From left, Chris Klingner, first lieutenant of the Rescue Squad, Dawn Marie Klingner, Rescue Squad captain, and Zachary Klingner, second lieutenant, and Chris and Marie’s son. The 100%-volunteer EMT squad operates within the Amenia Fire Company.
Story reprinted courtesy of The New Pine Plains Herald
POUGHKEEPSIE — “Over 400 times last year, an ambulance never got to the patient’s side; the patient had to get to the hospital another way,” said Dana Smith, commissioner of Dutchess County Department of Emergency Response (DCER). “What’s happening is unacceptable, and we need to do something about it.”
The critical state of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Dutchess County is sounding alarms among local and state officials. On March 7, Smith presented an eye-opening report before the county’s Public Safety Committee that indicated the crisis is part of a broader statewide issue. He reported that across New York, only half of the 70,000 certified EMS personnel are regularly available to answer calls, and that 30% of them plan to leave the force over the next three years due to the strenuous nature of the work and insufficient compensation.
County Legislator Chris Drago, who represents District 19 (Stanford, Pine Plains, Milan, Red Hook, North East and Millerton), is one of 12 members of the Public Safety Committee. Elected to his first term in November, he campaigned on EMS reform.
“Our EMS volunteers are doing incredible work; they’re asking for help, and that is hard for them to do,” said Drago. “We owe it to them to find solutions.”
A well-documented crisis
In his March 7 presentation titled “The EMS Crisis in Dutchess County,” Smith referred to three studies that analyzed EMS operations, documented failures and proposed fixes. “All the recommendations that we’re talking about, that we’ve done to date and our plans moving forward, come from these reports,” he said.
The 2017 Dutchess County EMS Task Forces, spearheaded by then-County Executive Marc Molinaro and a panel of 28 experts, produced a data-intensive report that established five benchmarks for the system: It must be “patient-centered, consistent, reliable, affordable and sustainable.” The task force recommended the formation of the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) on EMS to aid collaboration between towns and emergency service providers. The CAC, established in 2018, works closely with Smith, who said, “These are competent, capable people advising us; they know what they’re talking about.”
The 2021 Profile of Dutchess County EMS and Options for the Future is also rich with data, like 911 calls enumerated by town, season, month, week, day and hour. The study proposed incentives like tax credits and subsidized training to attract and keep EMS workers. It also advocated a regional approach to EMS in which towns would share costs of equipment and personnel, and the county — after obtaining a state-approved county Certificate of Need— would provide extra ambulances to fill in gaps.
The New York State 2023 Evidence Based EMS Agenda for Future made more than 20 key recommendations, including declaring EMS an essential service to assure dedicated state funding; adding 10,000 certified EMS providers in New York by 2025; and implementing measurable performance metrics that would be transparent to the public and standardized across the state.
“With the results of these studies and advice from the CAC, our plans are being made for the future,” Smith told the legislators. “The county has to come up with stopgap money right now. We’re looking at how to do that.”
Smith believes that the answer to fixing the county’s troubled EMS system lies in regional management. “It will help the taxpayer without putting small ambulance companies out of work and standardize the system so every town is doing the same thing,” Smith said. “It will give us time to figure out long-term funding.”
Two months ago, Smith distributed surveys to ambulance service providers in Dutchess County, seeking input about supplementing existing EMS coverage. “This way we’ll know where to place stopgap ambulances,” he said. Survey responses, due this month, will shape a formal proposal for extra ambulance service units under the direction of DCER.
“We’ve looked at Greene, Columbia and Montgomery counties,” said Smith, who is investigating different EMS models around New York. “We’ve seen Nassau County’s EMS: They spent a lot of money and they have a very fragmented system, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Lawmakers beginning to act
With EMS stretched to its limits, elected officials, both at the county and state levels, are taking steps to help. The Public Safety Committee, DCER and Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino are working together on long-range regional EMS planning that would address each community’s needs.
Drago told the Herald, “In the short term, I’m advocating for county-staffed ambulances to be placed to supplement existing service, with one ideally placed in District 19. This will help alleviate the struggle that exists town by town and ensure we have a way of getting people to care faster.”
