BATON ROUGE — BREC 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The project seeks to replace the outdated pool with the organization's first indoor swimming pool, creating a space for recreation and community programs throughout the year. 

Brooks Park grew from a community organization during segregation, with Rev. Willie K. Brooks and the United Negro Recreation Association helping to raise money for a pool where Black children and families could swim. The pool, which opened in 1949 along with the surrounding property, was later donated to BREC in 1953. 

“BREC’s history includes discrimination against the people it was supposed to serve,” BREC Superintendent and CEO Brooks 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 aquatic programs to continue beyond summer while supporting youth camps, competitive training and lifeguard certification. New multipurpose rooms will also provide space for community programs, meetings and media and technology education. 

The application's financing plan proposes $5.6 million from BREC's capital improvement funds along with the $22.4 million state request. 

"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."