Production of “Applause” on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Coming up on “Applause” All manner of tiny trains run in the shadow of Big Boy.

An artist forges friendships in metal and steel.

And a jazz quartet gets down in the great outdoors.

Hello, and welcome to “Applause” I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Now did you get to see Big Boy in Northeast Ohio?

I'm not talking about the burger that they used to call a meal in one on a double deck bun.

I mean, the world's largest operating steam locomotive that rolled across the country for America 250.

The Big Boys journey across Northeast Ohio was a big deal.

Thousands of people came out to catch a glimpse of the Big Boy, which weighs more than 1 million pounds Im an older dad So being able to share that same childhood link with my son is priceless.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we couldn't miss it.

Big Boys trip through Ohio is complete, but you can still get your train fix in Kirtland, where a “family” of volunteers operates mini locomotives.

All aboard now for a trip into the woods of Penitentiary Glen Reservation with the Lake Shore Live Steamers established in 1969 and still on the move.

Live steam railroading is essentially just like the full size engines, but at a smaller scale.

We happen to be at 7.5in gauge or one eighth inch scale.

So if you take anything on one of these steam engines, multiply it by eight.

That's the full size.

We are the Lake Shore Live Steamers located in Kirtland, Ohio, within Lake Metroparks Penitentiary Glen, and we have about 15,000ft of track here within Penitentiary Glen.

It's about a 15 minute, 12 minute ride through the woods, and it's from 1 to 3 When we do run.

Shut the line off at three, and then whoever's in line by three gets a ride.

Okay, no standing up.

No turning around.

Hands and feet in the car at all time.

All aboard!

The group was founded by a gentleman by the name of Clyde Bleil back in 1969.

He had a flower shop in Mentor Ohio And I remember when I was a little boy, we were driving out to go get our car fixed, driving by this flower shop and seeing these tracks going around, I'm like six years old and I'm like, oh, you know, I was levitating.

Well, Mr.

Bleil had a relationship with the park, and they agreed to allow us to have this, use this land.

It's about 14 acres.

We don't technically pay money to use this.

Our payment is like what we're doing today.

We give these rides about, on average, twice a month.

I've just been very, very fortunate to be a part of this group.

You know, it's cliche to say, yeah, we're like family, but many of us, it is like family.

One thing for me that's different than most folks, I'd say most people that came here came for a love of trains.

For me, I grew up right across the street.

My brother Brent would come here because he He's just a big train fan.

So at, like 12 years old, I came up here.

Okay.

Brent, where are you going?

It wasn't so much a train for him, but it was the mechanics of it.

It was watching like the mechanics outside of the engine itself.

Working, hanging out with some of the older guys just learning about how all this stuff worked.

So what we're doing right now is we're firing up our steam engine, and right now we're connected to a shop airline to help create an artificial draft to allow draft through the boiler.

And when we hit about 40 pounds of pressure, we're going to switch over to steam power.

But right now I'm going to add some more coal to the firebox and stoke the fire a little bit.

First time I took one of the train rides, I was like, I was hooked and we had to figure out how to make one, you know.

And so then that was kind of the process.

So my dad and I been doing that since then.

But the first one I started with was that one right back there, that one.

I built that from scratch when I was 15, something like that, you know, so like 40 years ago, you know, like that kind of thing.

And it's still running.

And the one that's running around the loop in there.

That one was one of the members and it got handed down.

And we're still running it now.

And it's probably from the 1960s.

It was before the club was started.

I love going around the track and making sure that I keep my gauges right.

And I got the water valve and I got everything in check.

It's a lot of work running a steam engine, but I enjoy that.

It's not just, you know, just sitting on it and just going for a joyride.

I met my husband here, so Mitchell and I, we met here at the trains Been married 20 years.

I'm very fortunate because my family's here.

My aunt and my uncle, my cousin.

And a lot of these people are like family, like uncles and aunts.

And so we kind of take care of each other.

It actually just really works out well.

It is the greatest hobby known to man.

I have two favorites.

One of them is the NS train because, well, it's just a local line and and genuinely I just like it because of that.

My second favorite is the Berkshire that Frank is running.

The fact that it's actually a real life engine and all that that's actually being preserved, and that I have relatives that worked on Nickel Plate.

We're lucky We've recently had some new members join and their younger people, and that's wonderful because this is our way of paying it forward, you know?

And if we don't, it'll go away.

And I would hate to see that happen.

It was good.

It was peaceful.

It was great.

The joy you see it bring to people touches the heart.

My favorite memories are of the smiles that we put on the face of our riders.

I'll be honest, It's so much fun when you take somebody around and, like, is that a real steam engine?

