Oswego Committee of the Whole Meeting on July 15, 2025: Road Capital Fund Allocation
Oswego Committee of the Whole Meeting on July 15, 2025: Road Capital Fund Allocation
The Oswego Village Board Committee of the Whole met on July 15, 2025, at 6:00 PM in the Oswego Village Hall to discuss the allocation of approximately $428,000 in surplus capital funds from the 2025 Annual Road Maintenance Project. The meeting included a public comment, staff presentations on four alternatives, and trustee deliberation leading to a consensus on fund use.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Jennifer Copina, a resident of Deer Path Creek, expressed opposition to a proposed dog path (referred to as the "Hunt Club" area) near her backyard. She requested the board not place the path behind her home and asked to be included in future discussions on the topic.
Discussion Items
- F.1 Considerations of Remaining Annual Road Maintenance Capital Funds – Village staff (Kurt) and project engineer Andre Jungman presented four alternatives for using a surplus of $427,000–$428,000 from the 2025 road maintenance project (original budget $3.1 million). The alternatives were:
- South Harrison Street improvements: streetscape engineering ($205,000) and/or Benton Street connection engineering ($330,000) – both key projects from the 2015 comprehensive plan. Construction would be moved from 2028 to 2026-2027.
- Temporary parking lots at Van Buren (20 spaces, $145,000) or Adams (17 spaces, $25,000) to serve local businesses.
- Additional 2025 roadway resurfacing: Millstream Lane ($192,000), Whitewater Lane ($95,000), and Mill Road wheel-path patch ($25,000).
- Reserve funds for a larger 2026 resurfacing program.
- Trustees discussed trade-offs between advancing long-term downtown streetscape (Harrison) versus addressing immediate resident concerns about road conditions (Millstream, Whitewater, Mill Road). Trustee Cooper and others favored combining Harrison Street streetscape engineering with Millstream and Mill Road resurfacing, noting the total would be under budget. Trustee Kaufman supported prioritizing Harrison Street engineering to position for grants and development, while Trustee McCarthy Lang advocated for road repairs first to directly address resident complaints. Trustee Hughes suggested careful communication about project priorities. Trustee Novi raised the issue of the Wolf Crossing/Douglas Road extension but was informed it is not part of this discussion. Trustee Hughes also requested that streetscape standards be reviewed to allow wider sidewalks for potential café seating and festival use.
Key Outcomes
- The board reached consensus to allocate the surplus funds as follows:
- South Harrison Street streetscape engineering: $205,000
- Millstream Lane resurfacing: $192,000
- Mill Road wheel-path patch: $25,000
- Total: $422,000, leaving approximately $6,000 under budget.
- Staff was directed to begin engineering for South Harrison Street in fall 2025, with construction anticipated in 2026-2027. The Millstream and Mill Road work will be completed in 2025.
- The board emphasized the need for clear public communication explaining the rationale for funding a downtown project over additional residential road repairs, noting that the unfunded Whitewater Lane will remain a priority for the 2026 program.
- The meeting then moved into closed session for personnel, litigation, collective bargaining, and property matters. Following closed session, the Committee of the Whole adjourned.
Meeting Transcript
Trustee Cooper. Here. Trustee Hughes. Here. Trustee Koenig. Here. Trustee McCarthy Lang. Present. Trustee Novi. Trustee Torres absent. All right. First up, we're going to open the public forum. So if there's anyone wishing to address the board or the public, please feel free to come forward now. I do have one green slip from uh from Jennifer Copina. Feel free to come on down. And welcome. Thank you. Can you guys hear me okay? Yep. I have a loud voice anyway. I just I won't take a lot of your time. I appreciate your hat letting me come and talk to you today. Um I live in uh Deer Path Creek, and my house is right by where you are talking about putting a dog path in. I think you call it the hunt club. It's not really close to the hunt club, but I think that's what you call it. Um my backyard looks out onto it. And our yards are really small, and uh, we're not allowed to have a fence. And many of us, and I'm sure you've probably already gotten some letters from some of my neighbors, and I know there are a few others that are planning to come either to this the next meeting or uh in a couple of weeks, but we really would like you not to put it behind us. And so I just want to come and put my little vote in. Please know, and um, rather than going into the all the ideas and taking your time right now, but when you have that debate and you have that discussion, I would like to be a part of it so that I can share my concerns with you at that time. That's all I want to say. Thank you very much. All right, thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to address the board? Seeing nobody, we will close the public forum and move on to new business. Uh this evening we have uh item F1. Kurt Yeah, so uh tonight we are going to look at four alternatives for the surplus funds uh from the MFT project after design and construction. We had approximately 428,000 left over of capital funds, and staff has put together four alternatives, and our project engineer Andre Jungman is here to present on them. All right. I love it when we talk budget surplus. It is always good. Um just a little background on the surplus. The village of Oswego estimated 3.1 million. That was 1.6 million from the MFT and 1.5 million from the CIP for the 2025 annual road maintenance project. After completing the necessary engineering, uh we have estimated the construction costs, and they have come in under uh the proposed budget, leaving around the 427,000 uh left over. The three alternatives, well, four alternatives, one being to reserve the funds for 2026. But the first one is the South Harrison Street improvements, either uh with the streetscape or with connecting it to the Benton uh road path. The second is the Van Buren and Adams parking improvements. The third is additional 2025 roadway resurfacing projects. Going a little bit more in depth.
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