[0:00] Hi, welcome to the Macedonia Mayor's Report. I'm Mary Kidd and I'm here with Mayor Nick Molnar

[0:20] on what should be a warm spring day, but it's Cleveland and it's cold.

[0:25] Ohio strikes again. It's freezing today.

[0:28] Alright, well, that kind of leads to the first question. The cold weather does a lot of damage

[0:35] to the roads and there are potholes, so how can residents make those known?

[0:41] So the simplest way is to go on our website under the service category and request it online.

[0:45] That's a viable, good option. But you can also call the service department or email

[0:49] at serviceadminatmacedonia.oh.us. That's the best way to get ahold of us.

[0:56] And we had a viewer send in a little question about the road by Kentucky Fried Chicken and

[1:04] the car wash down at Highland and Route 8. That needs repaved or just fixed?

[1:11] It needs some attention. That's a privately owned road. So when it comes to that, that's

[1:15] really nothing to do with us. I can't do anything when it's a privately owned thing

[1:20] going into a business. If there's issues there, you should probably contact the business

[1:25] and let them know that it's rough. Now I've driven over to and I've noticed it's kind of

[1:29] bad and I know that they put some patches in there, so it improved a little bit. But again,

[1:34] there's not a lot I can do when it's not our responsibility.

[1:37] Right. Part of Shepherd Road will be closing?

[1:40] Yes. So Highland Road will be closing at that point, beginning April 8th, which is

[1:45] today, I believe? Tomorrow?

[1:46] Oh, tomorrow, yeah.

[1:47] Tomorrow. And the closure expected to last 21 days. So it's part of the addition

[1:52] of the turning lanes over there, and that's all part of that project.

[1:57] Will Highland also be closed?

[1:58] No, Highland will be open. I apologize. But Shepherd Road at Highland, I should have clarified.

[2:03] Okay.

[2:04] Yes.

[2:05] All right. I watched a council meeting. I tried and watched them. And there was some

[2:12] hubbub about trees being torn down and residents not being happy.

[2:17] So first energy comes in and they slaughter trees and they cut them to whatever they need

[2:23] to do to keep the lines clear. Now, granted, you want your power to work and everything

[2:26] should be working at all times. We want that too. But the way in which they did the

[2:33] trees by South Farm was terrible. And I was unfortunately out of town that day,

[2:38] but my building commissioner called me and I got on the phone and I was speaking with

[2:42] the people doing the work there and obviously voiced my displeasure because some of the

[2:46] pictures I saw were terrible. But what they basically do is they're going to trim it down

[2:51] and they're going to leave it. And that's just what they do and that's what they're

[2:53] allowed to do. And I don't agree with that at all. So I've been trying everything I can

[2:57] do to get that rectified. I'm running into some brick walls but I'm not going to quit.

[3:03] And the people that live over there should be annoyed and should be upset. And I'm

[3:05] upset with them. But I don't think first energy should have the right to go and

[3:09] do things like that. And that's the fight I'm having right now to get something

[3:13] done to say, look, if you're going to trim a tree, at least make it so that it could

[3:18] still blossom or stay out of the power lines or whatever it may be. But don't

[3:22] just hack the thing down and it looks terrible. It looks absolutely horrible. So

[3:26] I'm working on that. I don't know that I'm going to get any resolution, but I'll

[3:30] be darned if I don't try. Well, yeah, that's very frustrating because it takes

[3:34] a long time for the tree to grow back. Exactly. Okay. Brush drop off is

[3:40] happening. Yeah. So we opened it up a little earlier this year. It's open

[3:44] during normal business hours. General rule, I would say between eight and three

[3:49] thirty. Give the guys some time to get in and get things moving. You must be a

[3:53] master on your residence. You require to show a valid ID. We get this every

[3:57] year. So we'll have contractors coming in. We don't allow for contractors.

[4:00] This is really for residents that are cleaning up their yard that want to

[4:04] dump their yard waste there. And it helps them out. That's what this is

[4:07] about. If you have a contractor doing work, they have to take it wherever they

[4:10] normally take it for any other job that they're on. And not every community

[4:13] does this. But again, leaves, small branches, things like that. That's all

[4:19] what you could put in there. You have to show your ID. You have to be a

[4:22] resident. So that's just the way it works. And where is this drop off? So

[4:25] that'll be at 9150 Valley View Road where we've always had it. Now when

[4:30] the new building is complete, that's going to change because we're going

[4:32] to have a drop off location here. But for right now, we're going to have

[4:36] it down where we've always had it for the past as long as I've been in

[4:40] Macedonia. So yeah. Tell me about Springfest. So Springfest is on April 25th.

