Town Official Pleads Guilty Over Secret Restaurant Sewage Hookup

CARMEL, NY — Carmel town Board Member Michael Barile admitted he illegally connected his Lake Mahopac restaurant's waste system to the public sewers without permission or authority, Putnam County District Attorney Robert V. Tendy announced Monday.

"Mr. Barile’s conduct in this case exhibited a complete and utter disregard for his community, and, as he admitted today, his actions were criminal. It is particularly egregious that as a sitting town board member, he would commit theft and fail to pay for a public utility that law-abiding taxpayers must pay to use,” Tendy said.

Barile pleaded guilty to one count of Theft of Services, a class A misdemeanor, before the Honorable Stephen Tomann in the Town of Philipstown Justice Court.

After questions began into whether Blu on the Lakefront's septic system was leaking into Lake Mahopac, a probe then expanded to investigate whether the restaurant was using its septic system or hooked up to Carmel Sewer District #1 (a connection neither paid for by the property owners nor approved by the town or the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which owns and operates the Mahopac Wastewater Treatment plant).

For months, mysteries surrounded issues such as conditions in a 1993 county permit and a capped sewer line from Blu to the DEP's main line.

The town issued its first notice of violation to Barile and Blu’s then co-owner, Tommy Bonniello, in October 2019 after Barile acknowledged the restaurant had started using a hookup to the sewer district at Clark Place. Town officials then did not require them to close the connection down, offering them instead time to get all necessary approvals.

It is very difficult to get a sewer hookup in Putnam, where so much of the county is located in city-owned reservoir watersheds.

A second notice of violation in December 2019 was not as conciliatory. It stemmed from a dye test conducted Dec. 6 to fulfill some of the requirements of the approval process.

Officials watched at the manhole on Clark Place. No dye appeared. However, the town engineer and others observing the test could hear water rushing underground. They opened the next manhole cover and found dyed water and a previously unknown hookup from the restaurant.

"The manner in which the second connection appears to have been configured would allow it to evade detection and regulation," said Town Engineer Richard Franzetti in the notice of violation.

He concluded it was likely the second connection had been operating since 1991.

Town officials in Carmel ordered the owners of Blu to cap the illicit and heretofore secret hook-up to the town's sewer system. Barile entered into an agreement with the Town in which he and Bonniello agreed to pay a $105,000 fine.

Judge Tomann sentenced Barile to a conditional discharge with the explicit condition that Barile fulfill all the obligations contained in the separate administrative settlement agreement with the town.

The case was prosecuted by First Assistant District Attorney Larry Glasser. The District
Attorney would like to thank First Assistant Glasser, Investigator Paul Piazza of the Putnam
County Sheriff’s Office; Kenneth Fisher and James Van Orden of Cozen O’Connor, who
represented the Town of Carmel; and Carmel Town Engineer Richard Franzitti for their
assistance in this case.

Editor's Note: Mr. Barile entered into an agreement with the Town in which he and Blu's co-owner agreed to pay a $105,000 fine. The DA's Office issued a clarification Tuesday and this article has been changed from the original version.