Port authority finalizing new contract for aviation director

Staff report

BOARDMAN

The Western Reserve Port Authority authorized its lawyer to finalize a new contract Wednesday for Dan Dickten, the aviation director at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna.

Ron Klingle, chairman of the WRPA, which runs the airport, said the two-year contract, when it is signed, will increase Dickten’s salary by 3 percent, raising his annual pay to $95,481, and demonstrate to him the board would like to see his service continue.

“We hope it will give Dan the comfort to move forward,” Klingle said. “Dan’s done a phenomenal job. He got the Chicago flights, all of the renovations [at the airport terminal]. We’re very, very pleased with what he’s accomplished out there.”

Dickten has had the job at the airport since April 2010.

Dickten was one of three finalists for a job as aviation director in Okaloosa County, Fla., but the interim director at that Florida airport was selected for the job a couple weeks ago, Dickten said.

Dickten’s efforts to attract the airline Aerodynamics Inc. to begin daily air service from Youngstown to Chicago O’Hare International starting in May will have a huge impact on the Mahoning Valley, Klingle said.

“This is going to be one of the biggest things that has happened to our community,” he said.

Dickten’s current contract expires at the end of March. It would have rolled over for two more years if a new contract had not been written.

One of the changes is that the new pact will have a 30-day out clause, meaning either party will be able to get out of the contract with 30 days notice, Klingle said.

That clause will be in the contracts for each of the port authority’s top officials: Dickten; Anthony Trevena, economic development director; and John Moliterno, executive director.