Without higher director, support air base cannot acquire building

Staff report

WARREN

Without support and direction from the Air Force Reserve Command, the colonel at the 910th Airlift Wing said it cannot pursue any plans to acquire property from Western Reserve Port Authority with a cargo building.

“The 910th always stands ready to complete our assigned missions with the resources provided to us,” Col. Dan Sarachene said in a statement released Wednesday.

Last month, The Vindicator wrote the fate of the military deployment hub at the airport was unclear, but officials were taking steps to obtain a $770,000 grant to fund it.

The port authority bought the 24,650-foot former air cargo building on Ridge Road on the west side of the airport several years ago for about $1 million to resolve problems the Federal Aviation Administration had with the airport selling the building to the private company Millwood Enterprises for nonaviation uses, according to Vindicator files.

The former commander of the 910th Airlift Wing at the air base, James Dignan, proposed using the building and apron as a deployment hub for troops from all branches of the military from Northeast Ohio, western Pennsylvania, northwestern New York and nearby parts of West Virginia.

The Trumbull County commissioners in August authorized turning over $78,000 in hotel-motel taxes per year to the port authority to help pay for the building so the authority could turn it over to the Air Force for free.

On Wednesday, the Trumbull County commissioners approved a resolution to revise its allocation of the county excise lodging tax back to 3 percent for the port authority and 2 percent for the county’s tourism bureau.

The allocation was previously 3.5 percent for the WRPA and 1.5 percent for the tourism board. A portion of the dollars received by the port authority from the bed tax went to pay the debt on the air-cargo building.

“We were hoping to work with the air base at the request of the prior commander to utilize that building for military use,” said John Moliterno, port authority executive director. “[The project] may not come to fruition, but we will continue to work with the air base on this project and others to help ensure[ [its] future.”