Town Board races close; Library support propositions pass
Campaign signs adorned yards across Dutchess County, like this collection outside NBT Bank on Main Street in Millerton.
MILLERTON — Democratic incumbents State Senator Michelle Hinchey and Assemblymember Didi Barrett won reelection on Tuesday, Nov. 5., according to unofficial results of the Dutchess County Board of Elections.
State Sen. Hinchey, D-41, outpaced Republican challenger Patrick Sheehan with 55% of the vote compared to Sheehan’s 44%. Assemblymember Barrett, D-106, defeated Republican challenger Stephan Krakower by 54% to 45%.
Dutchess County Comptroller A. Gregg Pulver, a Republican, edged out Democrat Dan Aymar-Blair in the race for County Comptroller with 50.1% of the vote, compared to Aymar-Blair’s 49.78%, or a difference of 475 votes.
Municipal elections were held in North East, Amenia, Millbrook and Stanford.
In North East, Republican Christopher L. Mayville, a current Town Board member, defeated Democrat Rachele Grieco Cole by a margin of 53% to 47%. The election was for an unexpired term on the Board.
In Amenia, Nicole Ahearn, a Republican, defeated Charlie Miller, a Democrat challenging her for her seat. Ahearn had 54.5% of the vote, compared to Miller's 44.6%
In Millbrook, Peter Doro was elected Mayor with 95% of the vote in an uncontested race. In a race for two seats as Millbrook Village Trustees, Democrat Julia Bucklin received 27% of the vote and Republican Elizabeth Molella Socci won 24.95%. Democrat Shannon Mawson trailed with 24.75%. Republican Kay Vanderlyn Ulrich won 23% of the vote.
In Stanford, Adrienne Zetterberg, a Republican, won election for an unexpired term on the Town Board by 50% to 49%, defeating Democrat Theodore Eagleson Secor.
Amenia voters also approved a proposal on the ballot to increase the town’s contribution to the operating budget of the Amenia Free Library by a 60% to 40% margin.
Similarly, voters in North East voted 72% to 28% to increase the level of support for the NorthEast-Millerton Libary in Millerton.
A third proposition, which was before voters in the Town of Washington to increase the contribution of the town to the Millbrook Library, also passed by a 56% to 44% vote.
A New York State proposal, called Prop One, also passed by a 57% to 43% margin in Dutchess County. The proposal protects against unequal treatment based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability and sex.
All results are unofficial.
Millerton News
Groceries are a basic need, but in many parts of our region, buying them can mean careful planning, multiple stops, or a drive to another town.
Where do you shop for groceries? What works well, and what makes grocery shopping harder than it should be? How do price, selection, distance, hours, or transportation shape where you go?
Send your responses to publisher@lakevillejournal.com by Monday, June 8, at 10 a.m. or comment on Facebook or Instagram.
We’ll publish a selection in next week’s paper.
Have you had a run-in with a bear? What happened, and how did you handle it? And what do you think towns and neighbors should be doing to keep both people and bears safer?
“I said, “Chill and wait a second...I want to get my camera!” So he did.”
— Matthias Weiss, Millerton
“Yes we had one time run into a bear on the bike trail. Two times, one came through our property.”
— Antonina Bok, Millerton
“I was chased after surprising a mom and 2 cubs in Washington state mountain biking.”
— DC Broughton, Wassaic
“I have come across bears multiple times while outside on runs and it has been a matter of being aware (headphones out) and making some noise to have them quickly run off. It still increases my anxiety for the rest of the run though!”
— Maggie Windsor Gross, Sharon
“When you don’t have birdseed out, bear-proof trash cans out only for pick up day and cleaned grills, the bears just pass on through. There is a human problem, not so much a bear problem.”
