Alva Review-Courier -

Many people in the Newsgram reading area have fond memories of summers spent with friends at Hardtner's Achenbach Swimming Pool.

Maybe you remember diving off the high board, floating on a raft sunbathing, taking swimming lessons, playing games with your friends, zigging and zagging down the big slide, or playing with your little ones in the baby pool. Perhaps you were one of the many through the years who snuck over the fence with a group of friends for your own midnight swim.

Hardtner's City Council sees only cost-prohibitive repairs to the pool at this point. March 7, the Hardtner Swimming Pool Facebook page had an update message which read in part: "We had the pool sandblasted last October and after getting all the old paint off they found that the pool had more damage than we thought. Currently we are trying to come up with the money to fix and paint the pool."

Now in early April the city council plans to close the nearly Olympic-sized pool built in the 1930s if funds are not raised. The tiny town has other expenses, like maintaining the infrastructure.

The jewel of a pool where generations of families swam from area towns was made possible through a financial gift from Jacob (Uncle Jake) Achenbach. Looking back to an article this reporter wrote on the 50th anniversary of Hardtner's Fourth of July celebration in 2008 found a fun story about the pool:

"Lifelong Hardtner resident Norma Wilhite told the story about Jacob Achenbach, who paid for the pool to be built in 1937. He was critically ill and wanted to see the pool used before he died. Norma's late husband "Speed" was 13 at the time and always told he was the first to swim in the pool in the cold month of October."

Achenbach was a successful Barber County pioneer – farming vast amounts of land and ranching with thousands of cattle. He was a chief investor of the Kiowa, Hardtner & Pacific Railroad that caused Hardtner to surge about 1910 and he helped establish the Hardtner State Bank that same year. In his estate, Achenbach left a gift of $125,000 for a hospital that was built about 1940, according to information in genealogytrails.com

Friends of Hardtner Swimming Pool Asks for Your Donation

A group of mainly lifelong Hardtner residents have formed Friends of the Hardtner Swimming Pool. One of the members, Judy Rockett Molz, said they have until April 11 to raise $15,000.

Donations may be sent to Friends of the Hardtner Swimming Pool at P.O. Box 186, Hardtner, Kansas, 67057.

If enough donations are not collected to pay for repairs so the pool can open, money that was received will be returned to the donor, Molz said.

The group fears if the pool is closed this season, the landmark will never reopen.

Everyone is invited to the Yur Place restaurant in Hardtner this Sunday, April 8. From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., you can order pizza, burgers and fries. Beyond your purchase of food, donations will be accepted.