Once again Star Island survived a severe winter storm on February 25th through 27th.
Winds peaked at 90 mph with 30 foot seas. Fortunately damages were moderate which included limited roof shingle loss on the Hotel, Cottage A, B, C, Shack and Marshman; a few missing window panes, a fair amount of pier surface damage, and some downed cedar trees. A few large granite boulders on the breakwater between Star Island and Cedar Island were tossed and turned but the breakwater was not breached.

Our winter caretaker Alex endured the storm in the EMB. After the storm she made some temporary repairs and our staff followed up with intermediate repairs. I have made plans for a roofing contractor to visit the island to do permanent repairs on the roof. We will have to address the pier surface damage during open-up by patching the concrete holes with a durable concrete patch. Unfortunately, the damage is significant enough to require moving the resurfacing of the pier up on the Capital Improvement Plan to 2011.

Damage on our neighboring islands was limited as well. I spoke with Eddy Foye on Cedar Island and he lost a few pier pilings but overall reported that his camp fared well. He did request some help from our more athletic Pel staff this spring to help reposition the pier pilings and float which I assured him he could count on. Ray Randall on Lunging reported no significant damage but a bit of a mess from floating debris.

All in all it could have been worse.

Sincerely,

Keith Noyes
Director of Facilities Management