POWERGRAMS

26 across America 50 or 100 years ago. There are no parking meters and few traffic lights. Almost every intersection is a four-way stop. Young's Jewelers, perhaps the oldest continuously operating business in Jasper, has engagement photos of couples in its new front windows. Across the street, teenagers meet inside a renovated two-story building that houses the new First United Methodist Church Youth Center. They play games in the fenced grass lot next door, reminiscent of a time when children's noses weren't always planted on iPads. Many of those kids are learning in the respected city school system, including at the new $53 million Jasper High School that has high-speed wireless technology in its 61 classrooms serving 850 students. Memorial Park Elementary last year became a National Blue Ribbon School. Other community events, such as fundraising plays like "Steel Magnolias," are performed in the spacious Jasper Convention Center, which is headquarters for several important local organizations in a town that is an Alabama Community of Excellence and has been a U.S. Tree City since 1988. The past five years have seen the revival of the Foothills Festival each September, aracting up to 25,000 people for free carnival rides and big-time bands, such as the Spin Doctors last year, on the city square. There is also Art in the Park in May and Dinner in the Park in the fall. Four years ago, Jasper became the nation's second city hosting an urban disc golf tournament. The Downtown Throwdown brings standout Frisbee tossers from across the country for two days while the heart of the business district is blocked off from vehicle traffic. NATATORIUM IMPORTANT ASSET Memorial Park's many segments spanning four city blocks are the crown jewels of Jasper's public facilities, providing adjacent fenced baseball, soball and soccer fields, the George Lindsey Dream Field, Swann Gymnasium, Jasper Senior Center, a handicapped- accessible playground and other popular venues surrounding a pond. The Natatorium is the showpiece of the park dedicated in 1949 to soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, including 200 from Jasper in World War II. Opened in 2003 on the former site of an outdoor pool enjoyed by locals for decades, the Natatorium is a multi-use facility that incorporates the original bathhouse building into a tall structure that houses the seven-lane, 8-foot-deep, 25-yard-long pool. Thousands of swimmers visit each year to compete, do aerobics, dance, celebrate birthdays or just take a dip in the warm water aer the weather turns cold. Natatorium Director Stacy Smothers wasn't even a year old when she learned to swim in the old pool. She's been working at the newer $3 million facility since the day it opened, taking her current post a decade ago. It costs about $500,000 a year to maintain and staff the Natatorium and adjoining outdoor pool, paid in part through a $2 daily fee for kids ($3 for adults). Jasper's swim team had more than 100 members last summer, many who hope to mirror the success of Chloe Benne, who learned to swim there at age 7 and became an All-American swimmer at Delta State. The Natatorium is a special place for special-needs people, with different groups from the region visiting each week for the fun and health benefits. Dyer and Arnold enjoy swimming in the Natatorium. Murals have been painted to decorate the side of Restoration Hall downtown.

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