Regional tourism strategy looms as only viable option

It has been seven months since then Mahoning County Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock proposed re-examining the viability of creating a joint convention and visitors bureau for Mahoning and Trumbull counties, and in that time controversy and upheaval have reigned supreme. If only vision had trumped parochialism and Sherlock's proposal been given a serious look-see.
Instead, today, both counties are embroiled in court battles with their respective convention and visitors bureaus, verbal clashes over money have drowned out any talk of a marketing campaign for the upcoming tourist season, and the prospects are bleak for a solution that everyone involved could embrace.
In others words, it's the same old song and dance routine that has undermined this region's revitalization for so long.
But hope springs eternal. It must -- given the alternative.
Both boards of commissioners have new members: in Mahoning County, Anthony Traficanti and John McNally IV have replaced Sherlock and Edward Reese; in Trumbull, Atty. Paul Heltzel has succeeded Joseph Angelo. These individuals come to government well aware of the public's deep discontent over the way taxpayer dollars are being spent at all levels and a dissatisfaction with the business-as-usual attitude displayed by so many public employees.
Against that backdrop is a proposal from state Sen. Marc Dann of Liberty Township, D-32nd, for the Western Reserve Port Authority to become the marketing and tourism entity for the Mahoning Valley. The authority, created under state law, operates the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna Township and also has been given responsibility for developing the Mahoning River Corridor, including the clean up of the river.
We share Dann's opinion that the authority is ideally suited to promote the region's tourist attractions. After all, it has launched a marketing campaign for the airport and "New Mahoning Valley, Ohio's Growth Corridor," with the goal of attracting airline services and establishing partnerships with cargo carriers and freight forwarders, allied industries, manufacturers and aircraft assembly companies.
Quality of life
But as any economic development specialist knows, quality of life issues play an important role in any job-creation endeavor. Thus, as the port authority spreads the word nationally and internationally about the advantages of the regional airport and the adjacent industrial park, it would not be contradictory for it and the marketing firm it has hired to tout one of the premier urban parks in the country, Mill Creek Park, or the Butler Institute of American Art or the National Packard Museum, or even the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, the Minor League baseball team.
It should be recalled that it was Dann who last year pushed through a law in the General Assembly that enabled Mahoning and Trumbull counties to use lodging tax revenue to fund the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. Hotels and motels collect the tax and send a check to the counties. Until the change orchestrated by the senator, the county commissioners had struggled to fund the airport.
We point that out to silence any critics who might be inclined to accuse Dann of grandstanding.
Like former Commissioner Sherlock's idea for a regional convention and visitors bureau, the port authority's role as a marketing and tourism entity makes perfect sense to us.