East Palestine Village Council discussed a more detailed approach to tackling repairs on the village’s walking trail. The 2.84-mile path stretches from below the village on state Route 170 to the Leslie Run Estates and crosses the creeks.

EAST PALESTINE — East Palestine Village Council discussed ways to repair and improve the village’s walking trail during Monday’s meeting at the village municipal building.

Village Manager Antonio-Diaz Guy announced that some repair work was recently completed and asked for a complete list of what still needs done.

Mayor Trent Conaway suggested a volunteer day to get the community involved in clearing the trail — 2.84 miles of wooded walking path that stretches from below the village on state Route 170 to the Leslie Run Estates and crosses the creeks.

Diaz-Guy said the village is open to a volunteer day but said he would “also take volunteers on a non-volunteer day to help clear it,” but said the pressing problem is knowing exactly what needs to be done and where it needs to be done on the trail.

“I think we need to figure out what our list of items is because some of the concerns are related to the crossing of the waterways which are always an issue. They get washed out every year,” he said. “Some of them are the overgrowth of the trees, but I think if we can get a punch list of what the actual improvements need to be. Right now, most of the work has been actually clearing out the trail and the walking path.”

Diaz-Guy also suggested adding a walking trail category to the online service board, which allows residents to fill out an online form on the village notifying officials of among other things high grass and junk cars in the village, potholes, downed trees and broken street lights, to better understand, document and discuss the repairs needed to the trail.

In other matters, the village thanked everyone who came to, participated or helped put together the village’s 150th year celebration on Saturday and the community karaoke event Sizzle and Sing event on Friday. The Sizzle and Sing drew as many as 167 people to downtown.

In consent agenda items, council approved the hiring of Brodi Conover to replace Dave Powers as village law director. Powers had announced at the beginning of the year this would be his last as he plans to retire.

Council also paved the way for future tent camping in the city park with a third reading of ordinance that extended park hours.

The ordinance repeals and replaces chapter 1060.01 of the village. Diaz Guy made a proposal to council earlier this year to allow tent camping within the park. The tent camping proposal plans for tents in the village park at the current location of the scout cabin which is in disrepair. The cabin will be torn down and the space used to create nine to 10 tent camping spots with limestone pads under the proposal. Utilities and restroom facilities already exist at the location. The project is anticipated to cost approximately $47,000. If the project is proven marketable, the revenue generated could be used to maintain the park.

In other consent agenda items, council approved a motion to allow RCAP funds to be used to locate existing lead water pipes in the village with no cost to the village, a motion establishing a village event fund, the 2026 village budget with a third reading, a motion to sell an easement to the county as an emergency so the replacement of the bridge on Brookdale can move forward and approved the East Palestine Department’s 105th year event that will take place during Fire Safety Week.

Tim Blythe, utility chair, announced that the Risk/Resilience Water Assessment was finalized and submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Blythe stressed this was not related to the 2023 train derailment but rather required to be completed every five years. The assessment is mandated by the America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) and evaluates the vulnerabilities of a water system to various threats and assesses its ability to recover from disruptions.

Blythe also said that PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) sampling was also required by the EPA as new PFOS limits were recently established. Again, the sampling was non-derailment related and the results from June testing reflected all samples were undetectable for PFOs which are a type of PFAS or man-made “forever chemicals.” Blythe said the results show “the effectiveness of the GAC Filters” that were put in place by Norfolk Southern at cost of over $4 million after the derailment are “providing safe drinking water to the village.” Copies of those results are available to the public at village hall.

Also at the meeting:

— It was announced that an E-Waste collection will be held Aug. 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Centenary Church at 40 S. Market St. Items accepted free of charge include PCs, laptops, phones, scanners, hard drives, servers, unused printer cartridges or toner, cell phones, stereos, VCRs, DVD players, routers, MP3 players, cameras, keyboards, paper shredders, LCD monitors, game consoles and accessories, networking equipment and UPS (uninterruptible power supply). There will be a small fee charged for disposing of TVs ($20), CRT monitors ($20) and printers ($10).

— Safety Chair Thomas Povenski Jr. reported that Lindan Garder was promoted to full-time officer. He also reported the police department had 450 self-initiated calls resulting in 132 reports in the month of June, while the fire department calls totaled 115 with 11 fire, 98 EMS and six combined.

— Council heard the East Palestine Community Improvement Corporation is continuing to seek grants for Train Depot and former PNC Plaza sites as plans to repurpose both move forward.

— The council will accept bids for a new marketing plan from firms and individuals and continue to use WRL on a month-to-month basis. WRL was hired using funds from a $500,00o contribution from Norfolk Southern in 2023 to support economic development in East Palestine.

— Heard building permits in the village totaled $1,250 in the month of June, the highest monthly amount since the program was established.

— Learned the 2025 Road Paving Project will tentatively begin in August with final dates to be determined.

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