By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

Recently appointed Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon continued his tour of town hall meetings across the county last week with stops in Cicero, Salina and Clay.

“We’re realigning the way we think county government should work for us,” McMahon said Dec. 11 at Clay Town Hall.

McMahon focused on infrastructure as the key to economic development.

Read on for a few major points from McMahon’s Dec. 11 talk:

Sewer infrastructure

McMahon said while roads in Onondaga County are in good shape, the sewer infrastructure is in great need of improvements.

“Overall, the system is very stressed,” McMahon said of the county’s six wastewater treatment plants.

The county does not own the pipes that feed into these facilities, and those pipes are aging. The costs fall onto local municipalities, and failing pipes force other facilities to process much more wastewater than they are permitted to handle.

McMahon said the Meadowbrook-Limestone Wastewater Treatment Plant, which serves Manlius, Fayetteville, DeWitt and the east side of the city of Syracuse, handles as many as 20 million gallons of wastewater on the wettest days, but it is only permitted to treat 6 million gallons.

“Next thing you know, you have the DEC knocking on your door with fines and consent orders,” McMahon said.

State-mandated repairs often have a domino effect, McMahon said, often uncovering additional issues that need costly fixes.

For each new gallon generated by new businesses or residential development, the county has to remove eight gallons from the wastewater treatment system. The county must address its sewer issues in order for new development to happen according to McMahon.

McMahon said local governments must work with local contractors and businesses to repair the sewer system, which in turn will create more jobs in Central New York.

Learning from ShoppingTown

McMahon said the county is learning from its experience with ShoppingTown Mall so it can better handle the situation with Great Northern Mall, which has been steadily losing tenants in recent years.

The owners of ShoppingTown owe the county $7.6 million in taxes. By next year, that number will be $10 million.

The county is not looking to seize the mall — “We’re not going to be in the landlord business for malls,” McMahon said — but if it had to end up doing so, the property could be resold as is for $8 million to $10 million, recouping the back taxes.

The owners of Great Northern Mall owe Onondaga County about $1.5 million.

“We’re paying a lot of attention to how we do ShoppingTown,” McMahon said.

Solving the I-81 issue

Onondaga County Legislator Casey Jordan (14th District) called the ongoing discussion of what to do with Interstate 81 the “1,000-pound gorilla” in the room.

McMahon expressed frustration that the New York State Department of Transportation does not have a budget for the project and that local leaders and the state have not been able to decide which approach to take.

“They haven’t even come up with a budget yet, so it’s insulting to say certain options cost too much,” he said.

“I doubt we’ll get a viaduct,” he added, noting that a new viaduct would have to be much wider than the current one.

He said he was scheduled to meet with personnel from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office this coming week.

McMahon proposed the idea of rebuilding I-81 as an iconic bridge, echoing remarks made earlier this year by DeWitt Town Supervisor Ed Michalenko.

“If we envision the 1.5 mile section through Syracuse as a bridge, that section of highway could be a unique landmark, even architecturally iconic and help define the city’s skyline, as does the Carrier Dome, the Crouse Hospital clock tower, AXA and the State Tower Building,” Michalenko wrote in a Post-Standard op-ed in May.