NORTH LAWRENCE, Ohio — North Lawrence’s Tuslaw Junior Baseball league has been forced to forfeit its home field, and the North Lawrence Fire Department, which is just feet away, remains shut out of its own parking lot because of damage and a mess left behind from a Norfolk Southern train derailment a year ago.
In 2022, a Mack truck collided with the train and caused a 19-car derailment. The cars were empty at the time, and no one was hurt.
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While Norfolk Southern crews were fixing the tracks, the North Lawrence fire department offered their parking lot and space to the train company. In return, Norfolk Southern officials promised they would handle the cleanup.
But nothing has been done.
Lieutenant Bandon Johnston with the North Lawrence fire department said Norfolk Southern’s heavy equipment on the lot damaged the concrete and brought on flooding in portions of the lot, which is now deemed unsafe for emergency vehicles and hospital life flights. In addition, the baseball field owned by the fire department needs to be excavated but has instead been abandoned, as a huge pile of gravel sits in the outfield.
Johnston says the fire department submitted two bids for the cleanup, as requested by Norfolk Southern, but they were told the work seemed like an “improvement project” rather than fixing. So, Johnston says they took the company’s suggestion and filed a claim with their insurance, but they were denied. Now, Norfolk Southern is asking for an estimate to get everything fixed and cleaned up, so they can send a settlement check. The total is about $260,0000.
“We understand there’s processes, but we’d really like to see some sort of resolution,” Johnston said. “Unfortunately, this is it for, I guess, what I would say the greater north Lawrence area.”
A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern told News 5 an assigned claims person would follow up. Johnston said he received a phone call a day later, but there’s still no solution given.
