LaSalle Pickleball Association seeks to gain exclusive use of courts at LaSalle Landing

CTV News file photo.

LaSalle council will be asked to sign a memorandum of understanding between the town and the LaSalle Pickleball Association (LPA) on Tuesday night.

Administration is bringing forward a report that recommends the town enter into a pilot project granting LPA exclusive use of three pickleball courts at LaSalle Landing.

LPA is seeking use of the courts Monday to Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. from June 16 until Oct. 31.

LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche said the association plans to offer different levels of programming for their members.

“I did get a chance to talk with their association president, who mentioned how they want to be able to grow their club, and so they’re going to have certain nights that are more for beginners, and then they’ll have other nights that will be more of a competitive play for people who are looking for a little bit more competitive pickleball, and so they’re just trying to really grow their program in the Town of LaSalle, and so that’s why they’re looking for this opportunity to work with us,” Meloche said.

Meloche said there will still be courts available to the public.

“There will be some other courts that are still open to the general public to be able to use, and then there’ll be some that will be reserved for them for their exclusive use, so that they can do programming, or offer training sessions, getting more people involved in the sport,” she said.

Last July, council voted in favour of converting two of the four tennis courts into dedicated pickleball courts at Front Road Park.

Meloche said it’s been a success so far.

“Tennis has been something in our community for years, and we have the new courts over at the Vollmer, but we didn’t have a lot of pickleball, so we were looking to be able to expand the options for pickleball, or residents were asking for it, and so that was our opportunity to do,” Meloche said.

“We added more courts there, and we hope to eventually add more courts at the Vollmer next to where the new tennis is, but that’s still to be discussed in the future.”

If approved, the town will charge LPA a capital reinvestment fee of $5.90 per hour for the duration of the season.

Based on the proposed time period, the total seasonal fee would amount to $1,280.06, aligning with market-value fees applied in similar recreational agreements across other municipalities.

- Written by Dustin Coffman and Rob Hindi/AM800 News.