Former Court House Restaurant will be demolished over protests of owner

The town has decided to demolish the dilapidated former Court House Restaurant on Griffing Avenue, which officials said today is in danger of imminent collapse.

Large sections of missing roof have exposed the interior of the building to the elements, causing rotted beams, cracked concrete in the building’s foundation and a visible shift in the building’s roof as the second story sinks into the first, according to testimony and photographs provided by the town engineer and fire marshal today.

But property owner Lyle Pike today challenged their assertion that these structural deficiencies put the building in danger of imminent collapse.

“Is it in disrepair? Yes,” he said at a public hearing today on the demolition. “Is it going to fall down tomorrow? No.”

A hearing in November – which included two hours of testimony by town officials and Pike himself – was adjourned to give Pike a chance to have the structure assessed by his own engineer. If he decided it was structurally sound, he agreed to submit plans to the town by Jan. 7.

When Pike did not submit a report or plans as he agreed in November, the town board rescheduled the hearing for today.

For more than 40 minutes today, Pike questioned Fire Marshal Craig Zitek and town engineer Ken Testa and challenged the credentials of both men as expert witnesses.

Zitek said today that he and Testa re-inspected the building again on Jan. 4, after receiving a complaint from a local businessman, and determined that the second-floor dormer on the west end of the building was “continuing to collapse into the building.”

Testa submitted an amended report on the condition of the structure following that inspection. He testified today that water intrusion was weakening the structure and putting it in danger of collapse.

“This situation adds urgency to the need to partially or totally demolish the building,” he said. If the dormer collapsed it could damage an adjacent building and would pose a threat to anyone standing nearby, he said.

Pike, who during the November hearing complained that he has not been able to gain access to the property for four years due to padlocks and chains placed on the doors by the town, said today under questioning by Councilman James Wooten that he has been inside the building since the November hearing, but has spent the past two months negotiating with the Israel family, which wants to buy the building, he said.

The Israels were not available for comment.

“What kind of defense do you have for allowing this abandoned building to disintegrate?” Wooten asked. “The public’s been watching this building fall down and get worse and worse and worse,” he said.

“What’s the ultimate goal that you have with this building?”

“I was fixing the roof years ago,” Pike said. “The Town of Riverhead stopped me. The building was never sold and actually just sat there. Every time I do something I’ve been met with resistance. You guys don’t care, why would I?” Pike answered.

“Shame on you for letting it get to this condition,” Wooten told him.

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio chastised Pike for coming to the hearing without an engineer’s report to counter what the town engineer says the condition of the structure is and instead just questioning the town officials’ judgment.

“You had 30 days to get a building permit, get a demoliton permit, shore it up and make sure it’s structurally sound. I was expecting you to come with an engineer’s report saying that it’s not going to fall down,” Giglio said. “Without a letter from an engineer from you countering what our engineer said that the building is not structurally sound — why would you not bring that today?” she asked.

Following the public hearing, the town board voted to move forward with the demolition, which Testa said he could mobilize within the next two weeks.