UPDATE: Smelly Problem Solved At Pine Grove Shopping Center

Update: Suffolk County Bureau of Public Health Protection has provided information on the sanitary code violations cited at the Pine Grove Shopping Center.

Now that an installation of 50 new cesspools at the Pine Groves Shopping Center on Route 347 is complete, business owners hope customers chased away by sewage odors and mounds of dirt in the parking lots will return.

The project kicked off on Jan. 17 to combat longstanding odor issues at the strip mall due to overflowing cesspools.

"The manhole covers were shooting up waste that people who were walking through the parking lot got on their shoes," said Joe Competello, owner of 347 Wine and Spirits.

Rhandi LoPiccolo, owner of , blamed on a high water table for the old cesspool problems.

"You couldn't open up your doors in the spring and summer, it was so bad," LoPiccolo said.

Suffolk County Bureau of Public Health Protection has been investigating sanitary code violations at the Pine Grove Shopping Center since February 2008. Grace Kelly-McGovern, spokeswoman for Suffolk County Department of Health, said public health officials witnessed sewage overflowing from the sanitary system into the front parking lot of the shopping center on six visits between Feb. 28, 2008 and Dec. 9, 2008. 

In public hearing in February 2009, public health officials required the shopping center owner to submit plans for a permanent solution to the wastewater issues. In December 2010, the Bureau of Public Health Protection approved plans for the center's new cesspool system. 

However, the three-month construction brought a new set of problems to the businesses.

As the parking lot was ripped up to install the new cesspools, mounds of dirt covered parking spaces. In fact, protective fencing limited the parking lot to less than 75 percent of its regular size.

"We were down 985 people in the last two months, and our business is down 20 percent," Competello said.

LoPiccolo also said business at the pizzeria was down by more than 20 percent for the past three months, with the biggest impact on senior citizen customers.

"We haven't seen them coming to our stores since January," LoPiccolo said.

Margaret Laurie, manager of neighboring F&M Printing, said she felt she needed to post a large red-and-white sign out front that read, "Yes, We're Open."

"They didn't know you could loop around [on side streets] to enter," Laurie said.

She also said her business slid during the project, but said F&M Printing relies less on foot traffic that some of its neighbors.

Now that the project is wrapping up, the orange safety fencing is down and the strip mall’s parking lot has been repaved. Parking spaces still need to be painted.

"Every customer who has come in here has said 'It's about time. It's about time,’" LoPiccolo said.

At 347 Wine and Spirits, Competello said his business is now breaking even so he can pay the bills, but it still has a long way to go for a full recovery. He said he is trying to work with Lo Piccolo and others to hold a sidewalk fair or festival to bring local residents back into his store.

“You can come back and smell the fresh air," he said.