Haystack Festival brings literary minds to Norfolk

The Great Room at Norfolk Library filled to capacity for the Haystack Festival.
Jennifer Almquist
The Great Room at Norfolk Library filled to capacity for the Haystack Festival.
Just after noon on Sunday, Oct. 6, attendees of Norfolk Foundation’s Haystack Festival spilled out of the red Shingle Style Norfolk Library into brilliant October sunshine, emerging from the final book talk of the weekend (excepting an event for young readers later in the day). The talk, which was a conversation between horse experts journalist Sarah Maslin Nir and author David Chaffetz, was rife with equine puns and startling facts. The tongue-in-cheek use of the word “cavalier” brought laughs from the engaged audience, while Nir disclosed that horses eat for a full 16 hours a day.
The talk brought levity and humor to the festival’s conclusion, while also diving into the serious history of the relationship between society and horses. Chaffetz explained horses were fundamental in the formation of large empires: “We don’t see empires until horses became fundamental to the political state.” Nir elaborated that the “wild” horses in North America are not native, but feral horses descended from animals brought by Spanish imperialists. “No tea grows in England,” she explained, “it is the result of empire – and so are horses.”
Other talks included a conversation about the history of ballet between writers and dance critics Marina Harss and Mindy Aloff, a discussion between bestselling authors Michael Korda and Simon Winchester on wisdom and memory, and a heady chat about the intersection between academic ideas and the public sphere between public academics William Egginton and Samuel Moyn.
Festival Director Michael Selleck said that while he doesn’t curate for theme when selecting the speakers, a certain atmosphere tends to manifest. While last year the tone skewed political, he said, “this year things were more philosophical.”
Exemplifying the philosophical streak in the festival was a conversation between naturalist and writer Noah Charney and Great Mountain Forest executive director Mike Zarfos. Charney advocated for a philosophy of nature that “shouldn’t take species as good or bad.” He encouraged the audience to get out into their own yards and “learn the plants and critters” while remaining open to imaginative and novel understandings of ecology. He urged the crowd to follow a naturalist principle of “being out there, getting muddy and wet, and eating plants.”
Selleck was very pleased with the turnout this year, with few seats left empty and an audience that he said was “very engaged”. And why throw a festival like this one in Norfolk? “Norfolk is a cultural center,” he said, and he wants to “bring a literary element back to the cultural heart of Norfolk.”
Brooklyn and New York based writer Gillian Bagley gave the Brendan Gill Lecture on Friday night. The lecture is an annual talk given in memorial of Brendan Gill, a celebrated New Yorker writer who lived in Bronxville, N.Y. and Norfolk.
Appropriately, it was a family affair. Bagley is Gill’s granddaughter, and she was introduced by her cousin Anne Gill, another granddaughter of the writer. As she took the podium, Bagley fondly recalled spending summers with her grandfather in Norfork as a child – during one such stay, the two co-authored a book called “The Monster of Haystack Mountain.”
Beyond recalling memories, Bagley also presented and read from her new novel Negative Space, and reflected on how Gill influenced her own writing. She read a passage in which Gill said he sought to instill within his paragraphs “a weight and a shape no greater than a cloud of blue butterflies.” She said she strives to imbue her own fiction with this sense of “precise contours and the weight of something real,” informing her practice of “constant whittling” that defines the pared-down style of her prose.
This writing process doesn’t produce long novels, and she offered several jokes about her predilection for brevity that drew hearty laughter from the crowd. Several readers had told her they had finished the book in one sitting, she said, adding that, “I suspect it wasn’t that they couldn’t put it down, but that they didn’t have to.”
An adult lanternfly and nymphs in the final stage just before entering adulthood.
The Spotted Lanternfly, an insect native to Asia and first found in the U.S. in Pennsylvania in 2014, has made its way into northeast Dutchess County, New York, and the Northwest Corner of Connecticut.
Brent Boscarino, Coordinator of the Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management, explained that the lanternfly is a nuisance pest, but it’s not quite dangerous enough to trees and plants to kill them.
“Response is going to vary depending on where it is discovered,” Boscsarino said. He said the insects don’t pose a threat to humans or even that large of a threat to local trees and plants except for vineyards and timber lots.
Spotted Lanternflies will breed and congregate in massive groups in a tree or a collection of vines, feeding on the plants leaves and stems with special mouths that pierce and suck out the insides. During this process the insects secrete a sticky substance known as honeydew. The added moisture can propagate sooty mold on the bark of trees and plants.
