Thursday’s devastating tornado that plowed through Marshalltown left behind a wide swath of destruction and MIRACULOUSLY, no known deaths.

However as bad of a storm as it was, it never touched what Marshalltown has always been known for – hard work, pride and innovation.

No sooner than the storm passed, homeowners, business proprietors and countless volunteers began the process of cleaning up and rebuilding.

And, as much as we are all concerned over every resident and business owner getting things back to normal, we are especially aware of some of the rumors surfacing about doubts by some people whether one of our city’s largest employers whose business was severely damaged in the tornado will rebuild.

Speculation surfaced this week that Lennox may decide not to rebuild.

Despite this being strictly a rumor, the following is intended as an open letter to Todd Bluedorn, CEO of Lennox.

Dear Mr. Bluedorn:

For 138 years, Lennox has been part of Marshalltown, it’s birthplace.

When Dave Lennox started the company out of his garage, who would have guessed that it would eventually grow to be such a large worldwide company?

Throughout those 138 years, Marshalltown has played a key role in the success of Lennox. Starting with the Torrid Zone furnace all the way through the current energy efficient Dave Lennox Signature lines of furnaces and air conditioning units, Marshalltown know-how, innovation and hard work ethic has helped Lennox become the world leader in heating and cooling.

As many as one million heating and air conditioning units are produced annually at the Marshalltown plant, one of the city’s largest employers.

In 1993, Lennox was in the midst of making a decision to consolidate two of its heating and cooling manufacturing facilities into one location – the heating facility was in Marshalltown and the air conditioning plant was in Columbus, Ohio.

Scores of Marshalltown community leaders along with then-Governor Terry Branstad, flew to Texas to make a case for consolidating the manufacturing in Marshalltown.

In addition to making a compelling case for Marshalltown, the delegation took along Taylor’s Maidrites for the Lennox board members and had local band members play the MHS fight song.

Marshalltown won. It was a wonderful victory for the town and a banner day in Marshalltown history.

Mr. Bluedorn, our town would like to make the same persuasive case that we made in 1993.

Lennox is Marshalltown and Marshalltown is Lennox. Your company was born here. We want you to stay here. We want you to rebuild here.

Your company’s slogan is – Lennox Perfectly at Home.

Ask anyone in Marshalltown. We love that slogan.