The village of Stella received a early Christmas gift, as the official groundbreaking ceremony for the new safe room/storm shelter took place Tuesday on the site of the old Cardwell Hospital.
“By applying for matching grants from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the village of Stella is able to have a safe room for their residents,” said Stella Mayor Bill Alsop prior to the groundbreaking.
Jennifer Wilson, architect for the project from Springfield, Mo., stated, “(The safe room/storm shelter) is a single-story structure, and it can be a multi-purpose structure. It can be used for storms and it is designed to take the load of a tornado, but during the off time, the community can use it.”
Alsop noted that the safe room/storm shelter would also come in handy on other occasions.
“When we had the ice storm —11 days without power — we did not have a centralized place where people could come in and eat, lay down,” Alsop said. “(The shelter) is not going to be a long time, spend the night thing, but it would be a place to come and get warm.”
The safe room/storm shelter will be 1,500-square feet and will be able to house 248 people.
Branco Enterprises of Neosho received the bid to build the safe room.
“We will probably be (able to start in) mid-January,” said John Branham, president of Branco Enterprises. “The key on this is the walls and the roof are all precast concrete and we have not got a schedule from them for delivery, but we are anticipating they won’t be available probably until February, so we really don’t want to do too much ahead of them because it is basically site work and the concrete footings and the walls set on that.”
The safe room/storm shelter should be completed in 90 days, once the work begins. Building cost is $218,000.
“This is a very exciting step that the village of Stella is taking,” Alsop said. “A few years back, we established a master plan. One of the things that the residents wanted was a safe room. We have a café that has opened, we have a unique and awesome veterans memorial that the Stella Senior Citizens sponsored, and our Moses Eagle Village Park to name a few of the things that we have accomplished. I would like to thank everyone that has come to this event today. And to all of the partners involved, congratulations on helping the village to receive this wonderful gift – a safe room.”
