To The Editor:
According to ABC and several other networks, people in Flint, Mich., are charged $864 a year for water-sewer usage.
This is double the national average.
Last year, Oswego city charged a majority of its residents $888.
This year, it was raised in Oswego to $1,064, two and a half times the national average.
A raise of $53 each quarter.
We have one half a winter gone; must have saved a ton of money on the usual sand, salt, overtime and maintenance.
Yet the streets are in the worst shape I’ve seen in years of winters.
What terrible start to this year.
Don Blum
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If Ididn’t have to pay that outrageous amount of money, I could get my sagging living room ceiling fixed, my front steps fixed and have my leaking furnace looked at and maybe even repaired. Those of us on disability do not get raises on our payment but if you live in Oswego you get your water/sewer, taxes and transfer station payments all raised. I wish I had the money to leave buy no way will any one buy my house. Everyone else wants to leave the same as me.
Where and when was the increase posted to the public. Certainly not on the cities website. This is a failure of the last administration not the new Mayor. An accountability of expenditures need to be posted and published.
I agree it is a total joke to be raising the water and sewer up when people are barley getting by as it is. What’s next will our streets ever get repaired?
I had a meter installed mid December, only to find out later that month the rates had been raised. I know it’s a hardship for many regardless of metered or flat rate.
Since the flat rate is unlimited usage, it would be only fair that metered be based on actual usage rather than an allowed cubic feet/quarter. If you go over that allowance, your bill increases.
If there’s only 1 occupant, that individual would unlikely ever attain the cubic footage/quarter, yet you are billed regardless.
This water/sewer fiasco will be this city’s un-doing & all because of one man who took it upon himself to turn the city into the DEC, he doesn’t even live within the city limits however he does do a lot of work here….more to come once I get out of here myself!
This City S—K They don’t care about the people who give them a pay check.I living on low income and only one in my house and you have to pay the same as a family of 5.And you cant pay Water and Sewer in payment.
We can all complain until we are dead and buried and nothing is going to change. It never has and never will. All talk and no action. Just like it has always been. Promises made, promises broken, just like it has always been.
When Oswego turns in to a slum lord run town all of us that are leaving, we will all be grateful that we did so while were still able to sell and get out when we still had enough money to do it.
That is a far cry from the 62 dollars a year we paid in the early 90’s, another reason we are glad to have moved out of the city years ago!
The DEC took action against the residents of this city (that’s who is getting the shaft) because an Electric Eel found its way into the river after someone let it loose in a toilet on Water street….as the rumor goes! Everyone is talking of getting out of here and all our new mayor concerns himself with is getting in with all the overabundant city workers. He was elected to make the hard choices but he obviously isn’t going to do it…so people are speaking with their feet. When the working taxpayers depart, who they gonna hit up for the taxes and crazy water rates then? Oswego…The City Dead in the Water!
AND not sure who know this but….. according to Carracoli (the lawyer for Scriba and City of Oswego) Scriba representatives wants to build a wastewater plant so they do not have to pay the City of Oswego anymore. Currently, Oswego send Scriba a bill (large bill) and Scriba pays it for this usage. According to Carricoli they have had a company do a cost comparison and the Scriba homeowners would have a significant decrease in their water/waste bill. When asked for the proof, it could not be provided. Wasn’t complete. My point being…… what do you thinks going to happen to the City homeowners water/waste bills when/if this happens. I’d like to know how a city attorney can work on eliminating revenue to a city he represents to benefit another? Not sure how that’s not a conflict of interest!
I think it s__ks they keeping raising the water and sewer rate. When you’re on a low income and you don’t get a raise in your social security or retirement, it’s hard to make up the difference, especially when the medicine keeps going up. I can’t even afford to sell my house. About the only thing people can do is file bankruptcy and leave this dump of a City. I was born here and live most of my 76 yrs here. It sure has changed except for the crooked politics. They never change.
It is ridiculous that the rates just keeping go up and up. When the previous mayor did this – it was his way of saying GOTCHA to the tax payers for not reelecting him. He did it out of spite – nothing more.
Now lets hope the new mayor makes changes so that our overall tax rates go down – I have a friend that lives in another state her house is valued at 500K my house valued at 100K and we both pay the same amount in taxes and she pays less in water. House is for sale!
