Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.
water district

Cold temperatures cause two water main breaks in Amenia

Cold temperatures cause two water main breaks in Amenia

A water main under Lake Amenia Road in Amenia sprays water after construction workers with C. Gallagher Contracting, of Brewster, New York, attempted to cut the pipe to replace a damaged section on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Crew members said high pressure in a pipe encumbers cutting, fills the hole with too much water, and could cause workers to be too wet for the extremely low temperatures.

Photo by Nathan Miller

This story has been updated.

AMENIA — Frigid temperatures caused two water main breaks in Amenia on Tuesday, Jan. 27 — one on Depot Hill Road and a second, more serious rupture beneath Lake Amenia Road — forcing crews to work through the day and into the night to restore service.

The Depot Hill Road leak was reported by resident David Intrieri at about 8:45 a.m. and was patched with a collar seal by midafternoon. Crews then shifted to the Lake Amenia Road break, where a section of pipe had to be removed and fully replaced.

C. Gallagher Contracting of Brewster, New York, provided excavation and pipe repair services for both breaks, with assistance from Pat Cusano of North Salem, New York.

Crew members with VRI Environmental Services and C. Gallagher Contracting assess the flow rate of the damaged pipe under Lake Amenia Road in Amenia on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m.Photo by Nathan Miller

The Depot Hill Road repair was completed around 2:30 p.m., but work at Lake Amenia Road was delayed when crews were unable to immediately locate a key valve. According to crew members, the first valve was not found until about 7:30 p.m.

Flow from the pipe had still not slowed by 8:30 p.m., even after one valve was shut. Representatives from VRI Environmental Services — Amenia’s contracted water system operator — located additional valves and fire hydrants to further reduce pressure shortly before 9 p.m.

A white plastic pipe replaces the damaged section of water main beneath Lake Amenia Road in Amenia on Tuesday, Jan. 27.Photo by Nathan Miller

The pipe replacement was completed by 9:30 p.m., and water service was restored to affected customers, crew members said.

Imprecisely marked valves on the town’s water system map contributed to the delays, according to crew members. Water Committee Chair Bill Flood said VRI only recently assumed management of Amenia’s water system and is still becoming familiar with the district’s layout. Large snowbanks also obscured valves and other infrastructure, Cusano said.

A collar seal covers a crack in a water main pipe near 54 Depot Hill Road in Amenia.Photo by Nathan Miller

VRI representatives said another water main leak occurred in Millerton but was minor and repaired on Wednesday, Jan. 28.

The breaks were attributed to extreme cold, which can cause ground movement and added stress on aging pipes — some up to 30 years old — in Amenia.

“There’ll be more tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day,” Cusano said. “It’s just that time of year.”

Nathan Miller
water district

Latest News

Millerton wine shop owner organizes charity wine tasting for local child

Millerton wine shop owner organizes charity wine tasting for local child

Millerton Wine & Spirits owner Chris Jeans has organized a charity wine tasting to benefit the family of Crew Slater, a Millerton native with congenital kidney disease. The wine tasting is set for Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pasture Kitchen on Route 44 just east of the Village of Millerton.

Illustration provided

MILLERTON — Two local business owners have joined forces to put on a charity wine tasting benefitting Millerton's Slater family.

Crew Slater, a 5-year-old Millerton native, needs a kidney transplant to survive congenital kidney disease. Millerton Wine & Spirits owner Chris Jeans and Pasture Kitchen founder Austin Cornell have organized a charity wine tasting at Pasture Kitchen on Route 44 next Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Keep ReadingShow less
events

The Millerton News - October 22, 2026

The Millerton News - October 22, 2026

Download directly

Cornwall Historical Society celebrates Connecticut’s Black patriots

Cornwall Historical Society celebrates Connecticut’s Black patriots

On Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Cornwall Historical Society, author and genealogist John Mills will breathe new life into the stories of some of Connecticut’s more underappreciated patriots. The reason these heroes were forgotten? They were Black.

At a time when white colonists were fighting for their own liberty and political independence, many Black men who fought alongside them remained enslaved. Some risked their lives only to return to bondage. Though enslaved people were promised freedom from both sides of the Revolutionary War in exchange for their service, Great Britain, too, was still deeply dependent on slavery. For Black people in America, the war presented both extraordinary risks and uncertain paths to the freedom that white colonists were demanding for themselves.

Keep ReadingShow less
education
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

A sanctuary for second chances

A sanctuary for second chances

Stephanie Saetta runs Charlie Chicken Bones, a sanctuary in Salisbury.

Madi Long
You only get one or two of these soul connection dogs, so I do this in his honor.
— Stephanie Saetta

Stephanie Saetta has spent much of her life caring for others. A physician at White Plains Hospital, she has another calling at home in Salisbury — one that has four legs and a wagging tail. She runs Charlie Chicken Bone Sanctuary, a nonprofit dog rescue that brings dogs from overcrowded pounds and the streets of Texas to foster homes in northwestern Connecticut, where they can begin again.

The sanctuary is named for Charlie, the dog who taught her how special a bond between a person and rescue animal can be.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Big ideas come to Lenox for inaugural field festival

Big ideas come to Lenox for inaugural field festival

Hunter Runnette, founder and board chair of field, has spent years fostering arts and cultural programming in the Berkshires.

Provided

What do joy, gardening, artificial intelligence, the American experiment and the creative process have in common? Quite a lot, as it turns out, at least when some of the world’s most compelling thinkers get together to talk about them.

From Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Oct. 25, Lenox, Massachusetts, will host the inaugural field festival, a three-day gathering of writers, artists, scholars and cultural figures at Shakespeare & Company. Billed as a festival of ideas, entertainment, learning and discovery, field brings together an impressive roster of voices to explore everything from the deeply personal to the profoundly political.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

The Pink House AM is serving up community

The Pink House AM is serving up community

Mare Rubin and Maggie Levine of the Pink House AM.

Madi Long

It all started with a yoga class. Mare Rubin was working on her second act after leaving the Upper West Side, where she’d raised a family and worked in corporate marketing. Newly empty nesters, she and her husband decided to move to the wilds of northwestern Connecticut, where they had spent 15 years as weekenders, to see what life in the woods had in store for them.

Rubin started teaching yoga classes at the Union in West Cornwall, a space designated by the town of Cornwall as a community hub with couches, Wi-Fi, occasional events and a growing yoga class schedule. She was adjusting well but missed one important thing about city life: a casual coffee shop.

Keep ReadingShow less
business
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.