— Lynn Gray, Kent
Millerton News
June 13th – just 2 weeks ahead - early voting begins for the Democratic primary for our State Assemblymember’s seat.June 23rd is voting day at the Library Annex.North East and Millerton Democrats please take note and step up to vote for Didi Barrett who is running for reelection. Why?It is not an exaggeration to say that our Town and Village have never had an advocate at the state level who has delivered as much as Didi has.She knows us, visits us, cares about our issues and works tirelessly for her constituents.Lucky us!We have so much to thank her for....the new swimming pool and pool house in Eddie Collins Park for starters!Then there is her help with the Town Garage, NECC, the Library, the new Town Hall.We couldn’t have done all these things without her help. She has directed our own NYS tax dollars right here to our community.
Life will be better in Millerton and Nort East with Didi Barrett in office.I urge that you vote for her on June 23rd.
Jennifer Dowley
North East
Millerton News
The following excerpts from The Millerton News were compiled by Kathleen Spahn and Rhiannon Leo-Jameson of the North East-Millerton Library.
Miss Marjorie Barton of Ancramdale, a graduate of Syracuse University, sang in the music festival held Saturday at the Yale Bowl in celebration of the Connecticut Tercentenary. The chorus, made up of 3,000 singers representing seventy-two musical organizations, sang before a crowd of more than 15,000. The chorus was the largest ever to appear at one event in the State. Directors included Ralph L. Baldwin of Hartford, Richard Donovan and David Stanley Smith of New Haven.
Miss Barton sang with the solo chorus of Bristol, Conn. which united with three other groups. She was a house guest over the week-end of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Brooks at Southington, Conn. Mrs. Brooks was a college friend of Miss Barton.
There is still no word as to whether the New York State Legislature is going to restore $1.8 million to the State’s Parks and Recreation budget. However, the Assistant Manager of the Taconic State Park Region, which includes Rudd Pond, said this week if the money is not restored Rudd Pond is likely to remain open and State-operated anyway.
The Webutuck girls’ softball squad had a good week, defeating Dover in a slugfest, 23-22, and then Haldane by a score of 15-5.
Against Dover, Nancy Cunningham led the way with a home run, triple and 3 runs- batted-in. Joan Madsen contributed a triple for Webutuck, and winning pitcher Brenda Brown, Cris Iuliano and Sue Stella slammed doubles.
Versus Haldane, Cris Luliano knocked out 3 hits and knocked in 2 runs, as did her Warrior teammate Debbie Downey. Dara Euvard and Nancy Cunningham collected 2 hits apiece. Brenda Brown pitched Webutuck to the win.
AMENIA It’s been a long time coming, but the Amenia Free Library (AFL) is now fully automated.
“We’ve been inputting data for two and a half years,” AFL Librarian Miriam Devine said Friday during an open house. “Now we’re barcoding everything.”
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Mac Gordon
At the end of 2025, President Trump told the world that he was interested in acquiring Greenland and would take it by force if necessary, stating that it was a matter of national security.
His Cabinet officials and others began echoing his remarks regarding the national security need to better control the region, especially with climate change opening up the arctic area to shipping and possible submarine warfare for the first time. But in truth, the President’s interest in Greenland arose more from his life-long obsession with size; Greenland was by far the world’s largest island. As a child he he was in love with the Great Wall of China and it became the inspiration for his proposed wall between the US and Mexico. His giant ballroom for the White House continues his strange obsession.
In addition to his concern for national security and his obsession with bigness, Trump had been studying the history of American imperialism and was favorably impressed by our military capture and control of foreign territory. He was prepared to try his own foreign adventures.
During World War 2 the U.S. had several small military bases on Greenland and the relations with the Greenlanders and Denmark (whose colony it was then) were good. Over the postwar years the U.S. eventually closed all the bases save one but Denmark (who still controls Greenland’s foreign affairs) had been accommodating to any new American military proposals.
