VIENNA DeWine stresses air base's value

The senator met in private with top steel industry executives.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
VIENNA -- Keys to saving the Youngstown Air Reserve Station from Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 are advance preparation and putting more assets into the facility, making it more difficult to close.
The base mission is important to the defense of the nation and to the local economy, said U.S. Sen. Michael DeWine, R-Ohio, who toured the Vienna base Thursday afternoon.
DeWine huddled behind closed doors with the commander of the 910th Airlift Wing, Brig. Gen. Michael F. Gjede. The 910th is the major military component at the base.
DeWine, who did not detail what he might have in mind for the air station, noted the overall impact of the base on the area's economy is about $100 million a year, including about 2,000 direct jobs and thousands of spin-off jobs.
The senator said he had visited the Vienna air station on King-Graves Road in the past, but wanted to tour the facility again to get an update.
BRAC is inevitable, said DeWine, the first Ohioan in about 60 years to serve on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
"What I have learned is that you fight it [BRAC] before it comes," he said.
BRAC 2005 is the Department of Defense's fifth round of evaluating its needs. The process concludes with recommendations on personnel and facility levels, which officials believe could include a large number of base closings around the country.
Steel industry
While at the air station, DeWine also met in private with top steel industry executives, who were expected to seek his help in solving the crisis in that struggling industry.
Among them were Rodney Mott, president and CEO of the International Steel Group; Timothy G. Rupert, president and chief executive of RMI's parent company, RTI International Metals; and Edward R. Caine, president and chief executive of WCI Steel in Warren.
Thursday night, DeWine was to attend a fund-raiser at a Howland home, hosted by Niles Atty. Matthew Blair and several other couples. Mott was the featured speaker, Blair said.
Also meeting with DeWine Thursday were numerous elected officials, including Trumbull County Commissioners Joseph Angelo, Michael O'Brien and James Tsgaris, and Niles Mayor Ralph Infante.
DeWine praised the high level of support the community has shown for the air station.
Also, he said that the relationship between the air station and Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport are "synergistic."
"We have to continue to shore up both sides of the equation," DeWine said. "They both have real impact on the other," DeWine said.
Defense bill
One way of adding assets to the air station is a defense appropriation bill approved by the House, which includes $1 million to upgrade aerial mosquito-spraying equipment at the 910th Airlift Wing. DeWine said the bill is in conference committee.
Passage would ensure everything in the local base remains state of the art and would be a big step toward protecting it from BRAC.
The 910th has the only military fixed-wing mosquito-spraying unit. Four of the wing's 16 Lockheed C-130 H2 transport planes are equipped to handle removable spraying equipment, which dispenses chemicals in a fine mist.