At Weston Field on Providence Road in Scranton, water splashes.
Kids shriek with joy as parents keep a watchful eye and conversations going with their family, friends and neighbors.
Papi’s Kitchen on Wheels hums in the background. Occasionally, an ice cream truck tinkers by.
The acoustics are much different this year than last, when the new activity pool was under construction.
“It was actually a really good idea, that investment. It gives the smaller kids an opportunity to be themselves, to be able to learn how to swim and run around without having us to really supervise, so we can sit and allow them to be their own element,” Lena Rosa said on a late, hot afternoon.
Rosa’s 10 and five-year-old children walked on their hands in the pool. Their heads, just above the water. Near them, kids splashed their faces and each other with ground sprays near the Splash Pad end of the activity pool. Lifeguards walked out onto concrete planks with classic red rescue tubes at their waists.
Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti says she got a lot of flack over the months for the depth of the Weston Field Pool – just 3.5 feet.
"But if you have children in your life, you'll find, I think, that three and a half depth is good for the kids. It's good for your peace of mind,” she said.
The new pool at Weston Field is part of an over $25 million investment by the city into its around 30 parks and recreation facilities, which include new parks like the Tony Walsh Pocket Park in North Scranton and the future dog park at the Lace Village on Meylert Avenue.
The city used a combination of American Rescue Plan Act funding (ARPA) and other federal money, state funding, donations and capital reserve funds to upgrade parks across Scranton.
For Cognetti, outdoor spaces have been a focal point of her administration.
"The parks, to me, are important, of course, beyond all the health benefits and the activities for kids, the activities for adults and everyone in between, but there's a real morale perspective aspect of it for citizens,” she said.
The mayor believes parks define a neighborhood.
"And for me, they also show how much the local government cares about the neighborhood and about the families and thus the well-being of the community,” she said at Weston Field.
'Money for parks has been scarce'
Cognetti became the city’s mayor in January 2020 at a crossroads for Scranton. The city was a “distressed municipality” for 30 years, experiencing severe financial difficulties. Cognetti won the seat as an Independent in a special election after the FBI uncovered that Mayor Bill Coutright was accepting cash payments from vendors doing business with the city. He pleaded guilty to the crimes in July 2020.
With limited funds to begin with, park upkeep, including the city’s pools, wasn’t essential.
Most of Scranton’s pools were built in the 1970s under Mayor Gene Peters, said Tom McLane, a lifelong city resident and landscape architect who consulted with the city on many parks. He also volunteered for the Shade Tree Commission in the 90s.
“Over most of my career here, I'd say at least half of it, money for parks has been scarce and targeted toward low to moderate income areas, because that's the only place you can find funding,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit two months into Cognetti's first term.
She said closing parks during the pandemic was one of the low points of her professional career.
"It was just terrible. But the silver lining of COVID being the rescue plan funds, which infused us with the cash to be able to make some of these bigger improvements,” she said.
President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law on March 11, 2021. Congress passed the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill to mitigate the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Municipalities across the country received funding. Scranton received $68.7 million.
"Without the rescue plan, it would have been very difficult to get these bigger features done," Cognetti said. "I think we could have tinkered on the margins and maybe rehab some playgrounds, but the level of investment you see is due to federal funding.”
Members of city council, who don't always agree with the mayor, mesh with her on parks.
"I think we're all on the same page regarding the revitalization or upgrades with the parks," said Council member Mark McAndrew.
He said the investment in parks makes the city more attractive for future families.
"I'm thrilled that we had the availability with the ARPA money, because, you know, there was a lot of work that needed to be done," McAndrew said.
Council member Tom Schuster echoed him.
"For the overall beautification of the city, for the overall looks of the city, to bring individuals in, to have families that are starting, or to keep young families that are buying their first home, these are things that draw people into our area," he said.
Improvements abound
There is still construction at Weston Field. The city is almost complete with $4.6 million in renovations. Just next to the pool, a team worked on the city’s newest skate park — a $950,000 investment from the city’s ARPA funding.
But even before the city received its rescue plan money, there was a movement to bring a better skate park to Scranton, said Cognetti.
"We've gotten so much input from the community that they really wanted one,” she said.
There’s a skate park on Jackson Street, but it’s tucked away on a hill in West Scranton. It’s also a multipurpose complex.
Weston Field is more central, she said. The team working on the skate park builds them all over the country and took input from local kids.
