An option to purchase the Lehigh cement plant and all of the property owned by the company surrounding it was granted to Iola Industries, Inc., Wednesday. Yesterday the board of directors voted unanimously to exercise the option and proceed with the purchase of the property for $275,000. Iola Industries president Ray Pershall took inventory of the properties owned by Lehigh and calculated the purchase was wise and that enough assets could be sold to pay the price asked. Iola Industries would be left with a prime industrial site at practically no cost, he estimates.
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One month from now Iola may see the last passenger train leave the depot here. Santa Fe, which at one time operated eight passenger trains through Iola, this week posted notice that trains No. 211 and 212 would make their last runs between Kansas City and Tulsa on April 30. Jim Dickson, Iola Santa Fe agent, said discontinuing the trains will have an impact, but not as much as it once would have. “Passenger service out of Iola is pretty light anymore,” he said. “This morning we had six passengers here. A man and his wife who were going to Kansas City and a man who was taking his sons on their first train ride. People, it seems, would rather drive their own cars,” he said.
