TRUMBULL COUNTY Panel to hold money while awaiting update on airport

Mahoning County commissioners will consider a similar measure.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- Trumbull County commissioners will hold back $75,000 from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport until they get an explanation of how the facility plans to get itself off the public dole.
A similar action will be considered by Mahoning County commissioners, Mahoning Commissioner Ed Reese said.
Each county still owes the airport about $150,000, about half their pledged yearly contribution toward the facility's $1.45 million annual budget. The money has already been budgeted for 2002 airport expenses, said Reid Dulberger, chairman of the Western Reserve Port Authority board, which runs the airport.
A check for half the money Trumbull County owes the airport for 2002, about $75,000, will be put in the mail Thursday, said Joseph J. Angelo Jr., a Trumbull County Commissioner.
"Before we give them the entire amount, we want to sit down with [airport director of aviation] Tom Nolan and find out exactly what the situation is," Angelo said. "We recognized that we have committed to it, but we want to know exactly where they are and what they have left over."
Budget cuts
The airport made $150,000 worth of cuts to its annual budget in July after the announcement that the last airline to use the facility, Northwest Airlines, planned to depart for good. The full effect of the cuts, which exceeded the $35,000 Northwest had contributed the airport's bottom line, will not be felt until 2003.
The facility does not have any funding sources lined up to replace money from the two counties, Dulberger said.
"Until we at the Port Authority hear something directly from the commissioners, it is obviously not prudent for me to comment on it," he said.
Pursuit of airline
Trumbull commissioners are also seeking reassurance that the airport has been making strides in its pursuit of an airline or other money-making opportunities, said Commissioner Michael O'Brien.
"We have to balance the needs of necessary services in the county, and the airport subsidy is an extra," O'Brien said. "We just can't blindly continue."
siff@vindy.com