Investments in infrastructure, high-speed connectivity and community resources were among the accomplishments highlighted by Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro during her 2024 State of the County address Wednesday at the John S. Knight Center in Akron.
County officials have continued to expand a public broadband network, now reaching some lower-income communities, Shapiro said, as she highlighted the county's continued partnership with the city of Fairlawn's public network FairlawnGig.
Over the past year, the county expanded on its partnership by connecting three low and moderate-income census tracks in Copley Township and the new I Promise HealthQuarters in Akron to the network, Shapiro said. The county will also be covering a portion of the monthly cost for qualifying residents and businesses that employ low income workers, she said.
The county is currently working on its own fiber broadband network, Summit Connects, to provide broadband access, with construction set to begin at the end of the year, Shapiro said.
Shapiro also touted legislation she recently introduced to county council establishing the Summit Health and Safety Innovation Fund, which would utilize $45 million from the county's opioid litigation settlement to generate innovative solutions to issues plaguing public health and safety.
Council opted to table the legislation after several members asked questions about overhead costs and making sure any programming supported by the proposed endowment would be based on best practices and data.
“To be fair, it’s a lot of money,” Shapiro told Ideastream Public Media after the speech. “So, we want to make sure we answer [questions], and those conversations will be happening.”
Meeting housing needs
Shapiro also touted the success of the county's Unite Us platform, a software that allows nonprofits, healthcare providers and other stakeholders to securely deliver and pay for services. Since its implementation in 2023, the service has grown to include 232 organizations that provide 600 resources and programs and has served more than 1,000 residents, Shapiro said.
"The platform is literally uniting us and leveraging Summit County’s celebrated culture of collaboration to provide more timely, robust and universal assistance to those in need," she said.
The most common requested service through Unite Us is housing, Shapiro said.
"While Unite Us is a great tool for linking residents to existing programs and services, it does not itself increase capacity for requests like housing," she said.
The platform reveals community needs, allowing the county to better address them as they arise, Shapiro said. Officials are collecting data to better target some of the issues the county is facing, including its rising suicide rate, Shapiro added.
“Unite Us, in about, I’m guessing 18 to 24 months, will give us some real data about what’s actually happening, what kind of services are being looked for, in some sort of understandable way,” Shapiro said.
Last year, the county invested $1 million in homelessness prevention and rental assistance, she said. The county's Department of Community Development also continues to help the residents with home repairs, like weatherization, lead removal and assistance for older adults, she said. By the end of this fiscal year, the county will have helped repair 300 units, the most done in any year, with an average of $7,000 going into each unit, she said.
"When we are looking from a community level, these programs work to keep some of our most vulnerable residents safe and strengthen our neighborhoods by improving our housing stock," Shapiro said. "In the long run, it is a win-win for all of us."
Improving emergency communication
In her 2023 State of the County address, Shapiro touted the completion of the Summit Emergency Communications Center, a consolidated dispatch center hosting dispatch operations of five law enforcement agencies. A year later, dispatchers have responded to 250,000 calls, Shapiro said.
Now, the SECC and other dispatch centers will be able to receive texts to 911, she said.
"Text to 911 is lifesaving for those who may be in a situation where the noise of calling is more dangerous than hiding or standing silent. It is also beneficial for our deaf community, those with hearing loss or speech disabilities," she said. "It also features an automatic translation service for non-English speakers. These long-needed improvements can make all the difference in an emergency."
The SECC is also now transferring 911 calls relating to mental health to the local 988 line through Portage Path Behavioral Health, Shapiro said.
"We are the only county in the state utilizing this process. By triaging and routing calls straight to 988, we are connecting residents to the direct care they need faster," she said. "Not only does this help our residents in crisis but this process also helps keep our first responders available for other emergencies."
Public safety operations across the county will be the first to have access to Summit Connects when it's up and running, Shapiro said.
Addressing violent crime
Shapiro noted that her office is continuing to provide support to reduce violent crime, including adding permanent funding for two special prosecutors to address gun violence. The prosecutors previously were hired through a $650,000 grant, she said.
The county is saving time and money through a Virtual Courtroom project, Shapiro said. This year, common pleas judges held 4,800 virtual court appearances, saving money by not transferring people who are incarcerated from the jail to the court and back again, she said.
Summit County is also developing a pilot with the state's public defender's office to utilize the state's digital billing system to pay court-appointed attorneys, Shapiro said.
"Until this year, our process to pay court-appointed attorneys entailed a lengthy and, often expensive, shuffle of paperwork back and forth from the attorneys to the courts, to finance and then down to Columbus," she said. "[At] each step, a single missing signature could add days to the process, delaying payment and taxing our general fund."
Shapiro also touted legislation she recently introduced to county council establishing the Summit Health and Safety Innovation Fund, which would utilize $45 million from the county's opioid litigation settlement to generate innovative solutions to issues plaguing public health and safety.
Shapiro thanked longtime Health Commissioner Donna Skoda for her work in the opioid crisis. Skoda is retiring at the end of the year.
Shapiro is currently running unopposed for reelection for a third term as county executive.
