1 1 BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF OHIO 2 ________________________________ 3 In the Matter of an Exemption 4 Request by the Jackson County Case No. 5 Engineer for the Grade 231015-RR-RCP 6 Crossings at Camba Road 7 (DOT #151-473U) and Keystone 8 Station Road (DOT #151-469E) 9 ________________________________ 10 HEARING 11 DATE: Thursday, April 18, 2024 12 TIME: 11:01 a.m. 13 BEFORE: Attorney Examiner Clint White 14 LOCATION: Jackson City Library 15 21 Broadway Street 16 Jackson, OH 45640 17 REPORTED BY: Nic Joseph 18 JOB NO.: 6476564 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 A P P E A R A N C E S 2 ALSO PRESENT: 3 Matthew Maruster, Veritext Observer 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 I N D E X 2 WITNESS: DX CX RDX RCX 3 JASON BYNUM 5 4 5 E X H I B I T S 6 NO. DESCRIPTION ID/EVD 7 (None marked.) 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 MR. WHITE: Good morning. Public 3 Utilities Commission of Ohio has assigned for hearing 4 at this time and place, Case Number 231015-RR-RCP, 5 which is captioned as: In the Matter of an Exemption 6 Request by the Jackson County Engineer for the Ohio 7 South Central Railroad Crossings at Camba Road 8 (DOT #151-473U) and Keystone Station Road 9 (DOT #151-469E) in Jackson County, Ohio. 10 My name is Clint White. I'm the 11 attorney examiner assigned by the Commission to hear 12 this case. The purpose of the hearing today is to 13 receive public comments regarding the request made by 14 the Jackson County Engineer to classify the two grade 15 crossings at Camba Road and Key Station Road, Keystone 16 Station Road, excuse me, as exempt. 17 For those in attendance who wish to 18 testify, your testimony will be considered as part of 19 the official record in this case, and it will be 20 reviewed by the Commission before the Commission makes 21 its final decision. 22 I'll call each witness forward, swear 23 you in. The court reporter will record your 24 statement. So please speak clearly so she's able to 25 write down everything. 5 1 And so we'll go ahead and begin with 2 witness testimony. If you'd like to speak, go ahead 3 to the podium. 4 Please raise your right hand. 5 WHEREUPON, 6 JASON BYNUM, 7 called as a witness and having been first duly sworn 8 to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 9 the truth, was examined and testified as follows: 10 MR. WHITE: Okay. Please state and 11 spell your name. 12 THE WITNESS: Jason Bynum. Jason, 13 J-A-S-O-N. Bynum, B-Y-N-U-M. I'm the general manager 14 for the Ohio South Central Railroad. 15 MR. SMITH: And can you give your 16 business address? 17 THE WITNESS: Yes. It is 6 East Hamden 18 Street [sic], Hamden, Ohio. 19 MR. SMITH: Okay. Go ahead with your 20 testimony. 21 DIRECT STATEMENT 22 THE WITNESS: I just came here as a 23 representative of the railroad to -- not in opposition 24 of this, we're okay with the exemption of the 25 crossings being that they are not in use and have not 6 1 been for several years. However, it is not abandoned. 2 It is still an active railroad. We do keep it 3 maintained, meaning we keep it brush cut and weed 4 sprayed for the potential future use of -- of rail 5 service. 6 We are actively pursuing to store rail 7 cars down on this end of the railroad, which would 8 just be nothing -- them parking cars down here 9 for -- for customers. If the exemption does go 10 through, we -- we -- if -- in case we did move cars 11 down here, we would, of course, protect and flag these 12 crossings for public safety. 13 And pretty much lastly, what we would 14 like to see, at least put on the record, is that if in 15 case, and when we do get some future business down 16 here, we would like to be able to file for the 17 exemption to be removed. And we'd like to give 30 18 days' notice of that, which is the railroad's take on 19 it. 20 MR. WHITE: Okay. I don't have any 21 questions for you, so if that's all you have to say, 22 thank you, and you may be seated. 23 THE WITNESS: All right. Thank you. 24 MR. WHITE: Okay. 25 Let's go off the record. 7 1 THE REPORTER: Okay. We're going to go 2 off the record at 11:05 a.m. 3 (Off the record.) 4 THE REPORTER: We are back on the 5 record at 11:25 a.m. 6 MR. WHITE: Okay. We went off record 7 for a few minutes to allow for anyone who intended to 8 appear at this hearing time to show up. No one else 9 has appeared, so I don't believe there is any further 10 witness testimony to take today. 11 So thank you to everyone who 12 participated. I'd also like to thank the staff here 13 at Jackson City Library for allowing us to use their 14 facilities. 15 The public hearing is now concluded, 16 and the hearing transcript will be submitted on the 17 record for the Commission's consideration in this 18 case. Thanks everyone. Have a good day. 19 THE REPORTER: We're going to go off 20 the record at 11:26 a.m. 21 (Whereupon, at 11:26 a.m., the 22 proceeding was concluded.) 23 24 25 8 1 CERTIFICATE 2 I, NIC JOSEPH, the officer before whom the 3 foregoing proceedings were taken, do hereby certify 4 that any witness(es) in the foregoing proceedings, 5 prior to testifying, were duly sworn; that the 6 proceedings were recorded by me and thereafter reduced 7 to typewriting by a qualified transcriptionist; that 8 said digital audio recording of said proceedings are a 9 true and accurate record to the best of my knowledge, 10 skills, and ability; that I am neither counsel for, 11 related to, nor employed by any of the parties to the 12 action in which this was taken; and, further, that I 13 am not a relative or employee of any counsel or 14 attorney employed by the parties hereto, nor 15 financially or otherwise interested in the outcome of 16 this action. 17 <%25587,Signature%> 18 NIC JOSEPH 19 Notary Public in and for the 20 State of Ohio 21 22 23 24 25 9 1 CERTIFICATE OF TRANSCRIBER 2 I, LYNN KERN, do hereby certify that this 3 transcript was prepared from the digital audio 4 recording of the foregoing proceeding, that said 5 transcript is a true and accurate record of the 6 proceedings to the best of my knowledge, skills, and 7 ability; that I am neither counsel for, related to, 8 nor employed by any of the parties to the action in 9 which this was taken; and, further, that I am not a 10 relative or employee of any counsel or attorney 11 employed by the parties hereto, nor financially or 12 otherwise interested in the outcome of this action. 13 14 <%33018,Signature%> 15 LYNN KERN 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25