Nesconset partial building collapse update: OSHA investigating contractor whose workers were hurt

Federal regulators on Friday said they were inspecting the contractor whose workers were critically injured when the wall of a Nesconset building collapsed on them Thursday. 

A spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Edmund Fitzgerald, said in an email that agency investigators were inspecting Sit Back and Relax Ground Maintenance, of Brightwaters, “to determine whether or not there were any violations of workplace safety standards in connection with this incident.”

Inspections can take up to six months, he said. 

Sit Back is identified in state records as Sit Back & Relax Grounds Maintenance. Its chief executive, Gregory Proce, did not respond to messages left for him at a company phone number. Sit Back does not appear to have a website, but an undated letter on company letterhead posted in March 2020 on Proce's personal Facebook page offers help with landscaping, clean-outs, moving, demolition and junk removal.

An email sent to an address listed on the letter was returned as undeliverable. A person who answered one of the phones listed on the letter hung up on a reporter, then sent a message saying he would call back. He did not call back. 

Six people were injured, three critically, during the partial collapse Thursday of the building at 840 Middle County Rd. that was being renovated for use as a car dealership. 

Suffolk County police on Friday did not immediately update the condition of the workers, who were taken to Stony Brook University Hospital. 

Smithtown Building Department officials were scheduled to inspect the site Friday morning. A Thursday report by a town building inspector said "the front wall of the building had released from the structure during demolition falling away from the building taking down two man lifts." 

Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said on Thursday that workers were removing blocks from the wall when the facade fell, hitting several people. Scissor lifts holding the workers up collapsed, falling about two stories, he said. 

Town of Smithtown officials said local car dealer Smith Haven Chrysler Jeep Dodge had bought the site — formerly home to the Great Oak Marina — to retrofit as a car dealership. According to town records, a Hauppauge engineer, Michael Marinis, of BBV Engineers, was granted site plan approval last year for the project. The architect on the job was the Smithtown firm Mancini Mui. Marinis and architect Mark Mancini did not respond to messages left for them. 

Town spokeswoman Nicole Garguilo said in an email Friday that "The site will be permitted to be cleaned up once the existing building is stabilized under the direction of the Architect and Engineer. A letter from the Architect or Engineer stating the existing building is stable and safe is required prior to anyone returning to work.

"The Building Department had a job meeting and inspected footings and the underground plumbing so far. … The major part of the construction has not begun as of yet."