After serving the community faithfully for many years an old landmark is about to meet its demise. Noted for having the best ice surface of all the arenas in the area and having been home to many past championship teams is not enough to save this grand old lady from the wreakers ball.

The local schools are not impressed with the fact that this quiet edifice is about to be replaced with bells and sirens erupting at all hours of the day which will be an added disruption to their students.

Quoting millions of dollars in funds to upgrade the old Barrie arena seems to be the main point of contention. The haste in which this decision has been taken leads one to wonder about the alternatives available. One glaring option is that if this building was a heritage building then these expensive upgrades would not be a necessity, also under Part 11 of the building code, once a building is over 5 years old, which I am sure this building qualifies for, then there are Alternate Measures which can be applied rather than trying to comply with todays more stringent codes. This is common practice and would be used in most cities and probably is in place already for this building.

As usual when a person controls the numbers and information being released they also control the truth, sometimes this is not always in the best interest of the taxpayer. Sound familiar?