Plympton-Wyoming council has appointed a former Wyoming fire chief to fill a vacancy in its ranks created by the untimely death of longtime councillor Ron Schenk.
Mike Vasey was runner-up in voting for the five council seats in the 2018 municipal election.
Mayor Lonny Napper said he thinks Vasey will be a good fit.
He joins council in the midst of controversy surrounding the town fire department from which he stepped down as Wyoming chief in late 2016.
"I don't see any problem, Mike is a pretty reasonable guy and I think he'll come with great expectations," said Napper. He'll be a member of council and he'll find out that we have rules that we have to go by and he'll be covered by those rules the same as we are."
Three longstanding members of the Plympton-Wyoming fire department claim they were wrongfully dismissed February 11, 2020. Lawyers for Lieutenant Carrie Ann Wilson, who was the service's sole female member, Senior Firefighter Jason Lyon, and District Chief Jeff Scott said they were terminated during an investigation into allegations of abuse suffered by Wilson at the hands of a fellow lieutenant. The findings of the investigation had not yet been formally submitted to the town at the time the three firefighters were fired.
William Fawcett, the lawyer representing two of the firefighters including Wilson, said no legal proceedings have been filed yet.
Mayor Napper said Vasey and Ben Dekker, the runner-up in the election for deputy mayor, had both submitted letters expressing interest in the vacant council seat. Dekker later told BlackburnNews.com that while he was solicited by members of the public to let his name stand, he did not submit a letter of interest.
Napper said council decided Wednesday to appoint a replacement rather than hold a by-election
"It was going to cost us $44,000 and we just felt that was out of place," he said. "We had two applications that were interested in the job and I think they were both good quality candidates."
Schenk died May 15 after a battle with cancer.
-With files from Melanie Irwin