So what’s so different now? Global warming has melted much of the northern ice thus opening the area to at least limited navigation and both Russia and China have been interested. Without much elaboration, the U.S. Defense and State departments have told us that this poses a formidable security threat requiring U.S. control of Greenland to counter. But most security analysts consider this a shortsighted point of view. An even more vulnerable area to foreign intruders would be from northern Alaska to the Arctic Circle. As former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin was supposed to have said,“I can see Russia from my back porch!”However the U.S. has done little or nothing to fortify this area militarily. On the face of it, it would seem more appropriate for the U.S. to shift its defensive attention to the western side of the continent. At the same time it would make sense for NATO rather than the U.S. to oversee Greenland’s only partly frozen, more navigable waterway. The U.S. is still a most prominent member of NATO thus permitting us to have some say in what happens there but the considerable animosity between Trump and Greenland and Denmark would be largely avoided. And as a bonus, perhaps Canada (a NATO member) might be drawn into being a more active member of the Western military alliance.
During the past four months, closed door trilateral meetings have been held in Washington, at the behest of the US State Department with officials from both Denmark and Greenland to discuss the future of the island.
Over the past year Trump’s verbal tirades have scared and angered people and their governments all over the world. A variety of recent pollsweighing popular feelings in eight western European countries toward the U.S. government have all shown major disfavor regarding American foreign policy, particularly because of threats against Greenland. Especially in Denmark and in Greenland where several hundred protesters gathered in the capital, Nuuk last week to protest continued US involvement in their affairs and specifically the opening of a much larger new USconsulate In Nuuk to “commemorate” its opening. Protesters carried signs with messages such as “Greenland is not for sale” and “Dump Trump”. The U.S. sent over an uninvitedSpecial Envoy, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, a notoriously impolitic individual who, shortly after arriving told everyone that could hear him “it’s time for Washington to put its foot back on this Arctic territory” and other insulting remarks.
Meanwhile back in Washington talks continue. The American demands are sosteep; Greenlandic officials fear that they amount to a major imposition on their sovereignty, such as a possible veto over what businesses might be permitted to operate in the territory. Meanwhile, the former Danish Prime minister Mette Frederiksen, a strong supporter of Greenland,is about to be replaced and is no longer in the discussions.
The parties are discussing cooperation on the development of natural resources. The island is loaded with oil, natural gas, uranium, rare earths and other critical minerals. However, much of it is buried deep beneath Greenland’s glacial ice. The Trump administration is especially interested in the island’s buried wealth and wants to make sure that other nations, particularly China and Russia, are kept away from it.Although he likes to denythe significance of global warming, Trump knows that Greenland’s underground riches are becoming more accessible year by year.
Trump’s war in Iran is going badly with no real end in sight and he is looking to get out. He wants a new, more promising theater for his international adventures and is hoping to capture Cuba next (although he has already nearly done so by an economic siege).Then many think he may indulge his continuing obsession and make another attempt to take Greenland.
Can you believe it?
Architect G. Mackenzie Gordon, A.I.A., lives in Lakeville.
Nathan Miller
MILLERTON — Two sitting members of the village Board of Trustees are up for reelection on Tuesday, June 16.
Deputy Mayor Matt Hartzog and Trustee Matt Soleau are each seeking additional two year terms to the Board of Trustees. Both incumbents are running unopposed for their respective seats.
Elections are scheduled for Tuesday, June 16, at the Millerton Village Hall on Route 22 north of the intersection with Route 44. Voting booths will be open from noon to 9 p.m.
Leila Hawken
Area music lovers turned out for a free concert at the Lyall Community Church on Friday, May 29, presented by the Millbrook Music Salon. The concert featured the award-winning Balourdet Quartet joined by acclaimed clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson. Titled “Compass: Musical Distance,” the varied program included works by Mozart, Milhaud, Viet Cuong and Brahms. Left to right are Justin DeFilippis, violin; Angela Bae, violin; Johnson, clarinet; Russell Houston, cello; and Benjamin Zannoni, viola.
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