Town to vote on settlement with farm stand
The Riverhead Town Board is expected to vote tonight on a resolution authorizing a settlement in a case where the town claimed a local farm stand was being illegally operated as a restaurant or deli.
The Town Board meeting starts at 7 p.m. The Riverhead News-Review will be live blogging from the meeting.
The town last fall was on the winning end of a state Supreme Court justice ruling regarding the town’s lawsuit against the owners of A Taste of Country on Sound Avenue in Northville.
Riverhead Town took the business to court in 2010, claiming that its certificate of occupancy was only for a farm stand, and that it was operating more as a deli or take-out restaurant.
Judge Elizabeth Emerson agreed, and ruled that A Taste of Country could not operate a deli or takeout restaurant, and could not prepare or sell hot food, cold short-order foods such as sandwiches, or cooked-to-order food or catered foods, on the premises.
A Taste of Country had planned to appeal the verdict.
The property is owned by John Reeve Jr. and his wife, Renee, who rented the property to a tenant, who ran the store.
Town Attorney Bob Kozakiewicz and Councilman Jim Wooten said the proposed settlement calls for a $10,000 fine and bars the site from being operated as anything other than a farm stand. It also calls for the Reeves to drop their appeal of the case.
