In the town of Shelter Island in Suffolk County, Highway Superintendent/Commissioner of Public Works Ken Lewis Jr. and his staff at the highway department serve 2,700 full-time residents.
That number hits up to 12,000 in the warmer months when transient residents and visitors from across the globe come to spend the summer on the island.
"It's what makes this place great — all these people coming here love this place just as much as the people that live here year-round," said Ken, who was elected to the position of highway superintendent in 2024. "They're the lifeblood of this community. Whether it's landscapers and pool guys or maintenance people and contractors, those people keep them in business and keep us in business, too."
Local attractions in Shelter Island include Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, Shelter Island History Center, Mashomack Nature Preserve, multiple bathing beaches and Shelter Island Country Club, also known as Goat Hill. Ken grew up on Shelter Island and has lived here 54 years.
Shelter Island photo
His two-year term expires in December 2025, but he is up for re-election and will be running in November. Ken was simultaneously appointed commissioner of public works by the Shelter Island town board. He is a member of the Suffolk County Highway Superintendents Association, SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America) and serves on the Capital Planning and Grants Committee for the town of Shelter Island.
Becoming Superintendent
"I wanted to advance my career and felt that the timing was right for me," Ken said, having spent the 12 years prior working as a heavy equipment operator for the highway department. He was offered to come on board by the then Highway Superintendent Jay Card.
"The day-to-day operations are seamless because I know all the guys, the skill sets of each of them for the seasonal operations, whether it's preparing for snow season or the summer rush, since we're a big resort community," said Ken. "I have three foremen and one of them, Dave Clark, has been with the department for almost 30 years, he's been a huge asset."
Shelter Island photo
One of the challenges on the job was learning the budget process. Ken was fortunate to be able to shadow his predecessor, Brian Sherman, before he retired, to learn about office operations —dealing with and preparing the budget as well as permitting from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) when it comes to dredging projects and such.
Town Engineer Joe Finora has been invaluable to Ken as well, helping navigate the DEC permits, reporting on the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4), and roadside drainage and catch basins — parts of the job he wasn't familiar with.
Chief of Police Jim Read has been helpful in navigating budget season and town board work sessions. They work closely on the emergency management team for storms and catastrophic snow events, and both sit on a committee for capital planning and grants for the town.
"I enjoy this job. It's a good fit for me," said Ken. "My skill set of knowing the equipment, being on the inside [of the department] for a lot of years and working on the ground has helped. I've taken a circuitous path to end up here but found something that I'm going to be in hopefully for as long as I keep getting re-elected until I retire."
Career Trajectory
The circuitous path Ken refers to is his time away from Shelter Island for college and work.
"I was an English communications major, which has absolutely nothing to do with anything I do right now, but it helps when I must speak in public or write an e-mail," he said.
Ken entertained the idea of becoming a schoolteacher, taking master's classes in education and substitute teaching but ended up working in New York City for the YMCA, leaning into his interest in sports and recreation.
"I never loved being an office guy," he said. "I was always an outdoor kid. I worked on golf courses for a long time on the maintenance crew. I was always around tractors as a kid."
Ken's favorite recreational activities mirror that outdoorsy interest — golf and skiing are among his preferred hobbies. He enjoys cooking for friends and family, especially BBQ and smoking meats, chicken and fish.
An offer from a Shelter Island-owned swimming pool contractor moved Ken to take on the role of construction manager and site foreman in 1996. He did all the site planning for the swimming pools, drainage work, heavy equipment work, excavation and running all the machinery. He transitioned from the private sector into the public sector when he started at the highway department.
Shelter Island photo
Ken's family has been coming to Shelter Island since the early 1900s. His father was from the Bronx and his mother from the Midwest. They met in New York but moved to Shelter Island when Ken was just three days old. His father had property he bought on the island in the 1950s and built a house in 1971.
Ken went to grade school and high school on the island. Both parents were active in the community as councilmembers, and Ken is no stranger to the local landscape. Though they've passed on since, Ken has two older sisters — one in the Midwest and the other in Manhattan — who visit. His son, Kal Lewis, 23, is living with him on the island this summer.
