Community News

Mayor Billy Barlow announced today the results of the two-week code enforcement sweep from May 9th to May 23rd in the first and third wards in the City of Oswego.

The sweep was designed to prevent stockpiling and junk accumulation in front of rental properties as students moved out at the end of the college semester and citizens started their Spring-cleaning routine. Mayor Barlow issued a letter to all landlords in the first and third wards asking them to be proactive and plan for their tenants to dispose of any garbage, furniture, or debris without it being in public space for an extended period of time.

The fourteen-day blitz resulted in 303 non-complaint properties being brought into compliance immediately during the two-week span, most of which involved used furniture and excessive garbage being placed in public space.

“Our proactive code enforcement sweep was extremely effective and our proactive approach to preventing additional violations and our strategy to bring the violators into immediate compliance worked as we saw little stockpiling and visible debris during this timeframe,” said Mayor Billy Barlow. “I’d like to thank our City of Oswego Code Enforcement department and the Oswego City Police Department for their collaboration and focus during the sweep and we will continue to improve our code enforcement efforts as I remain as committed as ever to cracking down on negligent landlords and addressing blight in our neighborhoods,” Barlow said.

Curt Miller, director of code enforcement, said, “most property owners did a great job maintaining property and following local laws during our code blitz. As usual, the bulk of our problems stemmed from out-of-town landlords who always try to do the least amount of work. The code blitz allowed us to be on top and aggressive with these issues and bring them into immediate compliance. I am thankful for Mayor Barlow’s strong leadership and for the good work of the men and women in the department of Code enforcement and Oswego Police department.”

Mayor Barlow also thanked all city residents who called in non-complaint properties and encouraged Oswego homeowners to call the Oswego City Code Enforcement Department with any building and property code complaints at 315-342-8265 throughout the summer months.