EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — If you’re running for office to lead a town of roughly 4,700, you wouldn’t expect “navigating a major disaster” to be on your bingo card.
“I never thought I’d be on national television or in a mob of reporters in our gymnasium,” said East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway in a one-on-one interview with News 5’s DaLaun Dillard.
On Feb. 3, this quaint town was derailed and thrust into the national spotlight — something none of them asked for, especially Conaway. But six months later, he says things are getting back on track.
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What people may not even know is that the office of East Palestine mayor is a part-time job — Conaway also works a full-time job in addition to serving as mayor. Dillard asked how that has weighed on him mentally.
“At first, it was very hard. It was hard to juggle both and then, you know, having two kids and a wife too,” Conaway said. “But I've got through it, and we're doing a lot better than we were.”
As of now, Conaway said he’s satisfied with the progress that Norfolk Southern is making to right its wrongs.
“Yes, I think it could have been avoided. But also, it was — I feel it was an accident. I don't know if anybody is 100% to blame for this,” he said.
About 200 residents are still displaced from the derailment, either living in a hotel or with family members, and Norfolk Southern is compensating them for that.
You may recall the mayor was loudly critical of President Biden. The president visited Ukraine on President’s Day, which Conaway called a last slap in the face.
Biden has still not visited East Palestine but said back in March that he planned to visit sometime in the future.
“I think, you know, a visit from him might help get some of the stigmatism that we have as a village that we're polluted,” Conaway said. “There's people who don't want to come visit our village from out of town. There's local youth athletic programs that won't bring their kids into our town. And it's just not fair to our residents to have that stigmatism around them.”
Conaway said his love for East Palestine is what keeps him going. As he approaches the end of his term, he has plans to run again.
“I know there are so many people who, after dealing with all of this, especially in these past six months, may not choose to be mayor again. Why are you going to run again?” Dillard asked.
“I owe it to the citizens,” Conaway said. “I wasn't going to rerun, but that was before the train accident. And now that we all have to finish what we started, I have to make sure that the citizens are taken care of.”
