VIENNA In light of air base, just how important is airport funding?

The air base may face an opportunity for growth.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- On certain weekend mornings, the two gates to the Youngstown Air Force Reserve Station resemble a steel mill during the Valley's better days.
More than 2,000 people work here, mostly on a part-time basis, making the military station the fourth-largest employer in the Mahoning Valley.
They crowd the gates on training weekends, when more than 1,400 reservists come to practice and prepare for war.
Their 16 Lockeed C-130H2 cargo planes are by far the most visible aircraft to use the generally sleepy airport next door.
Worth it to taxpayers?
Is it worth paying for the airport -- $247,337 a year from Trumbull and Mahoning County taxpayers combined -- if the primary signs of life are at military station next door?
"Absolutely," says U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th.
Other officials are not convinced.
Mahoning County commissioners are debating whether they can afford to continue funding an airport located in the county next door.
Trumbull County commissioners have committed to paying for the facility -- despite deep budget problems that prompted laying off more than 100 county workers earlier this year.
On Friday, Liberty Township administrator Patrick Ungaro urged Ryan to organize a meeting of community leaders to discuss airport funding.
To be sure, there is activity at the airport beside the air base.
Winner Aviation employs dozens fixing planes, selling fuel and assisting with charters. Private planes and charters to gambling destinations use the airport. And Timkin and Delphi Packard have located plants near the airport to gain "Free Trade Zone" tax advantages only available because the airport is there.
But the air station is by far the biggest, with the most employees, largest payroll and greatest economic impact.
The Air Force Reserve pumps $69 million a year into the local economy, largely through employee pay and contracts for services. Those jobs and contracts have an economic impact of $86 million a year, after accounting for how the money gets re-spent and creates more jobs in the area, according to the Air Force Reserve's latest annual report.
They say the economic impact could top $100 million a year if expenditures by Navy and Marine reserve contingents at the base are factored in.
"This is all new money to the community," said Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber vice president Reid Dulberger. He is also the former head of the Western Reserve Port Authority Board, which runs the airport.
"It is not like we are selling to each other. This is new money we are bringing in and re-investing in the community," he stressed.
Ryan said the impact of the air base is greater than most industrial developments, and that many of those are subsidized, in a sense, through tax abatements.
"We probably give a hell of a lot of money to smaller companies that don't employ as many people," he said.
Base closings
The federal government's plans to close 25 percent of all military air bases in 2005 represents both a risk and an opportunity for the Mahoning Valley.
If the local air base survives the closures, it will be in a good position to pick up some business from the bases that close, Ryan said.
He said he'd like to see the Valley "at the table."
siff@vindy.com