Letter-writing campaign launched to save Firestone

Former Akron City Council member Mary Ellen McAvoy has launched a letter-writing campaign to keep the Firestone plant in Firestone Park.

McAvoy, a member of St. Paul Parish who was born on Reed Avenue and is the daughter of Ron and Ellen McAvoy, hopes to dump a stack of letters on the company’s Nashville doorstep. Her campaign is heralded in a page one story by Beacon Journal columnist David Giffels in today’s newspaper.

“I want hundreds of letters,'' she said over hamburgers last week at the Ido Bar & Grill. ''There's no reason there shouldn't be that many. It should be thousands.''

Gifflels writes:

The worry is out there. She's been hearing it, and so have I — worry about the costs of losing the company's technical center and its 600 jobs.

But for some reason, there hasn't been a loud voice rising from the grass roots, urging the South Akron neighborhood's cornerstone to stay. McAvoy's planning to change that.

The 39-year-old knows firsthand the upheaval that would face the tire company's workers if the company decides to relocate its tech center to Nashville — a decision very much on the table, as officials consider offers from Akron and Tennessee to build a new facility.

McAvoy, you'll recall, had to leave her council seat in 2004 so her husband, Craig Sivak, could follow his career south — a difficult adjustment, and one that served as an unfortunate case study for Ohio's economy.

The whole time they were there, McAvoy was hoping eventually to find a way back home. And when they saw an opportunity to get close, Sivak accepted a job as vice president of sales and engineering at T&W Stamping and T&W Forge in Alliance. They returned to Ohio a year ago, McAvoy as a civilian rather than an elected official, but obviously no less committed to the neighborhood she calls home.

Her mother's a Firestone Park native and her parents have lived there all their married life. McAvoy was born on Reed Avenue, grew up on Ido Avenue, and she and her husband bought their first home on Wayne Avenue.

Even now, living in Jackson Township to be closer to her husband's job, ''I come out of my allotment and I turn north every day.''

Both her sons go to school in Firestone Park. Her oldest is open-enrolled in kindergarten at Voris Elementary School, and her younger son goes to preschool nearby.

Last week, she sent a mass e-mail asking people to write letters to Mark Emkes, Bridgestone Firestone's chairman and CEO, urging him to keep the technical center at its current South Main Street location.

''The loss of Bridgestone Firestone to this community would have a devastating effect on both the surrounding neighborhoods as well as local businesses,'' she wrote. ''I believe it is important for Bridgestone Firestone to hear about the value it brings to Firestone Park and the Greater Akron area from citizens throughout the community.''

As these things go, the e-mail grew virtual legs, being forwarded and forwarded again. By early this week, she had about 50 letters — ''not nearly enough,'' she said — but a decent start.

McAvoy is asking people to send letters to her, but addressed to Mark Emkes, chairman and CEO of Bridgestone Firestone. She will then deliver them in one (hopefully very large) bundle to the Nashville headquarters.

Letters can be e-mailed to memcavoy@sssnet.com or mailed to:

Mary Ellen McAvoy
4982 Red Fox Dr. N.W.
Massillon, OH 44646

Click on the headline to read Giffels article.