The 2024 Dutchess County budget includes a sales tax increase from 3.75% to 4%, in part to subsidize EMS. It has yet to be approved by the state.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation last year to make it easier for ambulance services to get paid: Reimbursement will go directly from the health insurance company to the EMS provider. Mark Browne, president and chief operating officer of Northern Dutchess Paramedics, said: “It used to be that payment went to the patient, making it more difficult for ambulance companies to get their money. It took a lot longer than it should have. Unfortunately, this change won’t even take effect until January of 2025.”
Hochul’s 2024-2025 proposed executive budget sets aside $8 million to revitalize the state’s EMS and $36 million toward improved Medicaid reimbursement for ambulance transport. It also grants Certificates of Need for county ambulance service, as recommended by the 2021 Dutchess County EMS study.
On Jan. 30, the New York state Legislature, in cooperation with EMS professionals and the New York State Association of Counties, released a package of bills called Rescue EMS, which contains seven proposals to revamp the system. “We are all aware that we need to help the emergency service [workers]” said Didi Barrett, assemblymember for New York’s 106th District, which includes parts of Dutchess and Columbia counties. “They put themselves in harm’s way every day. Finally, there’s enough critical mass in the legislature to get something done.”
Rescue EMS covers a wide variety of needs. The proposals are described by Barrett as “game changers.” One bill, if passed, would recognize EMS as an essential service, securing state and federal funding. It would also allow the creation of special tax districts to subsidize EMS services.
Barrett’s proposed legislation would allow volunteer firefighters and EMS workers to claim both state income and local property tax credits. “It will incentivize volunteer firefighter and EMS recruitment and retention,” Barrett said.
State Sen. Michelle Hinchey, who represents New York’s 41st District (which includes Northern Dutchess and Columbia counties, and portions of Ulster and Greene), is sponsoring a bill that provides Medicaid reimbursement for on-the-scene emergency care and ambulance transportation to non-hospital destinations, like urgent care centers and mental health facilities. It also would provide funding for telemedicine.
“Currently, EMS can only be reimbursed for treating Medicaid enrollees if they transport patients to a hospital ER, even if EMS has already provided the necessary care,” Hinchey told the Herald. “We cannot allow this status quo to continue.”
The remaining bills focus on funding and increasing the emergency workforce. Proposals include removing EMS from the property tax cap so towns can raise taxes more than 2% annually; increasing personal income tax credits for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers from $200 to $800 for individuals and $400 to $1,600 for joint filers; creating a way to increase the amount of Medicaid ambulance reimbursements paid; and dispensing with tolls for emergency transport on New York thruways.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing for the Rescue EMS package to be included in the state budget, which is due April 1.
DCER supports the legislative package. “The bills address the major roadblocks faced by EMS; it’s a good start,” Smith said. “We still have a lot of asks, so we’ll just keep advocating. EMS needs recognition and support. We need to develop solutions that are patient-centered, consistent, reliable, affordable and sustainable for Dutchess County residents. It’s neighbors helping neighbors.”
This is the second article in The New Pine Plains Herald’s two-part exploration of the challenges facing local EMS systems, reprinted with permission of The New Pine Plains Herald. To see the first part in the series, visit www.newpineplainsherald.org
Millerton News
Liane McGhee, a woman defined by her strength of will, generosity, and unwavering devotion to her family, passed away leaving a legacy of love and cherished memories.
Born Liane Victoria Conklin on May 27, 1957, in Sharon, CT, she grew up on Fish Street in Millerton, a place that remained close to her heart throughout her life. A proud graduate of the Webutuck High School Class of 1975, Liane soon began the most significant chapter of her life when she married Bill McGhee on August 7, 1976. Together, they built a life centered on family and shared values.
Liane was a woman of many passions. She found peace in the outdoors, whether she was taking scenic country rides, fishing, or walking her dog. An avid reader and a talented painter, she possessed a creative spirit and a caring heart that extended to all animals. Above all, Liane was most at home when surrounded by her family.
Liane is survived by her devoted husband of nearly 50 years, Bill McGhee. Her legacy continues through her three children: Joshua (Tanya) McGhee, Justin McGhee, and Jaclyn (Joe) Perusse. She was the proud grandmother of Connor, Calia, and Kennedy McGhee, as well as Lillian and Tillman Perusse. She is also survived by her siblings, Larry Conklin and Linda Holst-Grubbe. Liane was predeceased by her parents Martin and Lillian Conklin, and her brother, Robert “Bob” Conklin.
