As Shreveport's city pools open, management company talks inspiration and contract issues

The City of Shreveport opened four of its five pools Tuesday to what seemed like a record crowd, said 19-year-old lifeguard manager Evan James Whatley.

“I didn’t see these types of numbers at Querbes all last summer and now we’re setting new highs,” he said while on duty at the pool at Querbes Park and Community Center Wednesday.

Pools opened at four parks Tuesday: Airport Park, Querbes Park, David Raines Park, and Southern Hills Park. There are plans for the pool at Bill Cockrell Park to open once repairs have been made.

Whatley, a former competitive swimmer, sharpened his skills as an 8-year-old camper in the same organization that he’s a lifeguard for today, Rock Solid Athletic Club, which the City of Shreveport has contracted for thirteen years to run operations at the city’s pools.

Last month, the City of Shreveport seemed ready to end that partnership. Citing a new state law, the city, for the first time advertised the pools contracts and ultimately reviewed the application from the Shreveport-based Rock Solid as inferior to the one from a company based in Atlanta. Only those two companies submitted applications.

“I had never put out an RFP before,” said Rock Solid director Shelley McMillian about her poorly received application.

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Rock Solid was founded in 2004 and partnered with the City to run one pool in 2009 before being granted responsibility for four more pools in 2010.

Then, after the 2010 city pool season ended, six teenagers drowned in the Red River. In the aftermath, then-Mayor Cedric Glover asked Rock Solid if they would run a free swimming lesson program if he helped them start with grant money -  a task which Rock Solid accepted. Glover said the program has since taught 18,000 children.

McMillian said her greatest joys as director have come with “the extreme emotions of being able to watch the Stewart, Blalock, and Warner families learn to swim and learn to defeat their fear of the water after such trauma.”

Rock Solid found themselves back in partnership with Shreveport after the Atlanta-based company declined the city’s offer, which allowed Rock Solid to resubmit part of the application, McMillian said.

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“We left an item out of the bid,” McMillian said. “Once we realized we sent a letter saying it was an error.”

McMillian said the agreement with the city was finalized opening day.

"About four hours before we opened, the ink was dry," McMillian said.

Whatley said his earliest memories of being in a pool are at Rock Solid. He talked about a moment last summer when a young diabetic girl lost her insulin pump in the pool and he was tasked with finding it. He said he spent two hours picking up items from the bottom of the pool and resurfacing for air to see if what he had found was her pump, but it was usually chipped paint. Eventually, he found it.

“It was the most fulfilling moment but also the most exhausting moment of last summer,” Whately said.

Kendrick Dante writes for the USA Today Network and is a government watchdog reporter in Shreveport, Louisiana. He enjoys cooking, concerts, and content. Email him at kdbrown1@gannett.com or connect on Twitter @kendrickdante.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Rock Solid talks Shreveport pool contract issues and tragic inspiration