Pav’s Creamery is known for putting out some unusual and savory ice cream flavors.

There’s Kahlua/coffee toffee, German chocolate cake and pumpkin pecan pie.

Now the Coventry Township ice cream maker is adding beer, specifically Christmas beer, to its long list of offerings.

Pav’s has teamed up with Hoppin’ Frog Brewery in Akron and Acme Fresh Market to create Christmas Ale Ice Cream using the spiced Frosted Frog Christmas Ale.

“It’s just the most festive flavor,” Pav’s managing partner Nik Pappas said Thursday.

Hoppin’ Frog doesn’t hold back on flavor and neither does the ice cream, which includes malt sugar, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.

“It resembles our beer quite well,” Hoppin’ Frog owner and brewer Fred Karm said.

He and Pav’s spent months tinkering with the recipe to get it just right.

There’s no actual alcohol in the ice cream so it’s safe for those under 21 to eat.

Pints — as in ice cream containers and not beer glasses — will be available exclusively starting Saturday at Acme stores and the Hoppin’ Frog Tasting Room, 1680 E. Waterloo Road. They will retail for $3.99.

The ice cream is a limited-edition flavor and will be sold only through December.

Pav’s and Hoppin’ Frog were quite familiar with each other before working on the beer ice cream. Pav’s makes the ice cream used in the beer shakes sold at the brewery, which also sells Pav’s ice cream cakes.

Christmas Ale Ice Cream also isn’t the only beer ice cream around.

Great Lakes Brewing Co. and Mitchell’s Homemade Ice Cream in Cleveland have partnered for several years on Christmas Ale Ginger Snap ice cream.

Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his beer blog at www.ohio.com/beer. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ.

LAKEMORE: Old-timers whisper of secrets that lie hidden beneath the calm, glassy surface of Springfield Lake.

They tell of a creature, half man, half fish, that comes out at night to terrorize Lakemore and Springfield Township children.

Well, at least some of them.

“I was about 10 or so when I stayed overnight at a friend’s house, and his dad told us about the Welp,” Lakemore Mayor Rick Justice said.

If the story of a monster rising from the murky depths of Springfield Lake to grab unsuspecting children was conjured up as a way to keep mischief makers in line, it worked, Justice said.

The creature is said to have a long arm shaped like a claw to snag recalcitrant youngsters and drag them down to its lair.

The late Fred Archer, a lakefront homeowner and the father of Justice’s boyhood friend, Ted Archer of Lakemore, confided the tale to children who would attend sleepovers at his home.

“He told us it came out of the water running at 60 miles an hour to get us,” Justice said.

A real monster couldn’t compare to the one Justice created in his imagination of an oversized bluegill rising out of the lake with Justice in his sights, coming to get him on its very long, fast-moving legs.

“I told him I would just go upstairs to sleep and he said, ‘No good. He can climb up the side of the house,’ ” Justice said. He remembers lying awake and listening for sounds outside the window.

The mayor said he has tried to warn his own children and their friends with the cautionary tale.

They scoff at the idea of the Welp, he said.

“I guess they are too sophisticated these days to believe a story like that,” he said. “But, I’ll tell you what. It kept me off the lake for a long time.”

Kathy Antoniotti can be reached at 330-996-3565 or kantoniotti@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter at: @KathyAntoniotti and on facebook: www.facebook.com/KathyAntoniotti.

They wander into the sewing room at Firestone Park Community Center from noon to 6 p.m. each Tuesday as schedules allow.

For the women (and occasional man) in the center’s Service Sewing group, quilting is a passion that complements their desire to comfort people with hand-made goods.

On a recent Tuesday, sewing machines hummed as five members of the group gathered to make such stitched items as lap blankets for nursing home patients and small bags, called “pretty pockets,” to hold surgical site drains for women who have undergone breast surgery.

“I’ve personally had experience with breast surgery, so I know they were a good idea,” said Janet Bryant, group leader and instructor for the center for the past seven years.

Conversations never lag as the women piece together blocks and strips of fabric, making intricately designed quilts to give away. They might discuss minor details of their day or major issues of their lives.

“I think its like a modern-day sewing circle. We talk about our ills, our husbands, our children and everything else,” said Bryant, whose husband, Dave, served as the area’s councilman for 17 years.

The members of the group also share a desire to help people in meaningful ways, said Peg Oliver, who joined last winter. She spoke with compassion about women she will never meet who will receive duffle bags she was creating out of donated curtain fabric.

