BEAVER TOWNSHIP Airport gets cited over MedEvac unit

The zoning inspector said the township does not want the service to leave.
By VIRGINIA ROSS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NORTH LIMA -- The Beaver Township Board of Zoning Appeals has upheld a decision to cite the owner of Youngstown Elser Metro Airport for allowing a STAT MedEvac team to operate at the airport.
The appeals board found during a hearing Wednesday at the township administration office that the conditional use permit the township issued the airport several years ago does not allow for the operation of the business, which provides medical helicopter services.
Board members agreed they do not want to see the team removed from the site, but they encouraged airport owner and president Michael E. Stanko to ask the township to amend his conditional use permit to include the legal operation of the business.
Earlier this year, Michele L. Swope, township zoning inspector, cited Stanko after she learned the medical emergency team was working from a modular home inside a hangar at the airport. Swope said that cannot be done legally without a building permit.
Stanko appealed Swope's decision.
Testimony
George Smerigan, township planning consultant, testified the site is permitted to operate as a general aviation airport, which allows for Stanko to have aircraft storage areas, limited runways and maintenance buildings.
"The issue before the board is whether the MedEvac use is permitted at the site under the current conditional use," Smerigan said. "It would be a reasonable request for a conditional use, for the current conditional use to be amended to allow for it, but it is not permissible under the current conditional use permit."
Stanko, along with Larry Kniess, MedEvac flight nurse and base site coordinator at the airport, said the team of pilots, nurses and paramedics works out of the modular home, which was installed in January. They said it serves as an office area for the MedEvac medical team and its pilots, providing rest areas and shower, laundry and kitchen facilities for staff, many of whom work 24-hour shifts.
Stanko said he did not think it was necessary to ask the township for a building permit to have the modular home placed inside the hangar, which also houses the MedEvac helicopter. The modular home serves as a temporary structure, not a permanent improvement, he said.
Further, he said he did not think he needed to have his conditional use permit expanded to allow the trauma flight team.
Next move
After hearing the board's ruling, Stanko and his attorney, James Roberts, said they would consider Stanko's options but declined to comment further.
Stanko can appeal Wednesday's decision to county court, apply to have the airport's conditional use expanded to include legal operation of the MedEvac team at the site, or ask the MedEvac team to leave the site.
"We don't want to see MedEvac leave," Swope said after the hearing. "We want to work with them and to make sure they are operating there legally. We just need Mr. Stanko to go through the proper channels."
The local MedEvac site is one of 16 base sites operated by the Center for Emergency Medicine of Pittsburgh. The sites are in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The local site, which provides flight services to St. Elizabeth Health Center's Regional Trauma Center in Youngstown, employs 11 full-time staff including four nurses, three paramedics and four pilots. There are also two part-time nurses. The team typically services an area that covers a 50-mile radius.