This Saturday, two towns in eastern Newton County – Stark City and Newtonia – will dedicate the new storm siren, which is located at the storm shelter on the old Midway School grounds (now Joplin Truss Co.) on Highway 86.
I am delighted that these two towns now have a way to warn their residents about storms that may hit the area.
As many of you know, I grew up in Newtonia and remember the times when storms came in.
If it was not for TV or listening to KBTN 1420, my family would not have known about the storms.
And if the electricity went off, then it was worse.
On Wednesday, I talked to Stark City Mayor Ed Schultz about the upcoming dedication.
The dedication will be held at 5 p.m., and then following the dedication there will be a dinner at 6 p.m. at the Stark City firehouse.
“USDA paid 55 percent (of the siren costs) and the two cities split the cost – which the original cost was $14,000 — so the two cities spent about more than $3,200 apiece, to complete that,” Schultz said. “The storm shelter itself has been all built by the two cities with no help from anybody, no outside money coming in at all.”
The siren was installed back in April, and since then it has been activated twice.
“This past warning was a couple of weeks ago, we had in excess of 100 people in the shelter,” the mayor said. “So the word has really got around. We are very happy of the response with it. People are telling us that they can hear it four to five miles out, which is great. It not only covers our two cities, but the rural areas. We even have people coming in from the highway.”
I encourage Newtonia and Stark City residents to take a few moments on Saturday and attend the dedication of the siren and show support for your community.
Also, during the dinner, Schultz said there would be an opportunity to talk about forming a fire district for the two towns. Currently, Stark City does have a volunteer fire department.
A possible fire district could help out the towns even more.
Todd G. Higdon is a staff writher for the Neosho Daily News and writes a weekly column for the paper. You can reach him at tghigdon@neoshodailynews.com
