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Create a lake-to-river port authority, commissioner urges
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning and Trumbull County commissioners likely will meet again within two weeks to discuss the future of the Western Reserve Port Authority, after a one-hour joint executive session Monday concerning authority personnel.
The primary focus of the commissioners of the two counties is on the possibility of dissolving the current port authority board and replacing it with a new one, said David Ditzler, chairman of the Mahoning commissioners, after the meeting.
Ditzler said he recommends creating a four-county port authority consisting of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties.
“The process is evolving. We’re moving forward,” Ditzler said. He added that the commissioners want to “establish a port authority that’s responsible to the taxpayers and that’s doing the job of the people that we think needs to be done.”
The WRPA covers Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
Ashtabula and Columbiana counties have separate port authorities.
The WRPA operates the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and performs economic-development work for Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
The idea of merging the four counties into one lake-to-river port authority could be appealing to Ashtabula and Columbiana county officials because of the presence of the airport in Vienna, Ditzler said.
“The more inclusive we are from a regional standpoint, I think, the better it serves the communities that we represent,” Ditzler said.
After a May 9 joint commissioners meeting in Warren, Trumbull County Commissioner Paul Heltzel called the WRPA “dysfunctional.”
Ditzler said he is concerned over unpaid port authority bills, but he said he didn’t know the total overdue amount or the reason the bills haven’t been paid.
Another problem is that the WRPA board hasn’t named an interim executive director since the departure of Rose Ann DeLeon, Ditzler said.
Three port authority board members have resigned recently and not been replaced: Atty. James Floyd, chairman; Scott Lynn, a pilot; and Richard Schiraldi, a certified public accountant.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains and his civil division chief, Linette Stratford, joined the Trumbull and Mahoning County commissioners in Monday’s executive session.
Earlier Monday, the Mahoning County commissioners participated in a building commission meeting concerning Oakhill Renaissance Place in which the building commission voted to seek bids for design of a new $125,000 ventilation system to serve the county coroner’s office, and possibly, a Lifebank organ and tissue recovery center that might come to Oakhill.
The commission voted to advertise for bids for a new diesel-fueled emergency electric generator for Oakhill, which is estimated to cost $400,000.
The panel authorized spending $5,200 to install a crosswalk and railings to give veterans easier access from the parking lot to the Veterans Service Commission offices.
“Not only would it benefit the veterans, the elderly veterans, it would also benefit the employees” working in Oakhill offices, said Susan E. Skrzynski, VSC executive director.
The panel also authorized spending $25,866 to decommission three elevators that haven’t operated since the county bought the former hospital in 2006.