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Vienna wants port seat

Trustees cite airport land as factor for request

WARREN — Two Vienna Township trustees are asking for an additional seat to be added to the Western Reserve Port Authority — one to which they can appoint a member — after telling commissioners issues they’ve had with board members over the years.

“We need to be treated fairly, now we don’t feel that way,” trustee Phil Pegg said at a meeting with Trumbull County commissioners Thursday. “It is bad when an outside entity interferes with our business.”

Pegg and trustee Heidi Brown said because the Youngstown- Warren Regional Airport, which the port oversees, is in the township — taking a sixth of the township’s land and making it untaxable — they should have a seat at the table, not just public input, on decisions the port makes.

The trustees said the port and its board members have undermined the township by ignoring permits and taxes, helping push through an injection well against their wishes and buying up more and more property in the township, which makes more of the township’s land exempt from taxes.

“How much can we lose and still function?” Pegg said.

John Moliterno, executive director of the port, said trustees haven’t made him aware of their concerns.

Pegg and Brown said they have raised the issues with Moliterno before and were told Moliterno would “look into it.” Moliterno denies that.

“We have permits for everything we have done,” Moliterno said. “Why would we try to go around it? We’ve gone out of our way to be accommodating to our neighbor.”

Messages left with the board’s president, Marty Loney, were not returned, although Loney asked Moliterno to return the message for him, Moliterno said.

The only property the port is buying in that area now is to support the needs of the Yougnstown Air Reserve Station, Moliterno said.

The trustees said the air base has been a “good neighbor” and the township and the base have helped each other mutually. The one thing the township was getting from the port — a contract for a security detail — was awarded to the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office, instead of them, in 2017, Brown said.

“We looked at that contract as payment in lieu of taxes,” Brown said.

Trumbull County commissioners decided to convene a meeting with Mahoning County commissioners and other interested parties to determine if adding a seat to the port authority board is something they might agree to do.

Mahoning County commissioners and Trumbull County commissioners each appoint four people to the port’s board. Both counties contribute to the funding of the board with a portion of the bed taxes they collect.

“The decision about who sits on the board is made by Mahoning and Trumbull county commissioners. There have been a variety of people over the years, and they do their jobs to the best of their ability. We have a very good, involved and supportive group right now,” Moliterno said. “I believe they have done a good job of representing the interests of both counties over the last few years.”

Pegg and Brown also raised concerns with proposed, temporary moratoriums on new development in the township, including simple things like the addition of a porch to a home, until a Joint Land Use Study being conducted with the air station and other local communities is fully completed and the communities have new comprehensive plans.

The study also recommends banning development in certain areas deemed important to keep free of new structures, in order to support the base’s chance of weathering any potential base closures in the future. The township also may have to change some zoning rules to comply with the study, Brown said.

When “encroachment” around a base is banned, it supports the case to keep the base open in the future, Pegg said.

rfox@tribtoday.com

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