High Dam Rehabilitation Project Behind Schedule But Getting Back on Track

OSWEGO – The City Engineer of Oswego, Jeffrey Hinderliter, spoke at tonight’s meeting concerning the High Dam Hydroelectric Facility. Hinderliter told the council that he had to bring back a ‘change of scope’ in the work being done at the factory. Seamans is the company contracted to make improvements to the Dam. The project seems to be behind schedule, and Councilman Peter Allen raised his concerns. “I think I’d like to back up just a little bit, as the council knows, we’ve put a lot of time and effort rehabilitating these units, with the promise that the money was going to come and it was a worthwhile effort,” said Allen, “in my mind, we’d already be making money. We’re losing money hand over fist.”
The Dam will sell the energy it produces to National Grid, but Allen is unsure if the project is tenable for the city of Oswego. “From a council perspective, the only information we see is either more money or reallocating money. I’ve lost track of how much money, it’s probably $9 or $10 million dollars since I got on council a year ago,” said Allen. Allen hopes to meet with Seamans to get a clearer picture of what is going on and the timeline for completing the work. Hinderliter explained that the delays were due to problems that occurred while dismantling Unit 1 of the Dam. Another issue is that a lot of the technology in the Dam needs to be updated, and until they do that, National Grid won’t open the city of Oswego to the open market.
Hinderliter and Allen hope to have more dialogue with Seamans, who are, as of now, 3 months behind schedule. Hinderliter hopes to facilitate a meeting with Seamans, the council, and the mayor. The meeting may take place at a common council meeting. The proposed work order three was approved. Hinderliter explained that the work order was already in motion and that it’d be best if the council approved it. “I do recommend we approve this and get this moving. If you think more time is needed, that is your right as a council,” said Hinderliter.
Tonight, the meeting saw 3 items on the agenda being tabled until the February 17th committee meeting. The first item was from the YMCA. They are requesting permission to put up signs advertising community events. Councilman Shawn Burridge suggested the request being tabled to “have the YMCA provide us where they are putting the signs, how big they are going to be. I know there was an issue last year. I’d like to get it covered before the end of the year,” said Burridge.
The 2nd item to be tabled was a request put forward by City Attorney Kevin Caraccioli. The request was for the use of public space. Jason and Christine Ronaldo own a single family that technically falls under public space. They hope to keep their private fence and other encroachments as they are. Burridge motioned to table the request to investigate it further. Jason Ronaldo hopes to make some legally public spaces that fall close to residential private property, private to the homeowners in the area.
The 3rd item tabled was a request from Hinderliter for the mayor to sign amendment #14 with JHG Consulting services in the amount of $20,000 to make quarterly reports. Hinderliter requested the motion be tabled, saying that there wasn’t enough information gathered to pass it in good faith. Hinderliter will be coming back on February 17th to explain the amendment better.

Print this entry