And they want to look at it and they want to come back later and learn more about it that's what really gets me going.

If you'd like to take a spin on a live steamer, mark your calendar for an upcoming free public run.

They also do ticketed runs in the woods at night, which are Halloween themed for those who dare.

Now, if you like trains, we've got more stories about trains, planes, and automobiles on the PBS app.

We've also got stories about sculptors, dancers, artists, all sorts of artisans from Northeast Ohio, and you can check all of them out by checking out past episodes of “Applause” on Demand and for free on the PBS app.

Centuries ago, the craft of blacksmithing was passed from generation to generation.

But these days, blacksmiths are rare.

In the Columbus neighborhood of Franklinton however, a metal artist is dedicated to teaching the ancient art of forged steel.

This is my grandfather, Hans.

My grandfather taught me how to work with my hands.

And he's the one that got this started way back when, when he was in the factory, working in the factories in just pre-World War two.

They came over in 38.

This was a knife from one of the saw blades that they used in the factories to to cut the steel, and he turned it into a knife and that was his first knife.

And then this was my first knife forged out of a piece of spring.

And so this is my memory of of why I'm here and why I do what I do.

And it means- it means everything to me.

Blacksmithing in general is thought of as a, you know, especially, it's changing.

But there's a lot of, you know, this is done by old men who are retired.

And I want to get way away from that.

My business partner is a woman.

There aren't a lot.

There's more and more every day over the last 20 years.

It's amazing.

But I want to continue that.

I want anybody who wants to learn.

My goal is I will give them a chance.

I find my inspiration everywhere.

I'm a huge nerd.

You know, I love superhero movies.

I love comic books, I love fantasy novels.

So it's all of that.

And I love nature.

I love, you know, the the way things move and have a natural movement to them in that organic flow.

And so there's a combination of all of that.

I have two people working with me, and it's not all about me, you know, using their inspirations and their ideas and go, yeah, we can make that work.

And we've really become a team in creating all of this, and we aren't in an echo chamber.

We can bounce things off of each other and, you know, take inspiration from each other, and we can tweak things a little bit in order to make them flow better.

I don't draw my art out.

A lot of people sketch or CAD out what their designs are.

I don't feel like I'm able to do that, and I'm not comfortable with it because of my abilities, so I see it fully formed in my head.

I know when I come up with an idea, I know what I want it to look like, and it's just a matter of getting it out there and being able to forge it and move that material into the majority of that idea.

I love making stuff.

I've been doing this over 35 years in full time for over ten, and every day I love what I'm doing and it's so fulfilling to not go, I used to be a paralegal and when I, at the end of the day, at work and I like my job, but at the end of the day I didn't have anything to show for it.

I didn't have anything to hold in my hand.

And at the end of my day today, even if I don't finish something, even if it's not complete, I have something physical I can hold that, you know, shows me that I did work today.

Teaching is the other thing that I really like, and I don't know where that line is, which I enjoy more, but being able to show people what I love doing, to be able to teach people to do what I do, whether it's, you know, a one time check that I made a knife, check it off my bucket list, or somebody that really wants to do this as a hobby, as or a profession.

It's really rewarding to me.

And, you know, in supporting the community as well as I view it as payback for all the people that had patience to work with me and teach me.

So that's my, you know, reaching out to that community that helped me so much, and to be able to go forward and let people experience what I love doing so much.

We've been working with people with different abilities for over ten years now.

I have a son who is autistic and is non-verbal.

You know, in working with him every single day, this isn't any different to me.

So this isn't hard.

It's not crazy.

It's, you know, because I have that experience in my personal life, and I feel that anybody who wants to do this should be able to do it.

Whatever their art, whatever their craft, they should be able to at least be given the chance to try.

Part of what's rewarding is that you don't understand when people aren't able to communicate the way we expect them to communicate, they can still get it and better than what we might expect from them or even ourselves.

It's okay.

I know what you're saying to me and we can do that.

Let's figure that out.

And we've had so much fun with differently abled people, letting them explore new things and new ideas helps us do that as well.

Matts been working with me for almost, at least ten years from when we started.

He was maybe the third or fourth student from adventures.

He had worked with his grandfather.

His grandfather had shown him, like me, had shown him how to work with his hands.

And he loved doing that, because at the end of the day, he's able to have something that he made.

And, you know, he wears you'll notice he wears a leaf.

That was one of the I think there was a second or third piece he made.

He never takes it off.

He is so proud of what he does in here.

He's so happy to be here.

And that's just more food for us to go.

Yeah.

You know, this is the right way to do what we're doing.

You know, that outreach, that work is, you know, people who wouldn't be given a chance are now given a chance.

And they they absolutely love it.