[4:45] It'll be held at Longwood Park in the Recreation Center. It'll feature

[4:50] vendors, activities, food trucks. And in the event of rain, we'll move it

[4:52] inside, which again, we just talked about Ohio being Ohio. I mean, I think

[4:57] we had a swing from 74 degrees down to 28. So you never know, but we'll

[5:01] work with whatever we got. And it's going to be a fun day. Are the

[5:05] wooded trails finished at Longwood? Unfortunately not. Weather delayed

[5:08] a lot of the work. And it's very tedious back there getting material in

[5:11] and out and getting things done back there. But we ask people to stay

[5:16] off from the time being because it's a lot of moisture. Again, it's

[5:19] Ohio. It's the time of year. Things are wet. We've hit a few snags

[5:23] with what we're doing. So we're delayed. So we're going to get to

[5:26] it. But right now, we're in a little bit of a lull. Well, I read

[5:30] the part of this project is a story walk. What is that? So this is

[5:35] something new. And I was just talking with the park director and

[5:38] he said it's partnering with the Nardonia branch of Summit County

[5:41] Library on a story walk for the Wooded Trail, meaning the

[5:43] visitors will be able to walk the trail and read pages of books

[5:46] that are posted along the trail. Fun, family friendly activity,

[5:51] not only to encourage reading, but physical activity. And you

[5:53] can look for updates on that on our social media pages when

[5:57] that will be ready to go. Having a wife as a teacher, she'll

[6:00] tell you the most important thing for kids to do is read. And she

[6:03] pushed that heavy on our children. And I can say that I think

[6:06] they have success in school because reading was such a high

[6:09] emphasis. So putting this into our park and having a little bit

[6:12] of fun on a trail and if you've been on those trails are

[6:14] really cool. It's kind of fun back there. It's nice place

[6:17] for you can walk. It's a little shade. If it's warm in

[6:20] the summer, it's not as hot because obviously the shade

[6:22] will help that out. But yeah, I think it's going to be

[6:24] kind of cool. And I don't know if you know the answer to this,

[6:27] but will periodically the storybook change to a new one?

[6:32] From what I understand, yes. Oh, good. So keep them coming

[6:35] back. Yeah. All right. If you build it, they'll come.

[6:39] When do your monthly food trucks begin? So food trucks begin

[6:45] Thursday, April 30th, and will happen on the last Thursday

[6:47] of the month until July 27th. And trucks will be parked

[6:50] in the rec center parking lot as it has been years past.

[6:53] So everyone looks forward to that. And those trucks usually sell

[6:56] out of food, which was really neat. That's great. Good.

[7:00] This summer is the big 250th birthday for our country.

[7:05] Is Macedonia planning anything? We are, and I cannot

[7:09] divulge it this time. We'll do something in our summer

[7:12] fest. So it'll be the spirit of Macedonia festival,

[7:16] and then we'll also have a tribute to the 250th

[7:18] anniversary. Big things coming. Oh, folded together

[7:23] It'll be a part of that. We'll have some things contained

[7:25] therein. And the one thing that I know for sure we're doing

[7:28] is going to be really cool. And Kat's not out of the bag yet.

[7:31] So you're going to have to wait on that one. We'll have to

[7:33] check with you next month. For sure. Tell me about the

[7:36] senior day trips. So we have April 8th, the Cavs game.

[7:42] April 16th, the glass asylum. April 23rd, the sound of

[7:48] music at Playhouse Square. April 24th, Cleveland Pops

[7:53] Orchestra. And April 30th, spend a day in Oberlin. Oh, that

[7:59] sounds nice. They all sound nice. I've not, I've yet to hear

[8:04] of a bus trip that was not fun and not light. Good, good.

[8:08] And we're going to end our show like we always do now,

[8:10] just for the past few months. It's a new thing

[8:13] with our Macedonia business of the month. So the business

[8:16] of the month is Aries Combat. And you got to watch that one.

[8:19] I think it was a good one for us. All right. Thank you for

[8:23] watching and we'll see you next time.

[8:37] We are here with our March business of the month. This

[8:39] one's very exciting to me. We're at Aries Combat with

[8:42] Dave O'Graft. Thanks for having us in today.

[8:45] Tell us about your business. I've been here for 11 years. I've

[8:49] been doing mixed martial arts technically for 43 years. My

[8:52] mom and my dad started me lifelong combat at combat sports.

[8:56] I started karate and with my father and then I went along. I

[9:02] got five black belts between wrestling, Muay Thai, my boxing,

[9:07] my amateur boxing and my full contact story going across the

[9:11] board. I've got 29 amateur champions ever since I started.

[9:16] I've worked with eight UFC fighters, a few Bellator fighters,

[9:19] PFL fighters. I've had a BK, well he fought in a BKFC but he

[9:24] was a BYB world champ in the Diamond Set belt. I've worked

[9:28] with him. I've had an LFA world champion from Bedford, Ohio,

[9:32] Drill Thunder Cajaj. He was actually one of my,

[9:35] truly my first student, would build up the human weapon if

[9:38] you guys ever heard of the History Channel called the

[9:40] Human Weapon. He was a college roommates with Paid Manning.

