By Jeff Lipton
Workers at the Dunkin' Donuts at 299 Burnside Ave., on the corner of Rockaway Turnpike, demolished the building late Wednesday morning, April 16, in what they said would be a two-week renovation project spanning the Passover holiday. The donut shop caters to observant Jewish customers who eat kosher foods.
The business was teeming with customers that morning, and by afternoon, several workers were on site, operating under sunny skies with the temperatures in the 80s. They immediately took the interior and exterior of the building down and dug a trench several feet deep right in front of the storefront. In a few hours the building was down.
We work fast, said one worker. We don't fool around.
But Town of Hempstead officials said they were working too fast. An inspector from the town visited the site on Friday, April 18, and issued a notice of violation against the owner. According to Town of Hempstead spokeswoman Susan Trenkle, an application was filed for the work, but a permit to begin construction had not been issued. An inspector went down there and posted [the stop-work order], she said.
It looks like they got a little over-anxious when the weather got nice, she said. They have to have their plans approved. The work was done before the permits were issued.
The plans called for constructing additions to the building, renovating the interior and modifying the parking lot, Trenkle said. They had not received the permit to do that work, she added.
The application is supposed to go before the Town of Hempstead Buildings Department, and if buildings officials don't approve it, it must go before the town Board of Zoning Appeals for a variance.
The owner of Dunkin' Donuts and his wife were on site last Friday afternoon, trying to secure the premises with yellow caution tape, when a town inspector flashed his badge and spoke with them for several minutes. He said he told them they had to secure the work area with fencing, and that he wasn't there for the stop-work order. I'm just here to tell the guy he's got to put a fence up, the inspector said. The stop-work order I didn't do.
Over the weekend, a wood enclosure was erected around the construction site, with a sign that said, Closed for renovations, construction.
The owner said he has the plumbing permit on file and that one of his architects also has a permit for the work. The guy definitely has it. I don't know what [town officials] are talking about, said the owner, who was identified as Mr. Dutra.
He denied knowing anything about a stop-work order, and said workers were not on site that Friday because it was Good Friday.
We need to get a few things, he said. It won't be much longer. The owner then acknowledged the construction project may be delayed more than anticipated. So it will take a little longer than two weeks, he said.
Trenkle said the town also could decide to fine the owner of the property, or hit him with some other penalty if he fails to comply with town regulations and continues with the construction.
