Public input in Scranton: Nay Aug Park's pools were heart of city
Aug. 1—SCRANTON — The former pool complex at Nay Aug Park was much more than just water with giant slides and diving boards, several residents said during a public input session Tuesday at the park.
The two pools, which occupied the spot of the former Lake Lincoln, had been a focal point for the Hill Section neighborhood, and beyond, as well as a community asset and source of pride for decades, they said.
City leaders should keep all of that and more in mind as they plan a future pool complex at the city's largest and most prominent park, residents said. Both pools at the park's defunct former pool complex were demolished and filled last year.
"This was the heart of Scranton and for that not to exist takes the heart out of our city," former Mayor Jim Connors said.
Scranton recently contracted Philadelphia-based BKP Architects PC with a goal of eventually restoring a pool complex at Nay Aug Park. Representatives of BKP and its subcontractor, Atlantic Aquatic Engineering, held Tuesday's meeting, the first of three informal sessions to receive public feedback on Nay Aug Park pool plans.
The other two public-comment meetings will be Aug. 8 at United Neighborhood Centers' community room, 509 Cedar Ave., and Aug. 15 at Weston Field House, 982 Providence Road, both at 5:30 p.m.
Public input will inform BKP's work, which includes updating a 2021 Nay Aug pool complex feasibility study and issuing a new report to improve chances of securing grant funding for pool complex construction, officials have said.
The city's initial vision for a new Nay Aug Park pool complex includes a 5,000-square-foot splash pad and a roughly 12,375-square-foot pool with a zero-entry recreational swimming area and an area for lap swimmers.
Several of the 45 people who attended Tuesday's meeting spoke. Opinions on a splash pad were mixed, ranging from it would be unnecessary, to it might be a good accessory for youngsters. But all who spoke want to see a large pool return, to accommodate wading and lap swimming and possibly diving.
John Dillon Bray, senior project advisor with Atlantic Aquatic Engineering, said, "That's why we're here. When we do it again, we want to do it the right way."
Several residents fondly recalled spending many days of their youth at Nay Aug Park's pool complex, learning how to swim, forging friendships and making lasting memories. Some spoke of their parents, children and grandchildren growing up with Nay Aug Park's pools.
A frequent Nay Aug Park visitor since 1945, Hill Section resident Doris Koloski noted many city neighborhoods had their own pool and Nay Aug Park's complex was the Hill Section's pool.
"Being here, a place for kids and people to go and gather and be social, it's the whole thing. We need a pool," Koloski said.
Scranton's up to $356,741 grant-funded contract with BKP also includes project design work. It would serve as the engineering firm of record for eventual pool complex construction that likely wouldn't begin until 2025.
Paul Sumski advocated for a pool built with specifications certified to host swim meets.
Noting his mother taught him to swim there at age 3, Kevin McNicholas said the pool complex provided the backdrop of his youth and countless others, going back a century and longer.
"If you ask about what it meant to the community, if you just Google the images from Nay Aug Park vintage swimming, it was here way, way before I was. Before it was the pool I grew up with, it was Lake Lincoln and you'll see people back from the flapper era swarming around the pool. When you look at the '60s and the '70s it was just packed with kids all my age," McNicholas said. "It'd be great to get it back. It looks to me like a tomb, the way it is now."
emailto:Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185; @jlockwoodTT on Twitter.
