Atop Yellow Springs’ highest point is a little oasis.

Head over to Gaunt Park on some sweltering day and you’re bound to hear the sounds of summer: a chorus of kiddos squealing in delight to a whole symphony of splashes. Here and there, the tweet of a whistle (“No running!”) and the rattling thwang of a board.

Such is the music of Gaunt Park Pool — the county’s only public pool — which turns 70 years old this summer.

In speaking with the News earlier this month, Village Parks and Rec Supervisor Sam Stewart said she and her team of 23 teenage staffers are wading into one of the pool’s busiest seasons in recent memory.

Barely a month past opening day on Memorial Day, more than 750 passes have been sold, forcing Stewart to frantically make more. 

“We sold out last year, but definitely not this fast,” Stewart said.

Owing to the predicted hotter-than-ever days ahead, Stewart said this summer will likely outpace last year’s numbers — an average of 95 visitors a day, with the busiest day bringing in 318 pool-goers.

“I think these numbers really show that people still value this pool — that it’s only getting to be more important than ever before,” Stewart said. “We get so much positive energy from not just people who live here, but people in other communities.”

Stewart is especially grateful for Village Council’s support.

As she noted, Gaunt Park Pool has never been a money-maker for the Village, nor will it likely ever be.

According to past News reporting, it loses an average of more than $50,000 per year, mostly owing to the ever-rising costs of chemicals — about $1,000 a week to chlorinate the 225,000-gallon big pool and the 2,500-gallon baby pool — as well as staff wages.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to make any money. This is a labor of love that thankfully so many people see as worth it,” Stewart said.

Despite the pool’s annual deficit, Council continues appropriating funds to keep it filled and functional. For 2026, Council built in $147,033 to the general fund for the pool — $77,508 of which cover personnel costs.

Some of Gaunt Park Pool’s financial losses are incurred charitably: the “Swimming for All” program offers half-price passes to money-strapped Yellow Springs residents.

“Just come with some paperwork that shows you’re getting some kind of assistance — from the county or any governmental organization — and you’re eligible,” Stewart said. “And it’s not just for families with kids. Seniors are absolutely eligible. Please come swim. We can help you!”

Ongoing maintenance costs are also no drop in the bucket. Stewart said that a new coat of paint on the pool costs $26,000. Though a $9,000 grant from the Community Foundation helped offset some of that this year, the Village was essentially obligated to cover the rest.

“There was no way we were going to get this pool open through the Greene County Health Department if we didn’t get a new coat of paint on. It just had to be done,” she said, noting that the last time it had been done was eight years ago — just beyond the expected lifespan of pool paint.

Stewart also thanked a few others for keeping the pool afloat this year: Dustie Pitstick, of Lucky Bunny Tattoo Club, and Don Beard, of Peach’s Grill, chipped in to cover all the costs of certifying and recertifying the 15 lifeguards for the season.

One such lifeguard is 16-year-old and rising Yellow Springs junior Matteo Chaiten, who’s returning to his all-seeing chair for the second year.

“These can be life or death situations,” Chaiten said, adding with a slight sigh of relief that he’s yet to encounter any worst case scenario. “But we try to focus on avoiding them. We make sure people follow the rules — that they don’t do anything stupid.”

Petra Nieberding, another 16-year-old and upcoming junior, takes her job just as seriously.

“People need to feel safe, they need to know that someone is able to help them if they need it,” she said. “These rules are here for your safety.”

Stewart beamed with pride at her lifeguards.

“My staff know what they’re doing,” she said. “Their job is to make sure people don’t get seriously injured. And that can be stressful.”

She continued: “That’s maybe one of the biggest struggles of the job — it can be hard to get the respect they’re owed. Being so young, they’re not always listened to. So, they very quickly learn how to be assertive, but professionally, and not being rude.”

This is the first year since 2016 — when Stewart first started managing the pool on the Village’s behalf — that she’s overseen this many new staffers at once. But she expects that’ll be different next year — “Kids tend to stick around here. It’s a good job,” she said.

A new pool, from the ground up

In the early 1950s Gaunt Park wasn’t a park at all — it was the town dump.

Nearly all of the trash from the 3,000-some Yellow Springs residents of those days wound up on those 9.5 acres along West South College Street — the same land that the formerly enslaved entrepreneur Wheeling Gaunt had donated to the Village half a century before.

