08/04/09 Erie County Leaders Demolish River Road Petroleum Tank Farm

Original YNN Buffalo Air Date: 08/04/09
Erie County leaders are knocking down the old to bring in the new. An old petroleum tank farm is coming down in Tonawanda. Wrecking crews were on hand to start the demolition along River Road. The tank farm was constructed back in the 1930’s, but it’s been abandoned since the early 90’s. This tank farm once held 12 large above ground storage tanks, but has since gone to wreck and ruins. Tonawanda leaders say it’s time to eliminate this eyesore along River Road and open it up to developers.
“This project helps us to purge the areas of this great eyesore. The tank as we heard is down. This building, the canopies, the piping will all go today in the next couple of days,” said Tonawanda Town Supervisor Anthony Caruana.
“It’s never easy doing developing anywhere. But when you have the cooperation of the town like we do here. It makes things a lot easier,” TM Montante Development’s Kevin Montante said.
“There’s no impact to the county taxpayer. But that’s the way the tax system works in Erie County and we’re hoping at some point we will turn this property over to a developer,” said Erie County Executive Chris Collins
Erie County took temporary ownership of the 25 acre property to move the demolition project forward. The town of Tonawanda is owed more than one million dollars in back taxes on the land. The demo project is expected to take two months to complete.