Columbiana County Port Authority Re-elects Board

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio – The board of the Columbiana County Port Authority re-elected Charley Presley of Salem to another one-year term as chairman Tuesday night.

The five-man board also re-elected Keith Chamberlin of Columbiana as vice chairman and Nick Amato of Wellsville secretary. Tad Herold, chief economic development officer of Columbiana County, was elected to his first term as fiscal officer. He had filled the post a month last year after Penny Traina resigned last November.

Presley named Chamberlin chairman of the executive committee, Herold chairman of the finance/audit committee, Amato chairman of the education/technology committee, and Brian Kennedy chairman of the real estate/building committee.

The board kept Farmers National Bank as a depository of authority funds and gave Herold signatory authority, that is, he can sign checks the authority issues.

County Commissioner Mike Halleck, a former member of the port authority, presented himself as the commissioners’ liaison, succeeding Tim Weigle, also a former member of the board.

The interim executive director, Diane Ksiazek, reported the port authority had net income, after recognizing depreciation, of $522,821 compared to $1.863 million in 2014. The variance can be accounted for as part of the normal receipt and disbursal of funds in any given year, Presley told reporters afterward.

Total operating expenses in 2015 were $161,600 less than in 2014, $2.75 million last year compared to $2.92 million the year before.

The cash balance for the authority is $4.9 million in unrestricted funds, $5.3 million when the restricted funds are taken into account. At year-end 2014, the cash balance was $4.2 million in unrestricted funds, $6.1 million when restricted funds were included.

Ksiazek will present the 2016 budget at the February meeting.

Ksiazek said Larry Petrozzi informed her yesterday afternoon that two of his companies have moved into the Ferro-Louthan building, 2000 Harvey Ave., for which he agreed to pay the port authority $350,000 under a land contract.

Petrozzi, president of Pyramid Oil Field Service, has 21 employees working there and is “looking to buy more tow trucks and hire two to four more employees,” he informed Ksiazek in an email.

As part of the purchase agreement, Petrozzi said he would move 18 employees into the 110,000-square-foot structure that had been all-but-vacant two years.

At the other end of the building, he said, are the offices of Scholastic Transportation Co. with 11 employees. Scholastic Transportation “is a sister company to Scholastic Endeavors that operates the Newbold School and Scholastic Health Services.

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