SCRANTON, Pa. — Some new measures are in place at Nay Aug Park in Scranton to stop potentially deadly activities.
New signs are part of an enforcement effort at Nay Aug Gorge. The city also installed new cameras so that police officers could respond to situations quicker and prevent yet another drowning death from taking place in the park.
After a 23-year-old man drowned this past Memorial Day Weekend, the city installed new security cameras to enforce the $300 fine for illegal trespassing.
This week, it seemed to be working.
"Kind of surprisingly," said Scranton Police Chief Carl Graziano. "We expected with the warm weather, we would see an increase up at the gorge, and that's just not happening so far this week. It's been pretty quiet up there."
Until about two hours after that interview, that is.
First, we bumped into Matt Murphy. He prefers to swim by the basin upstream because he says it's safer than jumping into the gorge.
"It's a nice place to swim, whether it's illegal or not, I'm going to. Screw 'em," Murphy said.
"You don't care about the $300 fine either? "You're willing to pay it?'
"I'm just not going to pay it. Are they willing to put me in jail for swimming in the gorge? If so, show me," Murphy replied. "I almost wonder if it's more about the money. So Scranton's kind of hit right now, you know, they lost all that tax revenue, and they know people are going to swim here no matter what. For them, that's just easy money."
But people who live near the gorge have heard far too many horror stories.
"We were down here last night, and I can't imagine. I look at the falls and I don't understand when someone looks at the falls, how they think they can jump in and not be scared. That blows my mind," Liz Cruciani said.
When another group arrived from out of the area, one neighbor tried talking to them.
Scranton police showed up and gave the boys a verbal warning. The officer told us the group claimed not to have seen the no trespassing signs and left without issue.
Chief Graziano later told us the group should have been cited. He says this is supposed to be a zero-tolerance policy.