Gunning for gold: 4-H rifle club teaches marksmanship and service

200 people attended the Post’s February pancake breakfast.
Judith O’Hara Balfe
200 people attended the Post’s February pancake breakfast.
MILLERTON — Youths in Dutchess County Long Rifle club (DCLR) 4-H T-shirts bustled among some of the 200 people who gathered for the monthly pancake breakfast hosted by the American Legion Post 178, serving breakfast, coffee and orange juice on a cold but sunny Sunday, Feb. 4.
4-H Clubs typically bring to mind barn animals, farming, perhaps some crafting skills — shooting and firearms, not so much.
Nevertheless, the DCLR is a shooting sports club organized as part of the Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC) in Millbrook, and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization with a 4-H club.
The DCLR is sponsored by American Legion Post 178 in Millerton. The club meets about twice each month and range nights are held at various locations within Dutchess County, usually on Tuesday evenings and occasionally on Saturdays.
Jane Rodd, 4-H leader at CCEDC, explained at the American Legion pancake breakfast what the program is about:
“When a young person is legally old enough to drive, you don’t let them drive without training. Well, at 18, one is old enough to buy a gun. Shouldn’t he or she be trained in how to safely use it?”
Aside from learning how to shoot, these young people also learn about public service, about being responsive to the needs of others, she said, watching the 4-Hers go smiling about their duties at the pancake breakfast, making polite conversation with the diners.
Brodie Read is 12, home-schooled, and says he started in 4-H at the age of 8. He likes working the American Legion breakfasts because it gives him a chance to help others, to spend time with his friends, and he also gets a free breakfast. He comes from Milan to perform his service, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
At the age of 13, Addison Staph is in eighth grade at Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School in Pine Plains, and joined this group at the age of 10. Her father joined the team as an instructor at the same time, so they spend quality time together as well as with other team members.
Learning self defense and basic safety rules was important to her, she said.
Though hesitant to join at first because she thought she might be the only girl, Addison was pleasantly surprised to find that there were many young ladies who also wanted to learn to shoot. She likes that she gets to meet different people, and that there is so much support in the community. When reminded that the group had been awarded 26 scholarships last year,and that 24 of them went to girls, she smiled.
“Girls have good hand and eye coordination,” she said.
Dutchess County Long Rifle/4-H members Brodie Reid, 11, Elizabeth Hamilton, 12, Jacob Hamilton, 10, Addison Staph, 13, Robert Staph, 10, Thomas Palmo, 12, all gathered to serve breakfast at the American Legion Post 178 on Sunday, Feb. 4.Judith O’Hara Balfe
The group uses the term “firearms,” not “guns” or “weapons.”
The typical age range for a 4-H group is 5-19, but New York’s penal code sets the age for this group at 8-19. At the age of 8, a child can begin to learn archery. At 9, they can move to air rifles; air pistols at 10; and at the age of 12, they are considered ready for rifles, muzzle loaders and shotguns. At 14, they are allowed to move up to pistols.
According to the program, each discipline teaches safety, concentration, self-discipline, self-confidence, goal-setting, decision-making and courtesy as the 4-Hers cover the basics and build toward more advanced skills. The youths are introduced to local policies, regulations, laws and ethical behavior by repeated demonstration and through personal practice.
What the young people gain, said Rodd, is cooperative and competitive skills, leadership skills, safe habits, self-discipline and self-esteem. She said they also learn personal responsibility, ethics, sportsmanship, confidence, concentration and poise. The club gives them opportunities to set and achieve goals, earn awards and scholarships, and to learn about future careers.
Bob Jenks, who leads the program, mentioned that shooting is a recognized Olympic sport.
“Gun safety is one of the main purposes” of the 4-H club, he stated, “and learning life skills. There are more girls than boys who want to learn, and girls become mothers, so that’s important.”
Both Jenks and Rodd mentioned that in an area where many hunt, learning to properly shoot means more safety when in the woods, and, in theory, more humane hunting practices. 4-Hers are always taught to work within the legal framework.
Jenks said that before COVID-19, there were 260 4-H members in the Long Rifle club, but it dwindled to about 100. Now, the numbers are rising once again, and there are currently 230 young people involved.
Most of them enjoy working the monthly American Legion breakfasts, but the limit for volunteers is capped at 20.
For more information about this group, go to www.dclongrifles.org. For information about the American Legion breakfasts, call 518-789-4755.
AMENIA — The first day of school on Thursday, Sept. 4, at Webutuck Elementary School went smoothly, with teachers enthusiastically greeting the eager young students disembarking from buses. Excitement was measurable, with only a few tears from parents, but school began anyway.
Ready for her first day of school on Thursday, Sept. 4, at Webutuck Elementary School, Liliana Cawley, 7, would soon join her second grade class, but first she posed for a photo to mark the occasion.Photo by Leila Hawken
Millerton Police Chief Joseph Olenik shows off the new gear. Brand new police cruisers arrived last week.