But the insect is rarely solely responsible for killing its host plants, Boscarino said, and if they’re out of sight there’s no need to go search out the bug to eradicate it. Instead, focus on areas where large populations of the bug might be causing a nuisance, like in trees nearby to regular gathering areas.
“If you’ve got a big canopy tree that hangs over your deck or a pool or a place where you congregate with your family, that is the area to focus on,” Boscarino said.
Suggested management strategies focus on trapping the insect in its nymph stage, when it’s flightless and continually falls off and climbs back up the trunk of its host tree.
Sticky traps can be used, but additional measures should be used to prevent mammals and birds from becoming stuck to the trap, according to information published by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. CAES also has information about funnel-style traps, where a mesh is wrapped around the trunk of the tree to route the bugs through a funnel into a container.
Spotted Lanternflies prefer to congregate in the invasive Tree of Heaven, and removing that tree from property can go a long way in discouraging the insects, according to the CAES.
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Brevi Properties LLC
Brevi Properties LLC, a domestic LLC, filed with the SSNY on 8/27/2025. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to 16 Peaceable Way Dover Plains, NY 12522. Purpose: Real estate management. Section 203 of the Limited Liability Company Law.
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Please take notice the regularly scheduled Amenia Zoning Board of Appeals meeting scheduled for 11/17/25 has been rescheduled to 11/3/2025 at 6:00pm.
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Silent Mind Apparel, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/09/2025. Office location: Dutchess County, NY. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: P.O. Box 593. Purpose: any lawful act.
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LEGAL NOTICE
TOWN OF AMENIA
SNOW REMOVAL BIDS
PERIOD 11/6/2025 - 4/30/2026
NOTICE is hereby given that sealed bids for Town of Amenia Side Walk Snow Removal will be received until Noon on Thursday, October 30, 2025 at the Town Clerk’s Office, Town of Amenia, Amenia Town Hall, 4988 Route 22, Amenia, NY 12501 opened and read at the Amenia Town Hall, 4988 Route 22 on Monday November 3, 2025 at 1:00pm.
Detailed specifications may be obtained at the Town Clerk’s Office during regular business hours, by calling (845) 373-8860 Ext. 125 or by emailing townclerk@ameniany.gov . All bids must have proof of insurance for liability and property damage in addition to proof of Worker’s Compensation coverage. All bids must also be accompanied by a notarized non collusive statement and corporate bidders must file a corporate resolution with a corporate seal. All envelopes must be clearly marked “Snow Removal Bid 11/6/2025 to 4/30/2026”.
The Amenia Town Board reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids. Bids will be awarded at the scheduled Town Board meeting on November 6, 2025.
Dawn Marie Klingner
Amenia Town Clerk
10-16-25
LEGAL NOTICE
TOWN OF AMENIA
SNOW REMOVAL BIDS
PERIOD 11/6/2025 - 4/30/2026
NOTICE is hereby given that sealed bids for Town of Amenia Wassaic Trail Snow Removal will be received until Noon on Thursday, October 30, 2025 at the Town Clerk’s Office, Town of Amenia, Amenia Town Hall, 4988 Route 22, Amenia, NY 12501 opened and read at the Amenia Town Hall, 4988 Route 22 on Monday, November 3, 2025 at 1:00pm.
Detailed specifications may be obtained at the Town Clerk’s Office during regular business hours, by calling (845) 373-8860 Ext. 125 or by emailing townclerk@ameniany.gov. All bids must have proof of insurance for liability and property damage in addition to proof of Worker’s Compensation coverage. All bids must also be accompanied by a notarized non collusive statement and corporate bidders must file a corporate resolution with a corporate seal. All envelopes must be clearly marked “Snow Removal Bid for Wassaic Trail 11/6/2025 to 4/30/2026”.
The Amenia Town Board reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids. Bids will be awarded at the scheduled Town Board meeting on November 6, 2025.
Dawn Marie Klingner
Amenia Town Clerk
10-16-25
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NAILED BY ALYSSIA LLC has been formed as a limited liability company (LLC) located in Dutchess County, New York by filing Articles of Organization with the New York Secretary of State (NYSS) on July 15, 2025. Alyssia Morton Beliveau is designated as registered agent for the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. Alyssia Morton Beliveau will be mailed any process against it served to 579 Carpenter Hill Road, Pine Plains, NY 12567. The purpose is to engage in any lawful business practice.
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PUBLIC HEARING ON 2026 BUDGET
The Wassaic Fire District shall hold a public hearing for the purpose of discussing its proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget on October 22, 2025, at 6:30 p.m., at the Wassaic Fire House, 27 Firehouse Road, Town of Amenia, New York. Copies of the proposed budget are available for inspection at the office of the Town Clerk of the Town of Amenia and by contacting the secretary at 845-705-8304.
