1 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2 3 4 IN THE MATTER OF AN EXEMPTION REQUEST 5 BY THE TRUMBULL COUNTY ENGINEER 6 FOR THE YOUNGSTOWN BELT RAILROAD CROSSING 7 CASE NO: 23-165 RR RCP 8 9 10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 11 12 Transcript of 13 Public hearing 14 May 22, 2023 15 2:00 p.m. 16 Taken at: Trumbull Law Library 17 120 High street NW Warren, Ohio 18 19 Jill A. Kulewsky, RPR, Notary Public 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 MARCELLETTI: Good afternoon. The 2 Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has assigned 3 for hearing in Case Number 23-165 RR RCP, which 4 is captioned as In the matter of the request by 5 the Trumbull County Engineer for an exemption 6 from stopping for school Buses and hazardous 7 material vehicles at the intersection of South 8 Leavitt Road and West Market Street in Trumbull 9 County, Ohio. 10 My name is Izzy Marcelletti, and I'm 11 the Attorney Examiner assigned by the Commission 12 to hear this case. The purpose of the hearing 13 today is to receive public comments regarding 14 the request made by the Trumbull County Engineer 15 to classify the South Leavitt Road and West 16 Market Street railroad crossings as exempt. 17 For those in attendance who wish to 18 testify, your testimony will be considered as 19 part of the official record in this case, and it 20 will be reviewed by the Commission before it 21 makes its final decision. 22 I will call the witness forward and 23 swear you in. The court reporter will record 24 your statement. So please speak plainly and 25 clearly so they will be able to write down 3 1 everything. 2 Please provide us your name and 3 state your address. After that, state why you 4 think the request should or should not be 5 granted. I may ask you some questions after you 6 are finished with your testimony. 7 So with that, if you could please 8 raise your right hand. 9 ANTHONY J. CALDERONE 10 of lawful age, called for examination, as 11 provided by the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure, 12 being first duly sworn, as hereinafter 13 certified, said as follows: 14 MARCELLETTI: Thank you. You may 15 proceed. 16 MR. CALDERONE: My name is Anthony 17 J. Calderone, that's spelled C-a-l-d-e-r-o-n-e. 18 I'm the Superintendent of the LaBrae Local 19 Schools, and our place of operation is at 1001 20 North Leavitt Road, and Leavitt is spelled 21 L-e-a-v-i-t-t, and that's in Leavittsburg, Ohio, 22 physical zip code is 44430. 23 I had submitted a request to the 24 County to solicit their help with the Public 25 Utilities Commission in getting two railroad 4 1 crossings declared exempt and provided that 2 documentation to them. 3 I would like the record to reflect 4 that I've also been working with our Township 5 Trustees, and our Trustees were actually able to 6 successfully get the owner of the southern most 7 railroad crossing where the railroads no longer 8 exist, they have been ripped up. They got the 9 owner of that railroad location to actually take 10 down their crossbuck signs. So now there's only 11 one set of crossbucks up, and they are the ones 12 on the northern most part of the road, and they 13 still have railroad crossings there. 14 I've been with the LaBrae Board for 15 12 years. Those railroads have never been 16 active during those 12 years. They do pose 17 quite a hazard as in our buses are required to 18 stop, and every time that our buses stop, we 19 face impatient drivers in front of us and behind 20 us, and you get in many cases people who will 21 pass the bus and go around. 22 So our primary concern is, number 23 one, safety for drivers and traffic from 24 railroads that are basically mothballed and not 25 active, and of course, our secondary concern 5 1 would be by creating an exemption status makes 2 us a little more efficient. While it's not 3 excessively timely for us to stop there, it 4 definitely slows down the timing of our routes, 5 and we could be slightly more efficient if we 6 didn't have to stop in both directions. 7 So our primary concern is to enhance 8 safety of the traffic so that drivers aren't 9 going to become impatient and pass us rather 10 than cooperating with us, and we know by 11 declaring those exempt, we would create a more 12 consistent flow of traffic, eliminate that need 13 for impatient drivers to pass us and create a 14 safer thoroughfare for our buses and other 15 traffic. 16 Other than that, that's our reason 17 for making this request. 18 MARCELLETTI: Thank you. I don't 19 have any questions at this time. I just wanted 20 to make sure that you knew that this was for one 21 crossing because you already mentioned the 22 crossing that had been ripped up. 23 MR. CALDERONE: Yeah, the timing of 24 it, they took it out, and so now we're down to 25 one. I would assume PUCO has been made aware of 6 1 that, correct? 2 MARCELLETTI: Yes. That was my only 3 clarifying thing, that you understood that the 4 original request was two railroad exemptions, 5 but we're only going to do the one because the 6 one was already taken care of. So thank you for 7 your time. 8 Jill, we'll go off the record for a 9 few minutes. Thank you. 10 (Recess taken.) 11 MARCELLETTI: I do want to note for 12 the record that it's 2:15, and we wanted to wait 13 to make sure folks had a chance if they were 14 running late, but seeing that no other folks are 15 present and we have no other questions from the 16 public, we are done for the afternoon. 17 I would like to thank Trumbull 18 County Law Library for allowing us to use its 19 facilities. Thank you to the court reporter. 20 The case will be submitted to the record, and 21 the Commission will issue its decision in due 22 course. 23 (Public Hearing Concluded.) 24 - - - - - 25 7 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 3 4 I, Jill A. Kulewsky, do hereby 5 certify that as such Reporter I took down in 6 Stenotypy all of the proceedings had in the 7 foregoing transcript; that I have transcribed my 8 said Stenotype notes into typewritten form as 9 appears in the foregoing transcript; that said 10 transcript is the complete form of the 11 proceedings had in said cause and constitutes a 12 true and correct transcript therein. 13 14 15 16 <%2224,Signature%> 17 Jill A. Kulewsky, Notary Public 18 within and for the State of Ohio 19 My commission expires August 31, 2025. 20 21 22 23 24 25