But sometime around the end of 1954, quite a few village residents began thinking about a different use for the land.

Per YS News archives, the Village Planning Commission conducted a villagewide survey to gauge interest in expanding recreation in town. The results couldn’t be ignored: Yellow Springs needed more of it.

Heeding the call was then-Village Manager Howard Kahoe who spearheaded the efforts to level out the land and install one “hardball” and another softball field. There were other proposals to install tennis courts, enough parking for 160 cars, a volleyball sandpit, a children’s playground and a shuffleboard court.

Suffice it to say, not all of those ideas manifested, but the “Wheeling Gaunt Recreational Area” still began to take form. 

The biggest priority among the survey’s respondents was the creation of a community pool — one where “all-day, any-day swimming could be provided to all Yellow Springs and Miami Township residents.”

Taking up that mantle was a local group called the Jaycees, or the JCs for Junior Chamber, a civic group of young to middle-aged local residents and entrepreneurs bent on fostering development. That group committed to fundraising the needed $60,000 to build a 180,000-gallon, “L”-shaped pool.

From an early 1955 issue of the News: “To raise this sum of such magnitude will require the cooperation and generosity of every business and every citizen ... it can be done if there’s will to do it.”

Was there ever.

The yearlong pool drive kicked off in early summer with a truly massive parade that wound through the village to build enthusiasm and raise more dollars.

Music acts in the incredible cavalcade were: the color guard of the Central State ROTC, the Central State band, the Bryan High School band, the elementary school band and the Dixieland Rhythm Kings. Local organizations represented in the march were: Morris Bean Foundry, Vernay Laboratories, DeWine and Hamma, Fels Foundation, Kettering Foundation, the Yellow Springs school board, Antioch College, Village Council members, Community Council representatives and several YS churches.

“Gaily uniformed Cub  Scouts and Brownies manfully strode to keep up with the larger Boy  Scouts and Girl Scouts, whose steps were paced by a happy but unrehearsed bicycle brigade and a local horse troop.”

The column was punctuated by a barrage of balloons, Miami Township firetrucks and a jeep-drawn Conestoga wagon from the Antioch School.

The parade began at the Wheeling Gaunt Recreational Area where, at the top of the hill, there were around a dozen town leaders ready to cut the ribbon on the pool project, say a few words and set the marchers marchi

Arthur Morgan declared that the building of a new pool would help Yellow Springs become “a good town to live in, a good town to come to, instead of a good town to go away from.”

Over the course of that year, hundreds of individuals, dozens of businesses, a handful of organizations and even youth-led collections contributed to the pool fund. Farmers donated equipment and tractors to offset costs. By the middle of 1955, village kids had raised more than $150 in pennies. 

All told, community-driven efforts raised more than $70,000 — enough to build a pool, and dollars that were turned over to Village government to do as such.

To the dismay of some eager swimmers, the project took longer than expected to complete. It wasn’t ready by the end of the summer of 1955. The delay did, however, give villagers more time to debate — or bicker, as some News letter-writers characterized — about pool rules, policies and hours.

Unlike elsewhere in the country at that time, furrow-browed villagers weren’t concerned about race or any matter discriminatory, but when to restrict hours to adults only, if a family pass could cover five children or if $1.50 per day was too much for a pass.

Eventually, those issues were smoothed out — the pool opened to great fanfare at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 30, 1956.

The News reported that 50 adults and children dove en masse into the Gaunt Park Pool to initiate a full day of free swimming. By 8 p.m. that day, it had been enjoyed by 828 swimmers. In less than a week, 2,500 folks had taken a dip.

More from the News about the first pool-goers:

“Rikky Appleberry, off Hyde Road, arrived at 9:15 a.m., and despite his lack of eye witnesses, maintains that he was the first in the pool.

“A more valid record, 55 high dives was set by Freddy Marba, 309 E. Whiteman St., who summed up his opinions of the pool with ‘this is what the town’s been needing for a long time.’

“The wading pool was not so eagerly filled by uncertain tots unable to believe it was not a  bath. Soon, however, they were splashing with the best of them.”

To learn more about Gaunt Park Pool — its hours of operation, rules and rates — go to http://www.yellowsprings.gov or call 937-319-1440. The pool is located at 500 W. South College St.