The school, located north of Columbus, closed in 1964, but for years residents of the former mining community used the former school, built with reinforced steel in its walls, floor and roof, as a storm shelter. The structure may be torn down soon to make room for the expansion of Kansas Highway 7.
County officials are talking about building storm shelters in Stippville and eight other rural areas of the county. The preliminary price tag is $182,500. The shelters are estimated to serve up to about 800 people.
"I'd like to see us have shelters in all these unincorporated areas," said Jason Allison, the emergency management director for Cherokee County, who drew up the proposal.
County officials aren't sure how they would pay for the shelters. They're talking about applying for grants. Besides Stippville, the communities that Allison identified are Sherman City, Hallowell, Sherwin, Lawton, Crestline, Lowell, Faulkner and Melrose.
"All of these communities need one," said Charles Napier, chairman of the Cherokee County Commission. "A lot of these are without shelters at all."
Allison said the county has helped Roseland, Weir and Riverton build or plan storm shelters.
The high schools in Columbus and Baxter Springs also have storm shelters, Allison said. In Columbus, Park Elementary School has two shelters. The courthouse and First Christian Church can also be used as shelters.
George Dockery, area engineer for the Kansas Department of Transportation, said the agency is reconstructing 11 miles of Kansas Highway 7 from Columbus to Cherokee for safety reasons. The agency is seeking to condemn the Stippville School as part of that project.
Since the Joplin tornado in 2011, area school districts have spent millions to build safe rooms. Riverton voters approved a $12.35 million bond issue in April to pay for tornado shelters that will hold up to 1,100 people and replace its 1980s-era concrete wind shelters.
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