The city of Akron is creating a new department to better serve neighborhoods. Deputy Service Director John Valle is the director of the Neighborhood Assistance Department, allowing the city to do a better job of coordinating services to neighborhoods.

"We have done a ton out there, but we just need to package that," said Valle.

He points to the $1.4 billion on Akron's 21 neighborhoods over the last ten years as good reason to make further investments.  Valle says the new set up will save the city manpower and save residents frustration because they won't have to deal with numerous agencies to address problems at a single property.

Mayor Don Plusquellic says there have been times when seven different inspectors were needed to address seven different problems on a single property.  The Neighborhood Assistance Program is expected to alleviate that.

Valle says combining several services under one department will enable a more concerted effort to address multiple problems at once.

"If we get a large amount of calls in the 3-1-1 center about a particular neighborhood or the police department is getting a large amount of calls about a particular neighborhood, we'll pull everybody in, everybody that's involved in this and we're going to figure out the best plan of attack," said Valle.