Plans to demolish the Colborne Road fire station and build a new one on the same site are on hold.
Sarnia council rescinded its previous resolution Monday, deciding to wait for the results of a station location study that's being undertaken as part of the Fire Master Planning process.
Deputy Fire Chief Bryan Van Gaver said the decision was made with the arrival of a new fire chief, chief administrative officer and director of finance at the city.
"We've had a large turnover with senior management, so with basically three new faces, I believe it was time to hit the pause button on this whole process and look at it with a fresh set of eyes," said Van Gaver.
CAO Chris Carter told council the master plan hasn't been updated in over a decade.
"To go approximately 12 years without having a current master plan, or an updated master plan is really not advantageous to the corporation," said Carter. "Technology has changed in 12 years, response time has changed, personnel has changed, the way we deliver services has changed... especially when you deal with an emergency service, such as fire."
Carter said they hope to expedite the document.
"We're going to be looking at fast-tracking the document to get it in front of council, if not coming back in phases, so if we can really focus on potential locations for fire halls, we'd be coming forward to council sooner than later and if we can implement it in phases, we would be looking for the consultant to do that for council," he said.
Carter said there's no intent to change the location necessarily unless something comes back from a third party.
He said the cost to update the master plan is between $50,000 and $70,000.
