"Marketing campaign attracts interest in Ohio airport"

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Action attracts airport interest 
By JOHN GOODALL
The Warren (OH) Tribune Chronicle 


VIENNA - A $320,000 national marketing campaign for the Youngstown-Warren
Regional Airport already is getting attention, according to the facility's
manager. 

Airport Manager Steve Bowser said he has been contacted by air service
representatives. He hopes the calls will turn into contracts for passenger,
cargo, general aviation and commercial business at the airport. 

Bowser declined to reveal who has been asking about the Youngstown-Warren
Regional Airport. 

The Western Reserve Port Authority, the airport's governing board, hired the
local marketing firm Rubenstein Associates of Liberty in past weeks to do
the marketing.

Despite much of the funding coming from federal public sources, no
competitive bids were sought. Because the marketing work is classified as a
professional service, no formal bid was required, Bowser said.

Funding for the marketing effort is from a $250,000 federal Small
Communities Air Service grant. Trumbull 100, a service group made up of
local business leaders, contributed $30,000 of the required $70,000 local
matching share.

Bowser said Trumbull 100 contacted Rubenstein about doing the marketing
campaign before the group even approached the port authority to offer a
contribution of some of the matching share.

Bowser described the Liberty company's advertising thus far as down to earth
and effective. He said the port authority has not been happy in the past
with the efforts of outside firms with airport marketing experience. 

The 4 percent motel and hotel excise tax - the "bed tax'' - that the port
authority has been receiving is crucial to generating matching funds for
grants, the manager said. 

Besides the marketing campaign, he said the tax money was used to get the $2
million Federal Aviation Administration grant that repaired the airport's
general aviation lanes in 2004, as well as a $20,000 grant for installation
of a security fence this year.

Trumbull County commissioners, who, like Mahoning County, had been giving
the port authority 2 percent of its 4 percent bed tax, shifted all 4 percent
to the airport in past months. That action came following a county
commissioners' dispute with the Trumbull Convention and Visitors Bureau,
which had been getting the other 2 percent. The Convention and Visitors
Bureau is closing at the end of the month for lack of funds.

Records provided by the port authority show the bed tax generated $400,948
in 2004 from Trumbull and $367,075 from Mahoning. Through February this
year, the port authority has received $42,029 from Trumbull and $52,166 from
Mahoning.


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