Port authority votes to cover earlier glitch

Port authority votes to cover earlier glitch

VIENNA

Because of a notification glitch, the Western Reserve Port Authority voted Wednesday to approve for a second time all the motions it authorized at its Nov. 21 meeting.

Among them were new lease agreements with two of the hangar tenants at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport — the DeBartolo Corp. and Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics.

For the DeBartolo lease, the chairman of the port authority, Scott Lynn, left the room during the vote to avoid the potential for a conflict of interest. Lynn is a pilot for DeBartolo.

The glitch involved the authority’s failure to notify the news media and public of the Nov. 21 meeting. No news media attended the meeting. Port officials decided to re-do all the votes taken Nov. 21 as a precaution against them being ruled invalid for possibly violating the notification requirements of the Ohio Open Meetings Act.

Airport’s initiative exceeds $5M goal

VIENNA

The Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport’s Travel Bank Initiative has exceeded its goal of $5 million by reaching $5.3 million in nonbinding pledges from 195 businesses, organizations and individuals since the program was announced in September.

The director of aviation at the airport, Dan Dickten, said Wednesday the initiative will continue through Jan. 15 in hopes of reaching $7 million.

The initiative is aimed at returning regularly scheduled daily air service to the airport that can provide a way for local air travelers to reach destinations throughout the world. The airport’s current commercial flights are to leisure destinations in Florida and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The purpose of the travel bank is to quantify travel demand by having air-travel customers indicate the amount of travel they would use if daily air service were available.

To participate in the initiative, visit www.yngtravelbank.com.

Workers get back pay

CRANBERRY, Pa.

Sixty-nine Pennsylvania and West Virginia workers for a company that tests water samples at natural- gas- and oil-drilling sites are getting more than $187,000 in back pay after wrongly being denied overtime.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday announced the action by Groundwater and Environmental Services Inc. of Exton, Pa. The company did not immediately respond to requests to comment.

The department says the issue was discovered as part of an enforcement effort that focuses on the growing number of vendors who perform services related to the hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — process used on Marcellus Shale wells.

The department says GES workers based in Cranberry, Pa., and Fairmont, W.Va., were wrongly denied overtime when the company claimed they were exempt because of their specialized training.

Vindicator staff/wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Aqua America, .70, 24.71 —.32

Avalon Holdings,3.89—.03

Clear Channel, .73 78.62 .48

Cortland Bancorp, 9.80.00

Farmers Nat., .126.15 .00

First Energy, 2.20, 41.50—.01

FirstMerit Corp., .64,14.21 —.04

First Niles Financial, .32,7.10.60

First Place Fin., .0031—.01

FNB Corp., .48,10.86—.10

General Motors,27.181.69

General Electric, .68,21.01—.68

Motors Liquidation, .0422.00

Huntington Bank, .16, 6.40.00

JP Morgan Chase, 1.20,43.53—.34

Key Corp, .20,8.45—.08

LaFarge, 15.87 .45

Macy’s, .80, 38.77—.34

Parker Hannifin, 1.64, 86.21—.44

PNC, 1.60,58.63—.89

RTI Intl. Metals,27.41.59

Simon Prop. Grp.,4.40,156.39—.44

Stoneridge 5.15 —.13

United Community Fin. 3.0999.07

Selected prices at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Provided by Stifel Nicolaus. Not to be construed as an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security.