EAST PALESTINE — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has announced a new initiative to support small business and bolster economic development in the wake of the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment.

Brown, D-Ohio, was joined by State Director of Rural Development Jonathan McCracken and the county Port Authority’s Haedan Panezott at the 1820 Candle Company for a roundtable with village business owners Monday.

The initiative — a revolving fund in collaboration with Valley Economic Development Partners that offers up to $150,000 loans with interest rates as low as 1% to eligible East Palestine businesses — was announced following the roundtable and is available immediately. Valley Partners will administer the loan to eligible businesses that have no more than 50 employees and revenues of $1 million and under. The purpose of the initiative is to drive small business development and business startups by funding capital and equipment, among other things.

“We know there is a long-term public health recovery and things that are ongoing, but we know how important economic development is as well,” McCracken said.

“This is about helping these small businesses thrive, grow their business and recover. We are just so excited to partner with Valley Partners and the small businesses across East Palestine and in this part of the county.”

The program is the latest boost for East Palestine businesses. In June, Gov. Mike DeWine announced the East Palestine Emergency Support Program, which allocated up to $5 million to assist businesses impacted by the February train derailment, with zero-interest loans ranging from $10,000 to $1 million.

Also in June, Norfolk Southern pledged a grant of $500,000 to support economic development in East Palestine. That grant would fund the hiring of an independent, private sector economic development consultant who will be hired by and work for the village. Details on the railroad’s grant program are still out. Monday’s announcement opened the door for much-needed additional resources for village businesses.

“We’ve been assisting businesses since the week following the train derailment. Initially, to gather the various levels of impact and try to assist them and find them sources of funding,” said Panezott. “The last couple months we’ve been a pass-through agency for the Ohio Department of Development to assist businesses with the East Palestine Emergency support program, but with this new finding source it’s an amazing opportunity for small businesses that need a source of funds that can help them recover.”

Panezott said the program, which will remain in the community for years to come, will help upwards of 20 businesses recover from the impact of the rail disaster.

Melissa Smith, who owns the 1820 Candle Company, said those impacts have been disastrous for some merchants.

“I’ve talked to other businesses in town who may have a whole week where they don’t see any sales,and that’s really, really hard for a small business,” she said. “To make your rent and pay your staff and take care of inventory, I can see where that’s really bad. I think it may be beneficial for some businesses to look into e-commerce options in the future to help weather what we are going through. I definitely think we need to focus on whatever it takes to help our businesses and hopefully this program will be a good start.”

Both Smith and Panezott said the closing of Taggart Street has been detrimental to East Palestine commerce — specifically to businesses located on Taggart.

“The Taggart road closing has really hindered traffic into the village of East Palestine. A lot of Pennsylvania residents come into East Palestine for differences in gas prices and through their stops they will come through these local businesses,” Panezott said. “A lot of businesses have suffered a loss of foot traffic, a loss of sales, a loss of inventory through the derailment so having the access to this capital is really crucial to allowing businesses to recover.”

“I will definitely say the closure of Taggart Street has definitely impacted businesses,” Smith added “It’s pipeline for our Pennsylvania traffic and does impact businesses greatly. The continued cleanup — the dust, the traffic — was kind of a deterrent to wanting to be out there.”

Brown said the initiative is a step forward as the village struggles to shake off the stigma and residual effects left behind after the Feb. 3 derailment and chemical release.

“I’ve been back in East Palestine pretty much monthly since, talking with businesses, talking to farmers, talking to the hospital and talking to people about the cleanup and it’s important that we get people’s lives back to normal and a big part of doing that is helping local small businesses and entrepreneurs who want start a business or grow their business,” Brown said.

“A number of them were here today and it’s Johnathan McCracken’s and my job to help this community grow.” It’s mostly back to normal, but there are other things we need to do.”

Brown insisted he will keep coming back to East Palestine until every need in the community is met.

“I am going to keep back even, as they say, when the TV cameras are turned off. We still have work to do,” he said. “No. 1, we need to get people’s lives back to normal. And we’re getting here. We are getting closer and closer. The other is to hold Norfolk Southern accountable, not just for reimbursing the people for the damages they did and paying for the cleanup but also that they back off their opposition to rail safety to make sure these kinds of derailments never happen again.”

Brown, along with Senators J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, Senators Bob Casey, R-Pa., Marco Rubio, R-Florida, John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, introduced a bipartisan Railway Safety Act of 2023 on March 1. The bill would enhance and strengthen rail safety and mandate, among other things, wayside defect detectors, two-person crews, increased fines against rail carriers and granting the department of transportation the authority to institute and modify new safety requirements and procedures for trains carrying hazardous materials like vinyl chloride.

Norfolk Southern and the rail industry have pushed back at the proposed regulations, particularly the two-person crew requirement. The American Association of Railroads (AAR) said the bill “falls short of its goal to rectify a current safety challenge” and that “challenges remain with certain provisions, including those that mandate crew staffing models, expand hazmat transportation operating requirements, micromanage detector networks, and unnecessarily broaden manual inspections.”

On the state level, DeWine made two-person crews mandatory for all trains that transport commodities through the state when he signed the $13.5 billion state transportation budget in March. On June 29, the day before the rule was to go into effect, the rail industry pushed back when the AAR filed suit in U.S. District Court to block the provision, arguing jurisdiction of the U.S. railways is exclusive to federal agencies.

The Railway Safety Act passed the Senate Commerce Committee in May and is now awaiting a vote on the Senate floor.

selverd@mojonews.com