You don't know what you know.

Differently abled is for me is a good word because you don't know what they're capable of.

It's, you don't, We've had people who are deaf and non-verbal and in wheelchairs, and it doesn't matter to me as long as they're safe and we can make sure they're safe and they love doing it.

Property taxes are a hot issue in Ohio this year, and a movement is underway to ax the tax.

As some homeowners see double digit increases in their property taxes.

One benefactor of that tax revenue is your local library.

How much revenue, you wonder?

Well, I visited a few libraries to find out.

Right now I'm on the steps of the main branch, Cleveland Public Library, downtown.

This is a great spot to come out and sit when I want to eat, or when I want to introduce a new segment.

But what do you think would happen if right in the middle of my meal.

I just lost half my sandwich.

That's what Ohio's libraries have been wondering lately.

The Cleveland Library system gets about 55% of its revenue from local property taxes.

Ask around.

And that's about the same take as other library systems in Northeast Ohio.

One of the most disconcerting aspects of that proposition is the lack of any alternate funding source.

In Medina County The library system has six branches and an annual circulation of about 3 million items.

The talk of eliminating property taxes is alarming for Medina Library executive director Julianne Bedel But when I go home at night living in Medina County, I worry about my police and fire and my school district.

It kind of blows my mind to think about pulling the rug out of local government, including public libraries.

Right?

Medina's library spends about 60% of its budget on operating expenses, the same amount it receives from property taxes.

If property tax levies go away, Bedel says, the library would have to make major cuts.

Number of branches that we could keep open, the number of books that we could do, the number of people we can employ.

It's not that I don't think that property taxes need to be reformed or looked at.

It's that I think it needs to be done in a thoughtful manner, with time to make sure that we can manage consequences.

Ohio's libraries are already reeling from cuts to the state's public library fund, instituted in 2025, in Medina, that accounted for 40% of the budget.

And the same goes for the Tuscarawas County Public Library.

Ohio libraries do not benefit from any county sales tax.

City income tax.

School district income tax.

Casino or marijuana income tax.

The revenues that public libraries receive are from the state and from local property taxes.

Of the $24 billion collected from Ohio property owners each year, only about 2.5% goes to public libraries, according to the Ohio Library Council.

But cutting that, according to Michelle McMorrow Ramsell, director of the Tuscarawas Library system, would be, quote, devastating.

We're in a rural area here in Tuscarawas County.

There are areas of our community that's not about not having money.

It's that they don't have internet access.

They'll use a meeting room and borrow one of our laptops so that they can take their online tests, or so that they can do a job interview.

Ramsell says one on one services that library staff provide will suffer the most.

People who need to apply for Social Security and they need to do it online or unemployment, and they've never done that.

They don't have an email address.

Of course, less revenue could mean fewer books to check out too.

for families that are trying to make sure that their kids are ready for kindergarten and they're wanting them to read a thousand books before kindergarten.

Who has 1000 books in their home?

Who can afford to by a thousand books?

Not too many people, but they can come to a public library and check those out.

Ohio's public libraries get some of their funding from grants and donations, but about 80% of them rely on property tax levies.

And Ohio voters have been supporting those levies.

In 2026 14 library systems had levies on the ballot, and 12 of them passed.

In 2025, 18 of 20 passed So as petitions circulate to abolish the property taxes.

Do voters know that that includes public libraries?

I think that in general, we hear and see a lot of misinformation, a lot of opinion masquerading as fact.

And so, absolutely, maybe not having a good working knowledge of how the how the taxes are approved and how they're divided.

Thanks for coming along for this lesson about how Ohio's libraries are funded.

Now, full disclosure, I was once a trustee here at the Hudson Library, and they get 70% of their funding from property tax levies.

Check out all of our stories from Ideastream Explores: Property Taxes at ideastream.org and look out for a “Sound of Ideas” TV special about the topic on WVIZ next Thursday, July 30th.

On the next “Applause” We're shifting into high gear.

as I drive my classic car to a cruise in, in Medina.

you've got a 1964 Corvair.

it's like a traveling piece of art.

Yeah!

Thank you.

It's so unlike me.

Ive never done anything like this in my life.

Give people a sense of what it's like driving this.

So there's three pedals on the floor.

Took me a while to learn to drive it It's all about the automobile.

On the next round of “Applause” It's almost time to say goodbye, my friends.

Thanks for watching this round of “Applause” I'm Ideastreams Kabir Bhatia leaving you with Cleveland musician and composer Frank Alowishus.

He recently took his quartet out into the great outdoors with our friends from Greyt Culture Here they are at the Spring Creek Preserve in Geauga County with their tune “Feel Good.” Production of “Applause” on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.