VIDEO: Summer Starts With A Splash At Newark Swim Center

More than 500 people started the summer by diving into the pools of the in the Tuesday afternoon to cool off from the heat.

So many people came out to the center’s Open Recreation Swim Hours that the wait to get into the facility was backed up to more than an hour.

By 3:30 p.m. families were overpopulating the lobby and lining up along the hallways for a chance to play in the pools.

“We were at capacity within an hour of opening,” said David Zehnder, recreation and community services director for the City of Newark.

Children laughed as they splashed in the three pools, while parents and grandparents supervised closely. Watch how everyone enjoyed the water in our video above.

Janice Habild was happy to get into the complex and said it was a great escape from the heat.

“It was a big surprise,” Habild said about the 90-degree weather Newark experienced Tuesday.

The Fremont resident brought her 7-year-old granddaughter, Ally Friedrich, to the center’s after discovering that a nearby Aqua Adventure Water Park had been rented out for the day.

"I do not like it," Ally strongly said about the heat.

After a break that included long gulps of fruit juice, Ally eagerly asked her grandma if she could go back into the pool and if they could meet up with her auntie for ice cream, which her grandmother described is as another way to stay cool during the summer.

Having local water parks is “really nice to,” Habild said.

Open Recreation Swim Hours at the aquatic center are:

• 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Thursday
• 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday
• 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday
• 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday

to read more about other local swim centers.