EAST PALESTINE (WKBN) — A second round of checks has arrived at homes for the East Palestine settlement, but they’re being greeted with skepticism.

The fight to be treated fairly continues for Barb Kugler. She received her second voluntary exposure payment, and did not like the wording that came with the check.

“If you cash this, you don’t have a right to appeal it at all. That’s in the letter. And if we appeal it, we have to send this check back to them,” Kugler said.

The deadline for making that decision is April 14. Kugler has received less than the $10,000 the initial settlement promised, and much less than the $25,000 that the amount was raised to. She questions the fairness of agreeing to a higher amount, but not getting it.

“I do feel that someone needs to pay justice-wise for this,” Kugler said. “And I feel it starts with the attorneys.”

Kugler feels the promises were made just to get an agreement on paper. She lives just a few blocks from where the derailment happened. She had big plans for the money to improve her home — fixing the porch, the furnace, the roof.

“These are just home improvements that we’d like to make on our home that we were counting on this money to make those big expenses, so we could actually improve our own home,” Kugler said.

The two places where people could go for answers about the settlement in town have been closed. Now, residents have to make calls on their own and navigate complex legal issues alone, unless they hire attorneys.

Kugler feels in limbo as she waits and wonders what’s next. Her frustration grows that finding the answers to simple questions is so difficult.

“We don’t know if it’s attorneys. We don’t know if it’s the judge. We don’t know if it was Kroll, we don’t know if it’s Epiq. We just don’t know. We’re in limbo,” Kugler said.

Still to come are direct payment claims. That money is supposed to be released in June.