Huntington cites councilman's project

Huntington officials have slapped a town board member with a stop-work order, accusing him of failing to follow building department procedures for a project at his Greenlawn home.

Newly elected Eugene Cook was cited Wednesday for failing to have an engineer sign off on some work to a three-bay car garage he is having built.

According to the building department order, work must stop until an engineer's letter is submitted to the department to "validate" installation of reinforcements in the structure's footing and foundation.

The Feb. 9 zoning board of appeals approval of the project describes the building as a 1,140-square-foot, 25-foot-high detached garage with a decorative cupola.

Cook, who owns a concrete and asphalt company, was elected last November. He said he elected to use a third-party inspector, which the town allows. "It's a little garage, so I had the architect come in and do it while we were building it," Cook said. "My feeling was it's probably better to keep the building department out of it, because of any political things."

He said he plans to submit a letter from his architect Friday showing the project is up to date on inspections.

In a statement, Town Supervisor Frank Petrone said he's aware of the stop-work order but, "This is a matter that needs to be resolved between Mr. Cook and the building department."

A request for third-party inspections must be submitted in writing and approved by the town engineer, but town officials said Cook made no such request. "I think I did everything legitimately," Cook said.

Cook, an Independent on a board with three Democrats and a Republican, questioned the timing of the order, because last week he sent a letter to the governor, state comptroller, state attorney general and the Suffolk district attorney requesting an audit of the town. He said the town had not been audited in more than a decade and was overdue for more oversight.

"I can't point fingers that anybody has anything to do with it," Cook said. "But I just find it odd; my house is so far out of sight you can't see it."

Town officials deny any political motivation. "This arose in the normal course of business and was handled by the building department in the same way as it handles all permit issues," town spokesman A.J. Carter said.