Last Updated on May 20, 2024 at 10:13am
Village awarded an additional $100,000 grant to transition space into final community use
Following a complete restoration of the historic East Palestine train depot, Norfolk Southern officially donated the structure back to the village on May 16.
“We promised to rehabilitate the facility and turn it over to the community for its long-term use and today we are doing just that,” Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw said. “Today, we are here to fulfill another promise… Just like Norfolk Southern, this facility has been a part of this community for years and, with the improvements we’ve made to it and turning it over to the community, we are going to make sure this train depot will be part of the community for decades moving forward.”
Plans to restore the depot, including a complete renovation of the building’s exterior, were announced in May of 2023 after conversations between the railroad and community members.
“I’ve never had any doubt that they were going to do the right thing and help clean up and do some of the projects they’re doing. Now we have a completed project. They said they were going to do this — they did it,” said East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway.
In addition to the $1 million restoration, Norfolk Southern provided a $100,000 grant for the village to customize the interior to fulfill the community’s intended use of the depot.
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