East End Business Notebook: DWI Enforcement Affecting North Fork Bars

WESTHAMPTON-HAMPTON BAYS

Lawsuit Filed Against New Eatery, Buckhead's Grill

After issuing two stop-work orders, the Village of Westhampton Beach has decided to file a lawsuit against Buckhead's Grill, a new eatery that was slated to open in August in the formerFinn's site on Old Riverhead Road that the village said has done work on the site without proper permits.

RIVERHEAD

Riverhead Target Found Selling Banned Pesticides

The Target Corporation agreed to a civil penalty of $43,850 after a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation investigation revealed the company was selling pesticides banned on Long Island at stores across Long Island, including its Riverhead location.

According to a release from the DEC, Target was ordered to remove the banned pesticides from all stores throughout the region in addition to the penalty.

SOUTHAMPTON

Southampton Supermarket Law Study Skewered

The Southampton Village Board will continue to mull legislation that would enable a new grocery store to open in the village, after a steady stream of members of the public took to the boardroom lectern Thursday to decry the plan and the study that states it will not have an adverse impact on the village.

The report commissioned by the village and prepared by consulting firm Nelson, Pope & Voorhis looked at the impacts a new 20,000-square-foot supermarket could have on the village. It concludes, “The proposed action and its potential impact will be either insignificant or mitigated, and all such impacts will be localized such that no regional impacts are expected.”

It goes on to recommend that the Village Board votes to determine that further study under New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act is not necessary.

But that determination does not sit well with a number of residents.

EAST HAMPTON

Plans for Car Wash Could Clean Up Former Star Room Property

If a new application is approved at the old Star Room property in Wainscott, the only music neighbors may need to worry about is the disco-era classic.

Last week, the East Hampton Town Planning Board reviewed a preliminary site plan for a car wash — which would be the first full service car wash in the Town of East Hampton — on the long-vacant Montauk Highway property just west of the Wainscott Shopping Village.

Jeffrey Schneider and Tom Barton are contemplating building Hamptons Wash on the property that housed a nightclub under several different names including Star Room, SWA, and The Swamp, often a bane to neighbors, who complained about noise and traffic. The club has been closed for about five years and the property remains on the market for sale with Enzo Morabito at Prudential Douglas Elliman for $2.495 million.

NORTH FORK

DWI Checkpoints Cause Shift in Bar Business

This past summer was the summer of stepped-up enforcement to curb drunk driving, with 40 percent more driving while intoxicated charges this summer compared to last in Southold Town alone, and DWI checkpoints set up throughout the North Fork on holidays and other key weekends. Last week, Suffolk County District attorney Thomas Spota announced that due to the success of the DWI checkpoint program — just over Labor Day weekend, the task force made 19 DWI arrests, two for driving while impaired and three for drug possession — the next phase of enforcement will be on the water to catch those boating while intoxicated.

But with these programs now in place, with the majority of DWI checkpoints set up during the evening and overnight hours, those in the local bar and restaurant industry said they have seen changes — good and bad — in business. Marianne Reilly, manager at Four Doors Down in Mattituck, said that Labor Day Weekend in particular was “way off” due to the DWI checkpoints, one of which was set up not too far away near Cox Lane and Route 48 in Mattituck. Even the popular Santana tribute band, Abraxas, didn’t draw half the crowd they normally do.

“And a lot of people had designated drivers — we served a lot of water and soda," she said. "Many just didn’t go out at all because of the checkpoints, and I know we suffered because of it."