Now that the Ohio Health Department will cease to fund the testing for mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus local health boards in the state's counties will have to decide if they're going to fund their own West Nile testing.

Summit County Health Department Environmental Test Supervisor Terry Tuttle tells AkronNewsNow the county is studying three options to continue the testing of mosquitoes for the virus. " Number one would be we don't test, number two we test ourselves, or number three we send the mosquitoes out of state to private companies to test, which is extremely expensive." 

Tuttle says he believes it's important to track mosquitoes for West Nile, but it would be expensive. He says the Board Of Health and the Summit County Health Department will decide what the county does about the mosquito testing.

There have been seven deaths from West Nile in Ohio.

Stow Police have charged two men with operating a meth house after an April 17th explosion sent the pair to the hospital to be treated for burns.

29-year old Brandon Davis of Stow and 28-year old Stephen Scott of Middlefield are being charged with illegal manufacturing of drugs, aggravated arson and other charges after police and fire units responded to the home in the 1400 block of Mac Drive, and sent both men to the burn unit at Akron Children's Hospital.

The Stow Police Department Narcotics Unit, along with members of the Summit County Drug Unit, removed a large quantity of materials from the home.

Further charges may be pending as the investigation into the explosion continues.
 

A morning traffic crash on I-77 northbound in Broadview Heights killed two motorists.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that a man and a woman were killed in a crash that happened around 8 a.m. at I-77 and State Route 82.

Broadview Heights Fire Chief Jeffrey Hajek tells Newschannel 5 a piano moving truck heading southbound went through the guard rail into oncoming traffic, landing on a 57-year-old Medina woman's car..
The driver of the truck also died .

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office identified the two people killed as 33-year-old David Starr of Barberton and 57-year-old Gail Bradley of Medina.

The passenger in the truck survived and five others were injured.

Both the northbound and southbound lanes of I-77 were shut down immediately after the crash. The southbound lanes reopened a short time later, but the northbound lanes were shut down until about 1:30 this afternoon.

Cuyahoga Falls City Council tonight will be asked by the city to begin discussions on signing a final contract with developer Stark Enterprises for the Portage Crossing retail development along State Road, which has been in the planning stages since 2010.

Falls Community Development Director Sue Truby tells AkronNewsNow " We're finally at a point where we're ready to go, the developer's ready to go, and we have a couple of amendments to the contract." 

Truby says getting a signed contract for the city is important for the developer who will head to Las Vegas for the International Council of Shopping Centers convention in late May, and she says it would be great if they could go to the convention with a signed contract in hand. She says the developer's signed contracts with Giant Eagle and Cinemark, plus a signed agreement with the city would go a long way towards luring other businesses to locate in Portage Crossing.

Truby says it will be three weeks before city council will vote on any contract, and city officials are ready to answer any questions council members have about the contract before a vote is taken . At least one council member has questioned the proposed contract, and wants council to further study it before voting.

A man from Martins Ferry Ohio was arrested Sunday after Akron Police say he led them on a chase while driving an ATV.   

24-year old Harry Croft, was charged with fleeing police, driving with a suspended license, reckless operation, failure to control and operating an off-street vehicle. He was booked into the Summit County Jail.
Police say was driving the ATV near Battles Avenue and 22nd Street in Kenmore, and refused an officer’s command to pull over. Croft then led the officer on a chase for several blocks, The chase ended when Croft crashed at the end of 30th Street near railroad tracks. He was treated for injuries at Akron General Medical Center.

An apparent hunting accident in Brimfield left one hunter hospitalized after being shot in the face while turkey hunting early Monday morning. 

Kent and Brimfield officers were called to the 5000 block of Sunnybrook.Brimfield Police say the hunters do not know each other and were each hunting with another person. The 23-year old victim is being treated for buckshot injuries and his condition is not considered life threatening at this time. Police are questioning a 47-year old Akron man in connection with the incident.
The wounded hunter was transported by EMS.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife is investigating.

A child was struck by a car this morning just before 8am on Cole Avenue near Glover Elementary School. Akron EMS transported the victim to Children's Hospital where his condition is unknown at this hour. No other details are available at this hour.

A 44-year old Akron man is sentenced to life in prison on a murder conviction. Shannon Mount, of East Turkeyfoot Road in Akron, was sentenced to life in prison, with parole eligibility after 40 years, for the murder of Leonard McHadden.

On March 13th, a jury found Shannon Mount guilty of Aggravated Murder, Aggravated Robbery and Receiving Stolen Property.

The 68-year old McHadden, was found strangled to death in his bedroom one morning last May. His car and numerous electronics were missing. A neighbor said he had seen McHadden with Mount the night before. A few hours later, Mount was spotted driving McHadden’s car. Akron Police arrested Mount after a brief police chase and discovered McHadden’s computer, printer, cell phone, wallet and checkbook in the car, as well as some items belonging to McHadden’s roommate.

Akron Police say a suspect in a Friday shooting in the city has turned himself in .

19-year old Davon M. Irvine of Copley Road, who was wanted for felonious assault in the shooting of 30-year old Darshaun D. Richerson, surrendered to police detectives today.         

Richerson, of Eastland Avenue in Akron, was shot in the face while at the house on East Avenue. He was transported to Akron General Medical Center to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Akron City officials are taking more time to repair that 36-inch water main that ruptured last Thursday causing the flooding of several homes and cars in a neighborhood just west of downtown. City Service Director John Moore tells AkronNewsNow they want to make sure whatever caused the three mile long pipeline to break, won't happen again....

"We've also got the company that built the pipe, and they're going to come it and look at it as well, so we're going to do a lot of studying here in the next few days, and see if we can figure out if there's a problem we need to address.prior to putting that line back in service."

The pipe contains steel bands that may have rusted, contributing to the pipe's failure. But Moore isn't sure that caused the break.

John Moore says it may be a couple of weeks before the water main is repaired and back in service. The large water main provides Akron water to Copley and Fairlawn.

Meanwhile electricity and other utilities have been restored to the affected homes that are occupied, and affected residents are being asked to contact their home insurance carriers. Moore says if there are any repair costs beyond what insurance covers, residents can file a claim with the city.