
Master Gardeners Heather Brenner, Joyce Tomaselli and Philomena Kiernan worked the 30th annual Master Gardener plant sale in Millbrook on May 19 and 20, 2023.
Judith O’Hara Balfe
Master Gardeners Heather Brenner, Joyce Tomaselli and Philomena Kiernan worked the 30th annual Master Gardener plant sale in Millbrook on May 19 and 20, 2023.
MILLBROOK — The Dutchess County Master Gardener Program at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Ductchess County (CCEDC) experienced a mass resignation of its volunteers in late March.
This departure comprises at least half of the program’s 74 members, some of whom have been in the program for decades.
The Master Gardener Volunteer Program is a national initiative of Cornell University: trained volunteers collaborate with county Cooperative Extension offices to provide research-based guidance to home gardeners and youth.
Originating in Washington state in 1972, Dutchess County pioneered New York State’s involvement in 1975. Today, Master Gardener programs exist in 46 states, with over 23,000 participants nationwide, including more than 1,100 in New York State alone.
The primary grievances of the resigned volunteers from Dutchess County revolve around perceived poor management practices by the program’s new directors. Allegations include the creation of a hostile work environment, arbitrary dismissals and suspensions of Master Gardeners, and a lack of transparency regarding changes to volunteer commitments.
“There is something called a conflict resolution policy at the extension, and they would never let us utilize it to hear why we were upset, what we thought we could do about it, and how we could fix things and so forth. They just wouldn’t sit down with us,” said a master gardener who prefers to remain anonymous. She went on to say, “They never thought about the repercussions. Period. And quite honestly, they don’t seem to care.” This sentiment is echoed by others who feel that the current management team has failed to address their concerns and engage in meaningful dialogue.
The imposition of new rules and requirements without adequate explanation has contributed to the discontent among volunteers. Recent developments, such as what the gardeners describe as restrictive volunteer forms and disrespectful language, have also raised concerns among volunteers.
The departure of these longtime volunteers represents a significant loss for the Dutchess County Master Gardener Program and the community it serves.
Said Chris Ferrero, Master Gardener and one of the founders of the Master Gardener Speaker’s Bureau, “The Master Gardeners need to be brought back if we are going to serve the community. If we can’t, why is the county paying the extension for this service?”
Moving forward, there is a collective hope among former volunteers for a reversal of the program’s current trajectory which they perceive to be marked by inflexible and disrespectful management practices. The volunteers have voiced their concerns in an open letter about the future direction of the program and its ability to effectively serve the community.
Asked for comment, CCEDC Director Mary Lou Carolan acknowledged that a number of volunteers had left the program. She said that the movement among the Master Gardeners had started last summer, following the implementation of revised policy guidelines from Cornell’s horticulture program.
The revised guidelines required Master Gardeners to spend more hours training, so that those with the Master Gardener title would be more educated in all aspects of plant management, from propagation to soil science on down, said Carolan — the idea being that the Gardeners can then pass that information on to the public.
She said that the Master Gardeners who left had objected to new requirements of time spent in the labs and greenhouses, learning, for example, how to manage cuttings and propagate plants.
The Master Gardeners also objected to requirements to staff the CCEDC horticulture hotline, which people call with questions about gardening, Carolan said. This also required training, such as how to research the answers to questions that the volunteer might not know off the top of their heads.
The changes coincided with changes in leadership and staffing, said Carolan.
“With new leadership comes new direction, new vision,” she said. “I think they didn’t want anything to change.”
There is magic in a home filled with the things we love, and Mary Randolph Carter, affectionately known as “Carter,” has spent a lifetime embracing that magic. Her latest book, “Live with the Things You Love … and You’ll Live Happily Ever After,” is about storytelling, joy, and honoring life’s poetry through the objects we keep.
“This is my tenth book,” Carter said. “At the root of each is my love of collecting, the thrill of the hunt, and living surrounded by things that conjure up family, friends, and memories.”
The creative director at Ralph Lauren for almost four decades, Carter began writing this book during the pandemic, a time of rediscovering comfort. “I found more time to appreciate those special things that give our homes warmth and connection.” Working with Ralph Lauren, she learned that the best spaces tell a personal story. “His desk was filled with toy cars, miniature shoes, superheroes, English dandies, cowboys on horseback. The walls? A gallery of his children’s paintings, iconic photos of Frank Sinatra and Gary Cooper. Everything told a story.”
