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The Cleveland Street Chronicle returns this holiday season with its annual wrapping paper edition, with sheets of holiday wrapping paper designed by formerly homeless local artists. Despite the constraints the pandemic has placed on many of our vendors, the sale of the paper is helping many of them get through the holidays. 

The purpose of the “Wrap Up Homelessness” campaign is to creatively help people who’ve experienced homelessness earn an income during the holidays while celebrating the creative spirit of Street Chronicle vendors and homeless artists in Cleveland. The special wrapping paper edition will be available for sale through the first of the year.

The Cleveland Street Chronicle is an initiative of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless to amplify the voices of people with lived experience of homelessness and to increase reporting on homelessness and poverty in northeast Ohio. The paper is published quarterly and it is written, purchased for $0.25, and sold by people with lived experience.

People can buy the holiday wrapping paper:

• Online at www.neoch.org/wrapuphomelessness 
• For $2 from a Street Chronicle vendor daily at the West Side Market, or:
• At one of the following retail locations:

• 3-19 Coffee—2515 Jay Ave
• 3-19 Coffee—3247 Lee Rd
• Mac’s Backs-Books—1820 Coventry Rd
• Upcycle Parts Shop—6419 St. Clair Ave 
• Cleveland Trade Works
• A Touch of Rain Nail Spa—12407 Larchmere Blvd 
• Unbar—12635 Larchmere Blvd 
• Loganberry Books—13015 Larchmere Blvd

Buses, trains, cars, trucks converge here…

 By Jerry Masek

Combine Ohio’s largest bus garage with a major Rapid Transit Station, a huge parking lot and a child-care center. Then, place that entire complex beneath an I-90 bridge, so you can watch thousands of cars and trucks zoom by all day.

That’s what you have on the north side of West Park, on the Cleveland-Lakewood border. Yes, the “T” in RTA stands for Transit, but in West Park, ‘T” also stands for Triskett.

Over more than 60 years, RTA invested $33+ million in this area.

 Historical timeline

• Nov. 15, 1958: The Cleveland Transit System (CTS) –predecessor to RTA — extended Red Line service from West 117 to West 143 streets. CTS opened both a rail station and a bus garage at Triskett. The site had already gained popularity as a convenient parking lot for downtown commuters.
• 1962: I-90 was completed in that area, with an exit at West 140^th Street, near Triskett Avenue.
• Nov. 15, 1968: Red Line service was extended to Hopkins International Airport, throwing a national spotlight on Cleveland.
• Nov. 30, 2000: As part of a systemwide effort to make all key rail stations ADA-compliant, RTA completed an $8.4 million renovation of the Triskett Station, with 670 parking spaces.
• February 2003: RTA closed the Triskett Garage and demolished it.
• Nov. 1, 2005: RTA opened a $25 million state-of-the-art bus garage on the Cleveland-Lakewood border, 13405 Lakewood Heights Blvd. It is believed to be the largest bus garage in Ohio.
• May 2019: Horizon Education Center opened a new $2.7 million facility in the Triskett Station parking lot, on land it bought from RTA. At full capacity, the building can serve 200+ children, at 13850 Triskett Ave.

 Ohio’s largest bus garage

      “This building is huge and attractive,” says Triskett District Director Oliver Draper, a 33-year RTA veteran. “It’s an asset to RTA and the West Park neighborhood.”

Numbers tell an impressive story. The garage is home to 

·        170 total buses that serve riders in the Western Suburbs and the West Side of Cleveland.

·        12 trolleys that offer free service to visitors, residents and workers in the Warehouse District, Cleveland State University, Playhouse Square and Public Square.

·        11 over-the-road coaches that serve riders at major Park-N-Ride facilities in Strongsville, Westlake and North Olmsted.

·        421 total employees including 300 bus operators, 88 mechanics and hostlers – who maintain and clean the coaches – and 13 facility maintenance employees.

The 225,000 square feet garage features:

• Three bus wash machines that recycle 80-percent of the water.
• A backup electric generator.
• Rubberized tile floors to increase safety, durability, and maintenance.
• Articulated lifts that can handle up to 75,000 pounds of bus.

A day in the life of the Triskett Garage

•   24/7: Employees work at the bus garage around the clock. Some RTA buses are always in service.
•   2 a.m.: Bus operators begin to arrive.
•   2:34 a.m.: The first buses pull out. They continue to pull out at various times throughout the day.
•   7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m.: Times of peak use, or rush hours.
•   5:30 to 9:30 p.m.: Buses return to the garage, where they are fueled. Exteriors are washed, and interiors are cleaned. High-touch surfaces, such as seats, fare boxes, doors, and hand rails, are cleaned every 24 hours with a product recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

 Connecting West Park to the world

    Between 4:05 a.m. Monday and 1:23 a.m. Tuesday, a total of 174 Red Line trains stop at the Triskett Station – 87 eastbound and 87 westbound. These trains connect West Park to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, where flights take passengers around the world. Red Line trains also connect riders to the West Side Market and Ohio City, Downtown, Little Italy and University Circle and other points. Train interiors are cleaned with the same products as those used on buses.

