A person could hardly look at all the sweet faces of Linton's children and not want to build them a good swimming pool.

Apparently the town did look at its children and Tuesday voted hands down to spend $630,000 to repair the old town pool and pay the pool improvement bonds back with a one-cent sales tax.

The old pool was built back in 1956 and like any 50-year-old anything, is starting to show its age.

It leaks not quite like a sieve, but almost, and it was getting past time to fix the problem.

The issue took two separate ballots and each required a 60 percent super majority.

On the money half, in the form of a bond issue, the vote was 305 in favor and 45 against.

On the payback half, in the form of the once-cent tax, the vote was 305 in favor and 44 against.

This will be the second penny on the dollar the town taxes itself. The first one goes to economic development.

Ken Schneider is president of the Linton Park Board, which takes care of the pool.

He said the board has talked for years about making necessary improvements and he's thrilled this plan passed on the first attempt.

The pool loses about 3,000 gallons of water every day and all that fresh water has to be heated and treated at high expense, he said.

The pool will be open this summer and construction will start when it shuts down for the season and pick up again in the spring.

Schneider said the plan is to save the bottom, cut off the top four feet, install new sides, new stainless steel gutters and decking. A new bathhouse might be a community project if costs come in too high, he said.

"This is way overdue," Schneider said.