Someone has been snatching up manhole covers throughout the Town of Huntington.
Twenty cast-steel covers, each between 60 and 75 pounds, have gone missing over the past three weeks throughout the Town. Two have been removed in East Northport at Stony Hollow Road and at Cedar Road and Caton.
"We believe they are stealing them to sell for scrap," a representative for the Town Highway Department said Thursday. The covers may go for up to $20 on the scrap market and cost $400 plus labor to replace. So far all covers found missing have been replaced.
The missing covers pose a serious public safety threat. "These covers are protecting people and pets from falling into underground drainage structures that can be 20-30 feet deep and filled with water," the Highway Department told Wednesday. "There are no ladders in some of them and they are made of concrete and cast steel. The potential for serious injury and death is a real possibility."
The Highway Department and Town are asking for the public's help and have added a new “missing manhole cover” category to Huntington at Your Service, the town’s web-based citizen request management system. Smart phone users with the H@YS app can take a picture of a structure missing a manhole cover and send it to the Town.
Anyone who sees someone removing a cover is asked to contact the Suffolk County Police Department or the Highway Hotline at 631-499-0444.
