Council Reallocates $50,000 for Pickleball Courts
New slush fund created for "outdoor recreational assets".
This week council passed the 2024 Capital Projects Budget. The budget was first discussed at a November 23rd meeting.
Council seemed to agree with every item proposed by staff in the $12M proposal, except for one.
One project proposed by staff for 2024 was $50,000 to build outdoor pickleball courts. This, after the West Nipissing Pickleball Club requested this funding in the fall.
However at the November 23rd meeting, most councillors did not seem to be in agreement that this should be a priority. Considering that the corporation of West Nipissing is very short on funds and has to increase taxes by 5% for the second year in a row, many wondered if any money should be spent on discretionary projects.
At Tuesday’s meeting, council had another discussion on the topic. Councillors felt once again that they were not comfortable financing pickleball for $50,000 at this time.
But rather than simply remove the item from the budget and lower the annual tax increase, Mayor Kathleen Thorne-Rochon and councillor Kris Rivard proposed a motion to amend the Capital Projects document.
They passed a motion to allocate the $50,000 to “Outdoor Recreational Assets” rather than pickleball courts. This item will come back to council later on to decide where this will be spent.
Certainly many local groups will be requesting access to this new $50,000 slush fund in the months to come.
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