ITHACA, N.Y. (WENY) -- With the holiday season upon us, some Ithaca residents are concerned the demolition of the former Tompkins County Library couldn't come at a worse time.

"This is the busiest week for merchants and small business owners," said mother, landlord and Ithaca property owner, Suzy Kramer. "This is a very critical time, live or die situation for them. To start this noisy, messy demolition right now is not a happy a happy holidays message."

Suzy Kramer lives right next to the former library site, and is also a landlord and a mother. She says she believes holiday shoppers could be at risk of being exposed to asbestos from the demolition. In response, Kramer created a petition to stop construction until after the holiday season. 

"Within a stone's throw we have businesses that have already signed the petition and then the Dewitt building," said Kramer. "All the merchants are very concerned. Almost all of them signed. The ones that were in, of course we didn't always find owners. We had dozens of merchants signing."

The owner of the library property, Frost Travis, says he doesn't feel like the demolition will impact local stores.

"We're not really in a retail area here," said Travis-Hyde Properties, Frost Travis. "This is a transition to a residential neighborhood. So I don't think that there's necessarily an impact from this construction project on people's choices on where to shop."

Travis goes on to say there are measures in place to help keep people safe. 

"We are following, as I said, all of the safety protocols that are required of us," said Travis. "Gorick, our demolition contractor, has been doing this for many, many years and across New York State there have been thousands of controlled demolitions that have occurred without incident."