Canton Marathon Exec Pays Off North Canton For 2012 Police, Fire Services

The city of North Canton was just recently repaid for its services in the 2012 Canton Marathon, which took more than eight months ago.

City Finance Director Karen Alger confirmed that Stephen Mears, one of the co-founders of the Canton Marathon, gave the city a check for about $8,000 to cover the cost of North Canton police and fire services as the race winded through town.

She said on Tuesday that check has not cleared yet.

, that the city had no plans to participate in the 2013 race — whether it was the Canton Marathon or the new Hall of Fame City Challenge — because it hadn't been paid for its services. 

Then, Grimes said the 2012 Canton Marathon cost the city of North Canton about $9,700, and North Canton had only been paid $820.

Other municipalities across Stark County were seeing the same thing, too.

Meanwhile, Mears broke away from the Canton Marathon and was in the process of starting a new race, the Hall of Fame City Challenge, creating two high-profile Stark County marathons during the same weekend (June 15 and 16).

He said the registration fees from the new race would be used to pay back those who were still owed from the 2012 Canton Marathon.

Grimes said in December 2012 that the city would need to be fully repaid and see a payment upfront in 2013 before agreeing to participate in a 2013 race. 

He said this week that the city has not made a decision about participating this year, as it hasn't been contacted by race organizers.

"We would have to see if the date is available, what services are requested, if the route requested is free from any road construction projects planned during that time frame, how well the organizers worked with us in the past and of course if it requires a large city expenditure then payment would be required up front," Grimes wrote in an email to North Canton Patch.

Julia Dick, president of Canton Marathon LLC, said in a letter to the editor that the two races are not affiliated with each other. In that letter, Dick said, "I want to make this perfectly clear. The only reason Canton Marathon, LLC was unable to pay its bills on time is because Stephen Mears and his company StrategyONE, Inc. borrowed over $100,000 from it."

Mears also responded in a letter to the editor, saying, "We put 100% of our effort into putting on the marathon and incurred expenses as a result. Any money loaned to StrategyONE was for business purposes. We didn't turn a profit working on the marathon. I signed a note to repay these funds under duress."

North Canton Patch readers also weighed in through a poll about whether they would participate in either race this year.