REGIONAL AIRPORT Board OKs cuts in staff

The remaining airline will leave in September.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- The Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport still has something left to lose.
The local airport gets about $1 million a year in federal funds, based on the number of commercial passengers using the facility, said Thomas Nolan, director of aviation.
If the number of commercial passengers flying in and out of the airport drops beneath 10,000 a year, the money could be in jeopardy, he said.
"That's why it is so important for people to support the airport," Nolan said.
The airport's lone remaining airline, Northwest, is expected to depart for good in September.
The airport has been reaching the 10,000-passenger threshold just from charter flights, primarily to gambling destinations, Nolan said.
On Wednesday, the board of the Western Reserve Port Authority, which runs the airport, authorized Nolan to cut airport employees and contracted services to make up for the $35,000 annual loss from Northwest.
"We are confident we can meet that and go beyond it," he said.
Employees
The airport employs four administrative and seven maintenance employees, and has large custodial, parking and security contracts that might be cut, he said.
The control tower is staffed by federal employees, he said.
Since Sept. 11, security costs at the airport have increased by $60,000, to about $242,000 a year, officials said.
Under a contract with the port authority board, the Vienna Township Police Department keeps one officer at the airport 24 hours a day, and has a second officer at the airport during the day, said Glen Wireman, a township trustee.
"I don't know what staff you are going to need, but under the circumstances it is certainly going to decrease," Wireman told the board.
Reid Dulberger, president of the board, said that no decisions about security had been made yet.
One factor complicating that decision is that the federal government has already agreed to reimburse the airport for post-Sept. 11 security expenses through next year, Nolan said.
The board elected in April to use the $114,000 expected reimbursement to pay the salary of a new consultant for economic development.
The job of screening charter plane passengers and baggage had been conducted by Northwest, which also owns the X-ray machine, Nolan said.