On a bright, sunny day in Newton Falls, not unlike the way May 31, 1985 began, now sits a memorial of the day that ended as one of the city's darkest.

"It was a bad time in Newton Falls in '85," recalled Mayor Ken Kline, who was in high school at the time. "I never thought that we would ever recover."

"It was actually an F5 tornado," says Katie McClain, head of the Newton Falls Commerce Association. "It came right through Charlestown (Road) and then right down Broad Street here where we have a lot of our local businesses. A lot of them were just devastated."

With the help of fundraisers and donations, the Commerce Association has gifted this simple yet striking stone monument to the city.

"We felt like a donation of this monument to kind of remind our citizens of how much we can accomplish when we get together, so we really just wanted to give that to our town," McClain said.

Other memorials for the '85 tornado exist in Niles and Wheatland, PA, where sadly about a dozen people lost their lives between the two communities. But no one died in Newton Falls. If you ask anyone in the city, they'll credit a man named Clayton Reakes, the former city safety service director, who stood on the roof of the city building as the reason.

"(He) ran down the steps to sound the siren. He saved a lot of lives that day," says city manager Pam Priddy. She also designed the new monument.

"Coming up with the right words and then dedicating it to the community for their hard work...that was the hardest part for me," Priddy said.

And as we muddle through these divisive times, Mayor Kline sees in this monument a principle he hopes can see us through any day as dark as May 31, 1985.

"A storm in life or the devastation, those things are just temporary," he said. "But if you have a community that's willing to unite together, that's permanent."

The monument, which cost about $4,000, will be officially dedicated on May 31.