Carter acknowledges how homes can become overwhelmed with stuff but sees a difference between clutter and collection. “To live happily, create environments that inspire and comfort rather than encumber you! Look around and ask, ‘What is truly meaningful? What makes you smile? What recalls the people and places you cherish?’” Then, she added, “weed out the rest with discipline and courage!”
Provided
Each home in Carter’s book reflects its inhabitant’s spirit. “The first time I walked into Bethann Hardison’s apartment, I knew right away how authentic it was to who she is.” Hardison’s walls are lined with artwork from friends Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Haitian paintings, testaments to a life well lived. “Though her mantra is, ‘the lighter the load, the freer the journey,’ she also admits some things ‘delight your environment’ and can’t be parted with. Amen to that!”
Having survived two childhood fires, Carter deeply understands what truly matters. “It’s not the things, but the people and memories they evoke.” She loves her collections, but they don’t possess her. “They make me happy, but they do not define me.”
She delights in how people showcase treasures. Paula Grief, for instance, lives in a ten-foot-wide house and had to part with many books. “She tucks the ones she can’t live without through the rungs of her staircase. I love that ingenuity!”
When asked about her most cherished possession, Carter tells a story of loss and serendipity. A childhood portrait of her in a blue velvet dress was lost in a fire. “Years later, the artist’s daughter found another version. Now, it hangs in our apartment, surrounded by flea market art and one of my favorite saints, Our Lady of Guadalupe.”
Adding to the cozy feeling of this book, Carter’s son, Carter Berg, took the photographs, and her sister, Cary, contributed the illustrations. “Cary once stayed in our apartment and painted a dozen objects from our cluttered kitchen. I hung them immediately. When I started this book, I knew she had to capture my favorite objects.”
Four of the featured homes are local to the Northwest Corner, including Carter’s in Millerton, Joan Osofsky’s in Lakeville, Robin Bell’s in Salisbury, and Paula Grief’s in Hudson. They all gathered at the White Hart/Oblong Speaker Series on March 27.
After perusing the richly colored pages of this book, you may feel tempted to shop. “You don’t need money to create a meaningful home,” Carter insisted. “Some of my favorite paintings cost no more than $10 or $25. Value is personal. It’s not about provenance but the story an object tells you or the one you make up.”
Carter’s advice? “Fall in love with the wackiest thing. Surround yourself with what matters, and you’ll live happily ever after.”
The first play in four years returned to the Webutuck Auditorium Friday, March 28. The production of Clue was put on entirely by students from the Webutuck Middle School and starred an ensemble cast of, from left to right, Jacob Dean as Mr. Green, Caroline Eschbach as Mrs. White, Brooke Bozydaj as Yvette, Liam Diaz as Wadsworth, Nolan Howard as Colonel Mustard, Mariah Bradley as Miss Scarlett and Lois Musgrave as Mrs. Peacock who is pictured on the floor of the stage.
POUGHKEEPSIE — Dutchess County Comptroller Dan Aymar-Blair has issued a final report on the $57.1 million distributed to the county under the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, concluding that the funding made a positive impact despite shortcomings in planning for the way money was spent.
The federal ARPA funding was a COVID-19 relief initiative, allocating $1.9 trillion for pandemic relief that included $350 billion for state and local governments.
Dutchess County began receiving the funds in 2021 and 2022. All $57.1 million needed to be obligated by Dec. 31, 2024, and expended by Dec. 31, 2026.
Aymar-Blair’s report, released March 24, is the final of 12 that have been issued since March 2022. The Comptroller noted that there were three different County Executives over the course of the disbursement time frame.
“With any set of expenditures as large and far-reaching as these, there can be disagreement over the merits, timing, and prioritization of certain projects over others,” Aymar-Blair wrote in his summary.
“However, it is in the opinion of the Comptroller that the planning in relation to the allocation and spending of these funds could have been more rigorous,” he added.
William F.X. O’Neil served as County Executive beginning in January 2023 when he was appointed to complete the third term of Marc Molinaro, who was elected to Congress in the 19th District. Sue Serino took office in January 2024.
As of June 30, 2024, the county had spent a little over $31 million in ARPA funds. In that month, Dutchess County Executives updated the ARPA fund spending plan, choosing to allocate all remaining funds to education in the county, focusing mainly on Dutchess County Community College. The county chose to use the remaining $25 million to fund its contribution to the community college, chargeback costs paid to other community colleges and costs paid toward the New York State-mandated pre-school education program.