“We take them to Harvest Home and ACCESS, “ she said. “The women are there with their children — battered, abused, leaving everything they own behind. They are very grateful for everything,” Oliver said.

Each family staying at the Ronald McDonald House to be close to a sick child in Akron Children’s Hospital receives a quilt from the group as a gesture of comfort in a trying time.

On Tuesday, the Bryants presented a baby-sized quilt to Shannon Findley of Columbus, who has been living at Ronald McDonald House since August, when her baby was transferred from a Boardman hospital to the neonatal intensive-care unit at Children’s.

A’Kira Hunter weighed only 410 grams (less than a pound) when doctors determined that neither she nor mom would survive if Findley carried the baby to her Oct. 28 due date. And while the child remains very ill, she now weighs 5 pounds, 8 ounces.

Findley said she was very grateful for the quilt and all the many ways the hospital has made her feel as if she has a home away from home.

“I think this is awesome they do this,” she said of the pink-and-white rag quilt that was placed atop A’Kira’s incubator.

The women who created the quilt, mostly members of the Firestone Park neighborhood, are united by things that make them more similar than different, they say.

“It’s surprising, sometimes, when you learn someone shares your same feelings,” Bryant said.

Service Sewing member Kathy Trenta spent a recent afternoon focused on creating large terry cloth bibs for nursing home residents with a handy pocket to catch that stray pea or carrot.

Trenta, who joined the group about four months ago, was raised in the neighborhood surrounding the former Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., now Bridgestone Americas.

“I like piecing all the fabrics together, and I like doing quilts. I like any kind of needlework,” she said.

Bryant, who estimates that she has taught hundreds of people how to sew, retired from Akron General Medical Center after 42 years of nursing. She also leads the center’s Sew n’ Sews quilting group three times each week and teaches two quilting classes in the summer for students age 9-18. On Mondays, she leads a quilting group at the Tallmadge Recreation Center.

“If I wasn’t here, I’d be volunteering somewhere else,” Bryant said. “And this is so much fun.”

Kathy Antoniotti can be reached at 330-996-3565 or kantoniotti@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter at: @KathyAntoniotti and on facebook: www.facebook.com/KathyAntoniotti.

AKRON

Guide donation

AKRON: The FirstEnergy Foundation has donated $5,000 to the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition to assist in reprinting the organization’s Towpath Companion, a guide for hikers and bicyclists on the 101-mile Towpath Trail.

The guidebook is “a vital resource,” said Dee Lowry, president of the foundation. She added, “We’re proud to support the trail.”

Early Bird 5K

AKRON: The Junior League of Akron is hosting its Early Bird Bustle 5K, Family Fun Run/Walk at 8:30 a.m. Sunday at Old Trail School, 2315 Ira Road, Bath Township.

The cost is $20 per person with preregistration and $25 on the day of the race.

For more information or to register, visit www.runtoyou­racing.com.

Budget award

AKRON: The city has received a 2014 Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada.

The city has earned this honor for 30 years in a row.

The award recognizes how well the budget serves as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide and a communications device.

Finance Director Diane Miller-Dawson also received a Certificate of Recognition for Budget Presentation.

“Once again, the GFOA has confirmed that our method of budget reporting utilizes the best practices available,” Miller-Dawson said in a news release.

The Government Finance Officers Association is a nonprofit professional association serving more than 17,500 government finance professionals throughout North America.

Meeting canceled

AKRON: Councilman Russel Neal Jr., the Ward 4 councilman, has canceled his monthly ward meeting scheduled for Tuesday because of the election.

Neal encouraged residents to exercise their right to vote.

CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Candidate visits

State Sen. Nina Turner, the Democratic candidate for Ohio secretary of state, will conclude her “Meet Me at the Box” early voting initiative this weekend with stops in Akron, Canton and Cleveland.

Turner, who is from Cleveland, previously visited Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, Warren and Youngstown.

Turner’s events this weekend will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Summit County Board of Elections, 470 Grant St. in Akron; 2 p.m. Saturday at the Stark County Board of Elections, 3525 Regent Ave. NE in Canton; and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, 2925 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland.

At her Akron stop, Turner will be joined by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, and state Rep. Kathleen Clyde, D-Kent.

CUYAHOGA FALLS

Grant for police

CUYAHOGA FALLS: The police department has been awarded a grant from CVS pharmacy to install a Drug Collection Unit at the 2310 Second St. police station.

The unit will provide residents with a safe and environmentally responsible way to dispose of unwanted, unused or expired medication, including controlled substances, in the hopes of reducing the amount of unneeded medicine that might fall into the hands of abusers. It will also reduce the contamination of local landfills and water supplies from discarded supplies.

