By Kari Lucin, staff writer

As I stepped into Fountain Lake at the City Beach last Friday, I recalled a rumor that a piranha had once been caught there.

I hoped it wasn’t true.

Then again, I reasoned, a single piranha wasn’t likely to do much damage.

&8220;It’s polluted!&8221; shouted one of the small children at the beach.

Too late. I’d already put my foot into the water. It didn’t feel polluted, but there was some litter. However, it sure as heck felt cold. I looked down, examining the small line of algae and leaves that had already started clinging to my foot. It didn’t look polluted to me, so I wandered further into the water, silently cursing the little pebbles embedded in the sand.

My eyes popped open as I got waist-deep, and I stopped. Holy smoke, that water was cold!

No one else seemed to notice the cold water. It was 77 degrees that day, and kids and adults were building sandcastles, laying out on the beach, listening to music and splashing each other in the water.

When you’re already waist deep in cold water, you have two choices: Sudden drastic immersion, dunking your head to get it over with or gradual immersion &045; the wimp way. I chose the less-valiant method, and started tiptoeing deeper into the water, stopping every few inches to flinch and shiver.

Eventually I made my way past the ropes with the floating buoys, into the deep end of the swimming area and started actually swimming &045; partly to keep warm.

I had forgotten how shallow the lake is here, and proceeded to whack my foot on the bottom. Then I tried again and swam around merrily for a while, catching an occasional glimpse of the beach.

Small kids piled up sand in extravagant heaps, adding sticks and a feather to top off the castles. A pair of adults on the sidelines snuggled, and some beautiful nonchalant teenagers sunned themselves.

At its deepest point within the buoys that mark off the city beach, the lake is probably around 10 feet deep. Swimmers should be careful not to swim too close to the buoys, which are anchored by concrete slabs. Most of the marked-off area of the lake has sand at its bottom, but near the edge of the swimming area the bottom is full of sedimentary, gooey mud. There was no seaweed anywhere, as far as I could tell.

Since around 10 years ago, the city hasn’t provided lifeguards for the beach, and many signs &045; in English and Spanish &045; ensure that people know it. Children must be supervised, not only by adults, but by responsible adults, proclaims the list of rules. Other don’ts at the beach include swimming alone, smoking, campfires, glass containers, alcohol, pets, vehicles, floatation devices, swimming after sunset, fishing and &8220;any activity that could be harmful to oneself or others.&8221;

I saw plenty of floatation devices when I was there, but no glass or anything else on the forbidden list. Though the concession stand and diving platform are long gone, the beach still offers restroom facilities and a volleyball net, as well as picnic tables and a skate park nearby. The prominent presence of a large garbage can helps people keep the beach clean &045; there was no litter on it when I was there last week, and no visible litter in the water either.

It’s a wonderful place to swim, and lacks pollution, seaweed, and, most importantly, piranhas.