“The allocation to the college was a standard obligation that the county makes every year,” Aymar-Blair said in an interview. “What was a tax levy just became ARPA.”
“Reallocating ARPA funds for the Dutchess Community College and Pre-School Special Education costs resulted in a positive impact to the general fund balance in the amount of $15 million,” he said in the report.
Aymar-Blair said positive impacts of the funding included: retaining and hiring new staff, keeping non-profit partners afloat, supporting some of our most vulnerable populations, and generally mitigating the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Dutchess County.
A wide variety of grants were distributed through the program.
In Millerton, $328,000 was allocated under the ARPA program for Phase I of Eddie Collins Memorial Park revitalization.
The North East Fire District received $73,283 for protective equipment for fire rescue.
The Amenia Free Library Association received a $2,467 grant for future youth programming.
The Town of Pine Plains received grants for all-terrain wheelchairs, town parks and trails, and to make Stissing Lake Beach Park wheelchair accessible.
ARPA investments were made in several categories: community, county parks, youth services, education, food security, seniors, mental health and emergency medical services.
A plan to spend $11.6 million in ARPA funds for improvements to Heritage Financial Park, home of the Hudson Valley Renegades in Wappingers Falls, was reduced to spend funds for other projects, bringing the total cost of upgrades to the park to $1.4 million. Initial spending plans were changed as other funding plans surfaced, such as in the case of $10 million planned for a Youth Opportunity Center in Poughkeepsie that was reduced to $4.5 million.
States, counties and municipalities won’t receive funding for recurring program expenses with ARPA and Aymar-Blair said he didn’t see a problem with ongoing financial commitments now that the federal relief program has ended.
“I don’t see a burden on upcoming budgets,” he said.
Patti Lynch-VandeBogard
MILLERTON — Village trustees on Monday, March 24, voted to appoint Patti Lynch-VandeBogard to serve as chair of the Planning Board, filling a vacancy created by the recent resignation of Lance Middlebrook.
Lynch-VandeBogard was elected to the Planning Board in July 2023 for a five-year term that ends in 2028.
“I thanked Lance for his 17 years of volunteer service on the Board,” Mayor Jenn Najdek told the Village Board.
Najdek said that she spoke with Lynch-VandeBogard about assuming the chair at the Planning Board following Middlebrook’s resignation.
Middlebrook, who has been chair for more than a decade, made his surprise exit at a regular meeting of the Planning Board on March 12.
He cited frustration about the large sign on Route 22 which displays the message “Community + Kindness” as in violation of village code.
“That should have gone to us. They just took it upon themselves. That was it for me,” he said.
The sign went up in December with the support of the Dutchess County Commission on Human Rights and Townscape, a volunteer group focused on revitalization of the Village.
Wastewater grants
Mayor Najdek informed Village trustees that federal-funding earmarks for Millerton’s proposed wastewater system were removed from the Congressional continuing resolution, and she recommended that the Village resubmit its application for funding.
“It’s the exact same application,” Najdek said.
Trustees voted unanimously to reapply for the funding.
The Village of Millerton and the Town of North East had been anticipating the earmarked funds that weresupported by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY. U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, D-18, had secured $1 million, a grant that remains intact, Najdek said.
Fire update
The Village has received two payments to date from its insurance company related to the costs of the early February fire at the Water Department building, which remains off-limits.
A third payment is anticipated, Najdek said, noting costs the Village will incur as it moves some operations into the Town of North East’s old town garage on South Center Street as a temporary storage and operations center.
The trustees approved an agreement with North East to lease the facility at a cost of $500 per month to be covered by insurance.
Summer Camp canceled
Due to planned construction for the pool at Eddie Collins Memorial Park starting in August, Village trustees concluded that holding a summer camp would be problematic out of concern for the safety of the children.
This past December, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation awarded the village a matching grant of up to $675,000 in support of the project. With these monies, funding for Phase II, which stems largely from a NY SWIMS capital grant, is now at $7.56 million.
Trustees gave preliminary approval to Oblong Books to hold a 50th anniversary block party on South Center Street in August.
The March 24 meeting also focused on the upcoming budget, and trustees worked through a line-item examination of budget items. Plans call for a special Village Trustees meeting to be held April 3 at 6 p.m. to continue the budget workshop that will lead to an eventual public hearing sometime in mid-April.