LISBON — A snapshot of business activity in Columbiana County’s seven walkable downtowns identified 29 new businesses and at least 131 street-level opportunities in currently vacant spaces, county Port Authority Executive Director Brittany Smith said.

Smith updated Port Authority board members Monday on the 2025 report from Town Center Associates, the company that’s been conducting a study of the walkable downtowns in Salem, East Liverpool, Leetonia, Lisbon, East Palestine, Columbiana and Wellsville.

The Port Authority first contracted with the firm in 2024 to gather stats about the downtowns, looking at vacancies, building stock, building availability, facades, signage and building conditions, all with a goal of increasing the vibrancy of the downtowns. The firm previously worked with the village of Lisbon, and the cities of Salem and Columbiana on their downtowns.

Some of the information the firm has been collecting includes current business composition, vacant downtown properties, available properties and developable land opportunities.

Besides the new businesses and the business opportunities for transformation, the snapshot also showed 590 properties being tracked and 23 properties actively marketed. She explained that Town Center Associates makes sure there’s a visible sign in a potential business window to count it as being marketed or available.

“We are now working with their team to schedule another round of workshops aimed at helping local stakeholders revitalize downtown buildings, attract new businesses and encourage private investment,” Smith told board members.

In other matters, Smith introduced Christina Francis of East Liverpool as the new administrative assistant. Francis previously worked for the Buckeye Water District and the city of East Liverpool and will work with Executive Assistant Glenda Schafer over the next several months to ensure a smooth transition when Schafer eventually retires after more than 24 years on the job.

She also announced the hiring of Rodney Edmiston of Salineville as the new properties coordinator for the CCPA. This will be the first time for such a position. Smith said Edmiston will oversee the maintenance, repairs, inspections and long-term planning at all Port Authority-owned properties. The properties include the  headquarters at 7860 Lincole Place, Lisbon, the WIC location at 7876 Lincole Place, Lisbon, and the 105,000-square-foot Leetonia Industrial Building, Cherry Fork Avenue, Leetonia which is also the location of the Global Investment Hub. She said the building in Leetonia dates back to the late 1800s. The building previously housed the former NRM plant.

Smith also advised the board about the first Growth and Investment Series hosted by the CCPA in February. The list of 30-plus attendees included community leaders, developers, real estate professionals, bankers, building owners and managers. She said the port’s finance partners at Kutak Rock, GAX Capital. and Bradley Payne Advisors discussed the port’s financing capabilities. She said there was a lot of feedback and talk about future development opportunities.

Smith said the idea is to have quarterly presentations for the Growth and Investment Series.

“We want the Port Authority to be the first call when a project is being  discussed so we can provide incentives, guidance and resources,” she said.

CCPA also recently hosted the Junior Leadership of Columbiana County program, consisting of 20 students from school districts across the county. She said it was a good opportunity to introduce them to what the port authority does and was interesting to hear their ideas for how to make Columbiana County a better place to live and work. The students also visited the intermodal facility in Wellsville to tour Quality Liquid Feeds and saw a barge being unloaded along the Ohio River.

In action items, the board revised the CCPA employee manual to eliminate any mention of the assistant executive director position and remove language for chief executive officer, and then added a cyber security policy. The board also amended CCPA rules and regulations to include the cyber security policy, which is effective this year. All governmental entities are being required by a new state law to implement cyber security policies.

The board renewed a Consumers National Bank Certificate of Deposit for another six months at an interest rate of 3.44%. The CD value is more than $1 million.

The next meeting of the board has been moved up a week to 5 p.m. May 18 due to the Memorial Day holiday.