The city of Oswego is cracking down on landlords in an attempt to keep the streets clean during graduation season.
Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow says between spring cleaning and leases ending, the first few weeks of May were historically a struggle.
"You would drive around for these two weeks, and you'd see huge stockpiles of furniture and garbage and trash in our neighborhoods,” said Barlow. “Now, at the same time, it's graduation weekend at SUNY. The weather's turning nice, so people are going outside and going down to the waterfront."
So the city launched an annual code enforcement sweep in an effort to hold homeowners and landlords accountable for the state of their properties. Oswego police and code enforcement officials will be conducting patrols, including on evenings and weekends, to make sure regulations are being followed.
That includes making arrangements to properly dispose of trash, furniture, and appliances, and keeping them off of curbsides and lawns.
“We try to be proactive and let the landlords know our expectations ahead of time, and then they can pass on through their tenants the expectations. They can make arrangements if tenants are moving furniture out,” said Barlow. “They need to get a dumpster ahead of time preferably, or have it removed within 24 hours,” said Barlow.
If landlords don’t comply, they can be fined.
At the end of the day, we can't have people traveling through our community or living in our community with huge piles of garbage all over the neighborhood,” Barlow said.
The sweep runs through May 23.
