VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Ohio – The Western Reserve Port Authority hired Strollo Architects to provide architectural design services for a planned flight school and aviation center.
The WRPA Board of Directors voted Wednesday to approve the $363,000 contract with Youngstown-based Strollo to design the building, contingent on legal counsel approval.
The center is expected to cost $4.4 million, and most of the funding for the project is in place, though additional funds are being sought, said Randy Partika, project manager and development engineer for the port authority. Strollo’s fee, which represents 8% of the total construction cost, is “well under industry standards,” he said.
“We have one last grant that we’re waiting to find out about,” said Anthony Trevena, WRPA executive director.
The center is being built to accommodate expansion by Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics’ satellite campus at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and the new flight school that the port authority launched last year and now operates in conjunction with Youngstown State University.
The port authority expects to go out for bids around June or July, Trevena said after the meeting.
Joe DeRamo, campus director for the airport’s PIA campus, reported about 75 students graduate from the campus’s 16-month program each year, and there are waiting lists for the next two terms.
“We already have 16 students enrolled for our fall term, so the interest continues to be there in the field of aerospace and aviation,” he said. About 75% of the campus’s graduates are employed within an hour radius of the school, and many of them commute to jobs from homes in the immediate area, he reported.
About 20% of students receive assistance through the federal Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act, which provides up to nearly $10,000 annually, he said. Total cost for the 16-month program is about $36,000.
Also during the meeting, the board approved a $633,252.94 contract with Yarian Brothers Construction Inc., Columbiana, to relocate the airport’s fuel farm to the far southern end of the airport terminal and realign sanitary and storm sewer lines within the aviation campus area. Trumbull County Commissioners provided $350,000 in American Rescue Plan funds for the project.
Yarian’s original bid of $831,098 was the lowest of the four bids submitted but was 8% higher than the engineer’s estimate for the project, Partika said. Items including an automated gate and some self-performance items airport personnel could do were removed from the project, and after all four packages were adjusted, Yerian remained the lowest bidder.