Thomson also referenced last year's cuts in his comments.

He wanted to know how the city selected the pools to save, seemingly leaving Fishtown out of the loop after the city had already removed vital services like the recent closure of the Fire Department's Engine 6 and Belgrade and Huntingdon.

"How could we be losing city services? They took our engine; they targeted our library," he said. "It seems like, if you really care about this city, you're always fighting to save something."

Maura Kennedy, a spokeswoman for Nutter's office, said that with the selected pools, the mayor had hoped to open as many as possible, knowing full well that any decision they made would not satisfy the everyone.

"Obviously, we couldn't keep all of the pools open," she said. "And we realized we couldn't make everyone happy. We tried to (open pools) equally throughout the city."

But, what both Thomson and Christman wanted made clear was how the city selected which pools to spare, if locals donated to the Splash and Summer Fund, how could they be ensured that their favorite pool would be open this year?

Kennedy said that the selection of pools was made in conjunction with the city's Recreation Department. She said residents weren't able to decide which pool they wanted the funding to go to because the city wanted pools to be opened throughout the city, not just in certain neighborhoods.

"We did it this way because we didn't want to only concentrate on neighborhoods that could afford them," she said. "The list has been chosen and it's unfortunate, we wish we could have all the pools stay open."

Susan Slawson, recreation commissioner, said a number of factors were taken into consideration when pools were chosen.

"No way would we haphazardly choose a pool," she said.

According to Slawson, pools were selected by looking at the pool's location, average usage from 2008, size, condition, and accessibility of each pool.

Also, she said that her office worked closely with members of City Council in choosing which pools to open.

She said that the pools will open thanks to the "Splash and Summer Fund" along with "a little over a million" in additional funding that the mayor was able to squeeze out of the city's budget.

Other variables, like funds that might be needed in order to prepare a pool for the summer, were also taken into consideration, she said.

"If a pool would cost us something like $250,000 to open," said Slawson, "we weren't going to open that pool."

Residents also mentioned concerns that fewer facilities open would mean more people at each pool, which could cause trouble with people coming into new neighborhoods to swim.

"These pools are going to be so crowded," worried Thomson.

Slawson said that her department has been talking with the police. She said there will be officers checking out pools in order to halt any concerns and some pools will even have an officer assigned to monitor them.

"Police will be checking on pools and some pools will have officers assigned to them," she promised. "I think this can be a smooth operation."

Also, in order to pick up the slack where some pools might be closed, Slawson said there will be 95 water sprinklers set up at rec centers throughout the city so that kids looking for a little relief from the summer sun will be able to run through a sprinkler instead of making one out of a fire hydrant.