General Discussion

The CRPA president and Vice president met with city recreation manager yesterday at city hall in an effort to secure more time for pickleball. This was the first time we met with a recreation manager at city hall as we previously met only with programmers at the community centre. We also discussed building new courts and other options for venues.

We found out that there is currently virtually no wiggle room and we cannot expect things to change in the short or even medium term. This means more frustration in booking for indoor sessions and possibly even at outdoor sessions.   We will be electing a new board on April 23rd and any changes the CRPA is going to make to CRPA programming and policies will wait til the new board is in place. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend.

 We were encouraged to let our councillors at city hall know that the demand for pickleball far outstrips supply and just how frustrated we are.   This is a municipal election year so we have more leverage.  We each have a different perspective based on how long we have played pickleball, our involvement with other sports, how long we have lived in Campbell River and the changes we have seen, as well as our personal pickleball goals. Please write to the mayor and council to demand they listen to us.  We are almost 300 members strong and if each one of us wrote just one email to council they cannot ignore us.   Ask those questions that you have. The ones about strathcona gardens not including pickleball in their renovation, the ones about numbers in one sport or another, why can't we resurface centennial gardens, why can't there be a covered pball court for year round play, etc, etc, etc.

The VP and president are planning to make a presentation to council after we complete a business case.  When we do, we will a be asking you to show your support for pickleball at the council meeting by attending in person.

Here is the email to write to

mayorandcouncil@campbellriver.ca