Housing Board issues Silo Ridge condo plan recommendation
The entrance to the private Silo Ridge Field Club on Route 22 in Amenia.
Photo by Christine Bates
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MILLERTON — In the short time that Rev. Dr. Anna Crews Camphouse has called Sharon, Connecticut, “home,” she has taken on an abundance of leadership roles in the area in hopes to grow and connect the community and people of faith.
Camphouse has been in pastoral ministry for almost 25 years. “Up until here, I’ve done a lot of things,” she said. Now, she leads four Methodist churches in the area.
After learning that the Lakeville United Methodist Church was without a pastor, Camphouse told to the district superintendent that she was interested and open to consideration for appointment. It was then that she was asked to take on Lakeville, along with the Sharon church.
Six months later, a year and a half ago, Camphouse got the call that Millerton had lost their pastor. In the first two years of her appointment, Camphouse took to running three local churches.
The next year, this past December, Camphouse was called to the Canaan United Methodist Church, as their pastor was retiring. Along with her current placements at the four churches, Camphouse is also “the convener of the Ministerial Association for the whole northwest corner,” she said.
Camphouse succeeds in carrying the impressive responsibility of four churches through a mix of organization and devotion. “There’s the technicality of how you do worship services, that’s more the science,” Camphouse said. “Then there is the art of it, which is ‘where is God calling me in this moment and how do I empower all of these people to be the best they can be, to serve God in the community?’”
With a staggered and rotating schedule, Camphouse said, “I just try to get to as many things as I can as soon as I can.” She also hopes to build a strong and cooperative parish model. “There are certain things that only I can do as the pastor, but there’s other things that a lot of people can do, and so I’m trying to make it more manageable in that way.”
“For somebody who hasn’t been here very long, I’ve somehow gotten super connected and involved. I think that is both the joy and the challenge of small towns. When you come into them, you have an option to be involved or not be involved,” Camphouse said. Her main goal and calling is to “connect communities, whether they are my churches or people of faith in general, toward being heaven bringers,” she said, hoping to spread the qualities of love, peace, grace, gentleness, and patience.
Growing up in a rural community in Alabama and living in other similar settings, Camphouse has noticed differences in the rural life of her new home. “This is a place that is rural, but it has resources, education and creativity. It has a mix of people who are interesting and curious and have incredible backgrounds,” she said. “People have been really willing to engage with me, I’ve had really positive experiences.”
“Apple pies are fabulous here. They’re the best things ever,” Camphouse added to the list of positives.
She has also been keeping an eye out for attendance patterns in each of her churches. “I think slowly the word is getting out as I connect with people, and more people are coming in to visit or to try out different things,” she said. The church aims to envision ways to interact and strengthen community engagement.
“When people walk into my church, I want them to feel the unconditional love of God,” Camphouse emphasized. “That is my goal. When they leave, I want them to feel uplifted and empowered to do things to make a positive difference in the world around them.”
Camphouse is excited and hopeful, as the Methodist church is becoming more inclusive and eager to love, which she says will strengthen the Methodist movement as a whole. “We have been on a journey of learning how to love better and consequently becoming more inclusive of who gets to come to the table officially. Some of us have thought everybody belonged at the table in the first place.”
“I want to make it clear that everybody is welcome at our church,” she declared.
Camphouse urges the community as a whole to “be as spiritually whole and vibrant with as much goodness, love and joy as possible,” and to “come out of fear and into faith and empowerment.”
“We need every person to remember who they are and shine. That is my point,” Camphouse said. “And if you want to do that with us, you are more than welcome. But if not, know that we are praying for you and that we will come alongside you as we do good works together.”
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Webutuck’s Spanish for Educators program provided teachers at the district with weekly Spanish lessons intended to improve communication between teachers and students.
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AMENIA — The Webutuck Central School District will continue to offer the Spanish for Educators program, which instructs teachers on basic principles of the Spanish language, during the 2025–2026 school year, citing the program’s success during the last term.
Webutuck offered the optional class of ten weekly sessions to faculty members beginning in February as part of an effort to address communication issues between faculty and the high percentage of students with a limited command of the English language.
According to Lauren Marquis, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology at Webutuck, around 22% of Webutuck students possess a knowledge of English insufficient to learn effectively in an English-speaking classroom.
The goal of the program is not to train faculty to lead specialized classes entirely in Spanish, but rather to make existing classes taught in English more accessible to Spanish-speaking students. “We are not a bilingual school — the primary language that we utilize is English,” Marquis said.
The Spanish for Educators program is intended to complement existing measures, such as translation devices and bilingual visuals, intended to make classes learnable for Spanish speakers, while still catering to the district’s majority English-speaking population, Marquis said.
Students at Webutuck may not speak English fluently, but they are not necessarily proficient in Spanish, either. “We have a large Guatemalan population who speak K’iche’ as their first language; Spanish is technically their second language and English may be their third,” further complicating the ability of teachers to provide accessible instruction to all students, Marquis said.
In spite of the inherent challenges of being a firmly English-speaking school with a population of students not proficient in the language, the Spanish for Educators program facilitated basic dialogue in the classroom and helped build relationships between students and teachers, Marquis said.
“We had some students in the last session come in to speak Spanish with our faculty which was a really valuable experience for our staff; they formed great bonds with their students,” being able to communicate in the same language, Marquis said.
The ability to engage more easily with their students was the aspect of the program which faculty found to be the most meaningful. “We had 18 staff members who participated in the course … The providers said that the participants were very enthusiastic, they were committed and they were taking risks in learning the language of our students,” Marquis said.
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Amenia Town Hall
Photo by John Coston
AMENIA — Mountain bikers and hikers may soon enjoy miles of local trails thanks to the Amenia Trails Project described for the Town Board at its regular meeting on Thursday, July 19.
Representing Hollyhock Foundation, a New York City organization that focuses in part on environmental solutions to combat greenhouse gases, was Lauren Zane who described planning for a biking and hiking park along Old Route 22 near Wassaic.
Rock Solid Contracting would be hired to build 10 to 12 miles of trail on 470 acres distributed over three connected parcels of land. Trail construction would take about six to nine months to complete. Trails would be three feet in width with minimal impact to the land and boardwalk installed only where necessary.
An existing home on the property would be razed to accommodate a parking area. Existing forestry access roads on the property, six feet in width, would remain to offer passage for emergency vehicles.
Participating partners in the project are the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Dutchess County Department of Public Works, New York State Electric and Gas and the Dutchess Land Conservancy, Zane reported.
Area residents offered positive comments on the plans seeing the value of recreational expansion and conservation of the land.
Councilmember Brad Rebillard asked for details on access for emergency vehicles.
Determining that the trails would be open from spring to fall for recreation, councilmember Nicole Ahearn noted that hunting season begins on Oct. 1 each year.
Town Supervisor Leo Blackman commented that for people who travel north by train to Wassaic, this trail system could be a popular draw for recreation. He asked about the possibility of a connector with the rail trail.
“We’re open to ideas,” Zane said, adding that connector access is being researched.
Asking about what the next step toward approval should be, Zane determined that she should approach the Planning Board about the plan. The Planning Board will then report back to the Town Board.
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