Stop work order at site of future hotel

The Town of Islip issued a stop-work order Wednesday on plumbing at the future Central Islip Marriott Residence Inn, officials said.

Kenneth Weeks, the town's chief building inspector, said work was ordered stopped because above-ground work was being done when only an underground plumbing permit had been issued.

Plumbing work can resume when developer Briad Development East obtains a proper permit. But town officials have said they will not issue the permit until the Islip plumbing board can prove the chief plumber is doing the work and not subcontracting to someone who is unlicensed in Islip.

Representatives from the New Jersey-based Briad did not return requests for comment.

Since construction began in July, the project has been mired in allegations of nonunion, nonlocal labor.

The Suffolk County Department of Consumer Affairs last week issued a citation for electrical work conducted without a county license, and the town received several complaints from local plumbers that the plumbing work was being subcontracted in exchange for a fee.

Mario Mattera, a plumber who sits on the Suffolk County Plumbing Licensing Board and is business agent for Plumbers Local 200, lauded the town's action. "I want to make sure that a contractor that's licensed locally is going to have local people on that job site -- not him selling his license for a fee, and the next thing you know he's giving the license to other people," Mattera said.

When built, the Marriott Residence Inn -- next to Bethpage Ballpark -- will be a four-story, 125-room extended-stay complex that will employ 30 people at an average wage of $26,600, according to Briad's application.

The project was awarded $2.3 million in tax breaks through the next 14 years from the Islip Industrial Development Agency, town officials said.