In all, 1,000 drug receptacles are being funded across the country by CVS/pharmacy and the Medicine Abuse Project, a five-year initiative of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. The Cuyahoga Falls site is open around the clock, and drugs can be dropped off with no questions asked.

HUDSON

Gluten-free cooking

HUDSON: A Gluten-free cooking demonstration at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hudson Library & Historical Society will feature holiday recipes and cooking and baking tips.

Chef Geraldine Koprowski will lead the demonstration. She is founder of Trifles Catering in Chagrin Falls and its gluten-free division Two Flowers Food Co. Copies of her cookbook, Cooking Gluten Free, will be available for purchase. Registration is required. Go to www.hudsonlibrary.org or call 330-653-6658, Ext. 1010 .

MEDINA COUNTY

Councils to meet

The city councils of Wadsworth, Medina and Brunswick will meet in joint session at 6 p.m. Monday at Medina City Hall, 132 N. Elmwood St.

Agenda items include the Central Processing Facility, tipping fees at that facility, 911 service and casino revenue.

Other items include possible efforts to collaborate on high-cost services and a recent housing grant the three cities jointly received.

NORTHEAST OHIO

Extra Mile Day

Saturday is Extra Mile Day in Akron and other cities across the country.

The day recognizes the capacity for people to create positive change when they “go the extra mile.”

In connection with Extra Mile America, the national movement began in 2009 with 23 cities. In 2014, 500 cities are participating. Among them are Canton and Massillon.

For more information, visit http://extramileamerica.org/.

Husted offers hours

Secretary of State Jon Husted will hold regional office hours at locations across Ohio in November, including stops in Akron, Canton, Seville and Streetsboro. Regional liaisons for Husted’s office will provide voter registration forms and answer questions.

The local hours will be: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday at the Greater Stark County Urban League, 1400 Sherrick Road SE in Canton; 10 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. Nov. 7 at the Seville library branch, 45 N. Center St. in Seville; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Akron-Summit County Public Library, 60 High St. in Akron; 1 to 3 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Pierce Streetsboro Library, 8990 Kirby Lane in Streetsboro; and 1 to 5 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Ohio Means Jobs Center, 822 30th St. in Canton.

STARK COUNTY

Service grant started

CANTON: The Junior League of Stark County has announced the creation of the Junior Leaders Community Service Grant that will fund projects led by girls in grades K-12. Two grants of $2,500 will be awarded.

Applications can be found at www.jlstarkcounty.org and are due by Jan. 31.

For more information contact meganlpellegrino@gmail.com.

MEDINA

Carey, Lester M., 92, of Spencer. Died Wednesday. Parker & Son.

PORTAGE

Ellison, Arthur, 84, of Nelson Township. Died Tuesday. Mallory-DeHaven-Carlson, Garrettsville.

Oros, William M., 78, of Kent. Died Tuesday. Bissler & Sons.

Rosenberger, Beth D., 63, of Atwater. Died Tuesday. Paquelet, Massillon.

Skudrin, Michael E., 59, of Hiram Rapids. Died Tuesday. Green, Mantua.

STARK

Dupper, Marilyn L., 81, of North Canton. Died Wednesday. Paquelet, Massillon.

Engelhardt, Sandra Kay, 57, of Massillon. Died Monday. Heitger.

Faulkner, Margaret (Luka), 89, of Alliance. Died Thursday. Sharer-Stirling-Skivolocke.

Weekly sewing sessions

• Service Sewing group meets between noon and 6 p.m. Tuesdays. Drop-ins and beginners are welcome.

• Sew n’ Sews quilting group meets from noon to 2 p.m. and 6 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays. All sewing skill levels are welcome, including novice and nonsewers.

• Groups meet at Firestone Park Community Center, 1480 Girard St., Akron.

• Fabric donations are accepted and appreciated.

• For more information, call the community center at 330-375-2806.

— Kathy Antoniotti

They’re 12 people with at least two things in common: they’re all registered voters and they have all said they’re capable of giving Shawn Eric Ford Jr. a death sentence.

Whether the jurors will recommend that Ford be executed or if he should get life in prison is now the focus of the panel’s deliberations, which began late Thursday afternoon and ended around 9 p.m.

The same jurors have already convicted Ford in the April 2013 slaying of his girlfriend’s parents, Jeffrey and Margaret Schobert.

This week, the jury returned for a sentencing hearing to determine Ford’s fate.

