Town Of Huntington Sues Woodbine Marina Dock Contractors

Northport, NY — The Town of Huntington filed a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court on January 15th against two companies contracted to reconstruct Woodbine Marina in Northport, citing negligence and breach of contract. The Marina is now not operational after several years of damage and attempts to address structural issues by both the town and the lawsuit defendants, L.K. McLean Associates, P.C. and Bellingham Marine.

“Nine years ago, the Town relied on the defendants’ expertise and representations to the detriment of our taxpayers and, disappointingly, this process repeated itself four years ago after the first two rounds of costly damage occurred. While we can’t change the past, we are fighting to recover the taxpayer’s investment in this project while we consider options for the future use of the Woodbine Marina site,” said Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci.

“A large part of Woodbine Marina was taken out of commission due to damages sustained during the first few months of my taking office in 2018 and while we’ve been able to invest heavily in long-overdue improvements to the Town’s deteriorating facilities at Mill Dam Marina, there are many more improvements and upgrades on the way while we continue working to mitigate unfortunate failures of the past.”

The lawsuit is seeking over $1M dollars of compensation and claims the failures in design and implementation of the marina construction have resulted in unsafe conditions and lost revenue. The docks at the marina will be removed and residents with slips at Woodbine Marina were given a lottery for open slips at Mill Dam Marina in Halesite.

The reconstructed Woodbine dock system opened in 2014, with concrete docks designed by McLean replacing wooden docks in hopes of better withstanding storm damage. But during the 2014, 2015 and 2016 boating seasons damages incurred that necessitated additional work from the firms. Ultimately in August 2019 the Huntington Town Board determined that any additional solutions would be too costly. The Town is now considering alternate uses for the site.