In keeping with Liane’s generous nature, the family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to Hudson Valley Hospice (by mail to 374 Violet Ave, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 or online at https://www.hvhospice.org/donate) or to the Millerton Fire Company at PO Box 733, Millerton, NY 12546.
A celebration of life will be held on Friday, May 8, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Conklin Funeral Home, 37 Park Avenue, Millerton, NY.
Her family will remember her as the strong-willed and caring matriarch who always put them first. She will be deeply missed.
Natalia Zukerman
Ten New Yorker cartoonists gather around a table in a scene from “Women Laughing.”
There is something deceptively simple about a New Yorker cartoon. A few lines, a handful of words — usually fewer than a dozen — and suddenly an entire worldview has been distilled into a single panel.
There is also something delightfully subversive about watching a room full of women sit around a table drawing them. Not necessarily because it seems unusual now — thankfully — but because “Women Laughing,” screening May 9 at The Moviehouse in Millerton, reminds us that for much of The New Yorker’s history, such a gathering would have been nearly impossible to imagine.
The documentary, directed by longtime New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly and filmmaker Kathleen Hughes, traces the uneven history of women cartoonists at the magazine, from their presence in its earliest issues to their near disappearance by the 1950s. But the film does something more interesting still: it lets us watch these artists at work.
“The idea was talking to these women about their process and where their ideas come from,” Donnelly said. “You get to witness these women drawing in the film, and I draw with them.”
“Women Laughing” includes intimate conversations with some of the most celebrated and groundbreaking cartoonists at The New Yorker, including Roz Chast, Emily Flake, Sarah Akinterinwa, Liana Finck, Amy Hwang and Bishakh Som. Donnelly also speaks with Emma Allen, the magazine’s first female cartoon editor. During a dynamic roundtable discussion with 10 cartoonists, viewers also meet artists Emily Sanders Hopkins, Maggie Larson, Arenza Pena-Popo and Victoria Roberts.
“I will confess that it was what I was most worried about,” Hughes said of the technical challenges presented by filming 10 artists at work. “You have 10 people. That’s 10 microphones, six or seven cameras. We didn’t even have a budget for it, but our crew donated all the gear so that we could get it done.”
Hughes was relieved that not only did it work, but it became one of the most memorable parts of the film.
“Frankly, when you put people together and have them talk on screen, it can get tiresome quickly,” Hughes said. “So I’m glad that nobody listened to me when I said I didn’t think we should do this.”
For Donnelly, whose book “Very Funny Ladies” was the impetus for the film, the documentary offered dimensions the printed page could not. For Hughes, whose previous films have examined weightier subjects like economic inequality and gun violence, entering the world of cartoonists brought its own revelations.
“I really did think that the cartoonists were sort of in charge of what was in the magazine,” Hughes said, laughing. “That was probably the biggest revelation.”
What surprised her most was not just the structure of the magazine’s famously competitive submission process — cartoonists submit batches each week and face frequent rejection — but the sheer persistence required to sustain the work.
“It was inspiring to see the dedication everybody had to the craft,” Hughes said. “And how creative everybody is, not just in making the cartoons themselves, but in supporting themselves through it.”
An audience reaction that has surprised both Donnelly and Hughes is the laughter. By the time the filmmakers finished editing, they had seen each cartoon so many times that the humor had become technical material — questions of pacing, framing and sequence. The first public screening changed that.
“All the laughter really kind of blew us away,” Hughes said. “You forget.”
The audience response underscores something else the film makes clear: just how much skill lies behind the apparent simplicity of a single-panel cartoon. Donnelly noted that the form is “a lot harder than you think.” Like the cartoons it celebrates, the documentary values economy and precision. At just 37 minutes, its compact running time reflects that ethos.
“A lot of people have said it’s a great length,” Hughes said. “It’s almost like a cartoon version of a documentary.”
Donnelly appreciates the response she hears most often after screenings.
“You leave them wanting more,” she said.
Like the best New Yorker cartoons, “Women Laughing” says a great deal with remarkable economy, leaving audiences laughing and looking more closely at what appears, at first glance, deceptively simple.
