SCRANTON — Nay Aug Park’s pool drought will end next year when a recently completed activity pool will open, officials said.
With a walk-in beach entry, in-water seating and circular slide, the pool is the first of three water amenities planned for the Nay Aug Pool complex. The other features include an eight-lane lap pool and a splash pad.
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.
In June 2024, city officials unveiled renderings of the future Nay Aug Park pool complex that would have the three water features — a wading activity pool, adult lap pool and children’s splash pad. At that time, Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti said it might take two or three years to complete the project.
The plan was the result of a few years of debate that ensued after the park’s prior pools were closed and later torn out and their holes filled. The debate involved whether to restore one or both pools or just do a splash pad. Council members and residents were adamant about having a lap pool at Nay Aug Park.
At public input sessions in 2023, residents said the former pool complex was more than water with giant slides and diving boards. The two pools, which occupied the spot of the former Lake Lincoln, had been focal points for the Hill Section neighborhood, as well as community assets and sources of pride for decades, they said.
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 an adult diving pool and adjacent shallower pool. The shallower pool got giant slides in 2003.
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 Scranton Municipal 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.
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, city Business Administrator Eileen Cipriani said Friday. The city hopes to obtain a $2 million state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant, she said.
Cognetti’s administration sent to council a resolution to authorize the city to apply for the RACP grant. Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday — with council President Gerald Smurl, Bill King, Mark McAndrew, Jessica Rothchild and Tom Schuster in favor — to introduce the resolution.
Inquiring about the RACP grant application, resident Joan Hodowanitz asked council: “I would like to know when we can expect a pool to be open for swimming at Nay Aug Park. Will it be 2026 or later?”
Smurl replied, “That (activity) pool is ready,” and King said the city expects to open the activity pool next year.
“This body here (council) added the deeper lap pool into the design at Nay Aug,” Schuster said.
Rothchild added, “I’d like to echo that council will make sure that this Phase 2 is completed and there will be a lap pool and we’ll do everything to make sure it does happen.”
Smurl also said pickleball courts next to the pool complex are still under construction. Members of the administration are expected to attend a council caucus Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss ongoing and future capital projects, Smurl said.
Nay Aug Park’s “activity pool” is shown Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. It features a walk-in beach entry, in-water seating and circular slide. This pool is the first of three water amenities planned for the no-longer defunct Nay Aug Pool complex site. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Nay Aug Park’s “activity pool” is shown Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. It features a walk-in beach entry, in-water seating and circular slide. This pool is the first of three water amenities planned for the no-longer defunct Nay Aug Pool complex site. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Nay Aug Park’s “activity pool” is shown Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. It features a walk-in beach entry, in-water seating and circular slide. This pool is the first of three water amenities planned for the no-longer defunct Nay Aug Pool complex site. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Nay Aug Park’s “activity pool” is shown Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. It features a walk-in beach entry, in-water seating and circular slide. This pool is the first of three water amenities planned for the no-longer defunct Nay Aug Pool complex site. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Originally Published: October 10, 2025 at 2:36 PM EDT