Write a commentOn Wednesday, September 30, 5th Ward Alderman Billy Barlow met with local voters at Canal Commons. Barlow is running as the Republican candidate in the mayoral election scheduled for November 3rd.
Barlow opened up by thanking everyone for coming to Canal Commons. Barlow explained that he was born and raised in the city of Oswego, graduated from Oswego High School class of 2008, then graduated from Arizona State University in 2012 and is currently a third generation business owner of Barlow Consessions, LLC. After graduating from college, Barlow wanted to be where his friends and family and good people were, so he decided to move back to Oswego.
Barlow stated that he has always had an interest in government and politics. In 2013, when Dan Donovan announced he was retiring, Bill Barlow made the decision to run for the 5th Ward Alderman, winning the vote “70 - 30.” Barlow also became the Regional Director for the New York State Assembly. During his first term, Barlow admitted “I learned a lot.” He also took part in the home improvement tax freeze, helped to have current dog ownership laws enforced with the help of Animal Control and helped to achieve a lowered tax increase to only 1%.
After Barlow gave a brief description of his accomplishments as 5th Ward Alderman, he stated that while knocking on doors during his Mayoral campaign, there were three reoccurring issues brought to his attention; “taxes, potholes, and neighborhoods.” Barlow feels there is a large demographic of elderly who are on fixed incomes and raising taxes severely limits their spending.
On the issue of attracting younger families to Oswego, Barlow asks “Do you come into Oswego and pay more taxes or do you move a bit further away and pay close to only half the taxes of Oswego and endure a little commute?” Barlow feels that the 43% tax increase (before he was on city council) hurt the city by discouraging people, young and old, from staying here because “People can choose where they live and pay taxes and when they look at Oswego's tax rate, they move on. And when people leave, businesses leave.” Barlow feels that in order to stop tax increases, the city needs to go after, and eliminate, what he considers “wasteful spending”. Things like unnecessary overtime and addressing city department management issues that use much needed dollars, better spent.
Barlow is very passionate about the neighborhoods of the City of Oswego. He feels that the neighborhoods are the city’s “biggest asset” and can be “our biggest investment.” Barlow feels that the code enforcement needs more focus on Bridge Street and other locations in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd wards. A lot of the issues Oswego faces, according to Barlow, are communication and customer service. “Somebody who needs a handicap rail on their front porch, that can take a month to accomplish, when in another municipality it takes only four days; that’s a problem.” Barlow stated that, “Bridge Street should be our best looking street, yet it has failed curb appeal.” Currently, code enforcement is being done by the fire department and Barlow would like to “establish it as its own office, reports directly to the Mayor and must be prioritized.” Barlow acknowledged that the City had code enforcement before he was an alderman but he believes the city did not have enough code enforcers and believes that the system itself “needs work.” Barlow also feels that “With proper leadership and prioritized code enforcement, the city can revitalize and help assist organizations here in Oswego dedicated to revitalization. Those neighborhoods will then help stabilize property values and create neighborhoods people want to live in.”
Barlow feels that SUNY Oswego students might not want to live in those big skyscraper cities but also do not want to live in the country. Barlow is convinced that Oswego is the perfect sized community for a younger generation. He also noted that there needs to be a better community relationship between the college and the city of Oswego. Barlow feels that there needs to be “a viable line of communication” between the two.