"I felt I had a lot to offer to the position, from a management and a communication standpoint," said Ken, sharing the community has changed over the past 10 years and there is a lot more input and involvement from the residents. "Getting out to meet and speak with the public is a big part of this job and speaking in a public setting, whether board meetings or community boards, has become a vital part of the position."
To stay in touch with the residents of the municipality, he implements an open-door policy in the office and reconfigured access to the building to make it easier for the public to visit the office. The highway department posts projects on the town website, reaches out by phone or e-mail to residents in a specific area of the island when working on a project for multiple days and uses a road message sign from the police department to notify residents of road closures or work project dates.
Working Crew
Ken has 18 full-time crew: Highway Foremen Dave Clark and Brett Page; Ron Jernick, solid waste foreman; Albert Labrozzi, highway/bay constable; Mechanics Ray Congdon and Aidan Mysliborski; Mike Mitchell, Martin Hunt, Robert Brewer, Ray Sanwald and Jared Hamilton, from the highway team; Ron Andersen, Nick Ryan, Mike Gulluscio, Mike Reiter, Anthony Reiter and Wesley Congdon from public works; and his secretary, Catherine Ryan. Two part-time crew members include Patrick Ryan and Ray Karen, providing seasonal assistance, working at the transfer facility, and otherwise, as needed.
Highway crew work 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and the recycling center/transfer facility crew work 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. in two four-day shifts.
The total annual operating budget is $3.8 million, and the annual CHIPS allocation is $180,425.
Shelter Island photo
The highway department premises are a little more than 8,000 sq. ft., featuring four large garage bays with two hydraulic vehicle/equipment lifts. The department has a dedicated wood shop for maintenance crew. The second floor of the building houses Ken's office and an office for his secretary.
In addition, there are bathroom facilities, a storage room and a break room for the crew equipped with a full kitchen. A 120-ft. by 55-ft. roof covers the recycling center plastic, aluminum and cardboard balers and paper baler. The department uses six outdoor sheds and three overseas containers for additional storage. Under-cover capacity for salt storage is 200 tons and the facilities were built in 2007.
Equipment and trucks in the fleet include:
• CEC Roadrunner screening plant
• Diamond Z horizontal grinder
• three Kenworth dump trucks with plows and sanders
• one Chevrolet dump truck with plow and sander
• one Freightliner hook lift truck with plow and sander, two roll-off containers and one flatbed
• four Chevrolet 3500 dump trucks with plows
• three Chevrolet 2500 pick-up trucks with plows
• two Chevrolet 2500 utility body trucks with plows
• one Sterlington Vac-Con truck
• one Mack tractor
• one Freightliner tractor
• one Eager Beaver trailer
• one Kobelco excavator
• one Gehl skid steer
• one Gehl track loader
• one Hyundai 955A wheel loader
• one Cat 450C backhoe
• one Cat 938H loader
• one Cat IT28G loader
• one dump trailer
• one walking floor trailer
• one Ravo street sweeper
• one JLG aerial lift
"We only have our Hyundai loader and Freightliner hook lift with remaining payments," said Ken. "The loader will be paid this year and hook lift in 2026. I anticipate us having to replace one of the Cat loaders in the next two years and having to purchase a new street sweeper. But this year, I am trying to replace our 20-year-old walking floor trailer that we use to haul construction and demolition debris off the island."
Ken would like to get a replacement roadside boom mower and Diamond Z grinder in the next few years. He credits the mechanics on the team for adhering to the maintenance schedule for all equipment and trucks and keeping accurate logs and files.
Shelter Island photo
Portable communications between garage and working machines/crews include 12 handheld Motorola radios and many in-truck and equipment CB radios. They use cell phones, and the crew gets a stipend every year toward their cell phones. Use of computers for office work is limited to Ken and his secretary, and the mechanics have one to look up parts or repair information. They have a computer and scale program in the scale house at the recycling center/transfer facility.
