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Port Authority Approves Funds for MVEDC Partnership
VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- The Western Reserve Port Authority will provide $24,167 as matching funds for a program that has helped local companies secure nearly $200 million in federal contacts since 1986.
The payment, approved Wednesday by the Western Reserve Port Authority’s board of directors, will provide half the local match required next year to support the Procurement Technical Assistance Center, housed at Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. MVEDC will provide the other half of the required 50% match.
“Previously, there was only a 25% match,” said RoseAnn DeLeon, executive director of the port authority. The level of local match is determined by the local unemployment rate, which has dropped in recent years “so the local match has gone up,” she said.
The motion to provide the funding was approved with five votes. Board member Don Hanni III, whose motion to table the item for further review was not seconded, voted against the motion and member Richard Musick abstained. Richard Schiraldi did not attend the meeting.
Since 1986, the procurement assistance center has helped companies to secure 959 contracts totaling $197.97 million. That includes 11 contracts for six companies this year totaling $2.03 million. The program was reactivated this year after lapsing in 2012 due to the changeover in MVEDC’s leadership. In 2010 and 2011, the program assisted companies with securing 50 or more contracts each year.
“Trying to go through federal contracts is a tough thing to do,” DeLeon told the board members.
“There’s no question this is a worthwhile program because it really leverages very few resources to get small businesses in this area government contracts,” remarked board member Andreas Visnapu.
The partnership with MVEDC, which will be reviewed annually, represents the first such collaboration between the two economic development entities, and others are being considered. DeLeon said.
The port authority voted to table a motion by Hanni to give Mahoning County 70% of the $825,000 fee it will receive from Penn National Gaming Inc. for its role in financing the company’s $125 million Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Austintown. Hanni had proposed the payment to financially assist the county, which will lose sales tax revenue due to the Port Authority’s involvement with the project.
“We’ve met with Mahoning County and they’ve never requested that,” responded the port authority’s chairman, Scott Lynn. “Trumbull County, I’m sure wouldn’t like that. I don’t know how they would react.”
Board member Scott Lewis noted that Mahoning County would receive the value of the improvements being made due to the project.
The port authority’s attorney, Dan Keating, also questioned whether it is within the port authority’s power to “fund the functions of local government” by paying money to a general fund.
Dan Dickten, aviation director, reported that the total passenger count for Youngstown/Warren Regional Airport in November was 10,194, and is 84,964 year-to-date, 12,908 ahead of the same period last year. “Just based on the bookings that we have, we’re going to exceed 93,000,” more than the 91,000 to 92,000 that had been projected, he said. He attributed the higher passenger numbers to bookings for Allegiant Air’s new Punta Gorda service.
“This new service is by far the most successful Allegiant service that we’ve had here since Allegiant came to town, by at least 20% over St. Petersburg, the last new route,” he said. It took St. Petersburg over a year to sustain a 90% load factor, a level Punta Gorda exceeded after just six weeks.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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