In the wake of the Democratic Party’s National Convention, the Amenia Democratic Committee held a kick-off event for the 2024 election campaign season on Sunday, Aug. 25, at the Indian Rock Schoolhouse pavilion. Candidates spoke and volunteers signed up for supporting tasks. At the end, candidates, officials, and volunteers gathered to show off lawn signs that will appear throughout the town.
AMENIA — Continuing momentum fueled by the recent Democratic National Convention, the Amenia Democratic Committee held a kick-off event on Sunday, Aug. 25, at the Indian Rock Schoolhouse pavilion, gearing up and organizing for the upcoming campaign push to the November elections.
While the group of nearly 50 volunteers gathered, music was provided by folk guitarist Joseph Sobol, who had written a piece called “The Timothy Waltz,” set to the tune of “The Tennessee Waltz.” He said it was a piece that just had to be written.
Town Supervisor Leo Blackman rallied support and the spirit of volunteerism to get the vote out, while observing that in his position as a town official, his approach to leadership is importantly non-partisan. He did admit to be “jazzed” by the national convention.
Town Board member Rosanna Hamm reported that at last year’s election, of the 864 registered Democrats, only 401 cast ballots.
“We need to get out and vote,” Hamm said, encouraging everyone to talk with their neighbors, an example of something that can be done.
Candidate for Dutchess County Comptroller, Dan Aymar-Blair of Beacon, spoke of positive energy he was finding during his canvassing door-to-door. And, he noted that at 5’11”, he is the tallest person running for Comptroller.
“We need financial oversight in Dutchess County,” Aymar-Blair said, noting that the county has a $600 million budget, but a debt of more than $1 billion. He added that residents need his experience (20 years in public finance) and his independence in the office.
Representing candidate Michelle Hinchey in her bid for state Senate District 41, Eddie Monroy, her deputy campaign manager, described her as “an advocate for communities in rural New York.”
“To reflect our values, we have to be engaged and committed to voting this year,” Monroy said. He noted that over the past three years of service, Hinchey had endorsed 74 bills.
“I work really hard and I show up for other people,” said Town Board candidate Charlie Miller, who reviewed his work with a variety of town committees, including Housing and Wastewater. Miller is running for a one-year term to fill the Town Board seat vacated by Leo Blackman when he was elected Town Supervisor.
“I’m a fiscally responsible person,” Miller said, describing his commitment to research to understand fully issues facing the town.
Energized by the event, attendees stepped up to volunteer to canvass door-to-door, make phone calls, mail postcards, and most carried away a stack of lawn signs.
The Village of Millerton offices on Route 22.
MILLERTON — Millerton’s Board of Trustees postponed again an environmental review of planned upgrades to Veterans Park at a regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 27.
The village is awaiting final designs from the engineer based on recent minor feedback from the county. Once those revisions are complete, Mayor Jenn Najdek said the project will be “ready to roll” and can go out for bid, adding that she hopes it won’t push back the targeted completion by Memorial Day.
Trustees spent a significant portion of the meeting discussing a proposed local law that would formally establish a new tree committee and allow Millerton to pursue national recognition as a Tree City USA. Village legal counsel attended the meeting to outline the requirements of the program.
Under the proposal, the village would be required to pass a local law designating responsibility for all public trees, adopt a formal tree management plan, set aside at least $2 per capita annually in the budget, and hold an Arbor Day observance each year.
The committee would consist of five volunteers appointed by the village board, with potential oversight from the town board or a town employee. Members would likely be able to join from throughout Dutchess County, though the hope would be to limit members to the village and town. Once the committee is established, the village could then apply for various funding and grants.
Joe Olenik, who serves both as Chief of Police and Public Works Superintendent, shared highway and police department reports. Trustees expressed thanks to the short-staffed highway crew, which continues to operate without its full fleet of vehicles. The department has been working with the Town of North East to borrow equipment as needed.
“Bob Stevens has been fantastic,” Olenik said of the town’s highway superintendent.
The board voted to amend its fee schedule for fire inspections, doubling the cost for commercial properties from $50 to $100, a change that Najdek said aligns with other municipalities.
