Managing the COVID-19 pandemic on Shelter Island

This is Part 3 in a series that looks at how Shelter Island managed through the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

“I don’t know of a single member of the COVID team who thinks they did anything extraordinary other than what was expected of them in the job they held.”

That’s what former Town Engineer John Cronin observed of the Shelter Island team that he worked with during those days when the entire world was turned upside down by a crisis no one had anticipated.

It says volumes about the quality of Island leaders at the time who quickly understood they were dealing with circumstances that they had no special training for, but demonstrated they could organize and pivot rapidly to respond to whatever needs surfaced. Their leadership, and a community that rallied to the cause, resulted in Shelter Island Town having the lowest COVID-19 incidence in Suffolk County.

Former Supervisor Gerry Siller was quickly able to reorder staff responsibilities so Town government could operate safely and effectively. His Deputy Supervisor, Amber Brach-Williams,  became a liaison with County officials, providing constant updates and then working with others to ensure residents could get vaccines without having to leave the Island.

Mr. Cronin and Emergency Medical Services Director Jack Thilberg handled exposure control, working to estimate the local rate of infection in order to set in place services that could be needed.

“Mind you, I had no idea how to do this, but I eventually evolved the math to do so,” Mr. Cronin said.

His predictions were worst case scenarios to prepare for whatever might happen, hoping the worst could be “avoided at all costs,” he said. “You had folks with selfless dedication the likes of which I have never seen. It doesn’t surprise me that no one looks for credit or recognition. I’ve worked with a lot of people in numerous places in the arc of my career, but I never had to work with a group of people in a crisis like COVID. Given another crisis, I’d gladly serve with those same people again, from senior management right down to the folks in the field.”

“Every team needs a captain,” Mr. Cronin added. “Under Supervisor Siller’s leadership, our abilities emerged and coalesced into a viable response and approach to a catastrophic public health risk. To sit in those morning Zoom meetings, you were struck by the level of dedication each person brought to the effort.”

Mr. Cronin also credits a fellow professional engineer, Kevin Koubek, who was involved in hospital facilities management, and helped guide protocols involved in HVAC systems. Mr. Kobek participated in the decision to refit the Town’s filters for increased protection of employees and visitors to Town facilities. More information on air filtration came from ASHRAE, an organization of heating, refrigerating and air conditioning professionals.

He further credited former Public Works Commissioner Brian Sherman with spearheading the effort to use portable air sanitizing units in specialized areas.

HIGHWAY/PUBLIC WORKS

Mr. Sherman, who was Highway Superintendent and Public Works Commissioner during those years, spoke about a shortage of supplies and workers. “Because of the isolation of the Island, getting any kind of skilled labor projects completed is difficult,” Mr. Sherman said, which included even small home repairs.

With 16 full-time and seven part-time crew members, it seemed at times an overwhelming amount of work. And with the usual influx of part-time summer residents and visitors during the warm months, it further increased those seeking what they hoped would be safer circumstances for their families in a rural area, than the more populated city areas.

The new residents started clearing out things from their houses, putting items outside in the belief they would be picked up by crews. “Our department was already stretched to the max and we had no idea if the stuff being put out could be potentially contagious,” he said. “We managed to pull together and work our way through it.”

Emergency Medical Technicians, firefighters and workers at the Recycling Center  “were working in a situation where you were never sure if you were safe or not.

The entire crew was  completely overwhelmed with extra people on the Island, making it impossible to keep up with road maintenance until circumstances returned to normal,” Mr. Sherman remembered. Town landing docks, bulkheads and ramps needed to be maintained, but with added work during the pandemic those, too, couldn’t easily be repaired or replaced as needed.

“We take care of waterways and the dredging of canals for safe navigation as well as buoys and channel markers,” Mr. Sherman said. There was work to decrease beach erosion; replacement of a beach bathroom; and added efforts to provide access to the water from public beaches for people with disabilities.

Placing buoys is only part of the job, since a major summer storm can result in their shifting and having to be secured. The department also had to maintain the Shelter Island Country Club clubhouse and some bigger projects.

Given the Island’s approximate 8,000 acres outside of Mashomack Preserve with much of it protected wetlands, nature-preserved marshland, 23 parks and preserved sites and more than 300 acres with trails the public can use year-round, are all maintained by the Public Works crew, Mr. Sherman said. All of these factors contributed to a massive amount of work with a limited crew, he added.

But as with all who were on the front lines during that period, there were no complaints, Mr. Sherman said, as everyone did what they could to be both productive and effective.