Port authority hires lawyers to fight dissolution plans

VIENNA

The five remaining members of the Western Reserve Port Authority board of directors voted in a special Friday afternoon meeting to hire a Pittsburgh law firm to represent them in the event that county commissioners follow through with threats to dissolve the board.

The meeting was called after the board received a pubic-records request from the Mahoning County commissioners asking for copies of the contracts and bonds the port authority and the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport have.

Ron Klingle, the port authority’s chairman, said he doesn’t know why that request was made, and he would not speculate, but officials have said to dissolve the board would mean transferring contracts from the current port authority to another entity.