Training center in East Palestine
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Norfolk Southern broke ground Thursday on a training center for first responders in East Palestine. CEO Alan Shaw and East Palestine officials attended a ceremony to mark the start of the construction of a regional safety training center. The new center will provide ongoing, free training for first responders from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and the greater region. This center will build on NS’s Operation Awareness and Response (OAR) program, which trains 5,000 first responders annually across its 22-state network.
Norfolk Southern will invest at least $20,000,000 in the new center over the next 10 years. The center will operate through a partnership with the Village of East Palestine, at no cost to the Village or taxpayers. The center is temporarily operating out of Norfolk Southern’s yard in Bellevue, Ohio, where more than 400 local emergency personnel have received training this year. Preliminary designs for the new facility are currently in development by architecture and engineering firm, Arcadis.
Training will include classroom, web-based, and online resources, table-top drills, full-scale emergency response exercises, and other specialized training opportunities. According to an NS news release: “Regional traffic to the center, as a result of the investment, will also bring additional customers to area businesses. This lift to the area’s economy and investment in East Palestine’s future, works in tandem with a $500,000 economic development grant NS recently awarded the Village of East Palestine.”
To date, NS has committed $95 million to East Palestine and the surrounding communities since the derailment last February.
Does the village have the resources to handle those travelling to the training center, or will other localities actually benefit?
NS will soon learn that “Greenmailing” doesn’t appease the political elites.
I like it. Putting one’s money where their mouth is. I wish it didn’t take a accident to motivate the suits, but least its moving in the right direction.