Oswego Common Council Approves Contract With Northbrook To Take Over Operations At City’s High Dam Facility

OSWEGO – The Oswego Common Council met last night, Monday, October 25, and unanimously approved all agenda items, including to change companies to run the city’s High Dam Facility after several issues with the current contract with Brookfield.

Mayor Billy Barlow began the meeting with a reminder of the city’s scheduled Creepy Crawl Haunted Riverwalk this weekend. The event will be 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, and 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday behind the Pontiac Hotel along the riverwalk.

The council then unanimously approved all items on the agenda.

The most notable item of the night was Resolution #349 – Authorize mayor to sign agreement with Northbrook in the amount of $316,800 for the operations and maintenance of the High Dam Facility.

Barlow said the city has had a longstanding relationship with Brookfield, which the city’s current contract with is to operate the city-owned facility for about $27,500 per month, equating to about $330,000 annually.

“We made the decision about a year ago to either consider selling the High Dam or double down and invest significantly in the High Dam, because as we know, the High Dam is supposed to make the city money by generating power,” Barlow said. “We decided to not repeat sins of the past in Oswego where they sold the water tunnel for a lot of money upfront and it was to the detriment of generations 20 years later.”

He said he was told the High Dam has gone down for extended periods of time, has not been bringing in as much revenue as the city is used to, work orders that have been outstanding for extended periods of time, and serious maintenance issues that are not being addressed.

In June, he met with Brookfield about these issues, but did not get a “real, constructive answer.” After that meeting other issues popped up as well and were not fixed, costing the city thousands of dollars. He listed and detailed several highlights of these issues.

He said Northbrook offers a two-year contract, which is what the city asked for, at $316,800 annually. Barlow said they are also committed to keeping a full-time employee at the High Dam and they are willing to broker 10 years of renewable energy credits.

Brookfield, who also put their name in the request for proposal (RFP), did drop their cost with a five-year contract. Barlow said the city was also concerned with the inclusion of floating employees rather than a dedicated employee at the High Dam, and there was no mention of brokering renewable energy credits.

“At the end of the day, my obligation is to the tax-payers of the city who pay for this facility to be run and count on it to produce revenue, to be run properly so that we don’t have to raise taxes and fees in the future, and we think going in a different direction at this time is the right way to go for both the facility and the tax-payers of the city,” Barlow said.

The councilors then unanimously voted in favor of this resolution.

Other agenda items approved were: Resolution #343 – Approve the minutes from the council meeting held on October 12.

• Resolution #344 – Approve use of public space for the 7th Annual Trinity Turkey Trot Family Run/Walk to be held on November 21.
• Resolution #345 – Authorize mayor to sign documents with Mesick, Cohen, Wilson and Baker Architects, LLP, in the amount of $5,540 for additional services for the City Hall restoration project.
• Resolution #346 – Authorize mayor to sign Amendment No. 1 with GHD Consulting Engineers, LLC, in the amount of $65,100 for additional services for the water storage tank evaluation.
• Resolution #347 – Authorize mayor to sign Change Order No. 14 with Patricia Electric, Inc. in the amount of $3,181.28 for electrical services for the Eastside Wastewater Treatment Plant Asset Management Plan Improvement Project.
• Resolution #348 – Authorize mayor to sign any and all documents with New York State Department of Transportation for the anticipated local matching share for the Federal Aid Local Project.
• Resolution #350 – Waive rules of the council to present Resolution #351 from the floor without committee consideration.
• Resolution #351 – Support the inclusion of Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York, to be designated as a unit of the National Park system.
  • “This is a resolution we are hoping to pass to support the Fort Ontario Complex, Safe Haven Museum, to be listed as a national landmark,” Barlow said. “We think it would reap enormous economic benefits for the city of Oswego, and much more importantly, appropriately recognize the unique local historical assets we have.”

The next scheduled common council meeting will be Monday, November 8.

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