News BREC Seeks State Investment in Historic Brooks ParkProposed recreation and aquatic center would bring BREC’s first indoor swimming pool to Old South Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge, LouisianaNov 09, 2026BREC has requested $22.4 million in state funding for a new recreation and aquatic center at Brooks Park, advancing a proposed $28 million investment in Old South Baton Rouge. The project would replace the outdated pool with BREC’s first indoor swimming pool and create space for recreation and community programs throughout the year.

BREC has received support for the request from Sens. Franklin Foil and Regina Barrow and Reps. C. Denise Marcelle, Barbara Carpenter, Terry Landry Jr. and Dixon McMakin. That support follows BREC’s direct work with legislators, including meetings to discuss the project and its funding through Louisiana’s 2027–2028 capital outlay process.

“The families around Brooks Park help pay for this entire park system. I will not lead an agency that asks them to expect less from it,” said BREC Superintendent and CEO Brooks Williams. “Their children have as much claim on our resources as anyone else. That has to show up in where we invest.”

Named for the Rev. Willie K. Brooks, Brooks Park grew from community organizing during segregation. Brooks and the United Negro Recreation Association helped raise money for a pool where Black children and families could swim because they were excluded from the whites-only pool at City Park. Brooks Pool opened in 1949, and the pool and surrounding property were donated to BREC in 1953.

“BREC’s history includes discrimination against the people it was supposed to serve,” Williams said. “We need to own that. The families who built Brooks Park took responsibility for giving their children somewhere to swim and play. We have no business celebrating what they did while treating our own responsibility to this park as optional.”

The proposed indoor pool would allow swim lessons and other aquatic programs to continue beyond the summer, giving families more opportunities to learn and practice skills that can save lives. It would also support public swimming, youth camps, competitive training and lifeguard certification, helping young people prepare for employment.

New multipurpose rooms would provide space for community programs, meetings, and media and technology education. For surrounding neighborhoods and residents across the parish, the project would expand what they can do at Brooks Park and when they can use it. The request also includes drainage, utilities, parking and accessibility improvements needed to serve the new facilities.

“Helping more people use a public park is a fairly reasonable ambition for a park system,” Williams said. “The people who already enjoy our parks matter, and so do the people we could be serving better. I expect BREC to be capable of thinking about both at the same time.”

Planning would explore preserving a portion of the existing pool house and explaining the park’s connection to the Civil Rights era. That work would help future visitors understand why Brooks Park was built and the community effort behind it.

The application’s financing plan proposes $5.6 million from BREC’s capital improvement funds alongside the $22.4 million state request. State funding has not been awarded and the project’s scope and schedule will depend on funding and design. Planning will also address the staffing, utilities and maintenance required to operate the facilities over time.

“When we make an investment of this size, I expect it to improve life in the surrounding neighborhood,” Williams said. “Good programs build strong communities. Affordable recreation helps people stay active, and a place to gather gives neighbors a chance to know each other and work together. Those are part of what makes a neighborhood somewhere people want to stay and build a life. That is the return I expect from Brooks Park. BREC has to earn every dollar this community entrusts to us.”