MAHONING VALLEY Airport budget cuts funds from counties

The board is looking for ways to cut costs at the airport.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
VIENNA -- Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport will run on less taxpayer money in 2002 than it has for the last two years despite a projected drop in revenue from counter-rental and aircraft-service fees.
The Western Reserve Port Authority board, which operates the airport, approved a budget Wednesday calling for Mahoning and Trumbull counties each to contribute $315,500 -- $285,000 toward maintaining regular operations at the airport and $30,500 to match portions of federal funds for runway and sewer system upgrading.
Last year, the counties each contributed $323,000 to run the airport.
The counties had also earmarked an additional $131,000 each for improvements to the airport that were never made, said Reid Dulberger, board treasurer. That money was never paid out, he said.
The airport has been able to shrink expenses by turning off lights, putting off improvements to private aircraft hangars, freezing the salaries of the five administrative employees and allocating no money for employee travel.
Estimates: The board is projecting that airport revenue will drop by $70,000 in 2002 because of the loss of US Airways Express, one of the two carriers that flew out of the airport at the beginning of the year, and from the economic downturn and post-Sept. 11 travel slump.
At the same time, the facility's annual security budget had to be increased by $72,000 to meet new Federal Aviation Administration standards, Dulberger said.
In next year's budget, the airport's bottom line will also benefit from a one-time transfer of about $140,000 planned for capital improvements into operating funds, Dulberger said.
Construction: The board learned that Howland developer Brian Ross is pursuing a lease agreement to build a hangar and fuel facilities for two private planes.
The aircraft are now at the Akron-Canton Airport, said Gregory Hicks, attorney for Ross Development/Ross Aviation. The company has offered the airport $7,000 a year for use of the land.
Leaving the board: The Rev. Kenneth Simon, a four-year member of the board, said increasing responsibilities as pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church and as administrator at Eagle Heights Academy, a charter school in Youngstown, have persuaded him not to seek another term.
It will be up to the Mahoning County commissioners to appoint his successor, along with one for Thomas Kubik, a Mahoning representative who resigned from the board in October.