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Residents celebrate building, its legacy

Renovating Ozona Village Hall brought people together and created a sense of community.

By SHEELA RAMAN
Published September 17, 2006

OZONA - Don't be fooled by its simplicity.

Within the plain wooden frame of the Ozona Village Hall dwells a 100-year legacy of community spirit.

And thanks to a recent renovation, the hall can welcome the next 100 years. With a new roof and foundation, polyurethaned wooden floors, fresh paint and central air-conditioning, the hall now has 21st century amenities to serve its age-old purpose as church, library, polling place, or whatever other use Ozona residents can think up for it.

To celebrate the changes, the Ozona Village Improvement Society will host a rededication ceremony on Saturday.

While the hall was being renovated, Terry Fortner, 53, and fellow OVIS members stumbled upon the ledger of the Ozona Ladies Village Improvement Society, founded in 1895. The society financed construction of the hall in 1900.

"Oooh, would you look at tha-at," said Fortner, admiring the delicacy of the pages.

The binding may be broken and the writing dim in the ledger, but the presence of Ozona's first ladies still fills the hall. An old portrait of Dr. Susan Whitford, the founding president of the ladies society, hangs on the rear wall. Her stare commands the room.

"These women were instrumental in bringing Ozona together as a community," said Meredith Grannan, 44, secretary of the OVIS board. "We want to make sure this tradition survives."

Three years ago, a structural engineer noticed the hall's foundation was buckling, said Peg Mahara, president of OVIS.

So OVIS decided to do a full-scale renovation.

To pay for repairs, OVIS, a nonprofit organization, used $145,000 of community block grant money received in October 2004, Mahara said. Work started in mid 2005, after Pinellas County, which administered the grant, chose Dietze Construction Group to perform major repairs.

The project has since grown, attracting Ozona residents of many trades and talents.

"This was a project for all Ozonans," said Fortner.

The term "Ozonan" was decided upon in an OVIS e-mail survey of more than 50 residents, trumping "Ozoner" and "Ozonite," which Fortner said was "a little too spacey."

The landscaping around the hall looked a little shoddy, so John Thurmond, an Ozona resident who owns Honey Do Landscaping, volunteered to maintain the property.

Donald Conover lives down the street from the hall, which is at 341 Bay St. He came in to refinish the hall's benches and bookshelves, put pads on chair bottoms, help hang paintings, and do whatever other odd job he could find, also free of charge.

"I enjoy it and I'm available," said Conover, 58, a retired Clearwater postal worker.

Anna Sweetnam, 50, owns the Conscious Connection, an Ozona spa. She offered to coordinate a display of historical photos of the hall for the rededication ceremony.

"My roots are in Miami, and if something like this happened there I'd probably get involved," she said. "I love history."

OVIS may want to preserve the past, but the group welcomes newcomers to Ozona, said Fortner, an Ozona resident since 1983. Susan and Burt Bicksler have lived in Ozona only a little more than a year, but have joined OVIS. They made promotional posters for all Ozona businesses and more than 700 fliers to publicize the rededication.

"We need newcomers - they bring a fresh interest in the history," said Grannan, who has lived in Ozona for 13 years. She said she expects at least 200 residents at the rededication.

The ceremony, which begins at 11 a.m., is scheduled to end in the late afternoon, but Fortner and Grannan have other ideas.

"I'm sure it'll move to someone's house and we'll party late into the night," Grannan said, grinning.

[Last modified September 17, 2006, 07:09:30]