Air Reserve commander, port authority chairman seek alternative funding for Vienna military deployment hub

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

VIENNA

Recently announced state-capital-budget allotments didn’t include the $1.2 million needed to turn the air-cargo facility at the Youngstown- Warren Regional Airport into a military deployment hub, but Col. James Dignan and others will meet with the Ohio Speaker of the House on Wednesday to look at other funding sources.

The Federal Aviation Administration paid $11.5 million in 1999 to build a 13-acre paved area on the west side of the airport near Ridge Road called a cargo apron. A private developer constructed a 25,000-square-foot building next to it intended for airport cargo shipping, but the idea never materialized.

The facilities have remained practically unused since they were built.

When U.S. military officials visited the airport several months ago, they loved the idea of using the huge cargo apron and building as a place from which troops and other military assets could be deployed from all branches of the military from Northeast Ohio, western Pennylvania, northwestern New York and nearby parts of West Virginia, Col. Dignan said.

That type of facility would increase the value of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station that operates as a joint-use facility at the airport and could greatly improve the chances that the base would survive the next round of military closures, Dignan said.

Dignan is commander of the 710th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station.

Dignan and Ron Klingle, chairman of the Western Reserve Port Authority, which runs the airport, will meet Wednesday in Columbus with Speaker of the Ohio House Cliff Rosenberger of Clarksburg, R-91st, and Speaker Pro Tempore Ron Amstutz of Wooster, R-1st, to discuss whether the project can be funded another way.

Under military guidelines, the U.S. government would need to own the cargo building and cannot purchase it on its own, but it would pay to renovate and equip it, Klingle said.

“The possibilities this project has are unbelievable,” Klingle said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to make the air base as essential as possible. It’s one of the biggest employers we have. It could help ensure the air base stays open and significantly expand it.”

To give an idea how big the cargo apron is, it could hold four 747s at the same time, Klingle said. “It’s perfect for what the colonel’s proposing it for,” Klingle said.

Guy Coviello, vice president for government and media affairs for the Youngstown/Regional Chamber, also will attend.