What appeared to be a suspicious package tied high in a tree led to the evacuation of Syracuse City Hall and neighboring businesses early Monday afternoon. A nearly three-hour investigation determined the item didn’t pose a threat.
The routine business of city hall and the common council was replaced by fear and uncertainty just before noon.
Common Council President Helen Hudson was among those standing outside waiting for the all-clear to go back in.
“You were about to go into study session, right?” WAER News asked.
“We were, and they just told us to evacuate the building,” Hudson said.
The Common Council was supposed to go into a study session at noon, then a meeting at 1 o'clock. They were obviously canceled.
A Syracuse Police Department robot could be seen investigating the package in the tree while the streets around city hall were roped off.
Police eventually determined the suspicious item was in fact a New York State Department of Transportation listening device to monitor ambient noise from the adjacent freeways. Police said a hard plastic case and a protruding microphone were strapped to a tree at Water and Montgomery streets last Thursday. Mayor Ben Walsh said the placement is unusual.
“The majority of the discussions have been around affixing these devices to utility poles, so a tree was a surprise to me,” he said. “But we want to make sure that we look into the communications to determine if or when the city was notified.”
Mayor Walsh said the devices are usually in place for a week, and this one is coming down soon.
Nearly three hours after the incident began, police began removing police tape around the scene.
A short time later, City Hall reopened to employees but remained closed to the public for the rest of the day.
It reopens Tuesday for regular business hours.
