Reading rumbling back to life
by Jason Johnston and Regina Murphy
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Reading — A new bank in Reading opened Monday and accepted new customers while Reading Grain & Lumber started to get back to normal.
“We are getting computer systems and bugs worked out,” said Jaret Moyer, the president of the Citizens State Bank & Trust Co. in Reading. “...We’ve had a good stream of customers come in all day today.
“We have been opening accounts... Just doing all the transactions and even talked to some people about some loans. It’s been a busy first day, but that is exciting.”
The May 21 tornado rushed through and decimated Reading. It damaged the bank’s roof. The bank was called Tightwad Bank at the time and, after relocating to Osage City, owners stated they would not return to Reading.
The city bought the building and refurbished it, said Debbie Garrison, who has worked at the bank for 18 years. Reading officials began recruiting and Citizens State Bank was chosen in September.
The three employees spent six weeks cleaning and painting inside the bank, she said. The employees were learning to use the computer systems.
When the tornado touched down, Garrison said she was at her home just outside of town.
“I was just outside working, and I came in and heard the siren go off,” Garrison said. “I thought there was a malfunction actually because it didn’t look like the weather was bad, so I came in to call my kids to see what was going on downtown and about that time they came zooming in our driveway and was running toward the basement and said there was a tornado. I said, ‘Where’? They said, ‘On the corner. On the corner.’ So we went to the basement.”
Her son-in-law is a firefighter, so they heard reports on the radio, she said. They heard a tornado going through, followed by what she thought was a second one.
“My kids live over here across from the school,” she said. “They lost their home, so they are living with us right now (but) are getting their home back together.”
Grain & Lumber, just north of the railroad tracks, was entirely destroyed by the tornado and has been reconstructed.
“We stayed opened,” said Brent Jones, who runs Grain & Lumber. “We never really closed down. We just had to work out of some customers’ barns.”
He said customers called him on his smart phone, and he would deliver grain that he salvaged after the tornado
“I didn’t have any invoice tickets, so I would send myself an e-mail off of my phone to make an invoice,” Jones said.
He also salvaged lumber and fencing supplies, he said. He sells windows, doors, metal roofing and some siding that he stores in his new warehouse. Jones just laid down some Sheetrock in his main office building Monday and was trying to buy some paint.
Jones said before the tornado struck, he was moving new bins into his uncle’s hay barn. When he was coming back into town, his wife, Heather, called and said she saw a wedge cloud. After she helped him store their fertilizer sprayers in the barn, they saw the tornado.
“It was beautiful, really,” he said. “It was kind of a snake tornado and the sun was setting behind it ... I went and got my grandmother and took her to my uncle’s house because he’s got a walk-in basement.”
His wife went home. Their kids and her father, who was visiting, were there.
He said he was talking with his wife while standing in the garage with his uncle. Hail was falling outside. When it stopped, Jones was about to head home when his uncle heard a train sound.
“We just kept waiting for the whistle because we were right here on the tracks,” Jones said. “You just get used to it ... No whistle came ... “We got into his house and stepped off the last step into his basement and your ears just popped. You just could hear a (sound) sucking out.”
He said back at his house, Heather hovered over their four- and seven-year-old kids while her dad wrapped a blanket on top of her and the kids.
Jones’ house only lost a door and a window, he said. His uncle lost his barn and his roof blew off the house.
“There is a couple of times that (Heather) has walked down in the basement this summer and just started crying because she could actually hear the roar of the tornado and everything hitting the house and the roof,” Jones said.
He said he could not build the two silo bins in time for the fall harvest, but Grain & Lumber will be ready for the wheat harvest that begins in the end of June and the first part of July.
A third business will soon be back to full strength: The Miracle Cafe will reopen for business on Monday, Dec. 12., at 9 a.m. “Up until then it’s going to be push time,” owner Reta Jackson said. “I can’t wait. I’m tired of being closed.”
The Miracle Cafe, a beloved regional destination, will resume the previous hours of business: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, and for breakfast from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday.
“Thursday, I hope to be able to move all the tables and chairs in from the semi trailer we’ve had them stored in,” Jackson said. “We’re a little bigger than before so we may need to put out a call for more.” There are plans for a block party to celebrate the reopening.