ONEIDA — The Oneida Common Council went out to bid again for the removal of demolition debris at 140 Madison Street, formerly the Madison House, at Tuesday’s meeting.

The Madison House was declared unsafe in June 2022, and an order was given to the property owner to demolish the structure within 90 days.

Due to the expense of the removal, the property owners tried to work with the city. The property owners had expressed interest in turning the property over to the city, but they also mentioned that there could be a mortgage or a lien on the property.

The city was in talks with the property owner from September to November while a search was being undertaken. And then, in December, the building’s roof collapsed, and it was deemed unsafe. The building came down before anything could be finalized and the property owners have since walked away, according to the city of Oneida.

Bids to clear the wreckage of the Madison House came in much higher than anticipated, forcing members of the Oneida Common Council to table legislation at the May 3 meeting.

The bids were opened and are as follows:

Seymour Excavating Inc. — $195,000

Empire Building — $497,300

MJ’s Contracting Services Inc. — $157,000

Bronze Contracting LLC — $224,000

Dan’s Hauling & Demo — $107,500

Abscope Environmental, Inc — $228,500

The apparent low bidder was Dan’s Hauling & Demo out of Wynantskill, NY at $107,500.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the resolution to accept the lowest bidder was brought again before the council. It was originally tabled by Ward 6 Councilor Tom Simchik, who said that because bids came in higher than anticipated, he wanted to take another look at the options the city had.

“Looking into it further, there are a number of things within the bid that could be done in-house,” Simchik said. “We could still back charge the property, but we wouldn’t have to bid out.”

“It’ll save money,” Ward 5 Councilor Bill Pagano said.

The city council voted down the resolution for the original bids and further passed another resolution to advertise for bids for the removal of debris, with modifications to the original advertisement.

Common Council’s next regular meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 6, in the Common Council Chambers at 109 N. Main St. in Oneida.