COLUMBUS GROVE - Mike and Gerri Hazel were out driving around when they came upon a picturesque old swimming pool nestled beside a quarry and towering shade trees just east of this Putnam County town.

"We thought, 'What a cool pool,'●" Mrs. Hazel said, explaining that the couple recently moved to Lima from Houston. After stumbling upon the castlelike Columbus Grove pool, they returned the next day to swim with their two young sons.

What the Hazels didn't know was that just two years ago the 1930s-era pool was falling apart and in danger of closing for good. The village could not afford to maintain it, and only a handful of children were using it each summer.

A small but persistent group of residents who loved their one-of-a-kind pool tried for years to raise the money to repair it, but could never collect enough to get the job done.

Finally, the pool society convinced village council to ask voters for a 15-year, 0.25 percent income tax to refurbish the pool and grounds. After two tries, the measure passed in May, 2003.

The work was done over the winter, and the swimming hole just south of State Rt. 12 on County Road 8-P reopened last month.

"It is a rebirth, a renaissance," said Judy Fortman, who helped lead the fight to save the pool, a mile east of Columbus Grove.

Nearly $700,000 has been spent to rebuild the pool - literally - from the inside out, refurbish the bathhouse, tuck-point some of the limestone walls that grace the expansive grounds, and landscape the area.

The pool society, which contributed $120,000 that it had raised, plans to continue its mission to maintain and improve the pool and surrounding park, Mrs. Fortman said.

"More repair work needs to be done on the stone, but we

thought that'd be easier to do once the pool was done," she said. "We feel like the biggest hurdle is crossed."

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, the pool was built in the 1930s by President Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration with limestone from the adjacent quarry.

"I like it being out in the country," said Terri Stechschulte, who was at the pool with her family Monday. "It's just so serene. It's beautiful."

Her husband, Brent Stechschulte, said he went to the pool every day when he was growing up in Columbus Grove but had not returned since high school.

"I wasn't crazy about the income tax," Mr. Stechschulte admitted. "But I'm real happy with what they did with the pool. They've done a nice job."

Mrs. Stechschulte said that when they moved back to Columbus Grove six years ago, she didn't bring their young children to the pool because there was no deck area for parents to watch the children swim.

"That's one of the reasons we didn't come here," Mrs. Stechschulte said. "I wanted to be down by the pool with the kids, not watching them up on the wall."

The new pool is smaller in circumference, which made it possible to create areas for lounge chairs and umbrella tables.

The village also decided to eliminate the 9-foot deep end and diving board, replacing it with a water slide and a deep end of just five and a half feet.

"It's very kid-friendly because there's not a real deep end, and you can see them everywhere they go," said Judy Frisby of Cairo, Ohio, who brought her three children and two of their friends to the pool.

She said they used to swim at the pool in Bluffton.

"This is a lot better than Bluffton," piped in 10-year-old Mackenzie Basham. "It has a basketball hoop. It has sprinklers, and it has a bigger water slide."

Pool Manager Craig Clymer said the pool has had about 90 visitors a day since it opened the first weekend of June.

Last Wednesday - which happened to be very hot and a $1-admission day - there were more than 350 people at the pool.

Wednesdays are dollar days, but swimmers are charged $3 the other six days of the week.

A school bus drops off and picks up children at the pool once a day - a free service the village has provided for decades.

Mrs. Fortman beams with pride as she watches the happy swimmers.

"Thanks for this," a woman calls to her as she heads for the parking lot. "Everyone really loves it."

Contact Jennifer Feehan at:

jfeehan@theblade.com

or 419-353-5972.

First Published July 7, 2004, 10:50 a.m.