By ANDY GARDNER

 MASSENA -- Arconic, the new company that recently split from Alcoa, is demolishing several old buildings at the Massena West Plant on county Route 42.

Four buildings are on the chopping block that date as far back as the 1920s, according to Steve Rombough, Arconic plant manager.

The former medical building, visible from county Route 42, is in the process of being demolished. That was built around 1947. Last fall, they tore down the first casthouse built in the 1920s, which had been used as storage for the last 40 years or so. Next on the chopping block is a former central garage and a former cafeteria which was built sometime in the mid-20th century, the plant manager said.

Rombough said they are taking down the old structures to accommodate for their workforce which is far smaller than when they were all constructed.

“From this location, and that includes Alcoa, it employed 4,000 plus employees back in the day, in the ’40s and ’50s,” he said. “That number has shrunk. We currently are at less than 1,000 employees.”

The company has been downsizing significantly over the last several years.

In summer 2013, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was quoted as saying 1,000 jobs would be guaranteed under a deal that had been struck with Alcoa.

According to a March 2014 news release from Cuomo's office, the company promised to maintain 750 jobs at the west plant and provide training for the east plant's future workforce, once a promised $600 million modernization of the Alcoa East plant was underway. That plan was dropped.

A 2015 government bailout requires the company to maintain at least 600 jobs in Massena through March 31, 2019. The east plant smelter is now shut down.

Rombough said the services those buildings provided still exist, but nowadays they’re done elsewhere.

They tried to sell the buildings to local businesses, but there were no takers. Rombough said they will try and sell the land, once the demolition is done.

“It would be good for Massena, certainly good for Arconic,” Rombough said.

There were some contamination issues that had to be dealt with. Property Manager Kevin Kitzman said it was mostly asbestos.

“We’ve done asbestos abatement. We’ve removed all that. Other kinds of industrial contamination has been minor. We’ve dealt with that also,” he said.

“New York state governs processes and procedures we need to follow. So we’re following those guidelines in the demolition project management,” Rombough said.

The Department of Environmental Conservation last year listed the Massena West plant’s former continuous mill site as posing a “significant threat to public health and the environment.” The DEC lists more than a dozen areas of Alcoa properties in Massena on their Environmental Site Remediation Database. Many of them are contaminated with chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and cyanide. None of them appear to be the specific areas where the demolition is now taking place.

Rombough said tearing down the buildings turned up some historical aluminum wares made on site. They were saved and could be made into an exhibit either at the Massena Museum or at the plant.

“There’s a strong interest in the history of those buildings, one thing we made sure we did is there were really neat fascia aluminum light posts … materials manufactured on this site decades ago that were part of those buildings and those items were saved. We partnered with Massena Museum about a month ago … they toured,” he said. “I’d like to do something at the front of the property … do something as an exhibit or entry sculpture or something with those items. We’re very cognizant and respectful of the history and that’s why we saved those items.”

[img_assist|nid=199779|title=|desc=Above is the former Alcoa medical building, visible from county Route 42. It was built in 1947. North Country Now photo by Andy Gardner.|link=none|align=left|width=470|height=295]