Derelict Lindenhurst building to be torn down today

The final piece of a longtime eyesore in Lindenhurst is being demolished today, according to Babylon Town officials.

The dilapidated building at 269 E. Montauk Hwy. is slated to be torn down nearly two decades after it was abandoned. The property, between Deauville Parkway and Venetian Boulevard, formerly housed a service station and was owned by Jericho Marine. A few years later, real estate agent Mary Ann Murphy set up a trailer on the property from which she ran Call Murf Real Estate Co.

Residents deemed both structures eyesores and questioned the lack of environmental cleanup. Murphy initially agreed to take part in a Brownfields cleanup program with the state Department of Environmental Conservation but backed out last year with little rehabilitation done to the property, according to officials, and the town forced Murphy to remove the trailer.

In January, the DEC — which had issued a report that found “weathered gasoline compounds” on the property — agreed to remediate the site.

The cost for asbestos removal from the building and the demolition will be added to the property’s bill. According to Suffolk County spokeswoman Vanessa Baird-Streeter, property taxes on the site were last paid in 1988, and the lien on the property is close to a half a million dollars.