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Poll: Port authority is mystery to public
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
Richard Hahn of Keynote Media Group of Youngstown said the public has very little understanding of what the Western Reserve Port Authority is and gets very little information from the authority’s website on flying out of the Youngstown- Warren Regional Airport.
“It’s very confusing,” he said Wednesday at a meeting of the port authority, which runs the airport and increased its focus on economic development a year ago when it hired Rose Ann DeLeon as executive director.
The port authority approved a $19,000 contract last month to address those needs.
In a recent survey Keynote conducted, most Mahoning Valley residents didn’t know the area has a port authority, some are aware that the authority runs the airport, but “none knew it has anything to do with economic development,” Hahn said.
One of the main tasks for his company in the coming months will be to develop a stronger “brand image,” including a logo that suggests the port’s dual functions — aviation and economic development — and to change the public perception of the port authority.
“At this point, we don’t look that good,” Hahn said.
Especially weak at this point is the port authority’s website, Hahn said, because it hasn’t been updated lately, is too “businesslike” and “institutional” and fails to convey the concept that “air travel is supposed to be fun.”
Keynote will continue to gather information about the authority’s duties and services. It will help create publications that the airport’s aviation director, Dan Dickten, and DeLeon can use to promote the idea that the port authority is “playing a critical role in the ongoing economic transformation of the region,” Hahn said.
When the website and branding work is finished, Keynote will create a one-year marketing strategy, including a time line, budget, objectives and strategies.
In other business, Dan Mamula, former Struthers mayor and now executive director of the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative, discussed the need for a feasibility study to tell railroad companies whether companies here would use an intermodal transportation facility.
In the case of Cleveland and Pittsburgh, intermodal means truck, railroad and water travel is available in one location, providing companies with an efficient way to ship products, Mamula and others said.
For the Mahoning Valley, a truck and rail facility might be the most feasible, said port authority member Don Hanni III.
ODOT conducted a feasibility study in the past that indicated the area near U.S. Route 80, state Route 46 and Bailey Road would be an especially good location for such a facility, said Hanni, a retired ODOT employee.
The port authority is looking into whether it should provide the $30,000 needed for the feasibility study, which would be carried out primarily by the Youngstown State University Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Mamula said.
Much of the information in the study would be gathered by conducting interviews with company representatives.