A group aimed to support people after the East Palestine train derailment has announced they will disband.

The “Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment” was a group of local residents who wanted to help those with health and safety concerns. 

East Palestine resident Jami Wallace started the group not long after the derailment as a way to bring together everyone who was fighting for the same cause. At its height, the council had nearly a dozen board members and even more supporters behind them but Wallace said as they continued to speak out they endured push back from some officials and community members. 

“We got bashed a lot, adult bullying is what it was,” Wallace said. “…we were called fear mongers. We were told that they were all gold diggers.”

The group advocated for more testing of homes and the creeks after claiming they were getting sick being in the village. They attended village council meetings and asked lawmakers for community aid. 

“Not everything is fine here,” Christina Siceloff, a former member of the group said. “I know that there's a lot of respiratory problems and  a lot of mental health things going on.”

The EPA deemed homes to be safe after they were tested and stated the streams were "extensively cleaned" last spring summer but the group still wanted more tests.

The official announcement of the disbanding was made in a Facebook post by Wallace. 

“We encourage those who have been afraid to speak up to do so now. If you do not speak up, you will never be heard. The things that made us proud to be from the community have dwindled into a barely recognizable Village. It's time to take the power back, take our village back, and remember who we are,” part of the post states. 

Even though the group will come to an end, Wallace and Siceloff say they will both individually keep speaking up for more research and aid like health insurance.

“It's not about the money, it's about having a secure future, it's about trying to turn lemons into lemonade and it's about justice,” Wallace said. 

“We need to always continue to talk about it so that it's not forgotten and so that hopefully this doesn't happen to another community,” Siceloff said.