Officials take steps to reclaim money from port authority

No bids were received for the construction of airplane hangars.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- Trumbull County commissioners say it's time for the Western Reserve Port Authority to repay 150,000 the county gave it in 2004 to assist the airline Vacation Express with start-up costs.
To show that they are serious, commissioners are withholding two months' worth of bed tax money, totaling 28,078.
Commissioner Paul Heltzel said an employee of the county auditor's office discovered recently that a deadline had passed for repayment of the money, and pointed it out to Auditor Adrian Biviano. Commissioners then sent a letter to Steve Bowser, airport aviation director.
Heltzel said the commissioners and port authority have exchanged letters in recent months with proposals for how to repay the money, but nothing has been finalized.
The most recent proposal would have the port authority making its first repayment of 50,000 this July and following that with a 50,000 payment in July 2008, and 25,000 payments in 2009 and 2010, Heltzel said.
Bowser said he has not had a similar request from Mahoning County, which also gave 150,000 at the time.
Bowser said the port authority is planning to repay the money as quickly as possible.
"Does it present a burden? Sure," Bowser said. He said the port authority doesn't have extra money available, but it will do whatever is necessary to make the repayment.
Not spelled out
Bowser said no repayment terms were spelled out at the time of the payment, but it contained a "deadline" of Feb. 11, 2007.
The first letter from the county commissioners on the matter came Feb. 21, he said.
The money was used during the six months in mid-2004 while Vacation Express offered flights to Sanford, Fla., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, Bowser said.
All of the 300,000 and additional port authority money was used to assist Vacation Express, Bowser said.
Trumbull County gives the port authority half of the county's 4-percent bed tax revenue each month and gives the other half to the county's tourism bureau.
Heltzel said the commissioners decided to withhold half of February's bed taxes of 14,300 and March bed taxes of 13,778 when they learned of the unpaid 150,000.
Also on agenda
In other business during Wednesday's port authority meeting, members learned from Duane Johnson of R.W. Armstrong of Cleveland, the airport's consultant, that no bids were received for the construction of airplane hangars.
The port authority advertised earlier this year for companies to submit proposals to build the hangars, something officials hoped would spur development.
The hangars would be built on the north side of the airport entrance near state Route 193.
Johnson said he thinks there was no interest in the proposal because the port authority has been unable to secure enough funding to develop the taxiways that would serve the hangars.
The port authority also approved an agreement with Rubenstein Associates of Liberty for 27,860 to operate a marketing program to promote an "Employee of the Year" program.
It would encourage local businesses to provide employees with vacation packages using Allegiant Air flights to and from the local airport.
Rubenstein Associates will market the idea to 2,000 businesses with a goal of selling an additional 2,000 tickets on Allegiant.
runyan@vindy.com