It was a typical Fourth of July party: a refreshing dip in the water, lots of food and, to end the night, fireworks. It was also illegal, according to the Riverhead Town fire marshal.
Island Water Park — the water sports and recreation park more than two decades in the making in Calverton — was issued a notice of violation by the Riverhead fire marshal last month for hosting the party. The business lacks a certificate of occupancy, a document certifying the premises have passed important safety inspections and can be lawfully occupied— and it never got a required town permit to put on a fireworks show.
The business was not fined and its representatives assured the fire marshal it “would not happen again,” according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request.
But dozens of publicly available social media posts, made both by people at the property and the business itself, indicate the July 1 party was not the first time — or the last time — that the facility was occupied without the C.O. required by town code. The pictures and videos, which go back several years, show multiple people were on the property having parties or engaging with amenities at the Calverton site — including a giant indoor surf pool and floating structures on the man-made lake at the site.
It isn’t known exactly how many gatherings occurred at the business, which has valid building permits and site plan approval, but does not have the necessary documents — including a certificate of occupancy — to legally occupy and operate the facility. It’s unknown whether or not any of the people at these gatherings paid for their time at the park.
Eric Scott, president of Island Water Park — now rebranded as Scott’s Pointe — in a phone interview Wednesday did not deny the activity.
“I’m allowed to have it here. I’m allowed to, as long as I don’t charge a dollar,” Scott said.
“I’ve owned the land for 24 years and I’ve been doing it for 24 years,” Scott said.
“So if I’ve been breaking the rules for 24 years, nobody’s said anything to me for 24 years,” he said.
Riverhead Town Attorney Erik Howard said in an interview that he did not know the extent of activity on the property outside of this year’s Fourth of July party. When informed about the social media posts, and the fact there were no town approvals to use the property, Howard said it was OK for the owner and his friends and family to use the property, even if it doesn’t have a certificate of occupancy.
“What I can say they definitely are not supposed to be doing is they’re not supposed to be open to the public for commercial purposes. If it is, you know, friends and family, I think there’s a little bit of leeway there,” Howard said.
Council Member Tim Hubbard said he does not approve of the owner having a party at the site. “But if it was just like family members or somebody going in to use the equipment on their property, I really don’t have a big issue with that,” he said.
The earliest social media post showing the use of Island Water Park’s man-made lake was posted in June 2019 by Eric Scott’s wife Claudia. The pictures show about a half-dozen people on a “picnic at IWP,” as the post calls it, including a picture of Eric Scott on a boat on the manmade lake and a grill in the background.
Another social media post by Claudia Scott posted later that month shows the Scott family on the lake again waterskiing on the lake and with a jet ski. That post was liked by Assembly Member Jodi Giglio. It’s unknown whether Giglio, who was a Riverhead town council member at the time, told anybody in the town about the Scott’s use of the property.
Another get-together on the lake occurred around the start of the summer in 2021, Claudia Scott’s social media posts show. Pictures and videos posted in June 2021 show people putting an inflatable slide into the lake and swinging on it.
As time went on, the gatherings on the property became larger, according to pictures posted on social media. One picture posted by Claudia Scott on July 4, 2022 shows around three dozen people — both adults and children — inside the building. The posts also show the surf pool and the inflatable structure on the man-made lake, also called an “aqua park,” being used during the gathering.
“I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know that it happened,” Hubbard said of the parties at Island Water Park. “And obviously if it did happen, it shouldn’t have happened. But this is the first time I’m hearing about it.”
Several other Facebook posts in 2022 show activity at the site, primarily the use of the surf pool.
After the fire marshal issued the violation to Island Water Park regarding the July party, social media activity on Scott’s Pointe’s social media became more brazen, including the posting of edited videos to promote the park.
Howard said there are no active investigations into Island Water Park and town’s code enforcement didn’t receive any tips about activity at the property.
“I’m looking at their Facebook page for the first time. Because, you know, we don’t really — I can’t monitor everybody’s Facebook page,” Howard said. “So what I can do is I can ask planning based on what they are approved to be doing on the properties if this would constitute a violation of whatever approvals they’ve gotten from the planning board.”
Howard said if the site was open for commercial business, then they would be in violation of the town code, but if they have family members or friends at the site “who are posing for photos to create advertising, I don’t know if that would be a substantive violation.”
Several sections of the Riverhead Town Code spell out the requirements for permits and a certificate of occupancy, including Section 301-317 and 217-16. The fire marshal cited both sections in the notice of violation issued to Island Water Park for the July 1 party.
