EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Good enough is no longer good enough, village Manager Antonio Diaz Guy said Tuesday morning.
During the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s Good Morning, East Palestine! event at the Original Roadhouse, Diaz Guy explained that the village wants to take the opportunities it has and capture them, which is something that has not always been done.
“East Palestine has had a history,” Diaz Guy said. “Typically, I think it’s fair to say that we’ve punched above our weight in terms of development and our people.”
But through the years, the village has become too complacent and comfortable with just being good enough, he said. Quoting his former choir director, the late Anthony Chipporo, Diaz Guy said, “East Palestine is a place where you can do zero preparation and you cannot plan at all and, somehow, last minute, everybody groups together and you can pull something off and it’s always good enough.”
Diaz Guy said when he was a teen, he thought that was good, but it is no longer good enough.
“To be great required the planning, required the execution and required for us to build the infrastructure and capacity to capitalize on what our natural gifts were,” Diaz Guy said. “And so that’s what we’re going to do moving forward. That’s what our community is building towards. We don’t want to be good enough anymore. We know we have the capability to be great.”
Diaz Guy talked about building regional partnerships and a revitalization of the Community Reinvestment Act program for both residential and commercial tax abatements, which he said the city has had for decades but has underused in the past.
He said East Palestine has applied for its own building department to speed up by six months or more the amount of time it takes to get permits.
“Our park right now is a full construction site, but it’s great because at the end of it, we’re going to have this Ferrari of a community outdoor asset,” Diaz Guy said, adding the village can leverage that, and he hopes the community and business leaders will come there to use it.
Guy Coviello, Regional Chamber president and CEO, said there are a lot of ways that organizations can partner with the CRA program in East Palestine, as well as partner to support the retail shops in the village for years to come.
Although the Regional Chamber’s events have primarily focused on communities in Mahoning and Trumbull counties in the past, Coviello said the organization has found some great partners in Columbiana County, both at the East Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce and the Columbiana Area Chamber of Commerce. Throughout the Lake to River region, which includes Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties, Coviello said it is valuable to make connections and work together toward growth.
Roberta Brittain, president of the East Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce, talked about many of the upcoming events in town, inviting those in attendance to come back, support local retail businesses and events, like the upcoming Turkey Trot and Snowflake Festivals.
Throughout the event, there was little to no mention of the February 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in the village. Coviello said those in attendance Tuesday seemed ready to move out of the recovery phase and into a growth phase.
“I would think that that’s certainly our attitude,” Coviello said. “And we want to look at the future. We want to look at growth. So I get the feeling that attitude is shared that there’s a really bright future for the entire Lake to River region.”
Superintendent Dr. James Rook of East Palestine City Schools also spoke during the event, thanking several community partners from the region for sponsoring programs at the schools and reflecting about the efforts to improve the schools. A high poverty district with 100% of students qualifying for free breakfast and lunch, Rook spoke of overcoming disadvantages, with an emphasis on a high attendance rate of 92%, a 93% graduation rate and a 94% teacher attendance rate. He also said 25% of graduates have honors diplomas, and 18% are dually enrolled in college and high school.
“We’re really proud of the fact that 40% of our graduates enter the workforce after they graduate with an industry recognized credential, at least one,” Rook said.
The school has a preapprenticeship program for both direct support professionals and building trades, with 25 students graduating last year with a preapprenticeship certificate into the local carpenters union. The school just received a grant from Project Lead the Way, which develops a STEM-based curriculum, and has received another grant to bring drone technology to the district.
Although the school district got only 2.5 out of 5 stars on the recent state report card, Rook said he believes efforts are already underway to improve that.
“We know behind the scenes the process of winning is taking place, and we’re very confident that with some of these changes I have described to you today and some of the other changes behind the scenes, that rating will increase over time.”
Erik Liber, board member and president of HSH Drywall LLC, said he grew up in Lisbon and is returning to the area due to the amount of economic development happening. With the need for more housing, Liber said the company is starting two new homes in Leslie Run Estates, a development in East Palestine, and is excited about building high quality affordable homes for the local population.
“And we’re really looking forward to working with the community, the schools, especially, getting the youth involved in our growth,” Liber said. “Right now our retention is about 47%. Everyone else just leaves our area immediately. We need to change that by involving our youth in our community from that early age and let them build with us – let them be a part of this growth, and then with that ownership that they will have in it, they’ll stay with us. We’ll be able to grow our community.”
Pictured at top: From left are Antonio Diaz Guy, East Palestine village manager; Guy Coviello, Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber president and CEO; and James Rook, superintendent of East Palestine City Schools.