[9:44] So I got to meet Paid Manning through my journey and stuff like

[9:46] that with Bill in the Old Twinsburg Powerhouse. And then

[9:50] when he transferred over and let that over, I actually,

[9:53] I was the old pro there and amateur, you know, experience

[9:55] and all that stuff. So everybody was asking me, hey

[9:57] coach, because I was a coach and I didn't really even

[9:59] know that was truly my thing. So I took it over because

[10:04] it's been a family thing, you know. And ever since then,

[10:06] you know, I've had a Ohio House Award. This is my second

[10:10] time you guys blessed me of being business a month. I'm

[10:14] just grateful, you know, it's been it's been hard, you know,

[10:17] I mean, believing in a dream, you know, highs and lows,

[10:21] you know, my mother and my father's been gone. They both

[10:24] passed. It's been it's been hard, you know what I'm

[10:26] saying, but I'm grateful for being here. I'm grateful for

[10:28] helping people and doing what I love. I'm blessed.

[10:30] Well, we're happy to have you in Macedonia. I'm a big

[10:33] fan of MMA, mixed martial arts, all that stuff. Tell us a

[10:37] little bit more about what you actually do here, like what

[10:39] your training is and what you offer to people so they can

[10:42] come here if they want to help patronize your business.

[10:44] Sure, sure, sure. This is a true mixed martial arts

[10:47] academy. I think I get a little bit misunderstood. What I

[10:52] do, I do consultations. That's why we have we win

[10:55] about 81% of all our competitions and I just

[10:57] make people better. If I physically, because this

[11:01] has been my life's journey, if I physically could sit down

[11:04] and talk to you and consult you and figure out what you

[11:07] need, I could work. Anybody could be here. That's right. I

[11:10] mean, I've got little ones. I've had up to the highest

[11:13] to high, the lowest lows at this place is for

[11:15] everyone truly, but if you really want to be a

[11:16] champion, this place is an academy. It's not a

[11:19] gentleman. It's an academy because I I'm totally

[11:22] focusing on making you the best you physically

[11:24] could be in life. It doesn't matter. You

[11:26] don't have to be a champion champion because not

[11:28] everybody can be a champion but trying to be the

[11:31] best in life is that's the key, right? You have to

[11:35] try and that's why I'm the epitome of never giving

[11:37] up. You know, I failed millions of times but I get

[11:40] up every day and I'm gonna give it my best. I don't

[11:42] care what it takes. I'm gonna get it done and

[11:45] that's that. But to be clear, someone wanted to

[11:47] come here for let's say training or

[11:49] consultations. You and I have talked many

[11:52] times. You have football players you work

[11:55] with. You have wrestlers you work with. You

[11:57] have people that are interested in mixed martial

[11:59] arts. So you're not you're not just a one-stop

[12:00] shop for mixed martial arts. You're a much more

[12:03] than one. Talk about like, you know, like the

[12:05] Akron football team you were talking about. Yeah.

[12:07] The Akron football team, they're supposed to be

[12:09] reaching out to me because um, technically, if

[12:11] you go into judo, that's technically Samba,

[12:13] right? I I promise you, you can come in here

[12:16] with 10 in guys. You think X football

[12:18] players because I worked with Rob Sems before.

[12:20] He couldn't take me down. Um, you know, I

[12:22] miss, I miss you're gonna put that out to

[12:24] that. Yeah, Rob, Rob, if you're out there, you

[12:26] heard that. You heard it, Rob. All right. But

[12:29] I'm saying right, but when you used to work

[12:30] down at the BP down here, you used to go to

[12:32] the Twinsburg Powerhouse. I love Rob, but but

[12:35] take me down from here to here. If I could

[12:37] if I could block you hand fighting, I'm a

[12:39] keto master in a judo. Judo. I mean, I've

[12:42] thrown 350 pound people from here to there.

[12:44] I mean, if I get my hands on you, not,

[12:46] not, no way. Not even happening.

[12:48] Um, I'm just saying I'm very confident

[12:51] saying that like physically because it's

[12:52] been a lifelong journey. It's a difference

[12:55] to like say he drops down and he gets

[12:57] underneath me and gets my hips down, but

[12:59] good luck. It's not happening. If I see it

[13:01] coming, it's not happening. You know what I'm

[13:02] saying? Because I could take guns and

[13:04] knives out people's hands. I know how

[13:05] to like break every bone and a body

[13:07] with 15 pounds of pressure. You know,

[13:09] this has been my whole life. I know

[13:11] about human anatomy. I know about

[13:12] nutrition. I know about rehab. I've

[13:15] had 16 broken bones in my body. You

[13:17] see me moving around like I can move

[13:19] around. I can still run under a five

[13:21] minute mile. I can run around 11

[13:22] a second or mile. You know, 100 dash.

