Kingsville town council has directed administration to apply to the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund to make repairs and upgrades at the Kingsville Recreation Sports Complex.
Earlier this year, the Ontario government announced it was investing up to $200 million over three years to support growing communities with new and revitalized local sport and recreation facilities across the province.
Courtney Godfrey, manager of parks, recreation and facilities says the key areas of focus will be the pickleball courts and the lighting at the complex.
"The upgrades to the lighting are switching from the Halogen to LED, and it is quite an extensive and expensive process. And the upgrades, repairs and rehabilitation to the pickleball courts, we've experienced some issues with regards to cracking and heating of posts, so that would be the primary focus, as well as some asphalt repairs."
If the town is successful in their application, a follow up report will be provided to council to address the town’s share of costs for approval.
Ryan McLeod, director of financial and I.T. services says the town may have to look into pulling money from reserves.
"In this particular case, we're potentially receiving 50 cents on the dollar towards these projects. So it's important as administration that we're applying for projects that are identified priorities and that we were planning to do a some point in time. Certainly these grant opportunities might pull priorities forward and get us to do things a little quicker than we would otherwise do, but we generally only apply for projects that we were planning to do anyways."
Mayor Dennis Rogers says he will do his job advocating at the higher levels of government.
"I can tell you, having conversations with the president of the pickleball association, the couple hundred members that are there, and as busy as those courts are, this money would be very much welcomed."
Kingsville is the latest town to apply to the grant fund.
Last week, Tecumseh council approved moving forward with their application to help pay for the installation of noise barriers at the Zekelman Pickleball Complex and Shawanoe Park.