Until the 1950s, water used to pour from bowl to bowl down the 250-foot-long cascade, starting at the top near Merritt Avenue. Ornate shells accented the cascade's lighting system, making what must have been quite a shimmering sight.

Since the interruption of World War II, though, the Cleveland Cascade has been bonedry — forgotten by most people, used mostly by joggers and other exercisers.

But then people such as Ratliff and Michael Sasso, who discovered the cascade a few years ago while jogging around Lake Merritt and incorporated it into his exercise routine, teamed up with other like-minded volunteers and set about restoring the fountain.

On one afternoon last May, almost two dozen volunteers joined forces to dig the cascade out from under the dirt, rosemary bushes and garbage that had covered it all these years. They recovered fragments of the original bowls and the shells. Since then, nearly 100 volunteers known as Friends of the Cleveland Cascade have spent more than a dozen days unearthing more and more of the fountain.

They received a shot of good news March 1 when the City Council voted to allocate

$300,000 in Measure DD funds to help restore the fountain, a project estimated to cost $600,000 to $900,000 before the water starts flowing once more.

For their part, the volunteers have raised about $45,000, much of it through a $32,500 grant from Oakland foundation De Long-Sweet, which also has promised an additional $32,500 matching grant.

Joggers might have to take a different route once water starts cascading down the fountain again, but we suspect they won't mind. The volunteers who spent a good portion of their time digging up this urban jewel should be commended for their hard work and persistence.

The volunteers who spent a good portion of their time digging up this urban jewel should be commended for their hard work and persistence.

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