With residents expressing concerns about the demolition of the former Swezey's store taking place on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Patchogue Village Mayor Paul Pontieri said legal issues forced the demolition date to get pushed up a day to Sept. 11.
"Tritec is tied up in some legal issues that have to be taken care of on Wednesday," Pontieri said, explaining that the village did not want the demolition stalled.
"It's unfortunate that it's on the day that it is," Pontieri said of it being held on Sept. 11.
Chris Kelly, Tritec's director of marketing, told Patch that the date was changed to maintain the construction schedule.
"We understand the significance of the day but our actions are not meant to be ones of remembrance, defiance or disrespect," Kelly said. "We are holding no ceremony or scheduling any speeches."
Several residents took to Patchogue Patch's Facebook page to criticize the new demolition date.
"That is in such poor taste to tear down a building on such a horrific day in which so many lost lives in buildings coming down," Kimberly Piretti McBride posted.
The building is set to be demolished at 6:30 a.m. next Tuesday.
The demolition of the store, which earlier this summer, is to make way for Tritec Real Estate company's plan to bring 291 apartments, 46,000 square feet of retail space and 18,000 square feet of office space at the intersection.
Old, decrepit buildings will be demolished as part of the normal routine of construction projects all over the country on Tuesday - probably even in New York City. And you know why? Because businesses continue to run, lives move forward on the September 11th anniversary, and all of that is not symbolic of anything and is not at all related to a terrorist attack that happened 11 years ago.
My sister was in the 2nd tower AS the plane hit her building. She survived while many of her friends and colleagues did not. I was in NYC and had to walk to Queens from midtown in a mass exodus of people with the smoke rising from where the towers were. I just spoke with her over the phone and told her all about this hoopla over the demolition of a building that has been a long time coming and asked her if she was offended or thought it was inappropriate. I presented her with the facts and snippets of some of the other opinions expressed here and on Facebook. I said that people thought it was "appaling" and "terrible" and "insensitive". Her reaction? "it is nowhere near the same thing. It is an empty building and no one is going to die. People just want something to complain about at all times." I am in total agreement. In fact, it would never in a million years have ever occurred to me to even think about the terrorist attacks until all of this debate started. Life carries on. Please go do something loving and productive and stop complaining online!
What a way to remember the 3000 plus Americans who tradically lost their lives, including many from communities surrounding Patchogue, by watching today another building come down.. Tritec good not wait just one day - its all about money isn't it.