Kenny Arbuckle had a plan for what he would do if a tornado was headed toward his home. He’d roll his wheelchair into the garage, where he had a chain connected to a pipe which was secured in cement. “I’ll just chain myself to that and ride it out,” he thought. His neighbors had other ideas. A group of Good Samaritans, including area businesses, joined forces to build a tornado shelter on Arbuckle’s property. Arbuckle is disabled because of a muscle wasting disease and spends all of his time in a wheelchair. The shelter was intended not only to make sure Arbuckle stays safe, but also to thank him for his generous offer to serve as a host site for a community storm shelter.
Source: The Iola Register

Iola’s old Elm Street water tower hasn’t been used for years, aside from being home to a couple of antennas and an occasional gathering spot for turkey vultures. Max and Candice Grundy want to change that. The Iola artists — transplants from Utah, by way of Los Angeles — have proposed turning the old piece of city infrastructure into a one-of-a-kind tourist destination. The Grundys want to convert the tower into a high-rise Airbnb, complete with an observation deck to provide a 360-degree panoramic view of Iola and surrounding countryside. “There’s so much natural beauty here,” Max Grundy said. ‘The sky is so radiantly blue and the grass is so vividly green. The landscape can be so amazing, and you’d be able to see it from a high perspective.”
Source: The Iola Register