Persevering through COVID-19 — and cloudy skies

Cornwall Consolidated School Class of 2021 celebrated their new beginning.
Photo by Cynthia Hochswender
CORNWALL — “Perseverance” was the key word at the Cornwall Consolidated School (CCS) promotion ceremony on Tuesday night, June 15. It described what helped the Class of 2021 get through a COVID-19 year; and it described how the school community managed to come together for the planned ceremony on Tuesday night despite a heavy late afternoon rainfall.
At one point late in the day, confessed Principal Mary Kay Ravenola, she felt like packing it up and going home. But she and the school community persevered; the end result was a gorgeous ceremony on a cool evening.
Of the 12 students in the graduating class, two had not set foot in the school building at all during this academic year. In the tent during the ceremony, they were all spaced 6 feet apart. But it was clear the students overall consider each other a small family unit that has bonded in an unbreakable way.
Student speakers were Rose Fitch and Omar Alganm, who was new to CCS this year.
The guest speaker was Ted Cheney, son of school board member Hugh Cheney. A graduate in the Class of 1997, Ted had recently returned to Cornwall with his wife and three young children, from their home in Haines, Alaska. He told a funny story about his love for snow and skiing, and his underlying feeling that perhaps he wasn’t learning anything useful in school. He realized how wrong he was when he was trapped in February on a glacier as guide on a helicopter ski expedition — and he was able to save the lives of the members of his ski party by using the cross country ski techniques he’d (grudgingly) learned from CCS physical education instructor Jo Loi.
The video of the ceremony (by Richard Griggs) can be found online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-NHHqAf9F0.
Cornwall Consolidated School Class of 2021
Pedro Adrian Aguilar, Omar Ahmad Alganm, Joshua Deforest Benjamin, Niya Love Conn Borst, Tryston Bronson, Sidney Lawrence Crouch, Indigo Sky Fitch, Rose Phoenix Fitch, Manasseh Matsudaira, Alistair James Philotheus Taaffe, Eliza Ann Tyson, Emil Zenon Urbanowicz
2021 Awards
Citizenship Award: Presented by Tim Naylor, Representing Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9856 to Alistair Taaffe
Dorothy Hermann Memorial Award: Presented by Iris Hermann to Eliza Tyson
Outstanding Academic Achievement: Presented by Principal Mary Kay Ravenola to Alistair Taaffe and Manasseh Matsudaira
CCS Board of Education Volunteer Award: Presented by CCS Board Chair Emilie Pryor to Iris Hermann
Built in 1820, 1168 Bangall Amenia Road sold for $875,000 on July 31 with the transfer recorded in August. It has a Millbrook post office and is located in the Webutuck school district.
STANFORD — The Town of Stanford with nine transfers in two months reached a median price in August of $573,000 for single family homes, still below Stanford’s all-time median high in August 2024 of $640,000.
At the beginning of October there is a large inventory of single-family homes listed for sale with only six of the 18 homes listed for below the median price of $573,000 and seven above $1 million.
July transfers
79 Ernest Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 6.87 acres in 2 parcels sold to Matthew C. Marinetti for $1,225,000.
29 Drake Road — 3 bedroom/3.5 bath home on 2 acres sold to Harper Montgomery for $850,000.
6042 Route 82 — 4 bedroom/2 bath home on 1.09 acres sold to Spencer Thompson for $795,000.
125 Tick Tock Way — 3 bedroom/2.5 bath ranch on 1.9 acres sold to Fleur Touchard for $475,000.
August transfers
102 Prospect Hill Road — 3 bedroom/2 bath home on 6.35 acres sold to Karl Creighton Pfister for $565,000.
252 Ernest Road — 2 bedroom/1 bath cottage on .85 acres sold to Meg Bumie for $465,000.
1196 Bangall Amenia Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 2.16 acres sold to Roderick Alleyne for $875,000.
Hunns Lake Road (#759929) — 59.1 acres of residential land sold to Argos Farm LLC for $3,325,000.
* Town of Stanford recorded real estate transfers from July 1 to August 31 provided by Dutchess County Real Property Office monthly transfer reports. Details on each property from Dutchess Parcel Access - properties with an # indicate location on Dutchess Parcel Access. Market data from One Key MLS and Infosparks .Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Advisor with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in Connecticut and New York.
Hunt club members and friends gathered near Pugsley Hill at the historic Wethersfield Estate and Gardens in Amenia for the opening meet of the 2025-2026 Millbrook Hunt Club season on Saturday, Oct. 4. Foxhunters took off from Wethersfield’s hilltop gardens just after 8 a.m. for a hunting jaunt around Amenia’s countryside.
Joining in the fun at the dedication of the new pollinator pathway garden at The Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4, local expert gardener Maryanne Snow Pitts provides information about a planting to Lorraine Mirabella of Poughkeepsie.
MILLBROOK — Participating in a patchwork of libraries that have planted pollinator pathway gardens to attract insects and birds to their native plantings was one of the accomplishments being celebrated at the dedication of a new pollinator garden at the Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4.
“A lot of work went into it,” said Emma Sweeney, past President of the Millbrook Garden Club, who started the local library’s initiative two years ago.
The Pollinator Pathway program is a national effort to plant native plants that native insects depend upon for sustenance and preferred plants for their own seasonal reproduction.
Jana Hogan of Ridgefield, Connecticut, Executive Director of the Pollinator Pathway program, was on hand to present a plaque to the library for its successful participation.
“A garden is not just a garden,” said garden designer Andy Durbridge of Wassaic, designer of the library’s garden. “It may serve as a model for other gardens along the line.”
Speaking to the 50 visitors at the dedication, Durbridge said that the library’s garden has a mission, that it is a working garden, planned to serve insects and birds over their seasons. The earliest plants support pollinators, while the full range of plants continues to serve the needs of those they attract, offering habitat, shelter and food.
A pollinator garden is akin to a prairie, rather than a formalized European garden, Durbridge noted.
The garden project was supported by the library’s Friends group using funds raised during the Holiday Silent Auction and ongoing book sale. A grant from the Millbrook Garden Club also provided support.
Amenia Town Hall on Route 22.
AMENIA — After gathering comments from the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals, as it considers adding alternate members to those boards, the Town Board discussed possible changes to local laws governing those boards at its meeting on Friday, Oct. 3. The meeting date, usually on a Thursday, had been changed to accommodate a holiday.
In recent weeks Town Board attorney Ian Lindars has been compiling comments from the affected boards along with comments from the Town Board. The new laws may bring the appointment of two alternate members to each board. Alternate members are likely to be required to attend all meetings and be prepared to be seated if needed and be familiar with the applications being discussed. They would also need to take training required of all board members.
Lindars will prepare a draft of the new local laws to be reviewed by the Town Board and the affected boards.
As the Town Board begins work on the town’s annual budget negotiation process and anticipating an increase in some budget lines to accommodate major projects, the board unanimously approved three resolutions. The first will override the tax levy limit imposed on municipalities by the state of New York, a limit generally tied to the rate of inflation.
A public hearing on the proposal to override the levy limit was set for Thursday, November 6, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.