Akron’s 2026 capital budget plan includes funds for more police rifles

• Akron wants to move away from allowing city police officers to carry their own rifles on-duty.
• $255,000 has been allocated for replacing police gear, including buying rifles for the patrol division.
• The proposed $341.9 million capital improvements budget is nearly nearly $39 million less than 2025.

Akron will begin moving away from allowing police officers to carry their own rifles on duty this year, with the city’s 2026 spending plan specifying funds to help the department facilitate that shift.

Mayor Shammas Malik’s administration has earmarked $255,000 of the proposed $341.9 million capital improvements budget for police gear and equipment replacement, including buying some rifles for the police department’s patrol division. The department allows officers to use their own rifles in part due to budgeting challenges. Malik said the funds aren’t sufficient to buy all the rifles needed for the department this year, but it’s enough to start.

The administration released details of the plan Jan. 5 as it was introducing the budget to Akron City Council. Council is required by the Akron city charter to pass the budget by Feb. 15. A second capital budget review will take place on Jan. 12 at 3:15 p.m. in council chambers, 166 South High Street. A public hearing will be held Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. in council chambers.

The proposed budget could undergo some changes based on City Council’s input.

Community conversations and discussions inside the department and city administration drove the decision, Malik said. Currently, officers can use their personal rifles — provided they qualify.

On Nov. 28, 2024, officer Davon Fields used his personal rifle to shoot and kill 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker while investigating reports of gunshots in the Sherbondy Hill neighborhood.

“Since that shooting,” said Malik, “we’ve looked at this, and I think this is the direction we want to move in.”

Akron City Planning Director Kyle Julien said the budget aims to improve operational efficiency of the city’s departments, make capital investments to reduce operating costs, “enhancing the quality of life for our residents” by improving parks and maintaining streets, and making Akron attractive to private investment through public investment, which, said Julien, grows the city’s tax base.

How does the 2026 budget compare to 2025?

The proposed 2026 capital budget is $341,909,940 — nearly $39 million less than 2025.

“A lot of that is due to ARPA no longer being here,” said Malik, “so I don’t want to pretend we just cut $39 million out of it totally separately.” He said the administration was “exacting” in its efforts to trim the budget since funds that flowed from COVID-era federal assistance were no longer boosting the city’s coffers.

The budget is funded through local, regional, state, federal and private sources. Like last year, over half the budget’s funding comes from the state and over half the budget is dedicated to water and sewer projects.

Local funds increased by 6%. State funds decreased by 6%.

Finance Director Steve Fricker explained the drop is because Akron doesn’t have to fund sewer projects as extensively as in 2025.

State funding for large 2026 sewer projects, Fricker said, comes from low-interest water pollution control loan funds, which makes the projects more affordable “because we’re getting much lower rates through those loans than we would be if we were issuing revenue bonds on the open market.”

Sewer and water

The Northside Interceptor Tunnel project has $36.7 million earmarked for continuing work. $2 million is budgeted for the closeout costs for the Ohio Canal Interceptor Tunnel.

There’s $15.5 million allocated for constructing an Enhanced High-Rate Treatment Facility, the last project in Akron’s Consent Decree. The city is challenging in court the requirement to build the facility.

Over $23 million is budgeted to replace the reservoir on Brittain Road.

Another $23.4 million is allocated to replace galvanized water lines on private property that were formerly downstream from lead service lines.

Public facilities

$570,000 is budgeted to replace 42,000 square feet of roofs at 717 Credit Union Park, the city-owned minor league ballpark formerly known as Canal Park.

$100,000 will go to improving Lock 2; more than $2 million is budgeted for the ongoing rehabilitation of the parking deck underneath Cascade Plaza; over $4 million is appropriated to renovating the 58-year-old Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center.

$325,000 is assigned to construction of two new salt storage facilities.

Housing

Julien said there’s nearly $9 million budgeted for housing and community development. Most of these funds, he explained, come from Housing and Urban Development.

“This is very much a projection,” he said, “and every year is a bit of an anxious waiting game until we find out what the federal budget is going to look like.”

$1.5 million is earmarked for new infill housing; $500,000 is appropriated for implementation of the Innerbelt Master Plan; and $2.8 million is budgeted for loans to home owners for housing rehabilitation and lead paint abatement.

Economic and job development

Over $8.6 million is earmarked for economic and job development.

$50,000 is budgeted to support the nonprofit Downtown Community Development Corporation.

$6.5 million is dedicated to the demolition of the former Firestone headquarters.

$184,000 from Joint Economic Development District funds are allocated for Akron’s polymer cluster headquarters, and $250,000 is reserved for redeveloping the University of Akron’s Polsky Building.

Road resurfacing

$1 million is budgeted for the city’s sidewalk program and another $1.85 million is dedicated to the city’s concretepavement rehabilitation program.

Akron’s 2026 road resurfacing program has been allocated $6.5 million to resurface roughly 52 miles of roadway, funded by special assessments and income tax revenues, a portion of which is earmarked for streets and safety.

Malik said the city is breaking up the annual resurfacing project into two contracts, each covering approximately 26 miles of road. The project will be divided between two contractors, he said.

“That will help us be able to get the contract done this year and not have carryover,” said Malik. The remaining resurfacing from 2025 will be included in the 2026 contracts as new work rather than old work to be finished by last year’s contractor.

This is to “help incentivize contractors to complete it by the end of the year because you either get paid for it or you have to rebid,” Malik said. “Breaking it up means we should be able to get it done quicker.”

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413.