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| KING FUELS DEMOLITION |
The Troy Engineering and Planning
departments – in addition to the city Council – received a subpoena from the Environmental
Protection Agency regarding controversial demolition projects, according to Amy
O’Connor during an appearance on Talk 1300 Saturday.
Also, according to sources, the feds
questioned Mike Hayner, head of the Department of Public Utilities and acting
commissioner of the Department of Public Works, and the new city Engineer Andrew
Donovan, within the last two weeks.
It appears the feds are wondering
why there were barricades at the King Street row of buildings a day prior to
the Aug. 5 emergency demolition. Investigators are in possession of photos
taken from a camera installed on the Green Island Bridge that show barricades
stacked outside the buildings before Fire Chief Tom Garrett ordered an emergency
demolition.
Hayner, who on Aug. 5 did order
crews to set up city barricades around the demolition site, told the feds he
has no idea how the barricades got there the night before and said the aluminum
barricades at the site did not even belong to the city.
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| ROSAMILIA |
It begs the questions of why preparations
were being made to take the buildings down prior to Garrett declaring them an
imminent threat to public safety and immediately demolished.
The Environmental Protection
Agency, the FBI and the state Labor Department has interviewed a number of former
and current City Hall employees as they investigate the King Street demolition
project and one at the King Fuels site in South Troy.
At King Street, the buildings’
owner, Don Boyajian, asked the city for an emergency demolition in 2010. Under
then Mayor Harry Tutunjian, acting on the advice of City Engineer Russ Reeves, the
request was denied. Three years later, a day after Reeves went on vacation,
Garrett issued the emergency decree and the buildings came down. There was no
asbestos abatement and Bombers, a bar restaurant attached to the King Street
buildings, was allowed to stay open. Patrons were seen entering and exiting the
establishment not 50 feet from where the proverbial wrecking ball was swinging.
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| REEVES |
Reeves later resigned because of
demolition irregularities at the King Fuels site. He said the demolition did
not follow certified engineering guidelines and that work came dangerously
close to a natural gas main. Also, according to former Councilman Mark McGrath
during an appearance on Talk 1300 radio, an employee of one of the demolition
contractors, J.R. Casale, told authorities the company was burying asbestos at
the site.
Last year, the city Council, under
President Rodney Wiltshire, conducted its own investigation through six public
hearings. Those testifying included Mayor Lou Rosamilia, Garrett, Planning Commissioner
Bill Dunne, Deputy Mayor Pete Ryan, Boyajian, Tununjian and a host of others. Part of the EPA subpoena issued to the Council
last week requests a transcript of the hearings in addition to any and all
other records as well as all electronic and paper correspondence regarding the
sites. The request dates to 2010 and includes three successive Councils.
It’s unclear what the subpoenas
issued on the City Hall departments demands, but employees were gathering
records last week to satisfy the request.
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| GARRETT |
According to O’Connor, an attorney
who is an active member of the Democratic Party, the EPA can pursue civil or
criminal penalties when it comes to the failure to properly abate and dispose
of asbestos, a known carcinogenic. Since there is a grand jury empaneled, it is
more than likely looking at criminal sanctions. She did say, however, that it
is generally the contractors’ responsibility to follow state and federal
regulations.
She also said the intentional
disregard of those regulations is one aspect the feds would have to prove
should it bring an indictment or indictments. While there is a grand jury empaneled
only about a third end with an indictment, O’Connor said.
