SCRANTON — The mayor and current and former council presidents on Wednesday celebrated a newly constructed pool at Nay Aug Park that will have its inaugural summer season next year.
The “activity pool” with a walk-in beach entry, in-water seating and circular slide is the first of three water amenities planned for the Nay Aug Pool complex. The others to come in the future as Phase 2 include an eight-lane lap pool and a splash pad that will flank the shallow activity pool. The three features together are replacing the former shallow pool with giant slides and adjacent adult lap/diving pool that were shut down and torn out a few years ago because of severe leaks.
Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti said the city’s four pools, which also include a new one that opened this past summer at Weston Field and older pools at Connell Park and Weston Park, will get “winterized” and then protected for the first time with custom-made covers.
Cognetti recognized the current and former Scranton City Council presidents and representatives of the Scranton Municipal Recreation Authority, who in recent years all “worked with us to make this (new pool at Nay Aug Park) happen.” Those gathering at the new pool on Wednesday included current council President Gerald Smurl, two former council presidents — Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan and Councilman Bill King — and Sean O’Shea, representing another former council president, state Rep. Kyle Donahue, D-113, Scranton; and recreation authority Chairman Bob Gattens and members Barb O’Malley and Ed Davis.
“We’ve all been able to work together to get this where it is,” Cognetti said. “It’s been a really big project. We’re still getting the money together for Phase 2 but I’m confident that we are going to be able to make it happen.”
The pool 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, 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 2022. Public debate then ensued about whether to restore one or both pools or just do a splash pad at Nay Aug Park. Council members and residents adamant about having a lap pool return to Nay Aug Park resulted in the three-feature plan.
A swim area at Nay Aug Park began in 1909 as the man-made Lake Lincoln. The two pools built in 1967 on part of the footprint of Lake Lincoln included the adult diving pool and adjacent shallower pool that got giant slides in 2003.
The first phase of reviving the pool complex was funded by $3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money and a $1 million state grant. It also involved renovation of a bathhouse and installation of a pump house and infrastructure piping for a lap pool and splash pad.
A lap pool and splash pad also would cost around $4 million, and the city hopes to obtain a $2 million state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant for those features.
Meanwhile, construction of multipurpose courts for pickleball and other sports remains underway next to the pool complex.
City councilmember William King, city council president Gerald Smurl, Mayor Paige Cognetti, Lackawanna County commissioner Bill Gaughan, and district office director for State Rep. Kyle Donahue Sean O’Shea at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Leaves on the edge of the pool at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The recently constructed activity pool at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The recently constructed activity pool at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Officials celebrating the recently constructed activity pool at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, include, from left, Scranton City Councilman Bill King, council President Gerald Smurl, Mayor Paige G. Cognetti, Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, and Sean O’Shea, representing state Rep. Kyle Donahue, D-113, Scranton. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Show Caption
1 of 5
City councilmember William King, city council president Gerald Smurl, Mayor Paige Cognetti, Lackawanna County commissioner Bill Gaughan, and district office director for State Rep. Kyle Donahue Sean O’Shea at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Originally Published: October 22, 2025 at 4:45 PM EDT