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Yahoo
19-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Nay Aug Park projects: New playground, storage building underway in Scranton
SCRANTON — Nay Aug Park projects involving construction of a disabled-accessible playground and a storage building for holiday light displays both began recently and continue to progress. All-inclusive playground A goal in the works in recent years, the disabled-accessible Butterfly Playground project encountered delays but now has had work underway in recent weeks on construction of a curbing border to surround a 'poured-in-place' rubber surface. A curbing border of the forthcoming Butterfly Playground under construction at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) 'It's all-inclusive. Kids and adults will be able to use it,' said Bob Gattens, the chairman of the Scranton Municipal Recreation Authority that primarily oversees Nay Aug Park. Playground equipment and apparatuses will get installed later at this amenity situated between the Schimelfenig Pavilion and the former zoo building that now houses the St. Cats and Dogs spay/neuter clinic. Most children and individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities or those who are neurodivergent may not be able to use the same equipment in the same kind of environment as others who aren't facing those challenges. The Butterfly Playground will accommodate them and their families. 'Our goal is to provide a healthy, social skill-building and learning environment,' according to a description of the Butterfly Playground on the Nay Aug Park website. 'It is our effort to improve Nay Aug Park — 'Our Park' — so that those with physical disabilities are included and will know that their community cares about their needs.' A state grant, recreation authority funds and donations are funding the estimated $373,000 project, that might get completed in spring, with the city having taken the lead on construction, Gattens said. A sign for the forthcoming Butterfly Playground under construction in the background at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) The playground also might have future complementary phases, such as a pavilion and picnic tables, and for which the authority will aim to raise funds, he said. Meanwhile, the city last year demolished and removed an old wooden play area called Community Playground in a northeast corner of the park, near Hanlon's Grove and the former zoo building. Scranton work crews demolish and remove the former wooden Community Playground in a northeast corner of Nay Aug Park near the Hanlon's Grove area and former zoo building, on Dec. 11, 2024. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) Storage building The authority is constructing a 100-feet-long by 40-feet wide maintenance storage building to house equipment and the many displays of the park's popular annual Holiday Light Show. A maintenance storage building under construction at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) The megawatt Christmas-themed light extravaganza that features displays erected along the park's interior loop road annually draws thousands of visitors. The displays previously were packed into trailers for storage and frames and bulbs often got damaged. 'We were spending close to $10,000 every year replacing bulbs,' Gattens said. The holiday lights display at Nay Aug Park (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO) The former storage trailers along a dead-end of Arthur Avenue also were rusty and unsightly, he said. The light displays now will go into the new building once it's completed, for better storage, maintenance and 'just to protect the investment,' Gattens said. The authority secured a loan to fund the estimated $138,000 cost of the building, which includes $80,000 for the building, $48,000 for a concrete floor and $10,000 for electricity, he said, noting the building will not be heated. A maintenance storage building under construction at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) Officials expect construction of this storage building to be completed soon. At the Feb. 11 meeting of Scranton City Council, council President Gerald Smurl said the holiday light displays remain up inside the park, pending completion of the storage building. 'We kept them up this long because it didn't make sense to take them down, put them in trailers and then take them out and put them into the new building. So that's why you still see the decorations up there,' Smurl said. 'The building is really moving along now.' * A curbing border of the forthcoming Butterfly Playground under construction at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) * A curbing border of the forthcoming Butterfly Playground under construction at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) * A sign for the forthcoming Butterfly Playground under construction in the background at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) * A maintenance storage building under construction at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) * A maintenance storage building under construction at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) * Scranton work crews demolish and remove the former wooden Community Playground in a northeast corner of Nay Aug Park near the Hanlon's Grove area and former zoo building, on Dec. 11, 2024. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) Show Caption 1 of 6 A curbing border of the forthcoming Butterfly Playground under construction at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) Expand
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Scranton extends lease of former fire station to nonprofit spay/neuter organization
Scranton will let a nonprofit spay/neuter organization use the former Engine 15 fire station at 1409 Ash St. for another year for free. Last year, the city temporarily leased the building for seven months to St. Cats and Dogs Inc. — which pronounces the 'St.' as 'street.' The lease term now would extend for another 12 months 'to help relieve the current crisis of insufficient animal shelter space in our community,' according to legislation adopted by Scranton City Council. The Engine 15 building closed as a fire station in 2011. It later was used over several years by the Police Department and more recently by city animal control officers. The Scranton Fire Department's former Engine 15 station building at 1409 Ash St. on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) A year ago, city leaders were considering eventually selling the former firehouse. By June, they instead decided to have the city keep ownership of the Ash Street building and leased it for $1 to St. Cats and Dogs for seven months, from June 18, 2024, to Jan. 17, 2025, for that organization to use for its operations. Now, the city intends to extend the lease, retroactively from Jan. 18, 2025, to Jan. 17, 2026, according an ordinance authorizing the lease. Scranton City Council introduced the ordinance Jan. 21, advanced it Jan. 28 and adopted it Tuesday, according to meeting agendas and minutes and Electric City Television videos of meetings posted on YouTube. Established in 2012, St. Cats and Dogs opened its cat-and-dog spay/neuter clinic at the former zoo building at Nay Aug Park in 2015. Efforts to reach St. Cats and Dogs founder Joanne Davis were unsuccessful. While the legislation refers to the former firehouse on Ash Street as an animal shelter under St. Cats and Dogs use, Councilman Mark McAndrew said that is not the case and cats and dogs are not kept there. 'They can't kennel them there,' McAndrew said, adding the city needs to find a solution to better handle strays, especially in frigid weather, according to minutes of the Jan. 21 meeting. He also addressed the issue at the Jan. 7 council meeting, according to meeting minutes, saying, 'I received some complaints about (stray) dogs. You know, there's been a feral cat problem. We're all aware of that and the city struggles with it.' The website of St. Cats and Dogs also stresses, 'We are NOT a shelter.' St. Cats an Dogs spay/neuter clinic at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Dec. 21, 2022. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO) St. Cats and Dogs traps feral cats, sterilizes them and releases them back into the neighborhoods they came from. The practice also is known as trap, neuter, return, or TNR. The organization says TNR is a nonlethal solution to feral cat overpopulation, with cats humanely trapped, sterilized, vaccinated and returned to where they were trapped. TNR also ear-tips the feral cats for immediate identification if they are trapped again, so they can be released immediately. TNR decreases colony sizes as cats are sterilized, which means fewer unwanted kittens and fewer cats euthanized in shelters. Screeching, fighting and spraying also are eliminated and the treated cats are vaccinated against rabies, according to St. Cats and Dogs. The organization works with the nonprofit Eastern Pennsylvania Animal Alliance of Brodheadsville, which operates a mobile clinic for spaying and neutering. Municipalities throughout Lackawanna County also have passed ordinances in recent years requiring residents to spay and neuter feral cats if they intend to feed them. Residents and animal-welfare groups often take such cats to St. Cats and Dogs at Nay Aug Park for TNR purposes. St. Cats and Dogs also adopts out felines and has 60-100 cats and kittens available at any given time. Joanne Davis of St. Cats and Dogs holds kittens at the group's home in the former zoo at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on June 11, 2019. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO) 'Through TNR, adoption of friendlies and other community projects, we strive to reduce the population and improve the lives of our feline friends,' the St. Cats and Dogs website says. For information about the organization, adoptions or volunteering, see the St. Cats and Dogs website at or on Facebook.
