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 [...]

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 [...]