This week we really saw the expertise of our city employees on full display.

On Wednesday, we experienced a water main break on a 65-year-old water line. The break washed out the soil beneath the roadway and caused a collapse on Akron Peninsula Rd. Our crews got on site very quickly, put up cones, and started to investigate the break and roadway. When a driver mistakenly went around the cones and ended up in the hole, Akron water employees immediately jumped in to get the driver out of the car to safety. Then once the break was pinpointed, crews worked through the night to fix the break and got it back in service around 3am.

Yesterday, we saw a fire at a recycling facility that caused large amounts of black smoke. Akron Fire Department crews responded very quickly to work on the fire and keep the surrounding community safe. With the heat and the size of the fire, crews were swapped out to ensure the safety of our firefighters so multiple different units were involved in fighting the flames. Around 8:30pm, AFD started to demobilize while leaving one unit on scene for fire watch overnight.

Every day, our city employees are responding to events throughout Akron ensuring that city services that our residents expect remain intact and keeping residents safe. There are years of expertise, passion, skill, determination, and a heart for service all across our city departments from Akron Water to Akron Fire, Akron Police to Engineering, Recreation and Parks to our admins and everyone in between. We are blessed in this city to have such amazing employees serving our residents. Thank you to each and every one of you for what you do.

City of Akron, Ohio - Mayor's Office