Who Will Operate the City of Shreveport Swimming Pools This Year?

It looks like 4 of the 5 City of Shreveport public pools are going to open on time this year, and without all the drama that has taken place over that past couple of years.

A local company, Rock Solid, has managed the pools for 14 years now, but last year, the city announced an abrupt change of management.  City officials announced they were not going with Rock Solid.  Director of Rock Solid, Shelley McMillian received a letter from the city stating Rock Solid hadn't provided all required financial information.  The city issued a statement saying:

"Procedures outline that we move to the next proposal, but it was determined that the company (Rock Solid of Shreveport) was non-responsive due to its failure to provide accurate information in the documents that were submitted. Specifically, this company failed to disclose any and all litigation that they were involved in over the past five years.

The city then announced it had entered into an agreement with USA Management, a company based out of Atlanta, Georgia. But just weeks before the pools were to open, USA Management pulled out of the agreement, leaving city officials scrambling to be able to open the pools on time.  At which time, they then had to go back to McMillian and Rock Solid, who were able to hire lifeguards and personel and open the pools.  That's the "Reader's Digest" version of the events... needless to say, it was an embarrassment.

But this year, the city has a new administration, and things seem to be progressing swimmingly so far. SPAR Director Shelly Ragle told KEELNews on Wednesday:

  We did have 3 proposals, but once they went through the purchasing overview and were submitted to the department, there were only 2. We reviewed those yesterday and the committee overwhelmingly selected Rock Solid.

Director of Rock Solid told KEEL News on Thursday:

We are super excited to continue our impact on the community through the pools! Impacting lives and giving people the skill of swimming never gets old and I'm blessed that the city see fit for us to continue the Rock Solid mission!

Ragle said the city plans to open 4 of the 5 pools a little earlier this year, around Memorial Day weekend.   Ragle said they wouldn't be able to open the pool at the Bill Cockrell park this year due to costs to repair the pool, which would be about $325,000.  When asked about possibly replacing the pool Ragle went on to say:

To replace pools like Bill Cockrell would be about $800,000.... I believe that all of our pools are about in the same shape, Bill Cockrell just happened to be the one that went out first. But at some point, that's going to have to be discussed as a major capital project for every pool.