GALION – There’s something about “the Swiss.”

The former Swiss Village Motel on State Route 309. The motel marked by memories and notoriety. The longtime landmark that three siblings who grew up there say deserves to have its last hurrah.

They’re calling it the Swiss Village Project.

Michelle “Missy” Paluga Krueger, Nicki Paluga Stepro, and Stephen Paluga are spearheading the Swiss Village Project – an effort to preserve the history of the business – and their old homestead – with stories on video of people who worked there, sat at the bar or swam in the pool.

“It has a very colorful history. Some is good and some not so good,” said Krueger, a senior health care analyst in Leesburg, Va., who pitched the idea to her brother and sister. “Everyone has a little piece of the puzzle and when it all comes together, we have a story.”

On July 25-27, the Galion grads will return to what’s left of the Swiss for a reunion of sorts. To talk to people eager to share their memories of the lodge and lounge before it closed in 2006. To write its final chapter. It’s last call.

And what better storytellers than the siblings, whose grandparents, Phillip and Anna Paluga, owned the Swiss for nearly 50 years. They lived with their parents, Phil and Sandy Paluga, in a trailer overlooking the business and then in an apartment above the bar.

Phillip and Anna Paluga ran the Swiss from 1964 to 2006. But it was more than a motel east of town. It was a social place that, in its heyday, grabbed newspaper headlines with the death of a dancer, a drowning in the club pool, and a 1990 murder in the parking lot.

Krueger has been busy doing research for the project. She’s also contacted current owner Ken Barker to get his approval and, through a Facebook page and two YouTube videos narrated by her brother, promoted the project and drummed up participants.

So far, nearly 30 people, including high school friends and relatives they haven’t seen in years, are coming back for the occasion, said Krueger. “There’s a lot of people. Sadly, many that we grew up with as little kids have died or moved out of the area.”

“The whole gamut of collecting stories is really very exciting,” said Stepro, a screenwriter in Los Angeles who remembers catching turtles in the lake there with her siblings and cousins. “When my sister gets excited about something, I want to be a part of it.”

Her brother, a financial planner in Scottsdale, Ariz., is thrilled to lend his video and editing skills to the endeavor. “My sisters are two of my best friends. There’s really no way I could say no to this project. Now if we can just capture some of that past.”

Because this will be a nostalgic writing project for Stepro, and she’s excited to start gathering “little gems, endless little gems” for the storyline.

“How those pieces all come together to build this whole big multi-faceted adventure is very exciting to me,” she said. “If anything, it will be a very creative family album. It’s something we can hold on to for posterity.”

Anyone interested in participating in the Swiss Village Project can check out the Swiss Village Motel Facebook page or email galionswiss@gmail.com.

The project’s links on YouTube are youtube.com/watch?v=ivukKLC5Mp4.