LACKAWANNA STATE PARK -- It's been a long time since there's been water of the chlorinated kind at Lackawanna State Park.
"This is huge. It's been a long time coming and people have been eagerly awaiting the completion of the project, so we're really looking forward to opening this Saturday," said park manager Kevin Koflanovich.
Officials cut the ribbon Tuesday, but the new pool complex near Clarks Summit won't open until the weekend. Admission will be $5.
It's been two summers since the old pool, which opened in 1972, closed for construction. It took all that time and about $1.6 million in state funds to build the new pool.
"My class came here when I was in eighth grade, so we're going back a ways. It was well used and well cared for, but it was time for a new facility, and that one had seen better days. So this is a great improvement," said Bill Kern of Countryside Conservancy.
The new pool is handicapped accessible and goes down to five feet deep. The adjacent splash pad has close to thirty places to play. The splash pad features a detail that some people might not immediately notice. A blue line throughout it is actually a map of the north branch of the Susquehanna River.
It's a design that would impress the pool's namesake, late Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton.
Governor Scranton's son Bill spoke at the pool's dedication, saying of all the things that bear the Scranton name, the former governor would have really liked this one.
"This park was started when my father was governor, and there were others as well, and he used this every day after he became governor after it opened, after he left the governorship. He loved this park," Bill Scranton said.
His family says the late governor requested good weather for his pool's opening weekend. The William W. Scranton Pool Complex opens Sat May 28 at 11 a.m.