Permits issued to Island Water Park by the town to build the 65,000-square-foot building, build its surf pool, and improve its site with the man-made lake, also make this clear. “This Use/Building Permit does not permit the occupancy of any structures or the use of premises without a valid Certificate of occupancy or a letter of Pre-Existing use for said use,” the permits say.
Documents obtained through a FOIL request show there were no violations issued to the Scotts for hosting any get togethers on the property other than the notice of violation in connection with the July 1 party.
Violations of these town code provisions carry civil penalties, with the responsibility to bring a legal action resting on the town government.
Howard said he did not hear about the notice of violation issued to Island Water Park in July until he dealt with RiverheadLOCAL’s FOIL request for documentation pertaining to the property. He said the enforcement officer is given the discretion to issue a ticket or a notice for a violation. In the case of the July party, Island Water Park was simply issued the notice of violation.
Police Chief David Hegermiller, who supervises the fire marshals, did not return a call requesting comment for this article.
While the exact details of the July party are unknown, a video posted on the Scott’s Pointe Facebook page on July 27, which appears to show the event, shows it was larger than any other gathering the Scotts had hosted and documented on the property before.
In several of the video’s frames, a bar and a bartender can be seen in front of bottles of liquor at the site. The New York State Liquor Authority’s database shows that no business at the Island Water Park location has a liquor license.
“We did not serve anybody. They bought their own liquor,” Scott said.
When asked about the bartender in front of the liquor bottles, Scott said, “They can take pictures all they want, but it’s not real.”
Scott said he has “no clue what’s even posted” on the Scott’s Pointe social media page. “I’ve never looked at it; I don’t have social media.”
The video of the Fourth of July party shows the event being catered, but it isn’t known whether or not the large amount of food was cooked on site. Other Facebook posts show pictures of food at the site, and imply it was cooked there.
“We cook every day. I just cooked a meal for myself, right now,” Scott said Wednesday. “We cook every day.” He said he does not have county health department permits for cooking on the property “because we’re not cooking for the public.”
Asked whether Island Water Park was allowed to cook on the property, Howard said, “I think they’re allowed to test their kitchen equipment.”
Island Water Park has continued to post on its Facebook page pictures and videos of activity at the site, including the use of the surf pool, rock climbing walls and bumper boats on the man-made lake. Multiple posts also advertise an on-site job fair that was scheduled for mid-August.
Outside of the parties on the property, social media posts show the Scott’s have done something else prohibited by Riverhead Town law: land a helicopter on the property.
Section 301-233 of the Riverhead Town Code makes it unlawful to land a helicopter on any property without prior valid approvals, other than on airfields owned by the town or by aircraft responding to medical or military emergencies.
Claudia Scott has posted pictures of the helicopter landing on the property. Howard said he wasn’t aware of any helicopter landing on the site.
Scott did not deny landing a helicopter on the property. “We landed here the other day,” he said.
“You can land it on any private property you want with authorization,” Scott claimed.
When asked whether he had approval to land a helicopter on his property, Scott laughed.
“Print what you want and we’ll deal with you later,” Scott said. He accused a reporter of being a political agent. “Thank you for your ‘unbiased article’ and we’ll see you,” he said before hanging up the phone.
A history of breaking the rules
On-site events and helicopter landings weren’t the first times Island Water Park broke the rules.
On Nov. 15, 2021, Island Water Park was issued a “stop work” order after a site inspection, halting the construction of the property until the project received approvals for its new, updated site plan. Although the project had approval to construct a massive building and the man-made lake at the site, documents show the developers went on with construction that was still under review by Riverhead Town planners, including the surf pool.
The violation was issued more than a month after the town received a Oct. 8 complaint from a resident and an email from Chief David Hegermiller that reported a truck was loading and transporting materials on-site and dumping on Middle Road at Sears Ready Mix.
At least one town official, Deputy Town Attorney Annemarie Prudenti, knew about the surf pool being constructed at the time, according to a record of the complaint kept by town code enforcement. On Oct. 19, 2021, the day after town code enforcement spoke to Prudenti, building and planning department officials told the code enforcement officer there should be no construction of the surf pool occurring.
A memo on the property’s site inspection the day the stop work order was issued also noted that a previous inspection had found unauthorized site work had taken place in March 2020. This includes an excavation of the area where the wave pool would be located. RiverheadLOCAL’s Freedom of Information request did not produce any records regarding the March 2020 site visit, or any other site visit reports at Island Water Park.
Island Water Park’s stop work order was lifted when it gained final site plan approval in February 2022.
A Mutual Embrace
Riverhead Town officials have embraced Island Water Park for the tourism it can bring to the town. Supervisor Yvette Aguiar has been a big proponent of the project, which she once referred to as a “mini-Disneyland” in an interview on a regional television station.
