NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — The state of emergency the City of Niagara Falls has been operating under since July 20 to fix roads and cut high grass is no longer in effect as of Sunday night.
The city spent 62 days under a state of emergency that Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino said was enacted to fix public safety measures.
“The state of emergency should just be viewed as the only vehicle possible to do road paving and grass cutting,” Restaino said earlier this month.
Following multiple failed city council votes in July, Restaino told me he declared a state of emergency in the city to hire contractors himself.
Council members Vincent Cauley and Bridgette Myles told me they had good reasons to vote down those city contracts, between a union issue with a road pavement bidder and other issues with the grass cutting contract.
“The city lot contract, we found out that the company selected as a preferred bidder, their LLC was inactive,” Myles said. “It seems as if the state of emergency was put in place to select the administration’s preferred bidder.”
WATCH: 'Do not see a difference': Niagara Falls state of emergency declaration expires
Restaino said he hired contractors but did not specify who. He told me he would continue to extend the state of emergency until all contractors completed their work and were paid in full.
The mayor then let the state of emergency expire Sunday at midnight, without another extension.
Restaino told me he had seen progress made on Main and Ferry Streets. However, Myles remains unconvinced work has been done.
She is critical of the mayor’s decision, pointing to several spots we visited together that weren’t touched in the past two months.
“I didn't see a difference,” Myles said. “It goes back to my original belief. Did you issue a state of emergency to bypass city council and pick your preferred bidder?”
While I was in the city, I noticed a few small differences. Grass by the old Como restaurant that had been as tall as my chest was cut down to a manageable height, although it’s still riddled with trash, and the Department of Public Works did fill in that sinkhole I told you about last week.
WATCH: ‘I have been calling’: 2.5-foot-deep sinkhole forming in Niagara Falls
Myles tells me she still has yet to receive any list of the actions taken under this emergency.
“It's very bizarre. This isn't normal,” Myles said. “What type of contracts did you execute? How much money did you spend? You know, that's our job. We need information. We need answers.”
Information she hopes to receive at Wednesday’s city council meeting, or else she’d like to subpoena the mayor for it.
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