    RTA also offers Red Line service from stations at Brookpark, Puritas-W. 150, West Park and the lower level of Hopkins Airport.

 For more information

·        General RTA info, www.rideRTA.com

·        Triskett Station, www.riderta.com/facilities/triskett

·        Red Line, www.riderta.com/routes/redline

·        Horizon Education Center, www.horizoneducationcenters.org/triskett-station-child-care

Photo courtesy of Greater Cleveland RTA.

Questions about the transparency of FirstEnergy, Energy Harbor and others are central to proceedings in multiple cases.

By Kathiann M. Kowalski

This article is provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism in partnership with the nonprofit Energy News Network. Please join our free mailing list or the mailing list for the Energy New Network as this helps us provide more public service reporting.

Environmental groups have filed a motion asking a federal appeals court to tell FirstEnergy Solutions’ bankruptcy court judge to take action in light of the alleged corruption cases in federal and state court.

The Environmental Law & Policy Center, Environmental Defense Fund, Ohio Citizen Action, and the Ohio Environmental Council want the judge to consider suspending execution of the reorganization plan that was confirmed earlier this year. The groups also hope the bankruptcy court will consider if it should revise that confirmation order and conduct additional hearings. The groups filed the motion on Oct. 5.

“We’re asking the 6th Circuit to deal with these truly extraordinary circumstances,” in which federal and state corruption charges relate directly to assets involved in the bankruptcy case, said Howard Learner, executive director at the Environmental Law & Policy Center. Among other things, Ohio House Bill 6 authorizes roughly $1 billion in subsidies over the next six years for two nuclear plants owned by Energy Harbor, formerly known as FirstEnergy Solutions.

The federal and state cases allege that an unlawful conspiracy used dark money organizations to hide the source of spending from FirstEnergy (known as “Company A” in some documents), its current and former affiliates, and others in order to secure passage of HB 6 and to prevent a referendum on the law.

“The remedy that we’re asking in the 6th Circuit complements what the Ohio attorney general has already asked for it its lawsuit,” Learner said. As he sees it, that case effectively asks the state court to “rescramble the eggs” and undo the reorganization.

Among other things, the state’s complaint asks that “each Defendant business entity and nonprofit [in the case] be dissolved or reorganized such that no agent, officer or representative found to have engaged in acts in furtherance of [the alleged wrongful conduct] retains a position within the defendant business or nonprofit entity.” The state case also seeks to prevent FirstEnergy Solutions, Energy Harbor, FirstEnergy or other defendants “from receiving any monetary benefit, supplement, credit or offset created by or through” HB 6.

Energy Harbor, FirstEnergy and certain current and former subsidiaries have denied any illegal activity. They were not named as parties in the federal case but are defendants in the state case. Likewise, former House Speaker Larry Householder and other defendants have pled not guilty, and no allegations in either case have yet been proven. Nonetheless, the environmental groups say the requested relief is within the court’s authority.

“We have framed it very carefully within the 6th Circuit’s equitable power to ask the bankruptcy court to consider whether it should reassess its confirmation order approving the reorganization, in light of the extraordinary revelations that have occurred since the court approved the order,” Learner said.

The bankruptcy court has already delayed payment of final fees in the case, and a hearing is scheduled for Nov. 17. If the appeals court grants the groups’ motion, it could open the door to a complete reexamination of the case by the bankruptcy court.

The timing on the appeals court’s response is unclear. Energy Harbor, the successor to FirstEnergy Solutions, did not respond to requests for comment. 

“I think transparency is always good, and I think more information about what their actual financial situation is would be helpful,” said Gov. Mike DeWine during an Oct. 1 press conference, noting that questions had been raised from the beginning about the nuclear plants’ need for subsidies.

But, DeWine quickly added, HB 6 “needs to be repealed because the process was so flawed that it has cast a light on this bill that it can never recover from. We’ve got to repeal it and figure out where we’re going from there.”

Bills to repeal HB 6 remain pending in the Ohio House, although further hearings have not been scheduled. Additional charges are currently slated to kick in starting in January.

“We opposed HB 6 last year and are seeking its repeal this year,” said Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Bruce Weston. “Ohioans should not have to pay a penny to subsidize coal and nuclear power plants. But the problem of undue influence from FirstEnergy and other utilities runs much deeper against the public interest than just HB 6. What consumers need is an overhaul of utility regulation in Ohio.”

FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones said in the company’s second quarter earnings call that a repeal of HB 6 would not affect obligations in the settlement agreement between the company and its former subsidiary in the bankruptcy case. Energy Harbor is now considered to be separate from FirstEnergy.

“The plan of reorganization was not contingent on House Bill 6 or any other support for the nuclear plants,” Jones said.

Questions of transparency

The environmental groups’ motion before the federal appeals court goes beyond a possible HB 6 repeal, said Environmental Law & Policy Center attorney Margrethe Kearney. Instead, the focus is on the alleged “improper expenditures of these … companies in bankruptcy to lobby for this bill.”

