OSWEGO – At its meeting Monday night, the Common Council unanimously supported the revocation of the International Joint Commission Plan 2014.
The city of Oswego has received significant damage from flooding and high water along Lake Ontario since 2017.
“I’ve lived here my entire life. I have never seen flooding along the lakeshore like this, like we’ve had the past two or three years,” Mayor Billy Barlow said Monday night. He references Plan 2014 as the direct culprit and is calling on the IJC to suspend Plan 2014 until another plan is implemented.
Mayor Barlow references Plan 2014 as the direct culprit and is calling on the IJC to suspend Plan 2014 until another plan is implemented.
The plan was put into place in December of 2016 and the area began experiencing flood the very next year, the mayor pointed out.
“In the last three years, we’ve seen documented $7 million in damage along the shoreline – anywhere from erosion at Breitbeck Park to infrastructure damage at the wastewater plant and the marina,” the mayor said, citing other problem areas as well.
The devastation caused since the plan began “should not be acceptable,” he added. “I don’t think they saw this sort of devastation coming.”
If they don’t do something, there will be more problems, the mayor said. The city will seek funding from FEMA as well as the state to help fix the damage.
The mayor said he hopes to rebuild the waterfront to better than what it was before and to accept that higher water levels will be the new norm and prepare for that.
“We’re not just complaining,” Barlow said explaining that the city has done much to address the problem on its own.
Councilor John Gosek agreed with the mayor.
The high water and amount of debris in the lake and river make it dangerous for kayakers and boaters, he said.
Businesses that county on revenue from boaters in the summer are also suffering, he added.
“I think it’s the most irresponsible thing they have ever down to control the lake levels, Councilor Ron Tesoriero said. “What are we going to do about these poor people who have lost pretty much everything?”
He can “never, ever, ever remember us having to deal with this type of devastation ever … It’s a terrible thing,” he said.
A copy of the resolution will be sent to the IJC.
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