Lackawanna County plans four-court pickleball complex at McDade Park

Lackawanna County has turned McDade Park from a planning concept into a coming place to play, awarding a contract for four dedicated pickleball courts that will give Scranton, Taylor and nearby players a new outdoor option. The project moved ahead on May 6, when county commissioners selected Wince Construction of Ransom Township as the lowest responsible bidder at $200,444.

The court build is designed as more than a basic striping job. County bid documents call for pathways, fences, gates, earthwork, erosion and sedimentation controls, storm drainage and landscaping along with the four courts, signaling a full site improvement at one of the county’s signature parks. Officials said the work is being paid for entirely with a $400,000 Local Share Account grant from the 2024-2025 round, keeping the county’s general fund out of the project.

For amateur players, the scale matters. Four dedicated courts will not solve every court-time issue in northeast Pennsylvania, but they will create a new fixed destination for open play, casual matches and beginner sessions in a park that already draws steady recreation traffic. McDade Park sits in the Scranton-Taylor area and already serves as a multiuse hub with trails, softball fields, pavilions, basketball and tennis courts, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a children’s fishing pond and the Boundless Playground.

The pickleball addition also fits into a longer county plan for the site. Earlier planning had considered an eight-court concept at McDade Park, and county officials had sought grant support as demand for places to play grew. The current four-court version is smaller than that earlier idea, but it still represents a meaningful expansion of access in a market where public court space is often the limiting factor.

The project’s timeline had already been set in motion before the award. County bid notices called for a mandatory pre-bid meeting on March 19 at 3 p.m. at the McDade Park Office, with bids due by March 30 at 11 a.m. By the time the contract was awarded in May, the county was moving from paperwork to buildout, with the courts expected this summer.

McDade Park itself carries a deeper recreation history. Built on reclaimed coal-mining land in the 1970s and dedicated as the Joseph M. McDade Recreational Park on July 30, 1977, the roughly 200-acre site has long been one of the county’s major public assets. The four new pickleball courts extend that role and give the Scranton area a fresh, dedicated space for one of the fastest-growing amateur sports in the country.