Ken and his team are responsible for is 114 lane miles, which includes 99 miles of municipal, 10 miles of county, and 4.8 mi. of state roads. The department has four main plowing routes and oversees all the parking lots for police, fire, emergency medical services (EMS) and the municipal buildings. It takes approximately four hours to complete a full loop.
The department is responsible for three small and two-lane bridges, but other than the road surface they are maintained by the county and the state. Additional responsibilities include parks and maintaining CPF (Community Preservation Fund) properties, which are open space properties acquired with funds from taxes assessed after a real estate sale.
Planning Projects
Ken and his crew have been busy the past few months.
"We completed a total makeover of our Goodie Area, which is designated for reusable items that the public can bring in free of charge," he said. "People can find used or new items for personal use. We expanded the area this year, installed a new roof and added new shelving and signage."
The department accepts furniture, reusable building materials, doors, vanities, sinks, clean lumber, pipes, etc. at the Goodie Area. It's open all week, 10 a.m.-noon and 2-4 p.m.
A major kitchen renovation was completed at the restaurant at Goat Hill, which is the largest park on the island and home to a nine-hole golf course with a clubhouse and restaurant, built in 1901. The restaurant floor was removed and leveled, floor drains for cleaning installed and an industrial epoxy flooring system installed to seal the floor completely to make maintenance easier. A new fresh air delivery system and a new hood exhaust and fire suppression system were installed.
Shelter Island photo
Ken and his team also cleared an old cart path and passageway to the driving range from the clubhouse, cleared out old fallen trees and invasives and mulched the areas either side of the path.
Projects under way include installing seven catch basins at identified flooding locations on roadsides around the island and preparing for annual paving locations for the upcoming season. A major bulkhead renovation at the town dock on Congdon Road is complete and nine roadside catch basin drainage systems were installed last year.
Next on the schedule is a bulkhead replacement project for end of 2025 or in 2026, a handicap ramp at the clubhouse at the public park and golf course at Goat Hill and an expansion of the EMS garage slated to begin this summer.
Everyday Operations
Ken's favorite part of his job is "managing a good project and seeing it through from start to finish. I like getting out in the public and letting people know what we do," he said. "A lot of folks don't know the variety of jobs and services our department handles. I like to spread the word and always plug my team, they are the guys out there in the snowstorms and rainstorms, cleaning up downed trees and making the roads clear for emergency vehicles."
What he doesn't necessarily enjoy is "the politics of it. It's not a true political job, but as an elected official you must play the politics. The extreme weather is difficult, too, especially when having to explain to the public, to their satisfaction, why the road floods after a torrential rain event. When we have a project lined up, all our ducks in a row, and then things happen — a crew member has an unexpected personal emergency, we have an equipment failure and an unforeseen weather event that may set us back weeks, it becomes a domino effect."
Shelter Island photo
Ken and his crew keep calm and carry on.
"I plan to continue to connect with the state about getting a uniform shoulder width and complete repaving of State Road Route 114. It has not been resurfaced since 1977," he said about future projects. "I would like to work closely with the county and our grant writer at securing funding to completely renovate our sidewalk at our most popular bathing beach. It's almost half a mile long and hasn't been touched in 25 years."
He and the town engineer are working on a plan to repair at least two town landings a year, for greater public access and especially, greater emergency access for the fire department. Ken is working with a grant writer to secure funding from the N.Y.S. Department of Parks to assist with a "tot lot" playground renovation that he is hoping to complete in the next two years.
The next few months are maintenance months for the department. Because Shelter Island is a seasonal community and a popular summer destination, Memorial Day to Labor Day are more about maintaining the parks and beaches, mowing the roadsides and pothole maintenance.
Having his team by his side through it all is Ken's pride.
"When my whole crew is present, we are working on multiple projects, and everything is running like a Swiss watch. I have a great crew and when they receive compliments for all their hard work, it makes me proud and happy for the work we do." P
