On Saturday, the residents of Newtonia and Stark City celebrated the installation of a storm shelter and storm siren in their communities.
You might be asking, “so, what’s the big deal?”
The big deal is that it was a little more than two years ago — May 10, 2008, to be exact — that the community of Newtonia, and its population of approximately 200 —was nearly wiped out by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in widespread damage and claimed the lives of 14 people in Newton County. And during that storm, there was no community shelter for residents to escape the storm’s wrath, nor was there a siren to warn them of the oncoming twister.
Now, that all has changed, thanks to the efforts of local and county officials to secure a $5,500 grant from the USDA to help with the total price tag of more than $14,000 for the siren. The towns of Newtonia and Stark City split the cost to get the siren up and running.
The shelter, which is located at the Joplin Truss Co., on the grounds of the old Midway School on Highway 86, was built with no government funding — just by people who came together to get the project done.
And that’s what we do in Southwest Missouri: we see a need, fill that need, and provide a better quality of life for our friends and neighbors.
DAILY NEWS