While defense attorneys have tried to inject race into the trial — Ford is black, the Schoberts were white — and appeal to the Summit County jury, prosecutors say their case is about justice for what Ford did to the Schoberts with a sledgehammer inside their New Franklin home.

“This has never been a case about race. This has always been a case about Shawn Ford’s violence,” Assistant Prosecutor Brad Gessner told jurors in closing arguments.

Jurors were sequestered overnight and were to resume talks Friday morning.

In closing remarks, defense attorney Jon Sinn implored the panel to consider Ford’s age — he was barely 18 when the killings took place — and his low-level intelligence, as signaled by IQ tests that place him in the range of mental retardation.

“He’s a few months too old to be too young to kill, and a few IQ points too high to be too dumb to kill,” Sinn told jurors.

He urged jurors to give Ford some sort of life sentence, either with or without parole eligibility.

IQ focus of debate

The jury — composed of 10 women and two men — must be unanimous in voting for death. The panel includes four blacks. Any sentence must be affirmed by Judge Tom Parker, who is hearing the case.

Gessner urged jurors to look closely at Ford’s IQ scores and not be fooled into believing he is intellectually impaired. He said those who tested Ford’s IQ when he was 9 years old and scored a 62 — a score considered in the range of mental retardation — determined the low number was likely due to Ford’s lack of effort.

He said similar low scores were also likely due to no motivation.

Instead, Gessner relied on a recent IQ test given by the county that showed Ford’s IQ at 80, which is on the low end of average.

Defense attorneys had already asked Parker to dismiss the death specifications before the case went to the jury. Attorneys Donald Hicks and Sinn cited U.S. Supreme Court decisions that ban the execution of those with severe mental impairments.

Prosecutors countered that IQ alone is not sufficient evidence of a mental impairment.

A person’s ability at life and communication skills are among other factors to be considered before a person is found mentally impaired and thus not eligible for a death sentence.

Parker denied the defense request, but left open the possibility of a hearing later to further explore Ford’s mental capacity. The hearing would be moot, if jurors don’t recommend a death sentence.

Judge blocks letter

To bolster their argument that Ford is not impaired, prosecutors tried to show jurors a letter Ford wrote to his sister, Patricia Roberts, in which he threatens to kill the Schoberts’ daughter, Chelsea, if she testified against him.

Ford, 20, was convicted of seriously injuring Chelsea Schobert, then 17, during a party and then killing her parents when, prosecutors believe, they blocked his efforts to visit her in the hospital.

Parker would not allow the contents of the letter revealed to jurors.

But Gessner told jurors that Ford’s plan to kill the Schoberts, including wearing five layers of gloves while wielding the sledgehammer more than a dozen times on both victims, showed his mental fitness.

“He’s clearly able to perform adult tasks,” Gessner told jurors.

Jamall Vaughn, 15, is accused of aiding Ford in the slaying of Jeff Schobert, 56, and Margaret Schobert, 59.

His trial is set for next month.

During testimony Thursday morning, Ford’s mother, Kelly Ford, 38, begged jurors for mercy for her son.

Ford’s sister, Patricia Roberts, 22, became too choked up to speak when asked if she wanted jurors to show mercy.

“I don’t want you guys to kill my baby,” Kelly Ford said from the witness box. “We can’t change it, but I don’t think killing him is the answer.”

Defendant stays silent

Ford never testified nor did he give a statement to jurors, as allowed by law.

Aside from Ford’s age and intelligence, defense attorneys tried to appeal to juror’s emotions.

They brought up the racial disparity of U.S. incarceration rates and the words of forgiveness once offered by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

They told jurors to move past a death sentence, telling the panel they are “better than this.”

They then pointed to a difference between what the defense is asking and what the two assistant prosecutors are asking.

“There can be no ‘us’ when two of us are asking 12 of us to kill one of us. Shawn Ford is one of us,” Sinn told jurors.

Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PhilTrexler.

Voters will be facing an unusual situation Tuesday when deciding one of 11 Summit County judicial races on the ballot.

Neither candidate Todd McKenney nor Jon Oldham is a sitting common pleas judge trying to retain a seat. Instead, they are running to replace Republican Jane M. Davis, who dropped out of the race in early August after winning the May primary.

Former University of
Akron law professor J. Dean Carro, a past president of the Akron Bar Association, called the Oldham-McKenney contest “interesting” because it’s out of the norm.

“The norm is a judge running to retain his or her seat, and an opponent seeking to unseat that person. Judges tend to stay as long as they possibly can, so it’s less common to have what, in effect, is an open seat,” Carro said.

