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Mogadore adds more jobs as it bounces back from the downturn
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: September 6, 2012
With portions of the land extending from Summit into Portage County and a population of around 3,800, the village of Mogadore offers a small-town feel for residents and visitors, while providing a backdrop in which small businesses and large industrial employers can thrive.
“Mogadore is a great place to raise a family,” said Mayor Michael Rick, who has been in office for five years, but has lived in the village for about 41 years, and is raising his family in Mogadore. “We have a very low crime rate and excellent schools.”
Over the years, Rick said the population has gotten older. “A lot of people bought homes here in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, and they are still here.”
Mogadore’s history actually dates back to 1807 when the first settler, Ariel Bradley, built a log cabin on a 146-acre piece of land for just $335. Bradley is said to have been a spy for George Washington during the American Revolution, and the town eventually became known as Bradleyville.
However, the name changed after Martin Kent Jr. built a large home in the area in 1825. After the rafters were in place, one of the workers reportedly climbed to the top, using a flask of whiskey to christen it ‘Mogadore.’
Mogador is an Arabic word meaning beautiful and the name of a town in Morocco. Some have said the worker, who was a former sailor, named it Mogadore because he had fond memories of his trips to North Africa, while others had different theories. Whatever the real reason, people began referring to the area where this house stood as Mogadore.
Today the bulk of residents work in Akron or the outlying areas, but downtown Mogadore does have a number of chain stores, including CVS and McDonald’s, along with banks, a hair salon, a delicatessen, an equestrian consignment shop (Discount Stable) and a landscaping company (Mock Property Services Inc.).
In addition, The Clay Oven, which will feature wood-fired pizza, is opening in August.
“I would say our downtown is in pretty good shape and a lot of people are looking forward to the new restaurant,” said Rick, who holds a job as an adult probation supervisor with the Summit County Common Pleas Court.
There are a number of major employers located on Gilchrist Road in the industrial park, which Rick said provides a lot of the tax revenue to the village.
“Right now the park is about 85 to 90 percent full,” said Rick.
Earlier this year, Newell Rubbermaid Inc, announced that it would invest more than $25 million and add nearly 140 full-time jobs to its existing injection molding plant on Gilchrist Road.
The investment includes buying new machinery, plus infrastructure improvements. The plant already employed more than 700 workers.
“Omega Laboratories recently announced plans to purchase the commercial property surrounding their North Cleveland Avenue facility in order to expand the drug testing for their hair follicles,” said Rick. “We expect they will add another 100 jobs.”
Rick said OMNOVA Solutions Inc. at 165 S. Cleveland Ave. also employees approximately 100 people.
While things are looking up, he said the downturn proved to be quite challenging.
The Mogadore Village Council includes seven members, all serve at-large for four-year terms. There are 14 full-time workers, which includes the police department.
“We have a part-time mayor, a clerk-treasurer and a full-time assistant clerk,” said Rick. “But 2009 was very difficult. We had a spending and hiring freeze and had to lay some people off.
“Some of those people have not been brought back. In 2011, the schools passed a tax levy. The village residents also passed an increase to the local income tax of .25 percent in 2010.
“Property values have gone down here pretty much like everywhere else. The passage of the income tax has helped greatly.”
Rick said the good news is that the village is now “in the black once again,” and some full-time employees have even received small raises.
He said he does not expect the oil and gas boom to have an impact on the village.
“Most of our homes don’t have a lot of land where that could happen,” he said.
However, he is focusing on 120 acres that once belonged to West’s Mogadore Country Club on North Cleveland Avenue.
“There used to be a golf course there, and right now it is zoned for residential use. We are looking at possibly rezoning it for light commercial use so we can attract small businesses.
“We are still concerned about how the state funding cuts will affect us, but overall I would say we are cautiously optimistic about our future,” Rick said.