What if you offered to give away a building if the new owner would pay to move it, and had no takers. That's exactly what happened to the City Of Akron when it offered to give away the former Board of Realtors building in the 400 block of South High Street.

Mike Teodecki of the City of Akron Engineering Bureau says the building was in good shape. It was built in 1979.

The city will now absorb the cost of demolishing the former Board of Realtors Building on South High Street to make way for 250 more parking spaces. The spaces will be used by students who will live in new student apartments under construction adjacent to the property.

Teodecki says the city has made deals to successfully move other salvageable buildings in the past, but not this time.

The California developer who built the new Goodyear corproate headquarters in East Akron says he's about to sign an agreement with a national hotel chain to build a new hotel on the site of a former Goodyear parking lot.

Stuart Lichter, founder and president of Industrial Realty Group,  tells the Akron Beacon Journal he isn't revealing the name of the new hotel operator just yet, but says construction could begin in the next few months.

Lichter says the old Goodyear headquarters building on East Market Street also has its first tenant, but he won't disclose the identity of the tenant until he receives their approval. Lichter tells the newspaper the new tenants would occupy 40,000 square feet of the building.

Lichter owns the 400 acre east Akron site where the new headquarters and the hotel will be located, and is trying to fill 800,000 square feet inside the old headquarters buildings, which he purchased.

Goodyear is moving its employees into the new corporate headquarters building by April. with the move occuring in phases this month and next.

On the web : ohio.com

Akron Police have made two arrests in connection with two separate robberies in the city.

29-year old Justin M Harris, of Summit Road in Norton, was charged with Aggravated Robbery and Kidnapping. Harris allegedly entered the Little Caesars on East Ave and fired one round and demanded money. He then forced two employees to the rear of the store at gun point and took one employees wallet before running out the back door.

28-year old Joseph Burnett,of Copley Road in Akron was charged with Aggravated Robbery, Kidnapping, Carrying a Concealed Weapon and Weapons under Disability. Joseph allegedly entered the Dollar General on Vernon Odom Boulevard and demanded cash at gun point. He ordered employees to the back of the store demanding they open the safe. When an officer entered the store Burnett fled out the back door. Joseph Burnett was apprehended and found to have a weapon on Dover Ave.

A smaller list of highway projects planned in the city of Akron this year according to the city's traffic construction manager Jim Weber. "Unfortunately a lot of that's due to a lack of federal funding. We have projects we'd like to do . We have plans done," Weber tells AkronNewsNow.

Weber says they have several road projects ready to go but they'll have to wait until next year or even later due to the funding reductions.

Among the projects due for construction this summer is the improvement of Wilbeth Road. " From Dallas Avenue which is just east of South Main Street to Firestone Parkway, we're going to put all new pavement in, new curbs, new sidewalks, new street lights. That's going to be all new," says Jim Weber. Weber says that portion of Wilbeth Road will have to be closed for about a month for construction. Detours will be post when the project begins.

East Market Street will also see improvements. " On East Market Street between Route 8 and Arlington Street it's a signalization project. And if you've noticed throughout the city we've been doing a lot of these signalization projects where we'll putting in new signals, and you'll see cameras going up with the signals. All of this is tied in through a fiber optic network back to our traffic control center where we can monitor the traffic, and make adjustments as neccessary ," says Weber.

The Thornton Street bridge near the Akron Post Office will be getting a new surface. That will mean closing the bridge for about three months. the project will begin right after spring graduation at the University of Akron according to Jim Weber. Their goal is to have the bridge re-opened by the time classes start in the fall.

A boil water alert is in effect for a portion of Cuyahoga Falls.

Today following a valve replacement on Valley Road, the water dropped below pressure. As a safeguard in accordance with EPA regulations, a boil alert has been issued for Valley Road between North Haven Boulevard and 19th Street until Wednesday at 3 p.m. Residents are advised to boil their water for at least two minutes before using.

A 20-year old Clinton man was killed in a one car crash early Friday morning on Cleveland-Massillon Road near Luna Lake Drive in New Franklin.

The State Highway Patrol says Aaron Friend of Cleveland Massillon Road was speeding when his car went off the right side of the road, struck a ditch, and then went airborne striking a tree. Friend was dead at the scene.

Friend was wearing a seat belt. It's unknown at this time whether alcohol or drugs were a factor.

The crash remains under investigation.

Akron Police are looking for a robber who took money from a cell phone store late Thursday afternoon.

