PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. – Officials here celebrated the 25th anniversary of the opening of the installation’s award-winning aquatic park known as “Frog Falls.”
Frog Falls is a membership only facility open to Active Duty, Reserve and National Guard Military Personnel and their dependents; Picatinny Civilian Employees and their dependents, Contractors working on Picatinny, as well as the General Public.
“We cannot believe we are already here at the 25-year mark,” said Andrew Ciccolella, Picatinny Arsenal’s Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation (FMWR) program director. “The summers have flown by and no matter how many years pass, opening day at Frog Falls is something you always look forward to.”
“One of our favorite moments these days is welcoming and reminiscing with young families who are now members with their children. They recall how they were part of Frog Falls when they were children and when the park first opened. Frog Falls has always been a special community, and we are so fortunate it is here to be passed down and enjoyed by a whole new generation.”
Operating Memorial Day through Labor Day weekends, the water park features more than 520,000 gallons of water adventures, and offers two high-velocity slides, six 25-meter lap pools, a zero-depth entry leisure pool, a lazy river and a child activity pool.
“Operating a park like Frog Falls takes a tremendous effort from a lot of people behind the scenes that are truly vested in keeping this community resource available and thriving,” Ciccolella said. “I’m incredibly thankful to them all for what they due to support our mission and serve this community.”
Since opening in 2000, Frog Falls has welcomed more than one million visitors to the park.
Kristina Williams, Picatinny Arsenal’s Drug Testing Program Coordinator, began her career U.S. Army Civilian career when she was hired as a lifeguard assigned to Frog Falls Aquatic Park.
“I never thought my summer job as a 15-year-old lifeguard would open doors and turn into a career serving the warfighter,” Williams said as she looked back on the past 25 years.
Though the aquatic park’s footprint is nearly the same as the inaugural season, customers have seen an expansion with the addition of the Splash Pad in 2005 and expanded food service with Toad’s General Store 2022.
The park has been seen steady improvements over the years with more than $2 million in capital investments to replace, refurbish, or enhance the pool facility, filtration system and site.
The Frog Falls Aquatic Park, which opened in 2000, cost $3.9 million to build, and represented an unprecedented historical commitment by the Army to "share" resources, land and customers for the betterment of two communities, one military and the other civilian. The partnered community recreational pool was co-operated by Picatinny and Rockaway Township in what was a 15-year agreement.
“We successfully competed for Army Non-Appropriated major construction funding resulting in a three-year design-build contract,” said Lee Moreau, FMWR program director, who help spearhead the aquatic park build.
The process began after it was apparent that an already existing pool had major infrastructure issues that were not feasible to maintain.
“To not have a community pool for military families and a place where young children could learn to swim was not acceptable,” Moreau recalled. “We had to figure out something quickly, that leaky pool didn’t have many more years left. Whatever we did, it had to be self-sustaining.
Moreau, who retired in 2010, was happy to learn that 25 years later, Frog Falls is still thriving.
“For me personally, offering a ‘troop base’ Quality of Life amenity at a place like Picatinny remains a lasting source of satisfaction,” he said. “Seeing Picatinny FMWR celebrate the ‘millionth visitor’ to Frog Falls in 2022 was pretty cool as well”
The partnership agreement with Rockaway was formally dissolved in 2016. Picatinny Arsenal now fully owns and operates the aquatic park independently as part of the FMWR program.
Picatinny's Frog Falls Aquatic Park was ranked the number one public swimming pool in New Jersey in 2011 and has also been featured in World Water Park Magazine.
| Date Taken: | 06.05.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.05.2025 10:07 |
| Story ID: | 499722 |
| Location: | PICATINNY ARSENAL, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 10 |
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