Tough decisions ahead: Lehman

By Janis Ramsay, Simcoe.com Dec 08, 2010
It is Cassie and other youngsters like her who inspired Barrie’s newest mayor to do more.
Jeff Lehman took his oath of office Monday night and gave a speech about his goals in the next four years.
“My family is one of the reasons I ran for mayor. I want to shape a city for my daughter that will offer her every opportunity in life,” he said. “The first project will be the planning for the next generation of growth in Barrie.”
Lehman also mentioned looking out for those living in poverty: “I remember one of the messages given to the incoming council in 2006 ¬– that a society is judged by how it treats its least fortunate.”
Lehman said he couldn’t promise to solve all of the problems for those in need, but said he’d work on it.
“We have a lot of work to do. We’ve been elected to move forward together,” said Lehman. “And in doing this, we must make decisions not just for today but for the future.”
Not everyone will agree with those decisions, he said.
Some of the projects Lehman hopes to see come to fruition are converting the downtown transit terminal into a permanent food market, creating a post-secondary environment downtown through Georgian College or Laurentian University, building better relationships between council and residents, and supporting the expansion of business.
“Our financial situation is not that strong and we will need to make tough decisions in the coming years,” said Lehman.
And hard decisions were encouraged by Willard Kinzie, the City of Barrie’s first mayor from 1957-1968. “When I was mayor, we had a population of 10,000. Orillia was larger and had access to a beautiful waterfront,” he said
Plowing ahead with the development of Barrie’s waterfront was faced with opposition, said Kinzie. “There were objections to filling in the bay. Ducks Unlimited made a plea that there would never be another duck or goose on the bay. They were wrong,” he said to chuckles from the audience.
“Now our waterfront is the envy of any city in Ontario. Don’t be afraid to make bold moves. The torch is passed onto you – go.”
And Innisfil Mayor Barb Baguley stepped forward to offer a verbal ‘olive branch’ to Lehman.
She referred to the past conflict between the two municipalities, after Innisfil land was annexed in 2009.