Shortly after 5 Thursday night, the T-Mobile Store,on North Hawkins Avenue, was robbed at gunpoint. The employees reported the suspect entered the store armed with a handgun and demanded all of the money. One employee emptied the cash register into a black and white, striped, plastic bag that the suspect was carrying. The suspect then demanded that the employee take him to the safe. Two other employees in the back room were ordered down on the floor. The suspect then took money and cell phones before fleeing the store.

No injuries were reported.

The suspect is a black male, 24 – 26 years old, 5’09” – 5’10”, 160 – 180 lbs., with black hair and a goatee. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark blue jeans.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Akron Police Department.

The city of Akron will not return an arsenal of weapons belonging to Akron veteran Larry Modic after the city tore down his condemned house on Manchester Road. The city in a new release says the weapons were used to make death threats to city employees, and will not be returned to Modic unless a court orders them returned.

Modic had requested that the rifles and ammunition be returned to him.

During a search of his property, before the home demolition, police officers found a loaded large caliber rifle with a scope, two other loaded large caliber rifles, a loaded shotgun and a loaded handgun, additional ammunition and body armor.

News Release From The City Of Akron

Akron, Ohio (March 14, 2013) – Lawrence Modic, a property owner who made numerous serious threats to City employees leading up to the demolition of his condemned property, is now seeking to have his arsenal of weapons returned to him.

In the beginning of the media frenzy surrounding this case, the City was tipped off by a reliable source that there was a stash of weapons being stored by Modic in his property that the City had condemned. This tip came on the heels of very real and menacing threats to City employees as they were carrying out their responsibilities on behalf of the neighborhood. The threats included death threats. The threats were not only made to the City workers, but were reiterated by Modic as Modic “showed off” his loaded rifles to the source.

Subsequent to the threats and information about the location of weapons, Modic gave permission to the officers to search the condemned property. During that search, the officers found a loaded large caliber rifle with scope, two other loaded large caliber rifles, a loaded shotgun, a loaded large caliber handgun, additional ammunition, body armor, and MRE’s (military style ready to eat meals). Then, when the City permitted Modic to remove the items he had previously abandoned at the property, Modic revealed that there was another loaded handgun stashed at the house. As a result, a loaded 22 caliber handgun was also confiscated.

Now, Modic wants his weapons back. The City is not going to return any weapons to Modic unless ordered to do so by a Court.       

“After reviewing the applicable laws, we are not returning the weapons to Modic because we believe that Revised Code Section 2923.13 (having weapons while under disability) applies, a violation of which is a 3rd degree felony,” said Akron’s Chief Prosecutor Gertrude Wilms. “We feel that Modic may continue to be a threat to himself and others, and in no way will my department be responsible for returning these weapons to him. We will only return these weapons if ordered by a Court to do so.”

The Barberton City School is district planning more drastic cuts if voters turn down an 8.45 mill levy on the May 7th ballot. Superintendent Patricia Cleary tells AkronNewsNow about some of the cuts being planned. " The Board has decided that should the levy fail we will eliminate art and music at the elementary buildings. We may go to half-time kindergarten."

Cleary says pay to play fees for sports would be doubled and middle school sports programs could be downsized by reducing the number of coaches.

The Barberton district is also considering reducing other programs. " We've also talked about doing some reductions of high school foreign language, and also some other music reductions at the middle schools and high school." says Cleary

If the levy is approved Cleary says the district would restore busing to students within a one mile radius, continue full day kindergarten, continue elementary art and music programs and continue pay to play fees at their current levels.

Barberton voters have turned down three levy requests since 2011.

Patricia Cleary says the district is still unclear on just how much money ti will receive from Governor Kasich's new state budget. She says there is the possibility of funding being increased for full day kindergarten

The Summit County Department of Job And Family Services is beginning the process of moving out of its four-building complex in downtown Akron. Summit County has asked for bids from building owners outside the downtown area to lease either an existing building or build new to move the DJFS operations....

Jason Dodson, chief of staff for Summit County Executive Russ Pry tells AkronNewsNow " We actually are looking to downsize fro where we're currently at. The four buildings we have are older buildings. They're not really configured for the uses properly."

The Austen Bioinnovation Institute currently occupies the first floor of one downtown building and would take over the remaining floors once the County moves out.

Dodson says moving out of the downtown buildings provides the opportunity for future economic development. " We ideally would like to open those buildings up for development downtown, move ourselves out closer to some of the populations that we serve, and out of the downtown area."

Jason Dodson says there's no exact timetable for making the move to another building. He says it would need to have at least 500 parking spaces. The County wants to lease, not own any existing or new building the Department of Job and Family Services would move into.