When the days get longer and schools let out, there’s only one place Vicksburg families have gone for almost 20 years to cool off on a hot summer day.

For about 12 glorious weeks of the year, Vicksburg’s City Pool offers American Red Cross swimming classes throughout the week, as well as recreational swim time to help Vicksburg children beat the heat of the Mississippi summer.

“Swimming is just summer,” facility manager and aquatics director Sylvia Gurtowski said. “When you think of summer you think of swimming, nice cold water and a clean swimming pool, and that’s what this place is.”

City Pool kicked of its 2015 summer season on Memorial Day, and will be open every day until schools are back in session and even for a couple of weekends after so people can “get their summer out,” Gurtowski said.

An estimated 10,000 students have passed through the pool’s swimming program since the Olympic-size pool opened in 1996, which range from pre-school to adult swim classes. They offer several two-week classes for varying skill levels throughout the summer, which last 45 minutes each day Monday through Friday and cost $12 a person.

“By offering it at a reasonable rate it affords more people the opportunity,” Gurtowski said. “It’s great to have a place to come swim that’s not very expensive.”

The pool’s instructors, who often double as lifeguards, go through a rigorous training program through the American Red Cross and are highly qualified, she said.

This is the second summer that Ronni Wolfe has been a water safety instructor. Wolfe, 17, who is a rising senior at Vicksburg High School, worked with people of all ages, but is especially looking forward to helping children learn to swim.

“I really like working with the little ones,” she said. “Most of the time the younger ones aren’t as scared to try new things.”

The pool is not only a good resource for the community, Gurtowski said, but also helps draw visitors to Vicksburg for swim meets to help bolster the local economy.

“Very few communities have any kind of a public swimming pool any more,” she said. “For this to be a public, Olympic-size pool, it’s great for this area because it brings people from all around for events.”

City Pool is open for recreational swim time from 1 to 5 p.m. every day, and family swim time is from 6:45 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.