[13:25] I mean, you know, you know, it's just

[13:27] been my life's journey. So I get. So

[13:30] let's just say you're a local kid in

[13:32] this area and they're looking for a

[13:35] little bit more training for like

[13:36] football. This would be a place they

[13:37] can come to. 100%. So you can help

[13:39] to get them to be a little bit more

[13:41] better with, let's say, tackling or

[13:43] blocking. Positioning and that

[13:44] coordination. What we talked about a

[13:46] lot in the past is that this is not

[13:48] just mixed martial arts. This is a

[13:50] lot. You can put it, you can apply

[13:51] this to other sports because we're a

[13:53] very big athletic community. So I

[13:54] wanted to point that out.

[13:56] Exactly. I can physically work with

[13:58] any sports, any team, and I can, I

[14:02] guarantee you, if we did like a one-on-

[14:05] one, if you specifically wanted to

[14:06] work on something, I guarantee you I

[14:08] can make you faster. I can make you

[14:09] stronger. I can educate you about your

[14:11] body. I can help you throw

[14:13] pointers about physical rehab. I

[14:16] can make you just straight better. I,

[14:17] and I will put, I'll bet that

[14:19] whatever on the house. I could, I know

[14:21] how to make you better, and that's what

[14:22] I am. I'm a, I'm like a mindset coach,

[14:26] but I know how to get you, I could

[14:27] detail, I can simply point things out

[14:30] that's going to educate you in some,

[14:31] which way or form to make you better

[14:33] in life. Period. I will bet the

[14:35] house on it. That's great. And if

[14:37] somebody wanted to look you up,

[14:38] social media, where would they go for

[14:40] that? Well, yeah. I have, I have

[14:41] four Facebooks, you know, Davo

[14:43] Graph, Aries Combat, Aries Nation,

[14:46] Davo Graph, Instagram. If you

[14:50] want to check that out, it's at the

[14:51] Andill, it's Andill trained. It's the

[14:53] Andill 20 and 27, then Aries Combat.

[14:56] I have a couple Snapchats, Aries Nation.

[14:58] We also have one of our

[15:00] Our service employees that works with you two a lot. I got a plug Joey here. He's an

[15:05] animal and we love him and he's a great employee but when he gets in this gym

[15:08] what's Joey like here? Joey's amazing. Me and Joe have been training together since

[15:13] I think 2008-2009 with Bill Duff, the human weapon. You know he started there.

[15:19] He actually trained with you know Devante Smith, Gerro Hodge. We had we

[15:23] literally in 2011 we were at the gym, the flight gym of the year in Ohio.

[15:28] And he was part of that back then you know I mean and he came here and he's he

[15:34] follows through and you know Joe's an amazing guy you know I'm saying I'm

[15:37] starting I'm trying to work with Junior now you know he's starting to come in

[15:40] starting to get in here and you know like that and that's what that's really

[15:42] what you know my mom and my dad wanted me to do you know God bless him you

[15:46] know is just keep giving back and help people. Yeah I think you do a lot of

[15:51] that here and we're proud to have you and you know it's something I

[15:54] talk about a lot is the diversity of different types of businesses you know

[15:57] our first two businesses a month were more food related just a little bit

[16:01] different and I wanted to highlight that with you because what you do in here is

[16:04] great for the kids and I know you work a lot with the kids can you focus in a

[16:07] little bit more on the kids and what you do with them here? Oh sure because I

[16:11] believe in the old world so it like I work these kids so hard but I my big

[16:17] thing with the kids I really want them to actually listen and take things

[16:22] seriously so they learn to follow through on things and just be able to

[16:27] be confident enough with all the stuff going on in these schools and just do

[16:33] the right thing you know I mean it's more importantly it's just do the

[16:36] right thing. I also want to point out too this is not just you know a violent

[16:41] thing here this is something that I don't like it's a good workout it's a

[16:44] good training for for kids for adults it's it's good exercise it's all

[16:49] the healthy things we want and a lot of times you know if you just go to

[16:52] the gym and work out this is going to take you to another level and you know

[16:54] you and I know each other for I don't know four or five years now sure we talk

[16:58] all the time and I love it I enjoy MMA it's kind of a thing for me but we're

[17:02] happy to have you we're happy to have you as our business of the month and

[17:06] we want to present you with the plaque we normally have another one yeah

[17:09] it's running a little late getting in but we'll start you with this one so

[17:11] this is your presentation to your plaque for March of 26 appreciate you so

[17:15] much guys

[17:22] you

[17:24] you

[17:26] you

[17:28] you

[17:30] you

[17:32] you

[17:34] you

[17:36] you

Macedonia Mayor's Report - April/May 2026

Transcript