Port authority board having busy week with director interviews, visit to Toledo

Staff report

VIENNA

The all-volunteer board of directors of the Western Reserve Port Authority is having a busy week, interviewing eight candidates for executive director, visiting the Toledo port authority and having a committee meeting.

Board members met in private session throughout the day Monday to interview the executive-director candidates either in person or by videconferencing.

On Tuesday, members of the board’s economic-development committee were to travel to Toledo to meet with officials from the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority to gain insight on port- authority operations from one of the more well-established and successful port authorities in the state. The Western Reserve Port Authority also conducts economic development activities in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Members of the committee are Sam Covelli, Martin Loney, Dave Mosure and Ron Klingle. Staff members Dan Dickten, John Moliterno and Sarah Lown were accompanying them on the trip.

The aviation committee also meets at noon Thursday at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, which the port authority also runs. Members of that committee are David Detec, John Boccieri, Rich Edwards and Scott Lewis.

The full board meeting is set for 8:30 a.m. next Wednesday at Squaw Creek Country Club in Vienna. It’s possible the board will be prepared that day to vote on the selection of a permanent executive director. Moliterno is interim executive director.

Besides Moliterno, the candidates are Michael Haritakis of Hudson, Ohio, co-founder of startup medical-device manufacturer Thermedx; Derek Martin of New Jersey, who has been manager of air service at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Anthony T. Trevena of Ormond Beach, Fla., chief of staff from 2008 to 2010 for Boccieri when he was in Congress; Jeffrey Miller of Mishawaka, Ind., senior airport operations specialist at San Jose International Airport in San Jose, Calif.; John Sernulka of Richmond, Ky., recently retired from Sherwin-Williams Co.; Albert R. LeRoy of Vienna, general manager of B2B Sales and Service, Things Remembered Fulfillment Center; and Daniel R. DeSantis of Somersworth, N.H., economic-development director for the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp.