Pine Bluff council votes to return aquatic center to parks and recreation after safety incidents

The Pine Bluff City Council voted to return management of the city’s aquatic center to the parks and recreation department after reviewing two recent incidents at the facility, city officials said on the broadcast.

Officials described the decision as a reversal of a 2024 ordinance that had made the aquatic center its own separate department. Council members cited two incidents in justifying the change: a reported incident involving two teenagers and a weapon that led to arrests, and an 84-year-old woman, identified in the broadcast as Bridal Collins, who was found unresponsive in the whirlpool and later died while state and city investigators reviewed the case.

A council member who reviewed reports told the station that returning the facility to parks and recreation was the best path forward given available data and concerns about oversight. The station did not provide the motion text or a roll-call vote tally in the broadcast.

City leaders did not provide a detailed implementation timeline for the transfer of authority or describe changes to staffing and operational oversight beyond stating the parks and recreation department would assume control again. The council’s decision appears to reverse the earlier structural change adopted in 2024.