{"id":264775,"date":"2026-08-13T19:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T19:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264775\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T19:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T19:48:09","slug":"scranton-opens-new-capouse-avenue-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/264775\/","title":{"rendered":"Scranton opens new Capouse Avenue Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scranton opened its second splash pad and a new playground area Thursday at the Capouse Avenue Park. Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and other officials celebrated the opening of the park at 1335 Capouse Ave. The park is an estimated $1.8 million project that revitalizes the formerly dilapidated Penn Ridge pool complex in the Pine Brook neighborhood, using American Rescue Plan Act money and other funding sources.\u00a0Work began last year to convert the long-defunct, nearly 1-acre site into the splash pad and playground. The project\u00a0involved excavation, installation of playground apparatus and a soft surface under and around the playset, construction of a pump house and installation of a tank and piping.\u00a0During its time as the Penn Ridge pool site, the property used to have a pool and bathhouse that were closed around 2010. The vacant pool and bathhouse then languished for years. In 2021, the city demolished the bathhouse building and pool and filled in and leveled the ground to make way for an eventual revamp of the site.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"A family waits to use the Capouse Avenue Park splash pad in Scranton Thursday, August 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\" width=\"2400\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-SPLASHPAD-0814-04.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"1884423\" \/>A family waits to use the Capouse Avenue Park splash pad in Scranton Thursday, August 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Penny Pratt, 8, of Scranton, walks through the Capouse Avenue Park splash pad in Scranton Thursday, August 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\" width=\"2400\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-SPLASHPAD-0814-03.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"1884424\" \/>Penny Pratt, 8, of Scranton, walks through the Capouse Avenue Park splash pad in Scranton Thursday, August 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Drew Popish, northeast regional director for the Office of Governor Josh Shapiro, plays in the water at the Capouse Avenue Park splash pad in Scranton Thursday, August 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\" width=\"2400\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-SPLASHPAD-0814-02.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"1884425\" \/>Drew Popish, northeast regional director for the Office of Governor Josh Shapiro, plays in the water at the Capouse Avenue Park splash pad in Scranton Thursday, August 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Penny Pratt, 8, of Scranton, enjoys the new Capouse Avenue Park splash pad in Scranton Thursday, August 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\" width=\"2400\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/STT-L-SPLASHPAD-0814-05.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"1884426\" \/>Penny Pratt, 8, of Scranton, enjoys the new Capouse Avenue Park splash pad in Scranton Thursday, August 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton opened its second splash pad and a new playground area Thursday at the Capouse Avenue Park. Mayor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,28,178,180,179,289,181],"class_list":["post-264775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}