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Port director confirms village was paid for Marathon sale

WELLSVILLE — Columbiana County Port Authority Executive Director Penny Traina said Wellsville was paid more than a year ago what it was owed from the Marathon Petroleum land purchase.

Traina sent a letter last week to Wellsville Mayor Nancy Murray advising her the $300,000 check was issued to the village in August 2015. This represented Wellsville’s share from the sale of 3.6 acres in port authority property to Marathon in 2015 for $2.4 million. Marathon’s tank operation is adjacent to the port authority’s 22-acre riverfront industrial park in Wellsville and it wanted the property for a proposed expansion.

Traina’s letter was in response to questions raised by Wellsville Councilman John Cianni at an Oct. 14 council  committee meeting, where he asked whether the village had received any money from the Marathon sale.

“Share some of the money where it’s made. Some of it should come back to us,” Cianni was quoted as saying.

According to Traina’s Oct. 17 letter to Mayor Murray, 32 lots were involved in the sale, of which four were owned by Wellsville. Another lot belonged to the estate of Florence Haugh. The port divided 32 into the $2.4 million sale price, which came out to $75,000 per lot and then paid Wellsville $300,000 based on that formula.

As part of the deal, the port authority also agreed to pay the entire $250,000 cost of installing a more powerful pump to replace an old pump that is part of Wellsville’s flood control system for that part of town. The pump station is used to remove water from an emergency retention pond developed more than 40 years ago, and it has only be used once. Marathon wanted a larger pump and a redesigned retention pond to address concerns it had.

“I hope you will agree that this was a positive transaction for both the Port Authority and the Village,” Traina wrote in her letter to Mayor Murray.

Cianni’s comments were part of an ongoing discussion by the village, which wants to impose a “tipping fee,” or tax, on businesses hauling bulk materials to and from local businesses, with the proceeds to help resurface streets officials say have been damaged by heavy truck traffic.

At the Oct. 14 council committee meeting, Cianni identified the Wellsville Terminal Co. and Marathon as the prime offenders because their trucks must use village streets. He noted the five companies located in the port authority use the Clark Avenue exit from state Route 7 and do not have as much of an impact.

The port authority spent $3.2 million in the form of state grants to build a separate exit ramp from Route 7 to specifically provide direct access to its industrial park. Trucks bound for the industrial park only have to  travel a 0.4-mile stretch of Clark Avenue, which the port authority paid $526,000 to rehabilitate in 2013.

This is all part of the $31.7 million the port authority has invested in the industrial park and the surrounding area since 1996.

Concerned about the impact a tipping fee would have on companies located at the industrial park, Traina spoke with Mayor Murray, who agreed to hold off taking any further action so Traina can try to work out a deal acceptable to all.

Wellsville officials are of the opinion that the village income taxes paid by these companies and their employees are not anywhere sufficient to cover the damage being done to streets. Officials have said the larger employers in town paid a combined $40,000 in taxes through August, although tax law prevents them from identifying which companies or how much was specifically paid by each.

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