Oyster Bay seeks new concessionaire for Tobay Beach

The Oyster Bay Town Board plans to replace its concessionaire at Tobay Beach after the company operating it the past two years defaulted on its agreement last year, town officials said Tuesday.

The town board selected Carlyle Catering to run the beach restaurants and concessions following a presentation by Steven Carl at an April 5, 2017, meeting. Oyster Bay’s town attorney said Tuesday that a separate company operating the concession had stopped paying monthly licensing fees in September.

“We put them in default,” Joseph Nocella said at Tuesday’s town board meeting. “Now it’s time to sue.”

Nocella said in a text message that the agreement had been terminated.

The concession had at one time been held by Harendra Singh, whose disputed loan guarantees were at the heart of the corruption conviction last week of former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.

Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino executed two concession agreements on May 25, 2017, with Carlyle at Tobay LLC. The board on Tuesday authorized a lawsuit against a successor company, The Standard at Tobay LLC, to recover lost revenue.

Saladino declined to be interviewed after Tuesday’s meeting.

A call to Carl’s attorney, Richard Naidich, of Great Neck-based Naidich Wurman LLP, was not returned Tuesday.

Carl was the longtime operator of a state concession at Bethpage State Park called Carlyle on the Green, but the company lost a bid to continue operating there in 2017. In September, another facility operated by Carl, Carlyle at the Palace, a catering facility at the Off Track Betting Corp. facility in Plainview, closed suddenly, prompting the state attorney general’s office to announce it would examine the closure.

In August, the town filed a lawsuit against several of Carl’s companies, alleging they had failed to pay any of a minimum $35,000 licensing fee for operating the town’s concession at Tappen Beach in 2017.

Nocella told the board he believed a group of investors had kept concessions at Tobay afloat despite financial difficulties but were unwilling to continue.

The town board plans to hold a special meeting March 21 for public presentations on the search for a new concessionaire or concessionaires. The agreements are split between restaurants and food stands. Town board members are to score potential concessionaires based on their “overall capabilities, experience, organizational ability, financial capability, and fee and price structure,” according to a news release.

Responses to requests for proposals to operate the concessions were due by Feb. 25. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. at Town Hall.