Airport will drop full-time security

Port authority officials would not confirm the move.
& lt;a href=mailto:siff@vindy.com & gt;By STEPHEN SIFF & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- Round-the-clock police protection for the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport will be eliminated next month in favor of having officers come in only when charter flights are scheduled to leave.
Police protection for the airport has been provided under a $180,000-a-year contract with the Vienna Police Department.
Last month the Western Reserve Port Authority Board, which runs the airport, gave Vienna Township trustees 60 days' notice that it intends to reduce the amount of police protection it buys, said John Hinely Jr., who was a trustee at the time.
The four full-time officers stationed at the airport -- the only full-time officers the small department has -- will be laid off in September as a result of the change, he said.
Several part-timers are also used to fill in the schedule at the airport, said Hinely, who was removed as a trustee after the Trumbull County Board of Elections determined he was no longer a county resident.
The loss of the airport positions will not affect police service available to township residents, he said.
Vienna Township Police Chief Dave Ovesny declined to comment on future layoffs. He said that as of Friday, his department was continuing to provide round-the-clock coverage.
Airport director Steve Bowser said federal law prohibits him from discussing security at the facility, and port authority chairman William Reali did not return a phone call requesting a comment.
Ongoing discussion
Since the departure of the last scheduled commercial flight from the airport in 2002, port authority board members have discussed asking the Transportation Safety Administration to loosen security requirements at the airport as a cost-saving measure.
"They asked us a month ago or two if the sheriff's department could do it [guard the airport]," said Trumbull County Commissioner James G. Tsagaris. "I told them you would have to pay them, too."
The Trumbull County Sheriff's Department had held the contract for airport security until a few years ago. The department has not been contacted about resuming the service, Sheriff Thomas Altiere said.
A reduction in security at the airport would not affect the adjoining Youngstown Joint Air Force Reserve Station, which has its own officers manning guard posts, checking fences and watching parked planes, said base spokesman Master Sgt. Bryan Ripple.
"We have our own full-time security force here to watch out for all the federal property," he said.
Reducing security -- and the associated expense -- at the airport could be a good idea if the Transportation Safety Administration approved it, Tsagaris said.
Mahoning County Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock said the port authority board, which is funded by Mahoning and Trumbull counties, did not ask the commissioners for advice on cutting security.
"Those types of decisions are typically made by the port authority and its director," she said.
& lt;a href=mailto:siff@vindy.com & gt;siff@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;