Proud of town

Dear Editor,

In a recent issue of the McCook Daily Gazette, Connie Jo Discoe came to Indianola to take the beautiful pictures, which the newspaper had printed in color, to give our little town and its citizens a big boost.

We were all pleased and appreciative of your interest in these surrounding towns in the heart of our country!

I regret that I did not give more explicit history to her when we chatted and walked around the old buildings, some of which had been condemned, the roofs had fallen in -- they just had no care and no help from anyone ... and they became tattered and an embarrassment to our town. Some old buildings have served their life's purpose and if one never looks forward, we soon will go the way of the towns that exist no more now (for instance Freedom and Marion -- little towns around our area that once were bustling but have just "worn out.")

I was not prepared, and did not think that I was giving Connie Jo a full history of the buildings; I just mentioned some of the things that I had remembered -- every town has a history of course but not everyone can remember clearly the early history as it existed.

If one wants to delve into the subject thoroughly, a history book should be consulted; I just gave a brief resume that I thought of as we walked around that would interest both the young and old and sorry I missed mentioning some of the people who were involved also years ago. We had many wonderful citizens as every town does!

Before we scheduled this demolition, we checked with the Nebraska Historical Society several years ago and they were not really interested and thought it would be much too expensive to rebuild for posterity and was not safe nor even legal as it was not wheelchair accessible; if you remember the post office had about eight steps up and the basement had about 15 steps down -- it was just unsafe and "worn out."

We hope we all will be proud of our new fire and safety station -- Indianola has long needed this for the men who volunteer the EMT crew -- and our ambulance staff; we are proud of the Indianola Rural Fire District which purchased a few years ago, a fabulous fire truck of which we all are proud and the men take good care of -- through cooperation and good fellowship, we shall advance forward!

Cliff Lord

Indianola