Village Approves Amendment of Trespass Offense Ordinance

An ordinance amending trespass offenses was approved on Tuesday night. (file photo)

On Tuesday night, Village of Oswego approved an ordinance amending trespass offenses.

Trustee Kit Kuhrt had questions about the ordinance and a discussion followed. The agenda item from staff said that there were concerns from Homeowners Associations about people fishing in their ponds which can cause damage to shorelines and water circulation units.

“The HOAs have to dump a lot of money into upkeep and remediation of the pond over time,” said Oswego Chief of Police Jason Bastin.

Bastin says that they normally need a complainant in order to take action, but because these incidents happen during the day, there is no complainant around. Bastin says that this ordinance will allow police to do that without a complainant.

“We’ve got a few ponds where people continually, the same people, are coming back are fishing at them [ponds] again and again. And the State statute isn’t really helping us when we can’t have somebody there to sign a complaint.”

“The goal is to help protect the property, the damage to the property. Having this ordinance just is another great tool for us to address this issue.”

Oswego Village Administrator Dan DiSanto said, “At our quarterly Homeowners Confederation meetings, this topic is a popular one. And we hear a lot from the Homeowners Confederation that they would like police assistance on this matter, and this is something that they’ve been supportive of.”

Bastin said, “we get quite a few complaints, especially from board members on homeowners associations because they know the cost associated with having to recondition the shoreline and the different things involved in that.”

Bastin said that it would be incumbent upon the HOAs to have clearly marked “no fishing” signage around their ponds.