Columbiana Port Authority Reapplies for Internet Grant
EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio -- The Columbiana County Port Authority took a first step for a second time Monday in seeking $100,000 for a study “to examine the feasibility, collaboration and operation of a new wireless system,” that is, provide the majority of county residents with access to the Internet.
Where before the port authority sought to conduct such a feasibility study on its own, it is doing so in concert with the city of East Liverpool and the village of Wellsville.
The three entities are seeking the funds from the Local Government Innovation Fund. Administrators of the fund denied the port authority’s application, saying its form was incomplete, that the form should have included East Liverpool and Wellsville, both of whom would benefit from “the wireless connectivity along the Ohio River corridor,” as the newest board member, Nick Amato, related.
The southern and western portions of the county, where between more than half and up to 70% of the county is not connected – various figures were offered at the monthly meeting of the port authority – would be studied to determine where towers might be built and the businesses and residents willing to pay for such access.
Once the study, assuming funding, is concluded, the port authority and municipalities would apply for a second grant to build the towers and link interested businesses and residents. A private company, to be determined, would maintain and provide the service.
During the board meeting, port authority CEO Tracy Drake informed his board that Cimbar Performance Minerals in the Wellsville Intermodal Park is nearing activation of its Foreign Trade Zone status in the industrial park to import and convert barite -- barium sulfate – to a powder and thus avoid a $1 per ton import duty.
Drake suggested Cimbar could handle more than one million tons of barite per year that is unloaded from the Ohio River barges that dock at Wellsville.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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