In this edition of “Off the Cuff,” Mayor Billy Barlow highlights several of the exciting projects under way in the Port City.
The Oswego Dog Park opened the first week of June.
People who bring their dogs to the park should also bring water for their pets – especially in the coming hot and humid week ahead.
There is city infrastructure all around the park.
“When we get a free moment,” the mayor said, “the DPW will run some water lines down to the park.”
The park, at 375 Mitchell St., is off to a good start. Even if you don’t have a dog, it’s still a nice park to visit, the mayor said.
He also mentioned his first Executive Order of 2018.
The mayor issued the executive order June 12, putting victims of domestic violence in the highest priority ranking category for the housing placement system in the city of Oswego HUD Section 8 Rental Assistance Program.
The ranking system is used to organize a waiting list for housing through HUD in the city of Oswego and dictates where on the waiting list an individual is placed until housing becomes available.
Mayor Barlow’s executive order places victims of domestic violence into the highest prioritization category, expediting the process to find victims housing.
Waterfront Projects Highlighted
For 30 years the city has failed to capitalize on its waterfront, the mayor said.
Earlier this month, Barlow announced a $225,000 project enhancing the Oswego Harbor Trail along Breitbeck Park and the lake front in the city of Oswego.
The Oswego Harbor Trail project will transform the recreational trail, clearing brush, weeds and overgrown vegetation in an effort to beautify the area and increase usage along the trail and Breitbeck Park, he explained.
Oswego is a waterfront community with a beautiful asset right in our back yard, but never figured out how to use it, he said.
“Immediately after taking office in 2016, we did a comprehensive waterfront feasibility study. Even before we conducted the feasibility study, I had a project in mind that I felt needed to be done and should’ve been done a long, long time ago,” the mayor told Oswego County Today. “It is unacceptable to have what should be the most picturesque scene in the city along our lakefront appear the way it does today.”
The project is personal for the mayor.
As a young teen, riding his bike in the area, “…even then I could never understand why this gorgeous trail …was a mess … I couldn’t understand why the city didn’t do a better job maintaining it,” he said.
Just last week the mayor announced $75,000 in funding from the city of Oswego’s New York State LWRP grant award in 2016 to fund an exterior paint job for the landmark in the Oswego Harbor. It is in addition to funds already pledged by Assemblyman Will Barclay. The lighthouse is a great cultural aspect of the Port City, he said. “It is not in the best condition currently, which is sad because it’s an Oswego landmark. It’s symbolic and iconic to the city of Oswego and it shouldn’t look the way it does,” he said.
Celebrate America
Sunday’s Fourth of July Parade will follow “the traditional route,” from the high school, down Liberty Street and down 104.
There will be fireworks later that evening, he added.
