A busy night is ahead for Barrie city councillors who will decide whether a byelection is held to fill a vacant seat. Councillors will try to figure out what to do with the vacant council seat that opened up when Michael Prowse took a new job as chief administrative officer. The two options are to hold a byelection at a cost of $50,000 or simply appoint someone. “If we go through a byelection it will be November before somebody is in place and of course nomination day for the municipal election next year is in May,” says Mayor Jeff Lehman. “We would be going through a four or five month byelection process at a considerable cost just to put someone in place for five or six months.” After nearly 10 years of talk and debate council is set to decide on whether or not the city should build a new emergency services campus. “It's time to make a decision and it is a tough thing always when you have a high ticket price to say this is what we need to do,” says Lehman. The $120 million facility would be home to a new police station, including a new $10 million gun range. It will also house a paramedic campus and a training facility for firefighters. “We have a great opportunity to do it now in conjunction with the ambulance service with the county, which will save us some costs in capital costs and operating costs,” says councillor Barry Ward. Both issues will be up for discussion at council on Monday night.
