New city engineer takes the helm at City Hall

Apr. 4—WATERTOWN — Tom Compo never thought he'd end up as the city engineer when it was suggested 20 years ago that he should work for the city.

Compo recalled that then-acting city engineer Gary Pilon "said in jest" that he should leave his job at GYMO Architecture, Engineering, & Land Surveying and become an employee at City Hall.

And now all these years later, Compo has done just that.

"I'm very excited to be here," he said just a week into his new job.

For the past four years, Compo, 53, worked across the street at the state Dulles Office Building as the permit coordinator for the Department of Transportation.

Compo is coming on board amidst of the busiest time for the city's engineering department.

"There's a lot of projects to get caught up on," he said.

A bid will soon go out to fix a leaky pipe in a 5-milllon-gallon reservoir that cause the city lose 400,000 gallons of water a day for decades.

In the next year or so, the city will start work on a project that reduces two disinfection byproducts that exceed acceptable levels at the Huntington Street water treatment plant.

A handful of water line projects remain to be done that used American Rescue Plan Act money.

A large spread sheet sits across his third-floor City Hall desk that lists the projects that his department will oversee and be involved in.

Some work is done by his office and some by consultants and go through the Request for Proposal process. He knows how all that works because he was a private consultant for many years.

When Pilon talked to him about working for the city so many years ago, he was involved with the State Street/Route 3 bypass project, he recalled. He was a partner with GYMO for 12 years.

He's surprised at how much city water is used by other users. The list includes the Development Authority of the North Country, Fort Drum, Pamelia and the town of Watertown.

He heard about the city engineer while working for the DOT. He knew that the city went more than six month trying to find someone to fill the position, but that didn't dissuade him for going for it.

"I think I will offer a lot with my experience," he said.

Some people might recognize him name. Mayor Sarah V. Compo Pierce's father's name also is Tom Compo.

Attending his first council meeting earlier this week, she joked that he wasn't her father when she introduced him to the audience at City Hall that night.

Compo sees both the humor and the confusion with the fact that he has the same name as the mayor's father. He met the other Tom Compo once many years ago through a mutual friend.

Years ago, he also mistakenly picked up the other Tom Compo's dry cleaning.

Compo was born in Watertown but his family left the area following the death of his father when he was just eight. His family moved backed to Lowville, He also worked in Saratoga Springs.

The father of two grown children, Compo graduated from SUNY at Morrisville, Onondaga Community College and then from Drexall University in Philadelphia, where he's received a degree in engineering.

He's been an engineer for nearly 30 years.