Four new Environmental Control Board violations landed this week, and the one worth pulling out involves a Queens congregation that kept working after the city told it to stop.
Per DOB records, 150-60 78th Road in Flushing — Kehilat Sephardim of Ahav — was hit with a Class 1 violation on September 22 for unlawfully continuing work while under stop-work order #26-017775. The inspector's writeup says three men were observed working and that the front of the premises had already been paved over. The penalty is $25,000, none of it paid yet, with a hearing set for December 1 at Building 4145195.
A stop-work order isn't a suggestion — once DOB posts one, continuing work at all is its own separate violation, on top of whatever triggered the original order. This is a Class 1, the most severe tier ECB issues, and the $25,000 penalty reflects that.
Three more violations round out the week's ECB filings, all served September 22. At 58-21 Junction Boulevard in Elmhurst, Tricom Realty Corp was cited for erecting full-height partition walls to subdivide a living room without a permit — a Class 2, $1,250 penalty, hearing December 2. At 1042 70th Street in Brooklyn, respondent Chen Jintuo was cited for a new electrical service mast, meter pan, and interior wiring installed with no permit on file — BX cable hanging from ceilings, open junction boxes with wires coiled inside — a Class 1 electrical violation carrying a $2,500 penalty, also set for a December 2 hearing. And at 5925 Broadway in the Bronx, Gateway II Housing Development Fund Corp was cited for two inoperable, unregistered boilers under a permit that was never signed off — a Class 3 maintenance violation, $500 penalty, December 2 hearing.
Separately, DOB logged roughly 100 new complaints citywide over the past two days, spanning categories from illegal conversions to elevator and boiler issues — normal volume for the system, and worth noting only as backdrop; none of those complaints are confirmed violations and none are alleged here as fact.
For contractors and property reps with hearings on the docket: all four violations carry a December 1 or 2 hearing date, and none of the penalties have been paid down as of the records reviewed. Anyone tied to 150-60 78th Road should know that continuing work under an active stop-work order is treated by ECB as an aggravating pattern, not a one-off paperwork lapse — worth resolving before the hearing, not at it.