VIENNA AIRPORT Project raises concerns for base

Security could also be an issue with the proposed facility.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- Western Reserve Port Authority is moving ahead on negotiations with developer Brian Ross on a project that would help the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport's bottom line, but, some fear, could hurt efforts to keep open the Air Force base next door.
The board, which runs the airport used by the Air Force, decided Wednesday to continue discussions with Ross to build an office and hangar on airport land right next to the adjoining base, despite reservations by members of a committee dedicated to keeping the base open.
"The communities which have encroaching buildings [around air bases] are looking for ways to eliminate them, not create them," said Reid Dulberger, a committee member and former port authority chairman.
Ross, of Howland, wants to build an office and hangar off King Graves Road on airport property that was earmarked for possible expansion of Youngstown Air Reserve Station in a 1996 study.
"If our financial situation was better, or at least if our support from the counties was better, we could probably look at the project and move it to where we think it ought to be," said board member Michael Kelly. "We have to balance the concerns that Mr. Dulberger has with the financial needs of the airport."
Barb Ewing, community development coordinator for U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, said air bases that remain open will likely be the ones that have enough space to accept activity from the 25 percent of bases that are to be closed. The government is planning another round of closings in 2005.
"We should absolutely be focused on the need to preserve the base, but secondarily, we really do see this as an opportunity to grow," she said.
Ross is willing to accept the risk that a new building could be lost to air base expansion, board member Michael Harshman said. On projects of this type, developers typically build and own buildings on land they lease from the port authority.
Harshman said he thinks that there are no better places for Ross to build and that it would reflect badly on the port authority if it puts obstacles in his path.
"Putting myself as a consumer, I would have the assumption that things cannot be built at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport," he said.
Ross could not be reached.
Working on lease
The board voted Wednesday to move forward with Ross' proposal by working out terms for a possible lease that will include specific language that Ross will have no control over the future of the building.
Air base officials will be included in future discussions. The base commander, Brig. Gen. Michael Gjede, said he was concerned the new building would require another entrance to the airfield that would have to be guarded.
Meanwhile, the port authority approved renting space in the airport terminal to Ready Air, a New Castle company that deals in time-sharing of corporate jets.
They will pay the port authority $333 a month.
Referred to as "fractional ownership," it is an arrangement by which several people will share ownership and use of an airplane, similar to a vacation condo.
Ready Air manages the program and provides the pilots.
The board also agreed to negotiate a deal with International Manufacturing and Sales Corp., of Youngstown, which hopes to arrange for Brazilian companies to import goods through the local airport.
The deal would likely call for the port authority to pay the company a percentage of the fees it collects from the Brazilian business, officials say.
siff@vindy.com