Businesses Urged to Sign Up for East Palestine Cleanup Contracts

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – As cleanup work continues following the Feb. 3 train derailment in the village, local contractors interested in providing goods and services in the area are encouraged to sign up. 

Through an agreement announced March 29 through Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Norfolk Southern has committed to hiring Ohio companies and workers to do all future repair and replacement work stemming from the derailment.

The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber is urging businesses interested in becoming suppliers and vendors for the effort in East Palestine to register HERE. Email OHcontractors@nscorp.com.

Those wishing to register should go HERE and select suppliers and policies tabs to find policies on eRailsafe background check requirements, the Avetta safety program and other requirements. Project guidelines also can be found on the website.

Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Regional Chamber, joined Yost at a press conference on March 29 to announce the agreement. Coviello praised Yost for prioritizing the region’s businesses.

“I am excited that it is Ohio businesses – businesses right here in the [Mahoning] Valley – that are going to benefit from the money that has to be spent on cleanup and remediation from this accident,” Yost said during the press conference.

The cleanup efforts, which are anticipated to take at least another seven weeks, will mean millions of dollars in projects, something Yost said Ohio businesses and workers are capable of completing and should be benefiting from.

Pictured at top: Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, speaks during a news conference on March 29 to announce that Norfolk Southern had committed to hiring Ohio companies and workers for repair and replacement work in East Palestine. At right is Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.