Nearly 3 years after an EF 5 tornado nearly wiped out Greensburg, the community is breaking ground on a new community building.
The Kiowa County Commons building will have four major components, all providing educational opportunities for the public. The building includes a high-tech television studio and internet radio station.
“One of the things that I hope happens is that there’s a systematic effort to talk to many of the citizens who went through the tornado experience, and capture that first hand experience before it fades from memory,” said Project Designer Dr. Bert Biles, K-State University.
The Kiowa County Historical Museum will also preserve the community’s past in the building.
“We will continue our investment in education to ensure we have the latest technology so we can embark on new ways in communicating with each other,” said Greensburg native Dennis McKinney, Kansas State Treasurer. “And in this building we also have a museum to pass down to us the lessons of history that guide us into that future.”
K-State Research and Extension will have an office in the building and there will be a new branch for the Kiowa County Library.
“We’re going to have a very good facility for the community,” said Debby Allison, Head Librarian for Kiowa County. “They’re billing it as the one-stop information shop for Greensburg, and I think that will be great.”
Like many of the other new additions to the community the building will be environmentally friendly, and constructed to the highest standards of energy efficiency.
The $6 million dollar project will take about a year to complete. Several grants and corporate sponsorships helped pay for construction and equipment inside.
