The Village of Head of the Harbor is considering a lawsuit to force work to begin on a part of Stony Brook that has been left in ruins for nearly a year after last August's devastating flood to parts of Suffolk County's north shore, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico wrote on social media yesterday.

"A once pristine and picturesque pond now looks like an unkempt vacant lot and the people of the surrounding area have all lost the connection to nature and link between the towns," he said.

Harbor Road and the surrounding area in the village have been the focus of a nearly yearlong battle mired by infighting.

Earlier this year, Panico and the town produced records that showed the Ward Melville Heritage Organization owns Harbor Road and is responsible for repairing it. At the same time, the nonprofit said its document search was inconclusive as to who owns the property.

The lack of accountability has left the road destroyed, the pond drained and filled with greenery and created a public safety issue as first responders have to navigate windy, narrow back roads instead of a more direct route through the area.

Panico said the town met with members of the heritage organization last week, where the non-profit presented a plan where the town, the Ward Melville Heritage Organization and about six other groups would all chip in about $540,000 each to restore the road without going through FEMA.

FEMA previously said it would reimburse about 75% of the project, but the Ward Melville Heritage Organization has been reluctant to go through the federal government, claiming it can do the work faster and cheaper.

But everything changed when, as News 12 reported, last Wednesday, members of the Ward Melville Heritage Organization went before the Head of the Harbor village board and presented a much different plan.

Trustee Graham Scaife told the board and the packed room that the Ward Melville Heritage Organization would contribute about $1 million to the project and called on the public to pressure the town and Suffolk County to cover the rest.

"Remarkably different from the plan explained to us - which was largely predicated on quite a bit of speculative funding from government entities that may be precluded from spending taxpayer funding on private property," Panico wrote.

This has left the two sides at a growing stalemate, with residents on both sides of the road caught in the middle.

Panico said he spoke with Governor Kathy Hochul's office on Tuesday and shared his "concerns over the plan and came back to the same question of why we are going through all of these machinations when the project is at least 75% reimbursable by FEMA."

He said, a viable solution "may involve having the State of New York come in and take the property out of Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s ownership."

News 12 reached out early this morning to spokespeople for Gov. Kathy Hochul's office, the Ward Melville Heritage Organization, the village of Head of the Harbor and FEMA for comment, but has not yet heard back.