MILLERTON — The Millerton Police Department has received two new patrol cars to replace vehicles destroyed in the February 2025 fire at the Village Water and Highway Department.
The new Ford Interceptors are custom-built for law enforcement. “They’re more rugged than a Ford Explorer,” said Millerton Police Chief Joseph Olenik, noting the all-wheel drive, heavy-duty suspension and larger tires and engine. “They call it the ‘Police Package.’”
Olenik worked with The Cruiser’s Division in Mamaroneck, New York, to design the vehicles.
“We really want to thank the Pine Plains Police Department for their tremendous support,” Olenik said. After the fire, “they were the first ones to come forward and offer help.”
The new police cruisers are outfitted with lights with automatically adjusting brightness to best perform in ambient conditions.Photo by Aly Morrissey
Since February, Millerton officers have been borrowing a patrol car from Pine Plains. With the new vehicles now in service, Olenik said he plans to thank Pine Plains officers by treating them to dinner at Four Brothers in Amenia and having their car detailed
The main entrance to Kent Hollow Mine at 341 South Amenia Road in Amenia.
AMENIA — Amenia residents and a Wassaic business have filed suit against the Town Board and Kent Hollow Inc., alleging a settlement between the town and the mine amounts to illegal contract zoning that allows the circumvention of environmental review.
Petitioners Laurence Levin, Theodore Schiffman and Clark Hill LLC filed the suit on Aug. 22. Town officials were served with documents for the case last week and took first steps in organizing a response to the suit at the Town Board meeting on Thursday, Sept. 4.
The lawsuit is the latest in a multi-year long legal battle surrounding the mine on South Amenia Road. After Kent Hollow Inc. — a subsidiary of Bethel, Connecticut, based homebuilder Steiner Inc. — applied for a state mining permit in 2017, the Amenia code enforcement officer issued the business a notice of violation.
At the time, Kent Hollow Inc. did not possess a special permit to conduct mining operations as required by Amenia zoning code, and the property did not reside in the Special Mining Overlay district established as part of rezoning efforts coinciding with the 2007 adoption of the town’s comprehensive plan.
Kent Hollow Inc. appealed the violation, claiming the use of the property as a mine predates amendments to town and state regulations. The Zoning Board of Appeals denied the appeal citing insufficient evidence in 2019. That spurred Kent Hollow to file two lawsuits — one in the New York State Supreme Court and a federal civil rights lawsuit — challenging the town’s order.
In July 2025, those lawsuits were brought to a close when the Town Board voted at a special meeting to accept a settlement agreement allowing Kent Hollow to continue mining operations under limited hours and quantities.
The most recent suit alleges the 2025 settlement amounts to contract zoning that allows Kent Hollow Inc. to skirt environmental review and the scrutiny of the permitting and rezoning process. Court documents allege Kent Hollow did not adequately prove a continuous, legal nonconforming use.
Supporting the argument, petitioners have submitted the court documents and decision from the 2019 New York Supreme Court case against the town Zoning Board of Appeals, and the documents from the preceding ZBA appeals process including receipts and tax returns from Kent Hollow Inc. purporting to establish the nonconforming use.
Kent Hollow Inc. formed as a subsidiary of housing developer Steiner Inc. and purchased the property in 1971, according to state and county real estate records.
Millerton News reporting from 1971 Amenia planning board meetings detail Kent Hollow’s pursuit of a four-section, 40-unit apartment complex on the property.
The News reported Kent Hollow was granted tentative approval on July 6, 1971, to build eight units on the site with the expectation that more would be built later.
The additional units never came to fruition and Kent Hollow apparently abandoned the housing project, opting to use the property as a gravel mine.
Attorneys for the Town of Amenia or Kent Hollow Inc. have not filed responses to the lawsuit as of press time.
AMENIA — While the courage and perseverance of Revolutionary era patriots is well understood and celebrated, the stories of the fate of British loyalists in New York are not as clear.
Seen as the initial event in observance of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Amenia Historical Society will present a talk titled, “The Plight of a Loyalist in Revolutionary New York,” examining the journal of Cadwallader Colden, Jr., spanning the period of 1777-1779. The speaker will be noted author, genealogist and historian Jay Campbell.
The talk is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m. at the Smithfield Presbyterian Church in Amenia. The handicapped-accessible church is located at 656 Smithfield Valley Road. Refreshments will be served.
Colden was the son of a New York Lieutenant Governor. He was a surveyor, farmer and mercantilist, serving as a judge in Ulster County. His fortunes changed dramatically with the dawn of the Revolutionary War when he remained loyal to the British Crown. His arrest came in 1776, just before the start of his journal.
Campbell is a historian specializing in Hudson Valley history, and the regional stories of Revolutionary era families.