And while a town official expressing excitement for a new business is commonplace, a review of campaign contributions to Riverhead candidates by Island Water Park and its representatives show that Island Water Park has embraced town officials as well.
Island Water Park and company representatives have been contributing to Riverhead political campaigns since 2007, often giving hundreds of dollars to Republican Town Board candidates and committees, totaling nearly $17,000 over that time, according to public campaign finance data.
Aguiar received a load of campaign cash from the business and project manager Kenneth Myers in 2021. Myers gave $2,500 to Aguiar’s campaign in January, while Island Water Park as a business gave $3,815 to the campaign in July 2021. Both contributions were above the legal limit a candidate for town office in Riverhead can receive by any one contributor and Aguiar ended up refunding some of both contributions to keep them within the $1,185 single-contribution limit prescribed by law.
The latter donation to Aguiar was made one month after she and Council Member Frank Beyrodt spoke to the New York Post and the regional television network Fox 5 about Island Water Park, touting the benefits the park will have on Riverhead’s tourism economy. In both interviews, Aguiar compared Island Water Park to Disney theme parks.
Aguiar did not return calls requesting comment for this article.
In 2021, Myers also gave $500 to Council Member Bob Kern’s campaign, while Lakeview Security and Investigations — a company whose address is listed as Island Water Park’s address, and which Scott said he owns –- gave $500 to Council Member Ken Rothwell.
Kern and Rothwell did not return calls seeking comment for this article.
Both Aguiar and Scott have publicly underestimated how long it would take Island Water Park to open for business. In a September 2021 letter published in RiverheadLOCAL, Aguiar said Island Water Park would open “later this year.” In her 2022 State of the Town speech, Aguiar said the park would open in the fall of that year.
Scott told RiverheadLOCAL in June 2022 the park would open that July.
Correspondence between town officials and outside agencies obtained through the FOIL request show town staff working closely on the project did not think those dates were realistic. “They still have a lot to do there,” Chief Fire Marshal Craig Zitek wrote in response to an email from a local EMS chief in June 2022. “I don’t believe they will be open before the fall.”
Emails received through the FOIL request also indicate at least one board member, Rothwell, was monitoring the project as it went through the process to get its final site plan approval and finally lift the stop work order. It isn’t clear how Rothwell was involved in the project — Freedom of Information Law exempts most internal communications from disclosure.
In interviews for this article, both Hubbard and Beyrodt were not perturbed about the activity at Island Water Park without town approvals.
“The only thing I’ve seen, and seen on social media or anything, is them basically just trying to use it, to practice it and make sure it works and get people that are going to be working in a park that know how to use the ride so they can help, you know, especially with that [surf pool] so they can help people, you know, learn how to do it when they open up,” Hubbard said. “So that’s what I’m familiar with. And I don’t have any problem with them doing that.”
Both board members said they hope Island Water Park can open up soon.
“I’m very excited to see them open and for people to go in and to enjoy the vision that they had for their water park, but I was not aware of the infraction,” Beyrodt said. “I think it’s going to be a very unique and wonderful experience for people to have that in our town.”
Support for current board members by Island Water Park officials has also continued to the present day, evidenced by Myers reposting flyers for upcoming campaign fundraisers for Rothwell and Hubbard on Facebook.
The Scotts also have a connection to another prominent Riverhead political figure — Assembly Member Jodi Giglio.
Social media posts show Giglio is a friend of the Scott family and has accompanied them on trips to Fire Island and Montauk. In recusing herself from various votes on Island Water Park matters over the years on the Town Board, Giglio said Island Water Park was previously her client. Giglio owns a permit expediting business.
Giglio was “cc’d” at her State Assembly email address on one recent email about Island Water Park, in which the town’s consulting engineers provided project information to two town employees regarding going out to bid for a fire access road being built on town property adjacent to Island Water Park. Giglio’s current business relationship with Scott or Island Water Park is not clear, although documents in the town’s files show Giglio notarized documents for Scott in connection with Island Water Park while she was a sitting council member.
Giglio did not return a call seeking comment for this article.
Scott denied any favoritism from politicians, citing his long 23-year journey to get his approvals to build the project.
Town officials and Scott say the park is now close to requesting its final inspections for a certificate of occupancy and open as soon as some time in September.
Howard said he would look into whether the town should take any action in light of the social media posts showing activities at Island Water Park.
“There does appear to be activity at the property and I’ll take what I’ve seen on their Facebook page and I’ll speak with planning and code enforcement,” Howard said. “If there’s any kind of cease and desist or stop until they have a temporary C.O. that we think would be appropriate, then we’ll issue that,” the town attorney said.
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