Dear Friend,

Thank you for taking time recently to talk with those of us involved with Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund. As we search for ways to save our Nantucket homes from being further endangered or destroyed by erosion, we highly value your input and advice on our continuing efforts.

We've listened closely to what you've told us. After meeting the past few months with over 50 island leaders, we wanted to share some of the feedback we've received so far about our new project idea, as well as on our past efforts.

As you now know, our newest proposal is small in scale and involves "baskets" of large stones anchored into the bluff then covered with natural beach sand. The sand is expected to wash away at the same rate that the beach and bluff are currently eroding, so neighboring beaches will receive the same amount of sand as they currently do in the natural process of sand moving along the beach.

In fact, this basic system is already being tried on Nantucket and in other ocean front communities, with notable success. Moreover, a similar but much less robust version of the gabion and mattress system has been installed locally and performed well over the past three years, with minimum erosion and no debris, within our project area.

In our new proposal, we've taken special care to avoid any threats to fishing and sporting activities dependent on our marine environment. We want to be sure that any erosion management efforts be done in ways that cause no harm to the environment. This system is designed for minimal impact and could be easily removed. Individual homeowners along with SBPF will bear all the financial risks and will guarantee maintenance or removal of the individual installations.

Others on the Island might also benefit from our efforts. Erosion is an increasing concern in many locations around the island. This project could be instructive for other Nantucket homeowners, businesses and Town of Nantucket infrastructure, as one safe and sensitive way to address what we all know is a continuing environmental problem. All of us on Nantucket would be better off for it helping to keep the Island as we know and love it.

We'll continue talking to you, and we hope you'll keep your mind open as we continue our efforts. Attached is a summary of what we've learned from our various meetings; lessons that we are trying to incorporate into our current proposal and future dialog. This will guide us as we continue, prior to formally introducing the plan at some point in the future. We thought you would be interested. Meanwhile, feel free to call any of us with your further thoughts and concerns.

Sincerely,
Caroline Ellis
Bob Felch
Josh Posner
Kermit Roosevelt
Beth Singer
Helmut Weymar