YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – An initiative being launched by the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber aims to guard against the possibility of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna Township being shut down or downsized.

John Rossi, president of the Regional Chamber Foundation, appeared before the Western Reserve Port Authority’s board of directors at its monthly meeting Wednesday to request a $25,000 contribution for each of the next three years to help fund a local military affairs commission. The port authority’s aviation committee will evaluate the request before the full board’s next meeting in February.

In advance of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission’s review of U.S. military bases a decade ago, community leaders formed Operation: Save Our Airbase Reservists, or Soar, to support YARS, which is the fourth largest employer in the Mahoning Valley. YARS is a tenant at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, which the port authority operates.

“Our local military affairs commission would be more of an advocate in the long term,” Rossi says. It will coordinate with a state effort to evaluate military assets.

In addition to the contribution from the port authority, the chamber is seeking $20,000 annually from various foundations, he says. The objective is to have a director hired to head the initiative by March, Rossi says. There have been informal talks with potential candidates with military and professional experience but no decision on an individual has been made, Rossi says.   

The next BRAC is anticipated in 2017, Rossi tells WRPA members. A BRAC process did not take place in 2015. However, without such a process, the Department of Defense makes “unilateral programmatic reductions,” he says. As a result of that, YARS lost four C-130 aircraft and a few hundred personnel last year. 

“The current data is alarming,” Rossi said. In 2012, YARS’s impact on the local economy was estimated at $238 million. By this year, that had been reduced to $186 million, he reports.

The Air Force and the Air Force Reserve is undergoing a restructuring, says WRPA member John Boccieri, commander of the 757^th Airlift Squadron, which is stationed at YARS. Last spring the Vienna Township base lost a squadron and has seen a reduction in flying hours. 

Also of concern is the state of the aircraft stationed at the base, Boccieri continues. “Our aircraft are a bit older than the active duty aircraft and that presents numerous challenges with respect to funding and the ability to find parts to replace our aging aircraft,” he says. Additionally, the technology is less advanced and by 2017 the C-130 models stationed at YARS may be prohibited from flying in certain air spaces. The Air Force already has disassociated itself from the older aircraft.

Another issue is the duress that the squadron’s aerial spray mission places on the aircraft, he says.

“Certainly the saving of the Air Force [Reserve] base is very important to the Western Reserve Port Authority and the airport in general,” remarks John Moliterno, interim executive director of the port authority. “They’re very much a partner to us. Besides the fact that it is a true economic development activator in this valley, the jobs it provides [and] the ancillary dollars that those employees spend throughout our community are very important to us.”

The co-location with the regional airport is one advantage YARS has, Boccieri says. “They’re not in charge of keeping the runways plowed, keeping the lights on or the tower, or keeping the instrument landing system operational,” he points out. “The military just flies planes here, so that’s a huge benefit.” The military is responsible for such expenses at other bases around the country, which is “a huge expense,” he adds.

As a result, Boccieri anticipates down the road more U.S. military entities will attach themselves to civilian-operated airports “so that that encumbered cost is with the community rather than with the Department of Defense.”  

During the board meeting -- its first for 2015 and the first for new members Boccieri and Rich Edwards – Ron Klingle was reelected as chairman and Martin Loney as vice-chairman, while David Mosure was elected secretary.

The port authority received a draft of the strategic plan prepared by the Council of Development Finance Agencies in Columbus. A subcommittee of the board’s economic development committee will take comments from WRPA board members on the draft, which will be submitted to CDFA to put the final plan together.

Moliterno considers the document “more of a management plan” than a strategic plan. “It gives us a good model to start with and to build with into the future,” he says.

Moliterno expects a final plan to be drafted and acted upon in the next 30 days, if not sooner.

“This will all happen very quickly now. We’ve waited a very long time to get this plan. We’re not going to sit on it for very long.”

Copyright 2015 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our twice-monthly print edition and to our free daily email headlines.