Mayor Barlow Delivers Farewell Address

OSWEGO – Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow delivered his farewell address this evening as he is set to leave office at the end of the year after eight-years due to term limits. The event took place in Waterman Theater at the SUNY Oswego campus to a room full of family, friends, and city employees. During his speech, he highlighted the remarkable progress made during his tenure including a $10 million state grant spurring over $100 million of private investment into downtown Oswego, over $10 million more in state funding to execute countless projects along the waterfront, the creation of an aggressive code enforcement program to assist with restoring neighborhoods, over $8 million in paving of city streets, and countless infrastructure improvements including the successful completion of an $85 million west side sewer separation project.

Barlow highlighted progress in many different areas as an example of local government delivering for constituents. “we’ve paved our streets, improved the quality of our drinking water, and significantly reduced the discharge of sewage into our community’s most significant natural asset, our beautiful waterfront.  We provided swift pandemic-related financial support to our local small businesses at a time when they needed it most. We created functional and inviting public spaces, vibrant and attractive community events, new playgrounds, and other public amenities, drawing families, and their children, out of their homes together, and attracting new families who now call Oswego home.  We’ve invested in our police, fire and DPW to enhance the vital services we provide to our residents, and in some instances, those investments have saved lives.” He continued by saying, “my point is government can deliver for the people when it functions. When it functions. When political discourse takes a back seat. When pushing your political persuasion onto others isn’t a top priority. When being unwilling to negotiate with people or even attempt to understand their point of view isn’t the automatic reaction to a situation. Let the City of Oswego show to the rest of the nation what even a local government our size can do, when the top priority is not to advance a political career or score partisan political points, but to deliver for the people.”

Barlow spent a good deal of time during the address thanking department heads, city employees, and other key partners throughout the community who contributed to the progress and development during his time in office.

In closing, Barlow stated, “it has been the honor of my life to serve my hometown and improve the lives of my neighbors. Thank you all for your faithful support, thank you for being here this evening, and for the opportunity to be your mayor. What has happened to this community these last eight years was not the act of one single person, but an act of an entire community collectively coming together to make things better, and I know that I for one, will always relish that fact and take comfort in knowing, that perhaps when it mattered most, we made a difference.”

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