Moved outside the City in 1985. Put in a well and septic for around $7500.00 Over the last 30 years I have only spent about $20 a year maintaining the two systems. (not counting the electricity for the well pump) I am so glad now that I didn’t buy in the City.
This is one of the reasons I will not buy in the city of Oswego. I am looking but in city of Oswego or Fulton.
I hate to say it, but it is true. The only ones we can blame are ourselves. We elected him into office, and now we see the truth behind all the campaign promises. We should have done our homework on Barlow before filling in those little ovals on those big sheets of paper. The only way we will ever overcome things like this is if as citizens of Oswego, we stop being complacent about what our local government does, and hold them accountable.
The increase was passed under the last administration.
i will not be paying a water bill. im sorry city of oswego but im going on strike against paying it…. i have six kids to take care of and we already do it on a tight as hell budget. i refuse to take money out of my kids mouth because oswego county is greedy…..
STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE.
“..62$$ in the ’90’s” was obviously not enough, political cowardice and avoidance of reality. Current Mayor not the problem, yet. Note that the “90’s” on-a-shoestring cheapness would have led to low maintenance. Replacing the water treatment or wastewater plants, even partially, and fixing pipelines/infrastructure will dwarf our current bill.
All municipalities face this issue. It’s a GREAT shame that THE Stimulus and 10 Trillion $$ of borrowing from the future, our kids, never got used for infrastructure. Would be nice if Albany gave some of our $$ back, or allowed us to keep it here.
Unfortunately, you have no choice. If you do not pay your bill, they add it to your tax bill at the end of the year…I have not been able to afford my water/sewage bill in two years…..I did not get a raise and my disabled husband did not get a raise either..I don’t even think I will be able to sell my house….30 years ………I used to love this city……
When will the Mayor make a statement on the subject.
Number one reason I moved out of Oswego was the rising Taxes and water bills!! Buy a mobile home in a park and your lot rent includes water….That’s what I did and I am now saving over $13,000.00 a year in Taxes and water bills.
I am so glad I have gone back to read more of these comments. I was thinking just this morning how to sell my house and still stay in Oswego until my son graduates High School in 3 years. So I thank you Bill, I love the mobile home/park idea. I would have to rent because I will be lucky to get what I owe for my house( its not like any one is rushing to move to Oswego) but , I will do any thing at this point to get out of the city of Oswego I cannot afford all the water/sewer, tax bills any longer either. I am disabled like Jackie’s husband and last year I could not pay my water/sewer bill either and yes my mortage payment went up. So again, thanks Bill, smart man. As for Robert, I agree with you also, When the Hell is the Mayor going to start responding to the citizens that are still left here in Oswego. Perhaps he is going to prove me right as in a earlier post I wrote about promises made and promises broken, all talk and no action ect.. I guess we get what we vote for. Maybe its time to stop voting all together and send a message.
The water bill may have been raised by the last administration that does not mean it could not be rescinded by this current one. But in keeping with all forms of our govt. Federal, State or local once a tax
Is passed it can never be taken off the books no matter what changes in the economy.
You haven’t seen nothing yet
1) When the minimum wage goes to $15.00 hour everybody (city workers) will get a raise and everybody else.
If i pay a laborer 15.00 hour on the books ill pay him/her 800.00 to 1000 in a week (after all the taxes) for 1 guy with no skills, my skilled guys will make close to $250 to $300 a day after taxes wait till you need something done in New York State. it’s not going to work.
2) You put someone in office (the mayor) that has no leadership skills.
Nobody want to cut any jobs in Oswego so the tax payers will have to pay up. It doesn’t stop there wait till something comes up and they need more money from you. I would of told the DEC you want it fixed go find the money.
First of all Don, Mayor Barlow will do NOTHING about the water/sewer bill. Oh you will here lots of excuses about how he tried so hard but, NOTHING WILL BE DONE. As for the minimum wage. Picture a single mother working a Wal-mart making $9.00 per hr. and her high school son making $15.00 at Mc Donalds, or even if they both make the same how DEGRADING IS THAT FOR THAT MOTHER OR A FATHER. FOR GOD SAKE’S THIS MINIMUM WAGE RAISING NEEDS TO REALLY THOUGHT OUT A LOT AND NOT JUST JUMPED INTO TO MAKE A FEW GROUPS HAPPY AND SHUT THEM UP.