After negotiating, city of Syracuse paid just 15 percent of the bill.
View full sizeDemolition at 921-25 N. State Street began March 17 after Syracuse and state officials worked out an agreement to pay for the cost of the work. The agreement limited the city's share of the cost to $100,000. For three weeks, detoured motorists cursed as lawyers for the city of Syracuse and state transportation department dickered over who would pay to demolish a crumbling building that was threatening to fall onto Interstate 81.
Now that the bills for knocking down 921-25 N. State St. are being paid, it appears tough negotiating by Mayor Stephanie Miner’s administration saved Syracuse residents a lot, even if it inconvenienced 50,000 drivers a day.
New York and the city spent about $858,000 to raze Anthony Tartaro’s 100-year-old warehouse and reroute traffic, according to information provided by the two governments.
Of that amount, city taxpayers will be on the hook for $125,548, said Lindsay McCluskey, Miner’s spokeswoman.
That figure does not include $7,500 in salaries and overtime paid to police for traffic control while the highway was closed.
The city’s share — which includes $25,548 the city paid to an engineering firm, C&S Cos., and $100,000 it owes the state — is less than 15 percent of the total cost.
Typically, municipalities must pay for 100 percent of emergency building demolitions within their borders.
But when Tartaro’s building began to fall Feb. 26 onto the shoulder of the northbound lanes of I-81, Miner persuaded Gov. David Paterson the state should help.
In the days that followed, the city administration took a hard line, telling DOT officials that the city would not agree to pay for 30 percent — as the state wanted — because the total cost was unknown.
Syracuse officials would agree to pay only a set amount — $100,000, corporation counsel Juanita Perez Williams told state officials. If the state didn’t like that, the highway could remain closed.
“They kept trying to do an 80-20, or 70-30. We stood our ground,” Perez Williams said. “Our position was the city did not have to contribute anything. This was a state issue.”
Thirty percent of $858,131 — the amount the state and city calculate was spent on the job through July 31 — would be $257,439.
Perez Williams said the negotiating saved the city more, at least $500,000, and possibly $1 million, because that’s what it would have cost the city to do the job itself.
The city’s total annual building demolition budget is only $1 million. Most city demolition jobs cost about $20,000.
The city owes the state $100,000 for its share of the demolition, McCluskey said. It is waiting for more documentation from DOT officials.
As agreed to by the state, Syracuse has been taking the lead to recover the demolition costs from Tartaro.
The city filed a lien for $100,000 against 921-25 N. State St. LLC, Tartaro’s company, Perez Williams said. It is preparing to sue Tartaro on behalf of itself and the state for the total cost of the demolition.
Perez Williams said that city officials have heard Tartaro has no assets. She said the city will consider taking legal action to seize Tartaro’s property if it wins a judgment against him and he is unable to pay.
Tartaro and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
Contact Mike McAndrew at mmcandrew@syracuse.com or 470-3016.