Isophoric News · Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Oswego's Common Council approved a $949,800 engineering contract 5-1, with one abstention, on a second vote after rejecting it 3-4 two weeks earlier
The Oswego Common Council voted 5-1, with one abstention, on Monday, Oct. 26 to authorize a $949,800 bid from GHD Consulting Services, Inc. for professional engineering services on the Ellen Street and Gardenier Hill Water Tower project, according to the result announced at the meeting. The vote was on Resolution 347, the reconsideration of Resolution 332, which the council rejected 3-4 on Oct. 13, according to the transcript of that meeting. No further reconsideration motion was made. Under the council's rules (Chapter A285 of the city code), only a member who voted with the majority may move to reconsider a vote, and no such motion is in order after the second regular meeting following the vote; Oct. 26 was the next regular meeting after Oct. 13. The rules also provide, in Rule XII, that questions of procedure are determined by the current edition of Robert's Rules of Order, governed by applicable New York statutes.
The vote came in a stretch when the council has rarely split: of 92 resolution results announced in the six council meetings reviewed from late July through Oct. 13, only three were divided, and two of them came on Oct. 13, both on contracts with GHD, the 3-4 rejection of Resolution 332 and a 4-3 approval of Resolution 333, a $280,000 amendment for construction phase engineering services on the Lead Service Line Replacement Project, according to the transcript. Before the Oct. 13 roll call, a councillor said they had asked for the GHD contract the week before and had not seen it. At the Oct. 19 committee meeting, the city engineer told councillors they had all now received GHD's proposal and described the scope: removing the Ellen Street water tank and clearing the property for future use or sale, rehabilitating the Gardenier tank, which the engineer called underutilized, and connecting the two water service zones to eliminate dead ends and water quality problems. On April 13 the council passed an $11,170,000 bond resolution for improvements to the water distribution system, which the mayor introduced as "again for the cost of the Ellen Street tank project"; the record the newsroom holds does not say how much of that borrowing the engineering contract uses.
The newsroom prints the vote as a total. The roll call of record is in the council's minutes, which the City Clerk's office holds and which had not been published at the time of writing. The minutes of the Oct. 13 meeting were on the Oct. 26 agenda as Resolution 340.
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