
The charred remains of the structure which resulted from the Feb. 3 fire at the Village Water and Highway building, located on Route 22 in Millerton.
Photo By Krista A. Briggs
The charred remains of the structure which resulted from the Feb. 3 fire at the Village Water and Highway building, located on Route 22 in Millerton.
MILLERTON — On Feb. 3, a fire broke out in the early hours of the morning at the Village Water and Highway building, located on Route 22. By 3:41 a.m., sirens went off in the village, alerting first responders to the blaze, the cause of which still remains under investigation.
The fire, which resulted in a state of emergency being declared for the village around six o’clock in the morning, destroyed all but the building’s cinder block walls. It decimated highway vehicles, equipment and tools.
In a phone call with the News on Feb. 9, Millerton police chief Joseph Olenik confirmed several highway vehicles were lost in the blaze, but did not have specifics on the exact number of damaged vehicles at press time.
According to mayor Jenn Najdek, there were no injuries. “We’re grateful for that,” she said. “The rest is stuff which can be replaced.”
While Najdek wades through the insurance claims process, she moves forward with experience, having lost her own home in a fire. She confirmed the structure will be rebuilt as the space is needed for both the highway department and the water building.
The village’s wells are situated on the property, and Najdek was quick to point out the safety and sufficiency of the village’s water supply. Samples have been repeatedly taken for quality assurance purposes, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as well as the Board of Health have greenlit the village’s water supply.
Najdek also pointed out that, despite the devastation to the structure, the water system remained functional and properly chlorinated with the aid of a temporary system involving well #1, and drinking water was continuously fit for human consumption.
While the rebuilding process will take time, Najdek is heartened by the response to the fire, not just from the Millerton community but also from the region.
“Every municipality has stepped up. The Town of North East did a great job of assisting with plowing,” she said, explaining trucks from the township cleared snow from village streets in the early hours of the morning of the fire, lifting one burden. The Town of East Fishkill also assisted by providing an engineer that day to guide village water operators in creating solutions through a provisional system which enabled the water supply to run safely and without interruption.
Najdek conveyed gratitude to the responders, thanking the Millerton Fire Company, the North East Fire District, and the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office. She remains grateful as well to the Dutchess County Department of Public Works who loaned two trucks — one with a plow and sander and another equipped only with a plow. Additional assistance in battling the blaze and aiding in its aftermath was provided by the fire departments of Amenia, Sharon, Pine Plains, Copake, Wassaic, Falls Village, the Dutchess County Emergency Response, the Dutchess County Fire Investigation Division, and the New York State Police.
North East town supervisor Chris Kennan emphasized the importance of unity as the village regroups from the fire. He also credited the North East Fire District for their quick action.
“I’m glad we were able to help. We’re so grateful to them for being on the scene … They did a wonderful job,” Kennan said. He noted that while the village and the township are separate entities, the common cause is what matters most. “We are two governments”, said Kennan, “and one community.”
SHARON — Angela Derrick Carabine, 74, died May 17, 2025, at Vasser Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was the wife of Michael Carabine and mother of Caitlin Carabine McLean.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated on June 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Saint Katri (St Bernards Church) Church. Burial will follow at St. Bernards Cemetery. A complete obituary can be found on the website of the Kenny Funeral home kennyfuneralhomes.com.
Sam Waterston
On June 7 at 3 p.m., the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington will host a benefit screening of “The Killing Fields,” Roland Joffé’s 1984 drama about the Khmer Rouge and the two journalists, Cambodian Dith Pran and New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, whose story carried the weight of a nation’s tragedy.
The film, which earned three Academy Awards and seven nominations — including one for Best Actor for Sam Waterston — will be followed by a rare conversation between Waterston and his longtime collaborator and acclaimed television and theater director Matthew Penn.
“This came out of the blue,” Waterston said of the Triplex invitation, “but I love the town, I love this area. We raised our kids here in the Northwest Corner and it’s been good for them and good for us.”
Waterston hasn’t seen the film in decades but its impact has always remained present.
“It was a major event in my life at the time,” Waterston said of filming “The Killing Fields,” “and it had a big influence on me and my life ever after.” He remembers the shoot vividly. “My adrenaline was running high and the part of Sydney Schanberg was so complicated, so interesting.”
Waterston lobbied for the role of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for years, tracing his early interest to a serendipitous connection while filming in England. Even before Joffé’s production was greenlit, he had his sights set on playing the role. “I knew I wanted the part for years even before it was a movie that was being produced.”
