Bad News for Swimming Pool Plans in Shreveport

SHREVEPORT, LA - Bad news for Shreveport residents who love to swim. The plan to build a new pool at Bill Cockrell Park on Pines Road is delayed again.

SPAR Director Shelly Ragle says

The bids came back at double what we expected to spend. Our estimate was $980,000, but the bid came in at 1.8 million. By the time we began working on trimming back the pool features, it was not going to be the kind of pool we wanted.

Ragle says the design for the pool at David Raines should be complete this week or next week. She is planning to put both pools together in the next bid to try to get the price down. It might make it more worthwhile for a contractor to come to town to do 2 pools rather than one.

Shreveport Leaders Are Not Happy About the Delays

Councilwoman Ursula Bowman says getting this pool back up and going at Bill Cockrell Park on Pines Road is very important. She says this will be the 4th summer this area has been without a pool. She says “these kids deserve to have a swimming pool. They have had 3 years with no pool.” This will be the 4^th summer without a public pool.

Bowman says “these kids don’t have country clubs. They don’t have pools in their back yards. They look forward to what they pay for as taxpayers to go and have a nice summer swimming.”

What Is the Plan for This Summer?

Ragle says as soon as she realized there would not be a pool at Bill Cockrell this summer she began planning to have a temporary water park at that location. There will be a section for younger children under age 6. There will be a larger section for older children. Ragle says there will be blow-up features, games, obstacle courses that are all water driven. She says SPAR officials are very disappointed the pool can not be rebuilt. But they will be working on having a water feature at the park for folks to enjoy.

Ragle also told the council the spray park in downtown Shreveport will also not be back up and going this summer. She says that project is also being rebid.