Village budget discussions are expected to be held through February, following the circulation of an initial draft to trustees by Lisa Cope, village clerk and treasurer.
The village is also expected to submit a letter of intent to apply for this year’s federal Community Development Block Grant funding prior to the March 3 deadline. Trustees said the most likely use of the funding would be to complete additional sidewalk work, possibly on North Center Street.
LAKEVILLE — Walter Earle DeMelle Jr., 82, of Lakeville, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on Feb. 1, 2026.
He met his loving wife of 57 years, Susan Sullivan DeMelle, in middle school and they were married in Aug. 1968.
Born June 3, 1943, in Worcester, Massachusetts to Walter and Lucille DeMelle, he graduated from Natick High School in 1961 and Hobart & William Smith Colleges in 1965. He taught English at Hawaii Preparatory Academy on the Big Island in the 1960s and earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science at Rutgers University.
He served as Director of the Edsel Ford Memorial Library at The Hotchkiss School from 1970 to 2012, where he vastly expanded the collection, welcomed the surrounding community, and led the school in technological advancement and information literacy. He oversaw a six-fold increase in the library’s capacity, several major renovations, and the recovery from a devastating middle-of-the-night sprinkler system malfunction which had him running like never before (or since) to save as many books as possible. He purchased one of the first Apple computers in the Northwest corner in the early 1980s, and pioneered the expansion of the library’s audiovisual collections, offering music, films and documentaries to the campus and local community.
Walter’s kindness, encouragement and reassurance helped countless students adapt to the rigors of life at Hotchkiss. He co-created the School’s Human Relations and Sexuality program in the 1970s, and taught public speaking. He was an honorary member of the Class of 1976, which created the first endowed fund established by a Hotchkiss class in order to support the development of the resources of the Edsel Ford Library. He was instrumental in developing the School’s Archives, and led an Oral History Project in which he interviewed many of the School’s prominent alumni from the 20th century.
Throughout his career, he served as a consultant to libraries across the United States and globally to guide their renovations and digital transitions from the Dewey Decimal system.
He loved to travel, both professionally and with family, visiting China, Turkey, Europe and the United Kingdom extensively.
Survived by his wife Susan, sons Jeffrey and Brendan, sister Susan Kerrissey, sisters-in-law Nancy Sullivan and Pamela DeMelle, daughter-in-law Christine Rose DeMelle, grandson Luca, best friend Ron Carlson, and extended family. Predeceased by his brother Arthur DeMelle, father Walter and mother Lucille DeMelle.
A Celebration of Life is planned for Summer 2026.
In honor of his life, please consider a donation to East Mountain House, the non-profit end-of-life care home in Lakeville. https://eastmountainhouse.org/donate/
AMENIA — Raymond Emanuel Wheeler, Jr., 72, a lifelong area resident died Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, at Sharon Hospital in Sharon, Connecticut. Ray worked for the Town of Amenia Highway Department for twenty-three years and for the New York State Department of Transportation in Wassaic, for ten years prior to his retirement in 2010. Ray also assisted in running the family business in Wassaic for over thirty years.
Born Nov. 6, 1953, in Sharon, he was the son of the late Raymond E. and Helen C. (Chase) Wheeler, Sr. He was educated in Amenia,schools and served his community for decades as a member of the Wassaic Fire Company and The Sharon Fire Department in Connecticut. He was an avid turkey and deer hunter throughout his life and he enjoyed socializing with his many friends and taking car rides throughout the valley regularly. Ray also enjoyed spending time with his family and watching the races at Lebanon Valley Speedway. He will be deeply missed by his loving family and many friends.
Ray is survived by his companion of twenty years, Karen Ellis of Amenia; four sons, Raymond E. Wheeler of Spring Hill, Florida, Michael R. Wheeler and his wife Justine, also of Spring Hill, Thomas E. Wheeler and his wife Alicia of Wassaic and Christopher Ellis; his grandchildren, Branden Wheeler, Zachary Wheeler and his wife Katie, Kaden Wheeler, Michael Wheeler, Jr. and his wife Michele, Alyssa Wheeler, Thomas Wheeler and his girlfriend Kenzie Milton and Kaylee Wheeler and her boyfriend Nick; four great grandchildren, Mason, Layton, Michael III and Cole Wheeler; his siblings, Emily Tarbox and her husband Carl, Rachel Wheeler, Sharon McEathron and her husband Daryl and Helen Murphy and her husband William and several nieces and nephews. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his wife, Ruth Ann (Ammerman) Wheeler, three sisters, Hattie Butts, Juanita Donaldson and Patricia Wilson and his grandson, Hunter Wheeler.
A Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday, May 30, 2026 at 1 p.m. at the Wassaic Fire House, 27 Firehouse Rd., Wassaic, New York 12592.
Burial will take place privately at Valley View Cemetery in Dover Plains. Arrangements have been entrusted to the Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home, 37 Park Avenue, Millerton, NY 12546. To send an online condolence to the family, flowers to the service or to plant a tree in Ray’s memory, please visit www.conklinfuneralhome.com
“We the People” signifies that the government exists to serve its citizens, affirming that ultimate power rests with the people.” — U.S. Senate
Minnesota is a land of 10,000 lakes, nestled atop the western arm of Lake Superior assuring its severe winter cold and deep white snows. Minnesota is the land of the Guthrie Theatre, the largest population of Norwegians and Swedes outside of Scandinavia, the Vikings, the Twins, and of course “polite-to-a-fault” Minnesota Nice. Sourced at Lake Itasca, the Mississippi River runs 2,350 miles from Minnesota to Louisiana. Minnesota is 5.7 million strong and has the powerful heritage of Paul Bunyan and The Blue Ox.
The Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St Paul, are currently occupied by ICE, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, with an intense emphasis on enforcement: a force, of 3,000 agents in a geographical sector housing but 500 local police. Masked agents in unmarked cars with military-grade weapons and tear gas use brutal behaviors to stop cars, bust windows, drag out their occupants. Numbers, always huge numbers of agents, invade schools, churches, restaurants, Home Depot — to accost and arrest forcefully. Always strongly armed, these agents drag out persons not identified with careful, stealthy research from key data sources but just those who happen to be in the path of unbridled force. Included are US citizens, legitimate persons with visas, persons applying for asylum, persons working, paying taxes and providing labor for health care, hotels, farms, restaurants
The stated mission of ICE, as it invades cities and states (primarily blue), is to rout out the worst of the worst — violent, immigrant criminals, such as, one well-publicized 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father taken from Minnesota to a Texas detention facility. Liam’s mother is in Minneapolis, his beloved Spiderman backpack and bunny hat were confiscated by the facility. The horror of Trump’s first term “Children in Cages” for family separations is being reinstated to terrorize by Trump’s Rasputin, Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller.
The people of Minnesota are 5.7 million strong. We the People strong standing, as they did for George Floyd in 2020, organized to help city, state residents – their neighbors- to be spared the victimization of a federal agency gone rogue. Minnesotans provide alert systems against marauding, masked agents conducting unprofessional, unproductive street sweeps. They provide food to those fearful of leaving their home, they chaperone kids to school. Minnesota Nice is Minnesota Might, Americans as we recognize Americans — respectful, tenaciously bound to law and order, decent. Two American citizens, Rene Goode and Alex Pretti, were killed on Minneapolis streets, peacefully protesting, shot at point blank range, in cold blood, by ICE agents with no indication of follow-on accountability or official investigation.
Trump continues to uphold the brutality of his ICE agency toward Alex Pretti who unbeknownst to them weeks earlier kicked an ICE unmarked vehicle. For this Trump believes Pretti deserved 9 shots in the back, lying face-down, hands out, surrounded by a half dozen ICE agents.
Trump be on alert. Minnesota is 5.7 million strong. Minnesotans are garnering the support of a nation – 69% and rising. We The People protests are out in severe subzero weather, in small towns, in massive population centers peacefully protesting, peacefully proclaiming their rights.
“We the people” are the first three words of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. We the people don’t cotton to the tyranny of despots, don’t tolerate the banal silence of persons in elected office, don’t vote for those who condone murder of citizens for exhibiting their rights of free speech. We the people do not tolerate the abuse of children – taken, caged, terrorized.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” — The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
Kathy Herald-Marlowe lives in Sharon.