What followed was not just critical acclaim, but also a political awakening. “The film gave all of us an intimate acquaintance with refugees, what it is to be a refugee, how the world forgets them and what a terrible crime that is.”
In Boston, at a press stop for the film, two women asked Waterston a pointed question: now that he knew what he knew, what was he going to do about it? “I said, ‘Well, you know, I’m an actor, so I thought I’d go on acting.’ And they said, ‘No, that’s not what you need to do. You need to join Refugees International.’” And join he did, serving on the organization’s board for 25 years.
Both Schanberg and Dith Pran, whose life the film also chronicles, were “cooperative and helpful … in a million ways,” Waterston said. Upon first meeting Pran, Waterston recalled, “He came up to me, made a fist, and pounded on my chest really hard and said, ‘You must understand that Sydney is very strong here.’ He was trying to plant something in me.”
There were more tender gestures, too. Schanberg used the New York Times wire to relay that Waterston’s wife had just given birth while he was filming in Thailand, adding to the personal and emotional connection to the production.
Though “The Killing Fields” is a historical document, its truths still resonate deeply today. “Corruption is a real thing,” Waterston warned. “Journalism is an absolutely essential part of our democracy that is as under siege today as it was then. It’s different now but it’s the same thing of ‘Don’t tell the stories we don’t want heard.’ Without journalists, we are dust in the wind.” Waterston added, “Democracy is built on the consent of the governed but the other thing it’s built on is participation of the governed and without full participation, democracy really doesn’t stand much of a chance. It’s kind of a dead man walking.”
When asked what he hopes the audience will take away from the screening, Waterston didn’t hesitate. “This is the story that puts the victims of war at the center of the story and breaks your heart. I think that does people a world of good to have their hearts broken about something that’s true. So, I hope that’s what the impact will be now.”
Tickets for the benefit screening are available at www.thetriplex.org. Proceeds support Triplex Cinema, a nonprofit home for film and community programming in the Berkshires.
Scott Reinhard, graphic designer, cartographer, former Graphics Editor at the New York Times, took time out from setting up his show “Here, Here, Here, Here- Maps as Art” to explain his process of working.Here he explains one of the “Heres”, the Hunt Library’s location on earth (the orange dot below his hand).
Map lovers know that as well as providing the vital functions of location and guidance, maps can also be works of art.With an exhibition titled “Here, Here, Here, Here — Maps as Art,” Scott Reinhard, graphic designer and cartographer, shows this to be true. The exhibition opens on June 7 at the David M. Hunt Library at 63 Main St., Falls Village, and will be the first solo exhibition for Reinhard.
Reinhard explained how he came to be a mapmaker. “Mapping as a part of my career was somewhat unexpected.I took an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS), the technological side of mapmaking, when I was in graduate school for graphic design at North Carolina State.GIS opened up a whole new world, new tools, and data as a medium to play with.”
He added, “When I moved to New York City, I continued that exploration of cartography, and my work eventually caught the attention of the New York Times, where I went to work as a Graphics Editor, making maps and data visualizations for a number of years.”At the New York Times, his work contributed to a number of Pulitzer Prize winning efforts.
In his work, Reinhard takes complex data and turns it into intriguing visualizations the viewer can begin to comprehend immediately and will want to continue to look into and explore more deeply.
One method Reinhard uses combines historic United States Geological survey maps with “current elevation data (height above sea level for a point on earth) to create 3-D looking maps, combining old and new,” he explained.
For the show at Hunt Library Reinhard said, “I knew that I wanted to incorporate the place into the show itself. A place can be many things.The exhibition portrays the exact spot visitors are from four vantage points: the solar system, the earth, the Northwest Corner, and the library itself.” Hence the name, “Here, Here, Here, Here.”
He continued, “The largest installation, the Northwest Corner, is a mosaic of high-resolution color prints and hand-printed cyanotypes — one of the earliest forms of photography. They use elevation data to portray the landscape in a variety of ways, from highly abstract to the highly detailed.”
This sixteen-foot-wide installation covers the area of Millerton to Barkhamsted Reservoir and from North Canaan down to Cornwall for a total of about 445 square miles.
For subjects, he chooses places he’s visited and feels deeply connected to, like the Northwest Corner.“This show is a thank you to the community for the richness that it has brought to my life. I love it here,” he said.
The opening reception for the show is on June 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. On Thursday, June 12, Reinhard will give a talk about his work from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the library.“Here, Here, Here, Here” will be on display until July 3.
Scott Reinhard’s 16-foot-wide piece of the Northwest Corner is laid out on the floor prior to being hung for the show. L. Tomaino
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