By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The City opened a baker’s dozen pools today, the first of the 70 it will have in service by June 29th.

Lifeguard-in-Chief Mayor Michael Nutter blew the first whistle of the season, and dozens of kids getting ready for the summer swelter to come took the plunge. The good news this time around is that the city has not had to seek outside funding, as it did in the last three years, and the Mayor says this is a service that gets used.

“It’s important to provide access to our swimming pools to all city residents. Last summer, we had over 1 million individual visits to our swimming pool facilities, and we expect the number of visitors and participants to remain high during this summer season as well,” Mayor Nutter explains.

Also on display at Awbury Rec Center in the Northwest were turkey and cheese sandwiches, pre-packaged with potato salad and peach chunks, an example of the kind of summer-long feeding program that the city will be running.