Republican McKenney, 51, was appointed to a judgeship in April in Barberton Municipal Court and, before that, served as county probate judge and state representative.

Oldham, 37, is a Democrat who currently serves as a magistrate and judicial attorney in Summit County Probate Court. Last year, he nearly beat an incumbent judge in Akron Municipal Court, winning in unofficial election night results but losing to Katarina Cook in an elections board recount by a difference of 15 votes (13,888 to 13,873).

Here are the other Summit judicial races, listed in the order in which they appear on the ballot filed on the county elections board’s website:

■ Incumbent Eve Belfance, who is seeking a second six-year term on Akron’s 9th District Court of Appeals, is opposed by Akron Municipal Judge Julie A. Schafer.

■ Among the seven races to be decided on the Common Pleas Court bench, incumbent Tammy O’Brien was appointed to her seat in 2011 but won election a year later to the unexpired term. Her challenger is Ron Cable, who has served as a magistrate since 2005 in domestic relations court.

■ Incumbent Common Pleas Judge Lynne S. Callahan, who is seeking a second six-year term, is opposed by Tavia Baxter-Galonski, a county juvenile court magistrate for the past 11 years.

■ Alison McCarty is running for her second six-year term in Common Pleas Court. Lisa Dean, a private practice attorney in domestic relations cases, is the opponent.

■ Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands also is seeking a second full term in a race in which her opponent, Beth Whitmore, has taken an unusual path. She won her third term on the 9th District appeals court in 2010, but Ohio Supreme Court rules barred her from running again, so she declared her common pleas candidacy. She previously served on that court from 1996-1998.

■ Christine Croce, who has served as a former assistant county prosecutor and chief counsel in the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, was appointed to the common pleas bench a year ago after a two-year tenure as a Barberton municipal judge. Her opponent is John Clark, the chief magistrate in Stow Municipal Court.

■ Judge Tom Parker, who won election to Common Pleas Court in 2008, is seeking another full term. Rob McCarty, a juvenile court magistrate since 2004 and the brother-in-law of Alison McCarty, is his challenger.

■ In the Summit County Juvenile Court race, incumbent Linda Tucci Teodosio, who first won election in 2002, is seeking her third full term. Her opponent is attorney Jill Flagg Lanzinger, who has served as a juvenile court guardian ad litem and as a substitute magistrate in Akron Municipal Court.

■ In Domestic Relations Court, incumbent John P. Quinn is seeking his third full term on the bench. Katarina Cook, who won a municipal court seat last year, is the challenger.

■ Incumbent Summit County Probate Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer, who won election in 2012 to fill the unexpired term of longtime Probate Judge Bill Spicer, is running for her first six-year term. Her opponent is Kandi S. O’Connor, a common pleas magistrate and head of the court’s mediation program.

The Akron Bar Association’s Judicial Commission has published ratings for all of the candidates. To view the ratings, go to www.youbethejudgesummitcounty.com. Bar President Anne Marie O’Brien urged voters to take a strong interest in educating themselves about the candidates and to “get out to vote” with so many races to be decided on Election Day.

Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.

Warm temperatures and new, expanded hours helped the Akron Zoo break two records last weekend. The zoo broke its single-day attendance record when 6,658 visitors passed through the gates Saturday during Boo at the Zoo.

The event ran from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays this year instead of separate shortened afternoon and evening hours as in previous years.

The previous single-day attendance record was 6,304, set July 24, 2013, right after the opening of the Grizzly Ridge exhibit.

The zoo also set a record for its Boo at the Zoo event with 25,544 visitors during the six nights of the event. The previous Boo attendance record was 25,061 in 2010. Boo at the Zoo, which typically averages about 16,000 people per year, is one of the area’s largest trick-or-treating events.

The zoo passed out 118,044 treats this year. It included 12 themed treat stations for kids, who also can enjoy nonscary Halloween decorations and the zoo’s 700 animals.

From November to April, the zoo is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

EARLY VOTING INFO

Deadlines:

■ Request absentee ballots via mail: By noon Saturday.

■ Postmark mail-in ballots: By Monday.

■ Election Day: Absentee ballots may be dropped off at elections boards before the close of polls at 7:30 p.m., but not at polling places.

■ In-person hours (at county elections boards):

Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday: 1 to 5 p.m.

Monday: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information:

■ Ohio Secretary of State’s website: www.sos.state.oh.us/.

■ Summit County Board of Elections website: www.summitcountyboe.com/.