Rinaldi had appeared in vaudeville style skits for 10 years, the Houlihan and Big Chuck show before succeeding Houlihan.

So it will be similar to Gilardi Fest, the Cleveland themed convention that debuted in 1977.

Rinaldi and Chitowski made their final public appearance back in 2019.

And so it sounds like this may be the last hurrah for fans who grew up watching Cleveland's light night horror host and a celebration of pop culture and nostalgia in northeast Ohio.

They say a dozen comic book artists will be in attendance and celebrity guests may associated with a TV show will be people like Houlihan.

That's kind of cool.

Big Stash, they say.

Oh boy, all sorts of names.

Ed Flash, Ference, Bill Ward, Vicky Rambo, Kevin, son of Ghoul Scarpino.

So it'll be a lot of fun.

Little John says there'll be panel discussions every hour.

Shock Theater will screen old time movies.

Jungle Bob will bring a menagerie of animals.

The Take 2 band will perform and of course there'll be a pizza eating contest.

And this is From Saturday from 10 to 6 and Sunday 10 to 4 and at Amedio's Expo center that's at 48 East Bath Road in Cuyahoga Falls.

In just a second we'll have people behaving badly.

You know I really want this segment to go away, but this is one that I was like, what?

So apparently two guys got into an argument on social media and then they met up to fight.

Like what are you doing later?

I don't know.

I'm going to get together and kick your butt.

And it turns out that then a third person showed up and shot the two guys that were going to fight.

This was on the 800 block of Barbara Avenue at Wilboth Arlington Homes.

The police said the fight escalated and other individuals became involved and someone fired multiple shots.

The victims were 22 and 25 and they were treated for non life threatening injuries.

Then a 34 year old woman was arrested In a box cutter stabbing.

After, of course, fighting.

Where?

On a bus?

Yeah.

So she was arrested and charged for stabbing a woman with a box cutter.

And after two got in a fight on an Akron bus.

Can we please, like literally, we need to just start talking to each other and we need to learn to de escalate.

How about going.

Wait, wait, wait.

What are you trying to say?

I don't understand.

Try that one.

Hold on a second.

What do you mean?

Okay, let me now voice my opinion.

Let's see if we can come to an understanding.

This is around the 500 block of East Market Street.

And this was around 4 o' clock in the afternoon.

Officers arrived and found a Summa Health police department officer applying pressure to the 23 year old woman's wounds as she lay on the sidewalk across the street from Summa Health Akron.

Well, if you're going to get stabbed, you know, that'd be a good place to be, I guess.

But geez Louise, can we stop shooting and stabbing each other?

It's ridiculous.

And this one makes me scratch my head.

Bridgestone, better known as Firestone.

Back in the day, they're offering free driving lesson tips for teens.

And I'll explain why that's confusing, but they're offering this.

It's called the Teens Drive Smart program.

This is this Saturday, or I guess next Saturday at Firestone stadium, located at 1575 Firestone Parkway.

We've all seen it.

And the Teen Smart program offers driving lessons and safety tips to helping young drivers make better decisions while driving, according to this new release.

Now, they say unlike traditional driver's education, Teens Drive Smart lessons cover accident prevention and tips for driving in challenging weather, which is good because we got some of that coming our way.

Additional programming highlights include basic car maintenance and dangers of distracted driving.

The free program is open to participants.

Again, this is called Bridgestone Free Driving Lesson Tips for Teens.

Right.

Teens Drive Smart.

And the participants can be between the ages of 15.

So I guess maybe.

Don't you have to be 16 to get your temps?

I don't know, 16 to 21.

And I'm like, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure when you're 21 or 20, you're no longer a teen.

But if you reach that age range and you have a valid driver's license or a learner's permit.

Hence the 15 year old attendees who have at least 30 hours of driving experience will benefit the most from the program.

I'll put a link to the article and there's a sign up form there for you to check out.

And the last time I looked at our calendar, I had not updated it, apparently.

But tonight, D.C. young flies at the Goodyear Theater.

If you haven't been to the Goodyear Theater, it's so cool.

It's a great venue and parking is literally right behind it.

It's awesome tomorrow, great night for it.

We got some good weather.

Weird Al Yankovic is going to be at Blossom.

Jimmy Vaughn will be at the Kent Stage.

The Doobie Brothers with the Coral Reef brand is going to be at blossom on the 17th, on the 21st and evening with Leo Kotke, that's the 21st and evening with Andy Summers that's also at the Kent stage on the 23rd.

John Waite will be at the Kent stage on the 26th of September.

So there were a couple in there that I missed before, of course.

Go to akronpodcast.comevents for the latest stuff to see what you're missing.