“Women Laughing” will screen at the Moviehouse (48 Main St., Millerton) on May 9 at 7 p.m. followed by a conversation with Liza Donnelly, Kathleen Hughes and cartoonist Amy Hwang. Moderated by local filmmaker Pam Hogan. Tickets at themoviehouse.net
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Natalia Zukerman
In “Your Friends and Neighbors,” Lena Hall’s character is also a musician.
At a certain point you stop asking who people want you to be and start figuring out who you already are.
— Lena Hall
There is a moment in conversation with actress and musician Lena Hall when the question of identity lands with unusual force.
“Well,” she said, pausing to consider it, “who am I really?”
Born Celina Consuela Gabriella Carvajal into a San Francisco family steeped in performance — her father a choreographer, her mother a prima ballerina — Hall was, by her own account, “born to be onstage.”
“Like a show pony,” she joked.
She trained first as a ballet dancer, studying in France on scholarship before abandoning that path for musical theater after seeing her sister perform in “42nd Street.”
Even then, identity was something inherited before it was chosen.
The Tony Award-winning, Grammy-nominated performer has spent much of her career moving between worlds: Broadway and television, rock clubs and film sets, musical theater precision and raw, unvarnished songwriting. Her latest solo album, “Lullabies for the End of the World,” is an intimate, autobiographical work that explores co-dependency, heartbreak and self-reckoning.
But for Hall, whose career includes a Tony-winning turn in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” a starring role on Apple TV+’s “Your Friends and Neighbors,” and acclaimed performances in film and television, the search for artistic identity has been unfolding for decades.
The record’s central themes — identity, authenticity, reinvention — are the same ones Hall has been sorting through for much of her adult life.
“It wasn’t until later that I started asking those questions,” she said from New York City, which she splits her time between and West Cornwall, Connecticut. “What do I want to represent? Who do I want to be? I was trying to find the authentic self instead of just going with the flow.”
The search began, in part, with an unlikely catalyst: a tonsillectomy.
When Hall was 26, surgery altered her voice just as she had joined the rock band The Deafening. “They would just play really loud and never change the key,” she said, laughing.
At the same time, Hall found herself confronting larger questions about purpose and artistic direction.
“I was going through that moment of, what do I really want out of this industry?” she said. “If I’m going to keep doing this, I need to have a purpose.”
Until then, Hall said, she had largely been defined by external expectations.
“I was always who I was told to be,” she said.
The surgery became a kind of reset, both vocally and personally. It also coincided with another form of reinvention: the decision to change her professional name.
“My real name is a lot,” she said.
People stumbled over its pronunciation. It was harder to remember, harder to place. “Lena Hall” felt streamlined, memorable. “It also just sounds like a rock star,” she laughed.
Hall, who is one-quarter Filipino with Spanish and Swedish ancestry, later grappled with whether changing her name obscured an important part of who she is. At one point, she said, she was advised that reverting to her birth name might improve her casting prospects as representation standards shifted.
She declined.
“That didn’t feel authentic,” she said.
Instead, Hall came to see the name change as less a departure than a continuation.
After making the change, she discovered that Carvajal itself was a family alteration, adopted generations ago in the Philippines.
“I’m still honoring my family, even in the name change,” she said. “I’m continuing that tradition.”
Her Filipino heritage remains central to how she understands herself, even as some parts of that history remain difficult to trace.
“I’m very curious to keep searching,” Hall said. “That side of my family is where all the artistry came from.”
Hall’s refusal to flatten herself into a single story or cultural identity is mirrored in her journey as a multi-hyphenate artist. She is, depending on the moment, a Broadway belter, a screen actor, a rock frontwoman, a conceptual songwriter.
Her current side project, the all-female Radiohead tribute band Labiahead, gleefully complicates the picture further, reframing familiar songs through a new lens.
“When women perform something written and performed by men, it changes it completely,” she said. “Nothing even needs to be said. It just happens.”
The same could be said of Hall’s own work.
Across mediums, she is an artist interested less in performance as display than performance as revelation.
Onscreen, she said, that often means doing less.
“The camera is literally on your nose,” she said. “You just have to think, and it picks it up.”
Between Celina Carvajal and Lena Hall, between ballet and rock, Broadway and Cornwall, Hall is making peace with multiplicity.
“At a certain point,” she said, “you stop asking who people want you to be and start figuring out who you already are.”
