Thursday, January 21, 2016
By Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
The Western Reserve Port Authority is working with the president of a Hubbard trucking company who wants to construct as many as three corporate-aircraft hangars at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
The board authorized Dan Dickten, director of aviation, to negotiate a lease and operating agreement with Joseph Kerola, president of PI&I Motor Express.
Kerola said he believes he could encourage the owners of corporate aircraft in the region to relocate to the Vienna airport under the right conditions.
He also would like to be considered as a possible fixed-base operator at the airport, which is a company that offers services such as fueling and aircraft repair.
Kerola’s company would compete against the current service provider, Winner Aviation. “Competition is always a good thing,” Kerola said.
In other action, the authority board authorized the sale of bonds of up to $18.5 million to help Hallmark Campus Communities of Columbus and Fortress Real Estate Co. of Atlanta construct two phases of a student-housing complex at Youngstown State University called University Edge on Rayen Avenue between Fifth and Belmont avenues.
Construction on the first phase already has begun. It’s a 162-unit, four-story complex. The second phase, if it is built, will be for 334 beds.
Authority-board members also received research and suggestions from George Farris of Farris Marketing regarding the re-branding effort underway for the port authority’s economic-development division.
Farris suggested names for the division that narrowed the focus from Northeast Ohio to Mahoning-Trumbull or Trumbull-Mahoning and added the word “Development” from the earlier proposal, which was “Northeast Ohio Finance Authority.”
As a result, Farris has proposed “Mahoning-Trumbull [or Trumbull-Mahoning] Development Finance Authority,” which creates the acronym DFA. The name would still use the tag line: “A Division of Western Reserve Port Authority.”
Anthony Trevena, the port authority’s economic- development director, said he hopes to have the new name finalized by next month’s meeting.