Executive director of port authority has busy start

By Ed Runyan

A consultant said the Detroit Metro Airport could be a good partner for the local airport.

VIENNA — Rose Ann DeLeon, new executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority, has spent her first 10 days on the job setting up offices in the Youngstown Business Incubator and Trumbull County Administration Building in Warren and meeting other local economic- development professionals.

At Wednesday’s meeting of the port authority, she listed several agencies she’s already met with and several more on her calendar, such as the economic-development staff for the city of Youngstown, the Summit County Port Authority, Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic Consortium and Barb Ewing of the office of U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th.

Next, she will focus her attention on putting together a business plan and a 2010 budget while doing anything she can to assist V&M Star Steel with its proposed $1 billion Youngstown- Girard expansion.

She mentioned several tools that the port authority has available to help the company, such as tax- increment financing, which borrows against future property-tax revenues; helping with job training; and taking ownership of the V&M property and leasing it back to the company.

Local leaders pooled money to create the position as a way to attract new jobs and businesses to the Mahoning Valley by using the statutory powers possessed by port authorities.

DeLeon was asked by port authority member Don Hanni III whether creation of a bond fund to help companies such as V&M secure the financing they need for expansion will also be a high priority.

The port authority could issue bonds now, but it will take money and some time to create a bond fund, she said, saying such a fund will be a high priority. She said she will talk to the Ohio Department of Development, which helped the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority start its bond fund many years ago by providing $2 million coupled with $2 million in local money.

DeLeon worked for the Cleveland port for 15 years, helping secure bond financing for projects such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and many others.

DeLeon will answer to the eight member port authority, which hired her at its Nov. 18 meeting. She started work Dec. 7.

Funding for the position and its work came from $1.3 million in support offered by city councils in Youngstown, Warren and Niles and county commissioners in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, as well as the Western Reserve Building Trades Council.

The port authority also heard from Randal Wiedemann of the Georgetown, Ky. company R.A. Wiedemann & Associates regarding work he could do for the port authority to help it attract an airline that could provide service to a major hub and increase use of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

Wiedemann said airports fairly close by that could provide service to airports around the world have become more limited in the past decade, with Cincinnati becoming less attractive as a hub, leaving the Detroit Metro Airport the best option. Cleveland and Pittsburgh are too close, he said.

Wiedemann said he will draw up a proposal for work his company could do for the port authority. The airport received a $575,000 U.S. Department of Transportation Small Community Air Service Development Program grant in October 2007. The money was given to help the local airport secure another airline, but none has been found yet.

In other business, John Masternick, port authority chairman, announced that Clarence Smith, a Mahoning County representative on the port authority, has resigned. His term on the board expires at the end of 2009.

Smith has served on the board about 15 years, Masternick said.

runyan@vindy.com