Natalia Zukerman
“A Love Letter to Handsome John” screens at The Colonial Theatre on May 8.
Fans of the late singer-songwriter Todd Snider will have a rare opportunity to gather in celebration of his life and music when “A Love Letter to Handsome John,” a documentary by Otis Gibbs, screens for one night only at The Colonial Theatre in North Canaan on Friday, May 8.
Presented by Wilder House Berkshires and The Colonial Theatre, the 54-minute film began as a tribute to Snider’s friend and mentor, folk legend John Prine. Instead, following Snider’s death last November at age 59, it became something more intimate: a portrait of the alt-country pioneer during the final year of his life.
What began as a simple gesture of gratitude evolved into a poignant meditation on friendship, artistic influence and loss, offering viewers an unusually personal glimpse of Snider at home in his quietest moments.
For Brad Sanzenbacher of Wilder House Berkshires, bringing the film to the Northwest Corner has been deeply personal.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Todd Snider and John Prine for 20 years,” he said. “I lived in the Bay Area before I moved here, and I would see Todd live probably at least four times a year — sometimes back-to-back nights. I was that kind of super Dead Head-type fan that was on tour.”
Sanzenbacher said he had the chance to meet Snider several times and attended the musician’s Catskills retreats.
“He was just one of those people that I really connected with strongly,” he said. “Like a lot of people, when he passed away, I was really shocked and devastated.”
When he learned screenings of the film were beginning to pop up around the country, he wanted to bring that communal experience here.
“I know there are a lot of Todd Snider fans everywhere who want closure on his life and maybe a chance to feel like they’re in the room with him again,” he said. “I thought it would be a really cool experience to bring the film to the community.”
The screening is part of what Sanzenbacher calls the film’s organic, fan-driven momentum.
“I love the grassroots movement of the film,” he said. “They were going to do two screenings and that was going to be it, and now they’re showing it all over the country because fans have reached out to say, ‘How can I bring a screening to my town?’ I feel really lucky we’re able to show it.”
He hopes the evening captures some of the camaraderie that defined the Todd Snider fan experience.
“One of my favorite things about being a Todd Snider fan was when you’d go to two or three shows in a row, you’d turn into a little caravan and make friends with strangers and become this community,” he said. “That’s kind of something I’m hoping happens at the film.”
The screening begins at 7 p.m. Friday, May 8, at The Colonial Theatre, 27 Railroad St., North Canaan. Run time is 54 minutes, with time afterward for audience members to gather and connect.
Matthew Kreta
New Sharon Playhouse logo designed by Christina D’Angelo.
The Sharon Playhouse has unveiled a new brand identity for its 2026 season, reimagining its logo around the silhouette of the historic barn that has long defined the theater.
Sharon Playhouse leadership — Carl Andress, Megan Flanagan and Michael Baldwin — revealed the new logo and website ahead of the 2026 season. The change reflects leadership’s desire to embrace both the Playhouse’s history and future, capturing its nostalgia while reinventing its image.
After attending the closing performance of the Playhouse’s production of The Mousetrap last September, Christina D’Angelo told Playhouse leadership she was “completely changing her design direction” for the new logo after experiencing the work and atmosphere of the Sharon Playhouse firsthand. She incorporated the barn silhouette to capture the theater campus’s history and evoke the warmth and magic of the Playhouse.
“The barn gives a fixed image of how we all feel about the Playhouse,” said Megan Flanagan, managing director. “The new branding presents the story of the great history of Sharon Playhouse — who we were, who we are today, who we are becoming — and the barn is that unifying element.”
The design was one of several options presented and was selected unanimously by Playhouse leadership. D’Angelo also designed this season’s branding, creating a visual throughline for the 2026 season.
The Playhouse remains committed to its taglines and mission statements, “Create. Community. Together.” and “Your destination for the arts.” While those phrases are no longer reflected in the logo itself, Carl Andress, artistic director, said the organization is not moving away from them and that they will continue to appear in publications and on the updated website.
“The refreshed brand aims to shift the narrative in the community, reinforcing the Playhouse’s role not only as a theater but as a vibrant gathering place and artistic home,” Playhouse leadership said in a press release.
For more information, including a video about the updated logo and details on the upcoming 2026 season, visit sharonplayhouse.org
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