Miriam Ray News Today

Gardaí plan to deploy additional resources to the city centre and the main city shopping locations from tomorrow. 

Businesses say that money skimming has also become hugely problematic

Shop owners in the city say they will feel safer when they see an increased Garda presence on the...

The City of Akron unveiled a new rubber worker statue dedicated to those who helped build up Akron and the rubber and tire industry.

Provided by the Akron Stories project with permission from Lucille Esposito Lucille Esposito recorded a story about her mother, Filomene "Mae" Riccilli, shown at right in this photo, who worked at BF Goodrich from 1933-1976. At one time the rubber industry employed more than 72,000 workers in Akron. Many Akronites have ancestors who worked in the industry. And it attracted one population in particular. As the city unveils a new statue Thursday in tribute to those workers, we hear some of the s...

Johnnie Downs returned from the Vietnam War in 1967 with no idea where he would work. He spent the next 18 years making tires at BF Goodrich. “The conditions were bad, but the money was good,” said Downs, who is now 74 and retired. “See, the thing about working the job, sometimes you had to do what you had to do to take care of your family. And this was a means of me taking care of my family and my children.” Downs stood Thursday morning with a few dozen people invited by the city of Ak...

WKSU Sculptor Alan Cottrill talks with Miriam Ray of Akron in his Zanesville studio on Feb. 6, 2020. Ray spearheaded the effort to create the statue honoring the workers who toiled in the citys rubber industry. The statue, in progress, can be seen at right. It will be unveiled in Akron Thursday, May 13. The rubber industry once made Akron the fastest growing city in the country. A new tribute to that industry and the people who worked in it will be unveiled in downtown Akron Thursday morning. ...