Copies of the proposed budget will also be available for inspection at the aforesaid public hearing.
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Secretary
Wassaic Fire District
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The above application is open for inspection at the Town Hall or via email. Please request a copy by emailing the Planning Board office at pb@townofnortheastny.govor calling 518-789-3300, Ext. 608.
Persons wishing to appear at such hearing may do so in person or by attorney or other representative. Communications in writing relating thereto may be filed with the Board at such hearing. Dated: October 9, 2025.
Dale Culver
Chairman,
Planning Board
10-16-25
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PUBLIC HEARING
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a public hearing will be held before the Planning Board of the Town of North East on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at the North East Town Hall, 19 N. Maple Ave., Millerton, NY at 7:30 PM or as soon thereafter as possible on the application of Silver Mountain Hay LLC for a Minor Subdivision on Tax Parcel #7170-00-062510 located at 437 McGhee Hill Road, Millerton, NY in the A5A Zoning District of the Town of North East.
The above application is open for inspection at the Town Hall or via email. Please request a copy by emailing the Planning Board office at pb@townofnortheastny.gov or calling 518-789-3300, Ext. 608.
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Dale Culver
Chairman,
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Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to NYS Education Law §259(1)(13), and in accordance with the provision of the N.Y.S. Election Law, the following question will be submitted to the qualified voters of the Town of Amenia at the General Election to be held on the 4th day of November, 2025:
“Shall the annual contribution of the Town of Amenia for the operating budget of the Amenia Free Library be increased by Twenty Thousand ($20,000) Dollars to the sum of Two Hundred Sixty-Five Thousand ($265,000) Dollars annually?”
Dawn Marie Klingner
Town Clerk,
Town of Amenia
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PUBLIC NOTICE
Transportation providers and other interested parties are hereby notified that the North East Community Center, Inc. at 51 South Center Street, P.O. Box 35, Millerton, NY, 12546, is applying for a federal grant of up to $500,000, under Section 5310 of Chapter 53 of Title 49, United States Code, for transportation services within the Towns of Amenia, North East, Dover, Pine Plains, Stanford, and Washington to meet the needs of elderly individuals and individuals with disabilities.
The purpose of this notice is to invite private, for-profit bus, taxi, or ambulette operators and other interested parties to participate in the development of the proposed grant project and in the provision of enhanced transportation services to elderly individuals and individuals with disabilities.
Please contact Christine Sergent, NECC Executive Director, at (518) 789-4259, within 15 calendar days of this public notice to request a copy of the project proposed. Comments on proposed projects must be submitted to Christine Sergent within 15 calendar days after receipt of the proposed project information.
Kim Henrichs
Grants and
Contracts Director
10-16-25
Kitchen Help Wanted: two years experience preferred. KPG Kitchen and Bar, located in Kent, CT. Please call for interview 860-488-6755.
Hector Pacay Service: House Remodeling, Landscaping, Lawn mowing, Garden mulch, Painting, Gutters, Pruning, Stump Grinding, Chipping, Tree work, Brush removal, Fence, Patio, Carpenter/decks, Masonry. Spring and Fall Cleanup. Commercial & Residential. Fully insured. 845-636-3212.
SNOW PLOWING: Be Ready! Local. Sharon/Millerton/Lakeville area. Call 518-567-8277.
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The roof of the Grove was damaged by the tree, the event tent was punctured, a chef was injured and the Jubilee Luncheon was canceled Sunday, Oct. 12.
LAKEVILLE, Conn. — The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News Jubilee Luncheon fundraiser at the Grove Sunday, Oct. 12 was canceled after a very large section of a tree fell on the caterer’s tent at about 10 a.m.
Most of the catering staff heard the tree breaking up and got out of the tent in time, but the chef was hit by the falling limbs and sustained non-critical injuries.
A portion of the Grove’s roof sustained damage and branches came through the tent.
The Lakeville Hose Company responded to the scene. The chef was transported to Sharon Hospital by the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service.
“While we’re deeply disappointed to cancel our annual fundraising event, our first concern is for our caterer’s chef, who was injured in the incident and is now recovering at home,” said James Clark, Publisher. “We’re grateful there were no more serious injuries, and we deeply appreciate the understanding and support of our honoree, underwriters, and guests.”
The incident occurred during preparation for the event, which would have centered around the presentation of the Estabrook Community Leadership Award to Bunny Williams.
Food that The Marketplace had prepared for the event was donated to People’s Pantry in Great Barrington.