July 1, 2025

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Greetings to all our neighbors here in Silver Beach and beyond. Your Silver Beach Association board has focused its attention on quality-of-life matters and environmental stewardship in our community. This update was prepared with active contributions from the SBA board and in anticipation of our Annual Meeting to be held on August 2nd (with a rain date of August 9th):

Silver Beach Water – The state of our freshwater aquifer is perhaps the single most important issue facing the Silver Beach community. Year to date in 2025, Shelter Island has experienced precipitation that does not appear to be sufficient to properly recharge the aquifer. Accordingly, upon advice from the Water Advisory Committee voluntary water conservation recommendations were made by the Town.

We were able to facilitate the installation of a new water level monitoring well, installed by the United States Geological Service, on the SBA’s North Silver Beach Road property. This well bore is now providing a continuous stream of water level data to the Water Advisory Committee for their use in assessing the quantity of water in the aquifer in this section of Silver Beach. Initial data from this well bore suggests that the freshwater aquifer is relatively thin in our neighborhood and, not surprisingly, rises and falls with the tides.

Many of you have shared concerns about well water quality with members of the SBA board. We proposed a water testing program for Silver Beach to be funded by the Town. Irrespective of that outcome, the SBA continues to urge residents to have their water tested, either by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services or by one of the private firms that offer that service. If you are experiencing quality challenges with your well water, you may contact the SBA, the Water Advisory Committee, or any member of the Town Board for information or help.

Bird Sanctuary – We had work conducted on the SBA’s six-acre Bird Sanctuary property on North Silver Beach Road to improve the width of the walking paths, tidy up the area immediately facing the road and preserve several existing trees from invasive vines or deer browsing. We are also exploring methods and the cost of removing the invasive miscanthus grasses that have spread in this lot. Unfortunately, miscanthus grass spreads fast and naturally displaces native species of plants to the detriment of the ecosystem.

Also, we are pleased to report that we have installed two wooden benches for the Bird Sanctuary to enhance the experience of walking the trails we maintain there. These benches were fabricated from hardwood slabs milled from downed trees in Sylvester Manor and then fabricated by students in the Wood Shop class at the Shelter Island School. The students and their teachers were excited to work on this project, and the SBA board is very grateful to them and to Sylvester Manor for helping us realize this plan.  

Home Break-Ins Back in 2023 – The two-year anniversary of the two break-ins here in Silver Beach recently passed without any publicly announced progress in prosecuting those depicted in the photographs in the SIPD press releases about the crimes. However, it is our understanding that 4 of the 6 accused have been arrested, convicted and are now on probation.  

Annual Meeting and Election of Officers and Trustees – At the Annual Meeting of the SBA this year on August 2nd, we will be electing officers and trustees. All existing officers and trustees of the SBA will be standing for reelection this year, except for Don Bindler. Don has been a stalwart member of the SBA Board for more than 10 years. The SBA website features many of Don’s photographic images of birds and our Silver Beach community. Not only is Don known for his fine gift for nature photography but also for his great work grilling the hamburgers and hot dogs at our SBA picnic/BBQ each year. His contributions to the SBA will be missed!

On behalf of the SBA, I want to thank you for your continued support. Lastly, we are trying to increase engagement in our community and ask that you encourage your friends, neighbors and acquaintances to join the SBA whenever you become aware that a neighbor has yet to join or is unaware about our organization. 

Sincerely yours,

Doug Sherrod

President