Niagara Falls sues embattled contractor

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - The honeymoon's over for one contractor in Niagara Falls.

It was almost a year ago to the day when Man O Trees owner David Pfeiffer told News 4's Luke Moretti about high radiation levels on the reconstruction of Lewiston Road. He said then that the city wanted him to keep going on the project, which was behind schedule and over budget by millions.

Thursday night, the Falls City Council voted to hire Hodgson Russ to sue Man O Trees and put the project out to bid again.

Falls Mayor Paul Dyster said, "Basically, in 2011 there was a slowdown. Very little work was done on the project by Man O Trees in 2011. They were granted an extension to continue the project until March of this year and in the final months of that extension basically very little work was done and we concluded at the end that they had basically abandoned the project."

You may recall that Man O Trees is the contractor under fire for the unfinished reconstruction of the Martin Luther King Park splash pad. Sam Herbert has been a vocal critic of the project, which is months behind schedule and won't be completed until after this summer ends.

Dyster continued, "We then entered into discussions with them and their bonding company, trying to see if there was some way of resolving this situation so that they could come back to work and complete the work in a timely fashion. That was not successful."

We called Man O Tress for comment, but could not reach anyone.