Village Board of Trustees authorize legal action against Northport Fish & Lobster Co.
Yesterday morning, the Northport Village Board of Trustees met for an executive session to authorize the commencement of legal action against Northport Fish & Lobster Co. owner Eric Gusew and employee Sam Luby. After a tumultuous few months and several complaints by neighbors of the fish market, Mayor Damon McMullen authorized this last ditch effort to finally shut down the unpermitted work and dangerous conduct playing out at 827 Fort Salonga Road. To date, Gusew has been cited and served with fourteen building code and fire marshal violations, including a stop work order that was issued in early May.
A Village source told the Journal that the situation escalated to a dangerous point on Friday and drastic actions needed to be taken immediately. At this point, the mayor and Village’s legal team is in a position to force compliance with legal measures, beyond the stop work order that was issued in May by the Northport Village Building Department and then ignored by fish market employee Sam Luby, who continued to perform work on the building despite the order.
According to commentary at several village meetings, market owner Eric Gusew has not been present at his business. In a May 8 post on the website Nextdoor, Gusew wrote, “The reason I haven't been around for a little over a year is because I went through several back surgeries and I still have back problems. I'm involved with the store, I go in every morning to do ordering and to check on the quality of the fish. I intend to be back to work part time in a couple weeks and I am sorry to anyone who has had a poor experience with my store.” Sam Luby has been running the business in Gusew’s absence.
Neighbors of the market have been using the public participation portion of Village meetings to voice their concerns, and outrage, about the fish market for over a year. At the May 18 village meeting, Joe Sabia, owner of neighboring business Sabia Car Care, said, “The nonsense has to stop. You gave the man a stop work order, but he constantly keeps working. I haven’t seen a site plan in the paperwork that I FOILed, I haven’t seen a survey and I haven’t seen an architectural drawing of what the man wants to do.” He added, “The nonsense that goes on at that fish market is ridiculous.”
According to Sabia, there are also boats and trailers left on Cherry Street without license plates.
Ray and Susan Gnieser, who live on Cherry Street, said the chaos occurring at the fish market is destroying their lives, and that Luby intimidates and stares at Susan as she drives by. And Martha Perez, also on Cherry Street, said, “When he [Luby] loses his temper, I cannot sit outside. I cannot have my four-year-old granddaughter sit with me on my porch to hear the cursing. We go inside and close the door.”
“He’s putting gravel on top of gravel,” said Village administrator Roland Buzard at the meeting. “And I don’t have the right to tell him what to do. I can make suggestions and I asked, ‘Please give these people relief.’”
Trustee Tom Kehoe added, “You want to know my opinion on it? I got hung out to dry for a lot less than that.”
At the June 1 Village meeting, Sabia brought up his concerns about the market again.
“We’ve been through this time and time again,” Mayor McMullen responded. “He rides the line of the law and we keep chasing him down. We are working very hard trying to find ways to deal with him in a legal way because that’s what we have to do.”
After several attempts to obtain a statement from the mayor or a village administrator pertaining to the fish market, including a final attempt this past weekend regarding the lawsuit, the only response the Journal received from Mayor McMullen was, “It’s Sunday.” Because the board voted Monday morning to take the fish market to court, Village officials and trustees will no longer be able to discuss the matter publicly.
