The Norfolk Southern Corporation announced it will pay for $25 million in upgrades to a local park in East Palestine, Ohio, complete with a pool house, pickleball courts, and an amphitheater, at no cost to the town’s taxpayers.
“Through multiple visits, I have seen firsthand the love and pride the community has for the park and we are honored to support meaningful improvements,” said Norfolk Southern’s CEO Alan Shaw in a press release. The donation is the latest in a $62 million surge of spending in East Palestine from Norfolk Southern, which runs freight trains throughout the east coast.
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The park is a major gathering space in the town of approximately 4,700 people. It hosts graduation ceremonies and Fourth of July fireworks. “Norfolk Southern came to us a while ago about this,” East Palestine Mayor Trent Conway told the local NBC news affiliate. “They had been talking to community members and business owners throughout the town and they were asking what the priorities in town were to upgrade. The park was the biggest one, it’s our jewel.”
The park is approximately one mile from the site where a Norfolk Southern train derailed in February, releasing vinyl chloride into the air, water and soil after Norfolk Southern officials decided to blow the tanker cars open and light the vinyl chloride on fire, creating a toxic gas cloud that rose into the lower atmosphere and poisoned the town. Residents reported various adverse health effects and some people’s pets died.
The planned upgrades involve an aquatic center, modern playgrounds, basketball, tennis and pickleball courts, an amphitheater with an electrified stage, and an “enhanced parking lot.” The plan received approval from the East Palestine City Council on Tuesday.
