CENTER TWP — Township officials are sending letters to the Canadian National Railway Co. and Butler County Emergency Services expressing concerns about the train derailment last month on tracks under Route 308.

The township supervisors Wednesday night criticized what they felt was a lack of information the railroad company and the county provided to the township after 27 of the train’s 71 cars hauling iron ore tipped over the night of Feb. 25.

“There are some safety issues that we’re not satisfied with,” Chairman Ed Latuska said.

The derailment was viewed as a non-emergency event because there were no injuries reported and it was not carrying hazardous materials. The railroad company’s own response team was called to deal with the derailment.

However, township officials said they were left in the dark about what had happened that night.

“We found out about it from (the media),” Supervisor Phil Wulff said.

Wulff said the county’s emergency dispatchers should have notified the Unionville Volunteer Fire Department, township officials and the township road department of the accident that night.

Supervisor Ken Frenchak said the township should have known what was going on during the incident.

“My biggest concern is that we were not notified,” he said.

Steve Bicehouse, director of Butler County Emergency Services, said in an interview this morning there was a review of how the call was handled.

“We definitely looked into it,” Bicehouse said.

He said the procedure for dispatchers was changed.

“We have since changed the policy so that events like that will be reported to the appropriate parties,” Bicehouse said.

The board also criticized Canadian National for not placing a bond on a road used to transport heavy equipment to the site of the accident.

“If there is any damage to the roads, they should pay for it,” Latuska said.

Bicehouse said last week that dispatchers did not need to notify fire departments or EMS crews.

However, Bicehouse also said there was a general lack of communication from the railway company.

Bicehouse said that while the company was not obligated to keep county emergency officials informed on what it was doing, he wished they would have done so.

“It’s being a good neighbor,” he said.

Canadian National finished cleaning up the derailment last week.