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Columbiana Port Authority Acts on Wellsville Park, Fiber Optics System, to Save Jobs"
EASTLIVERPOOL, Ohio -- The Columbiana County Port Authority authorizedtaking out bridge loans of $717,000 and $250,000 Monday night.The former would advance relocating railroad tracks that servethe Wellsville Intermodal Industrial Park. The latter would advancea fiber-optics system to serve the businesses in the county andthe public schools in Columbiana and Mahoning counties.Theauthority also authorized its chairman, Russell Albright, orvice chairman, Carl Pelini, to bid up to $550,000 at the sheriff'ssale for the Sterling China Co. dinnerware manufacturing facilityin Wellsville and then lease it back to David M. Bruno and SterlingChina USA LLC. Sterling China USA is a subsidiary of Castle WellsManagement Inc., incorporated in Nevada.Dateof the sheriff's sale has not been set, the authority's chiefexecutive officer, Tracy Drake, said. He does not expect anyother bids. National City Bank, Youngstown, would received theproceeds.ShouldSterling China USA succeed in its efforts, the plant would save97 jobs and add 30 new ones over the next three years, Brunohas told the authority and the Ohio Department of Development.Development will provide a grant of $200,000 toward the $550,000bid, Sterling USA's memorandum of understanding with the portauthority says.Onthe $250,000 bridge loan -- it has a one-year term and wouldbe issued by Sky Bank -- the authority would pay that sum toFacilities Based Communications, Cleveland, for 12 fiber-opticstrands, 10 of which will be part of a Sonet ring assigned tothe schools, the other two for commerce."Thesetwo strands will take Columbiana County out of the Dark Ages,"Drake told his board. "I'd like to say we'll be as wellwired as Silicon Valley -- that's an exaggeration, but it's nottoo far off."Thechairman of the authority's finance committee, Steve Cooper,observed that two of the oldest means of communication, railroadsand water, would finally be joined with the most technologicallyadvanced. Withthe authority buying the fiber-optic lines, Facilities BasedCommunications, with offices in World Tarde Park, Leetonia, wouldin turn lease two lines that it would lease to third parties.Inthe relocation of the railroad tracks, the Norfolk Southern Railroaddecided it wanted to be paid up-front for the work that beginsthis summer. (It should be completed by year-end.) Hence theneed for the bridge loan through National City Bank, Drake explained.Totalcost of the relocation is $826,000 and once the work is complete,the Ohio Rail Development Commission will release the $717,000it has committed to the port authority, Drake said. Relocationof the tracks from the river bank "will gain us four acresof riverfront," the authority CEO told his board. Thosefour acres eventually will be covered with concrete and usedto store containers brought up the Mississippi and Ohio riversfor transfer by truck and rail.Congressshould pass the $5 million line item in the federal budget, insertedby U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D 6th Ohio, that will pay for muchof the improvements in the Wellsville intermodal facility, Drakesaid. He was in Washington last week and accompanied Stricklandas he lobbied for the line item before the House TransportationCommittee.Stillincomplete is the new dock system that will serve barges carryingcontainers up the Ohio, Drake said. The U.S. Maritime Administrationis proposing taking 1% of all duties the customs service collectsand earmarking them for improvements in the inland port system,the authority CEO told his board. With the financing the authorityhas received from the state and Congress, he reported, "We'reout ahead, we're ahead of the game." "