Officials confident WR port authority will survive

YOUNGSTOWN

Close to four hours of meetings put the commissioners from Mahoning and Trumbull counties and members of the Western Reserve Port Authority in a good mood Tuesday afternoon.

The six commissioners and four port authority members emerged from the closed-door meetings at the Mahoning County commissioners’ office confident that the port authority can be put back together with the appointment of three more authority members and the hiring of a director.

“It was very positive. We’re not disbanding the board. We’re not pulling the funding,” Mahoning Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said.

“We’ll be filling the appointments,” said Trumbull Commissioner Dan Polivka said. Two Trumbull County appointments to the port authority and one from Mahoning County are currently vacant.

Mahoning Commissioner David Ditzler had threatened in May to pull about $500,000 of Mahoning County bed tax money from the port authority’s annual budget and disband the port authority board.

It stemmed from the infighting he witnessed at a port authority meeting May 2 in which authority members Don Hanni and James Floyd clashed over the way Floyd, who was then chairman, handled a project involving the Mahoning County dog shelter.

Later, Ditzler and other commissioners cried foul when the port authority’s current chairman, Ron Klingle, revealed that he was recommending that the authority hire John Moliterno as director without consulting the county commissioners or even some of the port authority members.

Read the complete story in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.