Then there’s Nay Aug. It’s Scranton’s Central Park and a main focus of past administrations, like Mayor Chris Dougherty.
The park was home to the city’s first public swimming complex, called Lake Lincoln. It opened in July 1909.
Then in 1968, the city built two Olympic-sized pools. The complex was renovated and giant water slides were added in 2003, under Dougherty's administration.
In 2019, the last swimmers took a dip. A leaking liner and costly concrete repairs were needed.
From that moment on, residents would ask when a pool was coming back to Nay Aug at every opportunity, including public meetings that had nothing to do with the park.
Cognetti held a press conference last summer to update the community on the pools.
"We've all worked really hard across the city, not just here at Nay Aug, to make sure that we're investing in our parks, investing in not just the quality of life but especially our kids and showing them the investments that we're making for them," she said at the time.
Now, the activity pool, much like the one at Weston Field and Connell Park, is almost complete. The pools are ADA accessible and more shallow than the city's previous pools that had 13-feet deep areas. The pools are also zero entry. There's no stairs to climb to get into the water.
Cognetti said that it will be finished by September and open next summer.
The city is still working on funding for Phase II, which will include a lap pool and splash pad.
"With this, the funding we have now, we put in the underground infrastructure to build those other two features. So a lot of the work is done, but we still have grant applications out for the funding of those items,” the mayor said.
The city also put a new Butterfly Playground at Nay Aug. A second phase is coming to that area.
"Again, trying to have something for everyone, trying to make sure that in addition to taking a walk, you can also have the interest of your 10 year old and your two year old,” she said.
In total, Scranton is investing $10.1 million into Nay Aug.
Boosting neighborhoods
Weston Field, Nay Aug and Connell Park in South Scranton are getting the biggest investments, but many parks across the city are also getting upgrades.
Cognetti pointed to Chic Feldman Field on Green Street. Scranton is adding a cricket pitch with imported turf from India.
The city plans $1 million in upgrades at Clover Field on West Locust Street in West Scranton. They’ll put in a new dog park, modern playground, multicourts and a soccer field. That park will also connect to the Lackawanna Heritage Trail.
Scranton is adding a dog park at the Lace Village on Meylert Avenue. The renovated Scranton Lace Factory now features apartments and commercial spaces.
McLane said improving the parks also gives work to small contractors. He just wrapped up a contract with the city.
At Grace Street Park in the city’s Plot section, a salesman for playground equipment is married to someone who grew up in the neighborhood, he said.
“So he was extremely interested. And he started donating things like benches … and we got a lot of bang for the buck because of that,” McLane said.
Putting money into parks improves neighborhoods and property values, he said.
It “gives kids a better experience growing up. They have access to things that, you know, when I grew up here, I didn't,” he said.
Cognetti has said in the past, especially when it comes to the pools at Nay Aug Park, that there wasn’t funding for their upkeep.
"The maintenance piece is very, very important, and something that shouldn't be dismissed.”
She cautioned that the money to upgrade the parks doesn’t come around every day.
"I think local taxpayers might want to see certain amenities, but it's really expensive to do these things, so we also have to remain within our budgetary abilities,” she said.
As financial stewards of the city, McAndrew and Schuster agree — with improvements to parks comes the financial responsibility to maintain them that wasn't always there in the past.
"My only concern is like sustaining and maintaining these moving forward ... that will be a challenge," said McAndrew.
Parks with something for everyone
For Cognetti, it goes back to morale.
"If your city isn't keeping up your parks, it makes you feel like your city doesn't care about you. If you're coming in wanting to invest, wanting to move, deciding to downsize, and wanting to move in the city, parks are a feature that you will look at, and that shows you that the city takes care of its assets, the city cares about the neighborhoods, the city has a positive trajectory,” she said.
“We want to make sure that parks throughout the city have something for everyone.”
As the day started to come to a close, construction crews wrapped up work on the skate park at Weston Field. A group of young boys in swim trunks rode their bikes away from the park.
The pool closed for another day.
Cognetti still hears from constituents about additions to the city's parks, including a 5-year-old who lives in her house.
"She wants to see more monkey bars at every park, so I told her I would take her feedback,” she said about her daughter.
At least 11 of the city’s over 30 parks have planned improvements in the works.
"We haven't gotten to every single one yet, but we are trying to get everywhere we can,” Cognetti said.
