By Patrick Kernan
SCRANTON — It may have closed in 1987, but Rocky Glen Park still has a sizable impact on the hearts and minds of the people of the Wyoming Valley. Open in one form or another for more than 100 years, it entertained generations of people in the area and has spawned hundreds of “Remember when?” discussions.
But what if it were to come back? That’s what a new committee created by the Lackawanna County Commissioners intends to find out.
The committee was largely spearheaded by local filmmaker and historian Robert Savakinus, who has now made two documentaries about the park’s history, which premiered in 2009 and 2015.
“I’ve been championing Rocky Glen for the better part of 15 years,” Savakinus said.
Savakinus took that championing to the Lackawanna County Commissioners, asking to look into the feasibility of bringing a park back.
Two weeks later, they formed the advisory group. So far, seven of the board’s nine seats have been filled, with Savakinus as one of its members.
If you ask Savakinus, he’s hopeful about the possibility of bringing a park back.
“When you look at our area, we had so many amusement parks in Lackawanna and Luzerne County,” he said, adding that, at one point, there were a total of four such parks in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area.
Now there are none. But Savakinus thinks the area can support at least one once again, especially with the explosion in shopping and entertainment facilities on Montage Mountain, located near where the park once stood.
So now, it’s time for the committee to see if it was possible. Members of the committee joined together for the first time last week for an interview, and it actually marked the first time some of the members had met.
Gathering at the Lackawanna Historical Society’s headquarters at the Catlin House in Scranton’s Hill Section, five members of the group organized: Andy Zahorsky, moderator of the incredibly popular “Rocky Glen Park Memories” Facebook page and local history enthusiast; Douglas Forrer, a local accountant; Richard Sedelnick, owner of Sidel’s Restaurant in North Scranton; and Savakinus and his wife, Mary Ann, who is the director of the Lackawanna Historical Society.
While the team has yet to meet in an official capacity yet, Savakinus said the beginning steps will be brainstorming as a group to figure out where they want to take the project.
According to Savakinus, there are numerous questions that need to be answered: Can the new Rocky Glen be opened on the original site? If not, where else in the area could it go? What kind of rides, if any, would the park have?
The questions are virtually limitless, but so is the outpouring of love for the memories of the park.
“It reflects the story of our history,” Mary Ann Savakinus said, explaining that Rocky Glen’s century-long history and slow expansion closely mimics the expansion of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area itself.
And while the members did have some differing ideas about the ways in which this theoretical new park would be created, they did agree on one thing: that the park should reflect the uniqueness of our area.
Multiple members of the committee acknowledged that the theoretical new Rocky Glen will not be able to compete with what they deemed “mega-parks” — we aren’t likely to see another “Million Dollar Roller Coaster,” at least not right at the beginning — so the focus would be finding how to make it something the community can rally behind.
“People are starting to be more about the community,” Sedelnick said. Zahorsky agreed.
“People are tired of the mega-parks,” he said, saying that he sees a growing dissatisfaction with all things corporate. “This is the time to seize it.”
Soon, the committee will elect officers. From there, after they have a few planning meetings, Savakinus said he wants to open up the meetings to the public.
He also indicated that he would love to get ideas from the region.
“Give us your ideas,” he said. “I’d like to see this evolve into something larger.”
He said those with ideas can email him at rsavrobert@aol.com.
Regardless of what happens with a potential new Rocky Glen, one thing will not change: its importance to the people of the Wyoming Valley.
Mary Ann Savikinus said the park previously attracted nearly a quarter of a million guests each year, and that its unique position as the center of the Laurel Line railroad made it one of the few places that the often disparate communities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre both visited.
“It’s one of the few examples of a connected place,” she said.
Zahorsky took it a step further.
“We’re always called the Valley with a Heart,” he said. “I call Rocky Glen the heart of the Valley with a Heart.”