A reorganization in bankruptcy lets a company restructure its debts so it can move forward as a viable business with a mostly clean slate. But full disclosure is generally a condition for the bankruptcy court’s confirmation of any reorganization plan.

“The question really is what kinds of expenditures were being made here and not being disclosed to the court and not disclosed to parties that reached settlement agreements,” Kearney said. “This is something that really goes to the essence of bankruptcy.”

There have been numerous cases of companies using bankruptcy “as a tool for polluters to escape their liability,” Kearney added. As she sees it, the bankruptcy court should care whether companies might have engaged in illegal activity, and not just focus on whether a company can come out of the proceedings and keep operating.

“That can’t be what our bankruptcy system was designed to do,” Kearney said.

Full disclosure is also at the heart of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel recent move to appeal a September decision from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio that fell short of the consumer advocate’s earlier request for a full independent audit.

That decision told FirstEnergy’s utilities to file information, and commission spokesperson Matt Schilling said stakeholders would have “an opportunity to be involved and weigh in on the case through a formal comment period. … It is a first step.”

Nonetheless, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel filed a motion for an early appeal on Sept. 21. The consumer advocate said regulators erred “by not ordering the hiring of an independent auditor.” 

FirstEnergy’s Sept. 30 filing basically just told the utilities commission that any costs for political or charitable spending for HB 6 “would not have been recorded in accounts that are used to calculate the Companies’ riders and charges. Therefore, the Companies’ ratepayers have not paid riders or charges that include HB 6 costs.”

FirstEnergy also opposed the Environmental Law & Policy Center’s motion to intervene in that case, claiming that the utilities commission review “involves only the filing of initial and reply comments by interested parties.”

Commission Chair Sam Randazzo had suggested to lawmakers on Sept. 16 that other parties could well intervene in the proceedings and implied that those parties might conduct discovery. He declined to answer a lawmaker’s question about possible remedies because “discussions like this can have implications for publicly traded companies.”

However, a detailed and independent investigation into whether utilities used ratepayer money improperly is “exactly the PUCO’s domain,” said former commission member Ashley Brown, who now heads the Harvard Electricity Policy Group. Arguably, not doing that could hurt a company’s stock price, he added.

Basically, if an independent audit investigation confirmed that a company caught up in a scandal did nothing wrong, that should help prevent a further fall in stock prices. Alternatively, if an investigation did reveal wrongdoing, the company could then strengthen its internal governance — thus theoretically shoring up the value of its shares.

‘A lot more yet to go’

Meanwhile, an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of FirstEnergy’s actions has reportedly begun. Several shareholder lawsuits or investigations are also underway. 

And although Franklin County Judge Chris Brown ruled against the Ohio attorney general’s opening move to stop Energy Harbor, FirstEnergy and others from lobbying against the repeal of HB 6, Yost’s statement afterward said that was just the start.

“There’s a lot more yet to go,” Yost said. He also advised policymakers to use caution.

“It would be foolish for anyone to accept campaign contributions from these defendants — or, I might add, to engage in private discussions with these defendants or their lobbyists,” his statement said. “Anything they have to say — and there is much for them to say — should be said in public, where the people’s business ought to be conducted.”

SUBMITTED

Chef Jason Quinlan will take over all of the culinary efforts at Der Braumeister, marking the first time in the restaurant’s 35-year history that a non-family member will be leading the kitchen.  A graduate of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, Quinlan has over 15 years of experience, including working at some of Cleveland’s most notable establishments such as the former One Walnut, Spice (restaurant & catering) and most recently, Marigold Catering.

Classically trained in French technique, Quinlan aims to incorporate as much of that technique as possible to any dish he is creating, while adding his own personal twist. He has extensive experience creating menus and dishes for all types of styles and cultures including Mexican, Italian, New American – and now German.

“I’m beyond excited to get to work at Der Braumeister,” said Quinlan. “This family has a long history in the community, so being chosen as the first non-family chef to lead the kitchen is an honor. I can’t wait to work alongside Linda and Jenn, learning the family secrets and recipes that have made this restaurant such a beloved staple for so many years, while also adding my own spin and helping Der Brau take their next steps into the future.”

Quinlan will take over the kitchen operations from Linda Hoertz, mother of Jenn Wirtz, Der Brau’s current, third-generation owner. His first order of business will be to review – and edit – the restaurant’s current menu, incorporating some new creations while enhancing the dishes that have long been favorites of their customers.

“After thirty-five years working in this kitchen, I look forward to taking a much needed step back from the business and spending more time with my family,” said Hoertz. “I have the utmost trust and respect for Chef Jason, and I feel more than comfortable handing him the torch.”

“I’m beyond excited to have Chef Jason join our team,” said Wirtz. “We’ve been so fortunate to have served our community – together, as a family – for as long as we have, and now it’s time to take our next steps as a business. Jason isn’t going to be changing who we are – but instead, he’s helping us evolve. He respects our history, and he’s enthusiastic about learning our recipes and styles, so I know he will help preserve that part of our family moving forward.”

Quinlan’s first official day will be Thursday, October 15th and a new menu is slated for the coming weeks, just in time for the holidays.