GALETTA – The councillor was a special guest of Monday’s (Feb. 24) Galetta Community Association (GCA) meeting and the topic was pickleball, among other things.

Coun. Eli El-Chantiry was an invited guest to the monthly meeting, giving Galetta community members a chance to address concerns or questions to the councillor face-to-face.

“I know he’s a busy guy, so thanks for coming,” GCA President Dave Jefferies said from the stage of the Galetta Community Centre.

“I owe you a public thank you, for all the things you do for the community,” El-Chantiry told the roughly 14 in attendance.

One of the first items for discussion was on the possibility of paving the outdoor rink at the community centre. The idea is to be able to turn the ODR in to a four-season recreation pad with the goal of bringing pickleball to Galetta. Several community members make the trip to Arnprior to play pickleball at the Kenwood Centre and they would like to have an option closer to home in the summer seasons.

Galetta’s ODR is the only West Carleton community ODR that isn’t paved or made of cement. The Galetta ODR base is stone dust.

The bad news, according to the councillor, is that work wouldn’t be able to be done for at least three more years “due to the lifecycle of the facility.”

El-Chantiry said the next two major recreation projects in West Carleton are the Corkery Community Centre $1.5 million renovation project and the W. Erskine Johnston Arena roof replacement at more than $1 million.

“So that’s where it stands on that, but we can do something,” El-Chantiry said. “You don’t need a lot of space.”

The councillor said his office was able to provide the budget of about $3,000 for the Carp pickleball project, purchasing all the necessary equipment. Of course, the ODR they play on there is already paved.

El-Chantiry wondered aloud if there was room in the parking lot for pickleball.

“our parking lot is not good enough for pickleball,” Jefferies said. “Did you see it? The parking lot is actually another thing on our list.”

El-Chantiry said he would investigate the feasibility of patching a small corner of the parking lot to create a pickleball court.

On to the driveway. Although the parking lot is paved, it is in rough shape. The driveway to the parking lot on the other hand is not paved.

“It’s continually like it is tonight – rough,” Jefferies said. “There’s a couple hundred feet not paved and it’s a continual problem. They come and grate it a few times a year but a few days later it’s back to bad.”

Other issues brought up by those in attendance included Para Transpo. The Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre’s Amanda Labbe was one of those present at the meeting and only too happy to talk about the centre’s transportation program.

The road over the islands, Mohr’s Road, was also discussed.

“It’s a mess, all the time,” the resident said. “What do we have to do to get it paved?”

Following the brief meeting, Jefferies encouraged attendees to “help yourself to some goodies and feel free to mingle.”