Scranton envisions one pool with splash pad for Nay Aug Park

Jun. 14—SCRANTON — City leaders envision one new pool and a splash pad at Nay Aug Park to replace the two former pools there.

The administration of Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti seeks design consultants to undertake a "Nay Aug Park Pool Complex Feasibility Study Update and Pool Complex Construction Design," according to public notices in the Friday and Saturday editions of The Times-Tribune.

The request for proposals says the administration's initial vision for reviving a pool complex at Nay Aug Park would include installing one, 12,375-square-foot pool that has both leisure and lap swimming areas, as well as installing a 5,000-square-foot spray pad.

Improvements to the existing bath house and a support structure/mechanical building also would be needed.

A design study is the latest development in an ongoing debate over the future of the defunct Nay Aug Park pools complex.

The issue also arose at Scranton City Council's regular weekly meeting Tuesday. Resident Doris Koloski said she saw the public notice and asked council about it. Noting prior pool studies have been done in recent years, Koloski wondered why another one is necessary.

"It seems like this is a stall tactic and let's study again and now we can push back the start of a pool later and later and later," Koloski told council. "Hopefully, I'm wrong about that, but it's kind of my gut feeling."

Councilman Gerald Smurl, a former member of the Scranton Municipal Recreation Authority that closed the two old leaky pools, said a new study is needed to pursue outside funding to revamp the complex. The RFP also says a feasibility study would be done in accord with state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources guidelines for pool complexes.

"This (new study) has to be done. We need an entire park design so that we can move forward and apply for DCNR grants and other money," Smurl said.

While the recreation authority primarily oversees Nay Aug Park, the city is taking the lead on getting a new pool feasibility study done.

"It's refreshing the feasibility study that was done before, because we want to put amenities in the park that will benefit all of the residents in the city," city Business Administrator Eileen Cipriani said. "We want to be able to apply for grant funding, so we want to be in the best position" to do that.

The recreation authority does not have the funds to revamp the pool site, authority Chairman Bob Gattens said.

"Council and the administration are working together to put some kind of product in Nay Aug Park," Gattens said.

A swim area at Nay Aug Park began in 1909 as the man-made Lake Lincoln. The two former pools built in 1967 on part of the footprint of Lake Lincoln included an adult diving pool and adjacent shallower pool. The shallower pool got giant slides in 2003.

But the pool complex became defunct in 2019-20 from leaks in the adult pool and slide pool. The complex last opened in summer 2019 with only the shallower pool operational. The adult pool, with a deep end and diving boards, leaked so badly in 2018 that the recreation authority kept it closed for 2019, and started looking at converting it into a splash pad.

The shallow pool with the giant slides opened in 2019 as usual, but its liner failed midway through swim season and afterward was torn out. The COVID-19 pandemic shelved the liner replacement and the slide pool did not reopen in 2020 or 2021.

In early 2022, both pools were removed and their holes filled. The giant slides were dismantled in fall of 2022.

As a mayor-council debate has ensued over how best to revive a pool complex and at what cost, some members of the public have advocated for pools to return there.

A pool with 12,375 square feet of surface area would be slightly smaller than an Olympic-sized pool of 13,455 square feet.

A single pool under consideration for Nay Aug Park would accommodate both a recreational wading area and a lap swimming area. The wading area would allow for ADA-accessible entrance into the water.

"All of the new pools have it, like a ramp, so if you have a disability you can go right in," Cipriani said. "It's kind of like going into the ocean — it gets deeper and deeper."

A splash pad of 5,000 square feet would be the same size as the splash pad at Novembrino Park in West Scranton, Cipriani said.

emailto:Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185; @jlockwoodTT on Twitter.