SYRACUSE — The eight buildings still standing on the former Roth Steel property at 800 Hiawatha Blvd. will be torn down under a contract approved by the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA). OCIDA agreed to pay ERSI (Electronics Recycling & Scrapping, Inc.) of DeWitt up to $500,000 to tear down the buildings. That work […]
SYRACUSE — The eight buildings still standing on the former Roth Steel property at 800 Hiawatha Blvd. will be torn down under a contract approved by the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA).
OCIDA agreed to pay ERSI (Electronics Recycling & Scrapping, Inc.) of DeWitt up to $500,000 to tear down the buildings. That work is expected to be completed within six months. However, much work remains to be done before the 23 acres on the south shore of Onondaga Lake are usable, officials say.
“We’re probably going to have to spend more here for a while,” OCIDA Chair Pat Hogan said before the unanimous vote.
Hogan tells CNYBJ that the former scrap yard first needs to be cleared, then needs to be investigated for contaminants, and finally, decontaminated before it would be usable or even left as a grassy field.
“I think we’re going to be in it until it’s all cleaned up, at least that’s my opinion, and the board’s,” Hogan says.
OCIDA bought the property from a Canadian company, called American Iron & Metal Co., Inc. in 2015. That firm sought to continue operating a scrap yard on the lakeside land.
Hogan says officials have long talked of using the former Roth site for part of the Loop the Lake Trail that would encircle all of Onondaga Lake with a path for walking and bicycling.
“You could see that park going through there — and soon,” Hogan says.
