ADM submits structurally deficient pretext for demo of Great Northern

Public review or rushed demo without review is in Mayor's hands

ADM must be pretty certain it will get it 30-year record of malignant neglect at the landmark Great Northern grain elevator rewarded with an emergency demolition order from the Brown Administration: It didn't even bother filling out the standard application to request demolition, but submitted a custom request for an emergency demolition to Commissioner of Permits and Inspection Services James Comerford.

Normally, city inspectors would do their own information-gathering and report on an incident like the storm damage at ADM. Here, ADM seeks to pre-package the info and conclusions by taking the lead and seeking a demo forthwith.

This is, of course, to evade public review, rodent baiting, asbestos removal and a Preservation Board hearing and review by

independent experts. And who wouldn't want to avoid public review of the slipshod logic and demonstrably untrue assertions that litter ADM's papers? ADM offers, among other things, the results of its 30-year neglect as reason for the demo.

 Buffalo News reporter Mark Sommer writes that Congressman Brian Higgins immediately responded that the city "should hold firm" against ADM's shirking of responsibility for the historic landmark, calling Saturday's storm damage a pretext "to allow ADM to do what they have wanted to do for three decades."

Peg Overdorf, Old First Ward resident and Valley Community Association Executive Director also voiced strong objections to any demolition.

The Campaign for Greater Buffalo, whose members submitted the original city landmark application in 1990 and have fought off several previous attempts at demolition by ADM, would fight to the utmost to save it from the greatest threat the landmark has yet faced. Paul McDonnell, Chair of the Campaign, said he "saw nothing that would conclude that the elevator cannot be restored and adaptively reused." The elevator was phased out by previous owner Pillsbury and remained closed by ADM as a way to eliminate union jobs at the elevator and in the unloading of grain ships, according to union officials.

Mayor Brown will make the ultimate decision on whether his inspections department submits to ADM's structurally deficient logic and demands or allows the normal public review process to take place. The mayor's office has said it would decide today, Thursday.