BATON ROUGE - For at least a year, fountains across from The Raising Canes River Center have been turned off. Inside the large basins, trash and debris have accumulated. It's an area that Denise Hatcher used to visit.

"Especially sitting around this area listening to the waterfalls and watching the water with kids," Hatcher said.

The fountains are sandwiched between the USS Kidd and the Louisiana Arts and Science Museums. Built in 1984, it was once a prominent fixture on the Mississippi River levee. It was last March when Hatcher first noticed the fountains weren't working.

"It should be a place where not only the community comes and shares time together, but our tourism," she said. "It's a big tourism spot and it's disappointing that you tell people to go downtown and they go... OK... that fountain wasn't working."

The fountains are off because they're broken and leak water from years of use. They were intended to be fixed during a renovation of the River Center under the previous administration, but it didn't happen. Now, the mayor's office is looking to make temporary repairs with funding under the Thrive! Baton Rouge plan.

The entire Downtown Baton Rouge riverfront is being redesigned. Sasaki, a planning and design firm, has been selected to lead Plan Baton Rouge III, a master plan to revitalize Downtown Baton Rouge. The planning process should take a year with significant community involvement.

The Downtown Development District says the fountains will be part of the master plan. It will include connecting the River Center to other parts of downtown, including the levee. The DDD says it's working on ways to modernize and beautify the area, but has no timeline for completion. Sasaki's design could take a year to complete.

In the meantime, the Buildings and Grounds Department is exploring a cost-effective, interim solution to enhance the fountains until the comprehensive master plan is implemented. The city says there were repairs made to the fountains in November 2024, but they remain inoperable.

The Office of Mayor-President Sid Edwards provided more saying in part, "The fountains along the Mississippi River levee serve as a prominent gateway to the city, reflecting its vibrancy and character. The Edwards administration remains committed to presenting Baton Rouge at its best and recognizes that these fountains are not currently utilized to their full potential."

The DDD adds that the aging infrastructure of the fountains has created a fiscal challenge to restoring them to their original state. While the long-term vision of Plan Baton Rouge III is being developed, the DDD says the short-term and cost-effective interventions it's currently exploring will soon breathe life into the space.