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Macedonia highlights expanded emergency services: drones, body cameras and patrol grant

Macedonia Mayor's Report · January 28, 2026

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Summary

Mayor Nick Molnar reported rising emergency calls, the expansion of a 10-member drone team, a $32,000 grant for saturation patrols and phased deployment of body-worn cameras and in-car systems to improve public safety and evidence collection.

Mayor Nick Molnar used the State of the City address to emphasize recent public-safety investments and operational changes after several years of growing service demand.

Molnar said the fire department's incident totals rose from 3,533 (Oct. 2023) to 3,688 (Oct. 2024) and to 3,973 (Oct. 2025), an increase he described as an 8% year-over-year rise. He highlighted mutual-aid arrangements with neighboring communities for overlapping calls and praised crews for response performance.

A substantial portion of the presentation focused on the city's drone capability. Molnar said Assistant Chief Zelensky developed a drone team now serving North (sic) Orange Hills, Summit County and adjacent jurisdictions. "We have a drone vehicle ... it can be used for a multitude of things," he said, and described using drones for reconnaissance to check homes for occupants before sending personnel: "we can send a drone into the home ... it could look around to see if there was anyone in the house." He said the team includes 10 members (5 firefighters, 4 police officers and FAA Part 107-certified pilots), owns nine unmanned aircraft systems and recorded 28 calls for service in 2024 and 32 in 2025 (as of October).

On policing, Molnar said the department received a $32,000 grant to operate saturation patrols aimed at reducing fatal accidents and participates in the federally funded Summit County Impaired Driving Reduction Initiative. He announced body-worn cameras were implemented in 2025 and will interface with in-car cameras early in 2026, and he highlighted the addition of a full-time school resource officer at Ledgeview.

Molnar framed these measures as tools to improve safety and evidence collection: he cited an example where Samsara truck-camera footage contradicted a claim that a city truck hit a mailbox, illustrating how video can clarify incidents.

The mayor also reported equipment updates (a 2023 Pierce commercial-chassis engine replacing a 2000 model) and personnel changes in the fire department, including promotions and pending staffing actions.