AUBURN -- Removal of asbestos from the Cayuga County Board of Elections Building on Court Street may begin at the end of this week.

The Cayuga County Legislature unanimously voted Wednesday night to hire Abscope Environmental of Canastota to conduct asbestos abatement at the building for $24,500.

Ann Petrus, spokeswoman for the county's Investigative and Coordination Committee, estimated that the physical removal of asbestos will take less than two weeks and will begin as soon as possible.

Last week, four bids, including Abscope's, were rejected due to missing documents.

At a meeting held Wednesday afternoon, the county reviewed three bids. Action Technical Services of Syracuse responded with a $30,800 bid and Summit Environmental Services of East Syracuse responded with a $31,250 bid.

"We're not going with this bid because it's the lowest price," said David Pappert, R-Auburn.

An employee of Geomatrix of Liverpool, the company hired by the county to conduct asbestos consulting, confirmed with Pappert that he is confident with the work Abscope will do and that the company has worked on a number of other large projects.

Money will be taken from the county's contingency account to pay for the abatement.

Removal of asbestos will take less than two weeks, Petrus said.

Following completion of asbestos removal, Geomatrix will have to test the entire site again to assure that all the asbestos has been removed.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Citizen.