Hearings for increase not scheduled yet
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
Rose Ann DeLeon, the Western Reserve Port Authority executive director recently described as being extremely ill, is expected back at work within three weeks, said Scott Lynn, port authority chairman.
“She’s doing well. She’s at home recuperating,” Lynn said Wednesday at the authority’s monthly meeting, held at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. “She’s starting her treatment cycle next week. She expects to be back to work in about three weeks.”
DeLeon has been off work about seven weeks. Her illness came at a bad time for the port authority, as Mahoning County commissioners debated whether to increase the county’s bed tax by 2 percent to provide the port authority with additional revenue, much of it to continue DeLeon’s economic-development work.
Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti, who had indicated her desire to have public hearings sometime in April to get more input regarding the proposed bed-tax increase, said Wednesday she has not yet scheduled those hearings.
“I’ve spoken to some agencies, but I have not put that together yet. There’s a lot going on,” she said.
In other business, the port authority board approved taking out a $470,000 loan through Farmer’s National Bank for up to 10 years to construct 14 T-hangars at the airport.
The loan will be fixed at 2.84 percent for five years, adjusting after that. Dan Dickten, director of aviation, said he has secured commitments from 14 tenants interested in occupying the T-hangars.
Eleven of the tenants will be moving out of existing hangars, but there will be a net gain of three aircraft. Moving current tenants out of two larger existing hangars will open up room for larger aircraft in the existing hangars, Dickten said.
The T-hangars will be constructed by September near state Route 193 along the new east-side taxi lane to be built this year with $1.1 million being supplied by the Federal Aviation Administration.
An additional set of 12 to 14 T-hangars is expected in 2014 and another set in 2015, Dickten said. Funding for those will come later. The $470,000 will be repaid from customers’ rent payments.
The port authority also announced that the Ohio Department of Development has rejected the port’s application for a Jobs Ready grant of about $750,000 to acquire the former Davis Air Cargo building on Ridge Road on the western edge of the airport.
The only reason given for the rejection was that there was not enough money for all of the projects, Dickten said.
Millwood Inc. acquired the building in 2009, but the Federal Aviation Administration objected to the land lease connected to the sale, in part, because Millwood is not an aeronautical company.
The grant would have helped secure an aeronautical use for the building.