Town officials don protective gear to execute search warrant and inspect derelict former restaurant site

More than six months after serving a demand on the owners of a derelict former restaurant on Griffing Avenue, Riverhead Town took a step last week toward an enforcement action that could result in the building’s demolition.

The town executed an administrative search warrant on the former Courthouse Restaurant site Thursday afternoon, Supervisor Sean Walter said. Town engineers Ken Testa and Drew Dillingham and fire marshal Craig Zitek donned protective suits and gear to enter the long-vacant building for an inspection.

“We are looking to see whether the building is structurally safe,” the supervisor said. “If it isn’t we will tell them the building has to be torn down,” Walter said.

The town served notice on the property owners in November and December. The notice allege that the the building’s roof is collapsed, exposing roof rafters to the elements, its soffits are rotting away, rubbish and refuse has accumulated on the property and vermin activity has been observed.

The next step, if the inspection results warrant, will be a public hearing under chapter 54 of the Riverhead Town Code, which grants the town authority to remedy dangerous conditions or raze the structure.

“It’s a difficult burden [of proof] to meet,” Walter said.

Councilman John Dunleavy called for action by the town in November. “We’ve got to clean up Riverhead of these old dilapidated buildings,” Dunleavy said in an interview at the time.

“People going to the new courthouse and look out the window there see a building falling apart. All of the people coming to the court by train or parking in the public lot across from this building see this and it’s not good,” Dunleavy said. “It’s just a mess.”

Walter said last week the town has been building its case.

“Now we’ll move forward,” he said.