EAST PALESTINE – Plans to build a first responder training facility in East Palestine have been revived, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Friday.

According to a press release from the governor’s office, Norfolk Southern, under a new deal, will provide $20 million in funding to Youngstown State University to design and construct the new first responder training center in East Palestine and operate it as part of the university’s Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences and Forensic Science.

Conceptually, the facility design will include space for fire, police, and emergency medical services first responders, including volunteers, to train on various emergency scenarios, such as house, vehicle, and industrial fires, search and rescue, confined space rescues, and agricultural rescues.

YSU President Bill Johnson called the agreement a “$20 million public-private partnership with the university, Ohio Department of Public Safety, Norfolk Southern, and the village of East Palestine.

East Palestine’s emergency response agencies will have free, priority access to the facility, which will also offer fire sciences curriculum and alternative workforce education pathways for YSU students

Talks of a training center were first discussed in the weeks following the 2023 train derailment and chemical release. Those talks evolved into a tangible plan and a groundbreaking was held at the former Jasar Recycling — a 15-acre property acquired by the railroad for the purpose of building a training center. Norfolk Southern also agreed to a $25 million endowment to cover operational costs. The project was lauded as a boon to both railway safety and the village economy.

However, in January, when the village announced it had reached a $22 million settlement with the railroad, releasing Norfolk Southern of all liabilities from the derailment, plans for a training center were unceremoniously scrapped.

At the time Conaway called the decision “mutual” between the railroad and the village. Conaway said it was a difficult decision but it would have placed “an unattainable burden” on the village of 4,700 people “to facilitate its operation.”

But Conaway, who along with Vice President JD Vance, Sen. Bernie Moreno, Sen. Jon Husted, U.S. Rep. Mike Rulli, Youngstown State University President Bill Johnson and Norfolk Southern CEO Mark George joined DeWine in making Friday’s announcement, welcomed new plans for a training center in the village.

“This is a great day for the Village of East Palestine,” Conaway said via the governor’s press release. “Our first responders, as well as first responders from all over the region, will soon have a state-of-the-art facility to learn and train in, to better prepare them to serve our village and the communities in our region.”

Like the previous agreement the new agreement also includes the creation of a long-term endowment plan by Norfolk Southern to financially support the center’s continued operation and growth.

Fire Chief Keith Drabick was the driving force behind the original training center concept, but was not mentioned in the governor’s release nor was he privy to the settlement negotiations that axed the plans. Just weeks before it was announced that the center would not be built, Drabick told council and residents that it was “still happening” despite no work having been started on the facility which was projected to be complete by the end of 2024.

According to DeWine’s press release, talks of a training center resumed following Vance’s visit to East Palestine in January on the second anniversary of the derailment, and with the “backing of Gov. DeWine, Sen. Moreno, Sen. Husted, and Rep. Rulli, plans for the training facility were reimagined and enhanced to include higher education opportunities and ensure long-term viability of the facility.”

“Developing this plan was truly a collaborative effort involving those from the White House to the Statehouse to the community of East Palestine,” said DeWine. “Incorporating higher education and workforce development into this new training facility will deepen its impact, preparing today’s first responders as well as the next generation of brave men and women who dedicate themselves to protecting the public and saving lives.”

Drabick’s original vision would have made a significant impact too. He wanted to make sure that other fire departments and first responders did not face what his department did on Feb. 3, 2023 when the East Palestine Fire Department rushed into the burning wreckage without the proper knowledge or adequate tools to extinguish the flames fueled by the spilled chemicals.

Drabick wanted to provide derailment and fire training to first reponders on the east coast as well as other specialized training that “would save lives.”

The acquisition of the 15-acres provided the sizable property needed to bring Drabick’s vision to fruition. It also provided pre-existing buildings that could have been fabricated to mirror real-life locations like classrooms for active-shooting scenarios and warehouses for complex structure-fire situations, but under the terms of its settlement with the village, Norfolk Southern recently turned over ownership of the Jasar property the East Palestine Community Improvement Corporation (EPCIC). The EPCIC plans to potentially “sell or lease the site in whole or in parcels to multiple users.”

Meanwhile, the location of the new facility has not been finalized and will be announced at a later date.

While more information and detailed plans of the resurrected regional training center are expected later, Rulli saw Friday’s announcement as “an important step forward, and George, who replaced Alan Shaw as CEO at Norfolk Southern over a year ago, called it “the result of extensive collaboration and a shared commitment to East Palestine.”

George thanked Vance, Moreno, Husted, Rulli, DeWine, Youngstown Johnson, ODPS Director Andy Wilson and “numerous other federal, state, and local partners” for turning a “vision of an economic and educational center dedicated to enhancing community safety into a sustainable reality.”

selverd@mojonews.com