.Ohio state Rep. Jeff Crossman, 15th District, talks about the First Energy power line controversy at the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre after a meeting with Mayor Tito Brown...by R. Michael Semple

YOUNGSTOWN — With a proposed high-tension power-line project through downtown Youngstown on the Thursday meeting agenda of the Ohio Power Siting Board, state Rep. Jeff Crossman, a nonvoting member, urged the body to reject the plans.

“Our hope is we can force the issue and have them deny the application and force FirstEnergy back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that actually meets the needs of the community without disrupting this beautiful facility,” Crossman, D-Parma and his party’s attorney general candidate, said Monday while in downtown Youngstown.

The project from American Transmission Systems Inc., a FirstEnergy subsidiary, is on the board’s agenda Thursday. Crossman expects a vote at the meeting.

The board is comprised of six state agency directors, all appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican. There are also four nonvoting members: a Democrat and a Republican from both the House and the Senate.

Crossman said he hasn’t reached out to any of the power board members.

“They don’t talk to me,” he said. “I’ve tried that route on other projects in the past, to ask questions about where they might stand on a particular project. The most effective thing I can do as a power siting board member is to ask a lot of good questions (on Thursday) that kind of highlight the problems and also again putting eyes on the project, being the only person from the power siting board (to visit the site) will hopefully be persuasive.”

If the board votes in favor of the project, opponents can go to court to appeal the decision, Crossman said.

“I hope it doesn’t go that way, and the board does the right thing and deny the project,” he said.

James S. O’Dell, a senior siting specialist with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio who is investigative leader for the project, recommended Nov. 23 that the siting board approve the preferred route in the application. His statements backed up the Oct. 19 siting board staff report that recommended the project’s approval.

OPPOSITION

More than 300 local residents — along with city officials, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland — have voiced their opposition to the board about the project.

American Transmission Systems Inc. is proposing a $23.1 million, 138-kilovolt transmission line that would be 5.2 miles long between the Riverbend and Lincoln Park substations, going through parts of Youngstown and Campbell, and expanding the Riverbend substation to install new equipment.

The main objection is the line would be parallel to the north side of the Mahoning River, going behind the Youngstown Amphitheatre, through Wean Park, over the Market Street Bridge and behind the Covelli Centre in downtown Youngstown.

There was a $10 million investment in the amphitheater and park, which both opened in 2019, and $45 million in the center, which opened in 2005. The city owns all of the facilities.

An alternate route of 6.2 miles would be on the south side of the river and cost $23.9 million.

State Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, who was with Crossman on Monday, said: “For so many years, we get overlooked or just projects get pushed on us or we are abandoned.”

Lepore-Hagan said local residents and officials have pushed back on the project as it would damage the investments made over the years to improve downtown.

“If organized, we can possibly effect change here and possibly get them to revisit their designs,” she said.

Numerous city officials, business owners, residents and community activists have objected to the project in the past couple of months with some suggesting the line be buried underground.

City Law Director Jeff Limbian said either he or someone in his place will attend the Thursday board meeting in Columbus.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown “is insistent that these power lines not infringe and have a negative impact on the aesthetic beauty of the amphitheater and Wean Park,” Limbian said.

CONSTRUCTION

Construction is scheduled to start in November and be finished around December 2023.

FirstEnergy has said the project would provide safer and more reliable power to Youngstown as well as minimize the number and duration of power interruptions by strengthening the power grid.

Also, FirstEnergy wants to put the line as close as possible to the tree line and railroad tracks along the Mahoning River to minimize the impact to the amphitheater.

The company is not planning to put the line underground.

Scott Humphreys, FirstEnergy’s supervisor of transmission siting, testified at a Nov. 30 hearing in front of Greta See, a power siting board administrative judge, that he told city officials eight days prior that “when there’s a viable aboveground option, underground isn’t considered, one, from the overall impact that it has as well as the economic impact it has.”

He said underground is much more costly than having the line on towers.

Humphreys said: “Through discussions, we did identify the possibility of undergrounding. However, it would be at the expense of the city of Youngstown as they are the primary and sole benefit of that undergrounding.”

Humphreys said there would be five to seven utility towers with the two tallest being 140 feet and adjacent to the Market Street Bridge. The others would be about 100 to 115 feet tall, he said.

dskolnick@vindy.com