The vice chairman of the Riverhead Republican Committee appeared in town justice court yesterday on behalf of Scott’s Pointe to answer tickets issued to the park last month for alleged town code violations.
Scott’s Pointe has five tickets pending in justice court, charging its operator with building a go-kart track and converting a storage space into an assembly area without permits or site plan approval and other violations.
Victor Prusinowski, a former Republican Town Board member and longtime party official, works as a real estate consultant and permit expediter. As Republican committee vice chairman, he has led his party’s selection process for every elected official in town government today.
Prusinowski is not, however, an attorney. Town Justice Sean Walter refused to let Prusinowski represent Island Water Park Corp., which operates Scott’s Pointe, because he is not its attorney or its owner. The judge adjourned the case to Aug. 6, when Island Water Park must come to court to answer the charges.
Prusinowski said in an interview yesterday after the court appearance that he met with Town Attorney Erik Howard and Deputy Town Attorney Danielle Hurley on behalf of Island Water Park Corp. and that the company is willing to pay the maximum fines under the town code for the five tickets it received on June 3.
Howard said in an email today that Prusinowski contacted his office to negotiate a plea. Howard said his office would only accept a guilty plea “as charged,” which would include a $5,500 fine.
Supervisor Tim Hubbard pledged last month that the town would be tough on people and businesses that build and “write it off as the cost of doing business.” He called Scott’s Pointe’s construction of the go-kart track “brazen” and called for the town to increase fines for building without permits.
“We’ve got to make it hurt them in the pocketbook. It’s the only way I can think of doing it besides getting them into court, but if we get them into court, it takes the town money to go to court and nobody wins out in this besides the attorney,” he said on June 18. “So we’ve got to upgrade our fines and we’ve got to make it really hurt if people are going to violate what goes on in this town.”
Hubbard did not return phone calls seeking an interview for this article. He said in a text that he was “absolutely not” asked by Republican party leadership to resolve Island Water Park’s tickets.
He did not respond to a text asking his opinion of Prusinowski working for Island Water Park Corp.
Prusinowski has represented as a consultant various developers on projects before the Town Board, Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, including United Riverhead Terminal and the Suffolk Theater.
As Riverhead Republican Committee vice chairman, Prusinowski led the screening of all the Republican candidates for town office, including Hubbard and all the incumbent town council members. Republican-endorsed candidates hold every elected position in town government, including both town justices. Some key unelected officials in town government, including Town Attorney Howard, are Republican Committee members.
Island Water Park Corp. and its employees have donated thousands of dollars to political campaigns over the last two decades, primarily to Republican and Conservative candidates and party committees.
Town code enforcement issued three tickets to Island Water Park Corp. for not obtaining permits and site plan approval for building a go-kart track and pickleball courts. The fire marshal issued two tickets for converting storage space into an assembly space — specifically a party room — and for failing to install an emergency responder radio coverage system, which the fire marshal ordered the developer to install when local first responders had difficulties communicating on the site.
In addition to the tickets in justice court, the town has filed a lawsuit against Island Water Park Corp in Suffolk County Supreme Court. The town is asking for the court to temporarily shut down Scott’s Pointe until the property gets in compliance with town law; order the removal of the go-kart track and pickleball courts; and impose a financial penalty of at least $100,000 on the company.
Howard said the town’s Supreme Court proceedings are “entirely separate” from town justice court, and that one outcome would not affect the other.
The amusement park and its owner, Eric Scott, were also ticketed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation earlier this month. The DEC said in a notice of violation last month that the go-kart track’s construction and the use of the park’s groundwater-fed pond for recreation was out of compliance with the operator’s DEC permit.
Scott did not return a phone call or text message requesting comment for this article.
Videos shared by Scott’s Pointe on Facebook and Instagram in the weeks since the DEC’s notice of violation show the man-made lake and the aquapark continue to operate at the park. The DEC did not provide information about the status of Island Water Park Corp.’s violations or whether any more tickets have been issued since July 3.
Island Water Park Corp. filed a site plan application to legalize its asphalt go-kart track and pickleball courts with the Town of Riverhead late last month. That application was submitted incomplete, Riverhead Senior Planner Greg Bergman said on July 12. Scott, who was charged double the regular fee because work on the site had begun prior to town approvals, paid $26,293 to file his site plan application.
Bergman did not return a phone call or email requesting information on the status of the application before this article was published.
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