In February, Webutuck CSD erected an electronic messaging display. Residents are concerned that it detracts from the town’s rural character and is distracting to drivers.
NORTH EAST — Webutuck Central School District erected an internally illuminated sign at the end of its driveway, on Route 22, in February.
The sign, placed immediately beneath Webutuck CSD’s longstanding painted sign, displayed announcements in dimly illuminated, white-on-black text: “Kindergarten registration begins March 21st,” it read.
It is not an LED sign but something called an Electronic Messaging Display or EMD, which feels a bit like a giant Kindle display.
The sign was erected without a permit (the school continues to work with authorities on North East on getting the sign permitted), and further, internally illuminated signs are technically banned in North East.
The sign has caused consternation to some members of the community. Words like “unsightly,” “distracting” and “dangerous” have been bandied about.
“I’m a little leery on sign stuff because [...] you can’t really regulate signs,” said Will Agresta, planning consultant to the Zoning Review Committee (ZRC) at the committee’s March 18 meeting.
While it is possible to regulate size, location, color, font, intensity of illumination, timing of illumination, construction and material, aesthetic and myriad other details, New York makes it very difficult to regulate sign content, due to First Amendment protections.
“How do you stop everyone from getting them?” asked Agresta. This is the question.
Legion Post’s LED sign
A complicating factor in responding to Webutuck’s permitting request is an existing, internally illuminated and un-permitted sign: the LED message board outside the American Legion Post 178 on Route 44, just east of Millerton, which was erected without a permit in 2018.
Years of petitions and re-petitions from the Post to the Town Board followed, until the pandemic effectively ended the conversation, leaving it unresolved.
In one of their early petitions to legalize their sign, for which no permit had been sought before its installation, the Post 178 Legionnaires effectively asked the Town to change the laws to accommodate their sign.
The Post argued that LED signs should be legalized throughout the Boulevard District; this, in turn, led to concern among board members that “the Boulevard would look like the Las Vegas Strip.”
“We do not believe that this sign is in any way a detriment to the character of the town, zoning district or neighborhood in which it resides,” read the Legionnaires’ 2019 petition.
Further, the Post argued that the sign helps identify the Post building as an emergency shelter, warming and cooling station and Red Cross satellite location, as well as allowing the posting of public service announcements, for example about road closures or weather.
During the pandemic-induced state of emergency, the Post was able to get the sign temporarily permitted, which it did; the sign displayed information about such things as testing sites, vaccination availability and protective health measures.
These days, the LED sign is used mostly to display a waving American flag and announce Post events like pancake breakfasts and barbecue dinners. It is illegal again, and the kerfuffle around the sign at Webutuck has brought it back to the Town’s attention.
To be continued
The ZRC discussed permitting for signs at its final regular meeting on Monday, April 1, but declined to take up the question of internally illuminated signs, suggesting that their final recommendations to the Town Board will include no changes to current regulations, leaving the internally illuminated issue unresolved.
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The North East Community Center's Early Learning Program will close its doors on Dec. 19, NECC's Executive Director Christine Sergent said in an interview with The News on Monday, Nov. 10. Leaders of the nonprofit said increased costs across every program led to a difficult decision to shutter the daycare until further notice.
MILLERTON – The North East Community Center announced Friday that it is suspending its Early Learning Program, citing mounting financial challenges in running a daycare — a decision that came suddenly for both parents and staff.
Families learned of the decision in an email from NECC’s Executive Director Christine Sergent, which was also posted to the NECC website. Staff members were notified on Thursday and Friday. The news came as a shock to all.
Sergent said the burdens of running a childcare center had become unsustainable. “Like many childcare programs, we were facing ongoing challenges, but we kept fighting to keep it open,” she said. “We felt it was worth it and wanted to make it work.”
NECC Board Chair Irene Banning said the decision came after months of difficult deliberation. “With rising costs across the board, the loss of public funding for other programs, and anticipated increases in healthcare premiums – it became impossible to continue running this program. And it broke our hearts,” she said.
Banning noted that establishing a childcare program had long been one of NECC’s goals. “People worked incredibly hard to make it happen,” she said. “But the economics of childcare are, I think, insurmountable – even for a nonprofit.”
Many parents said they understood the financial realities but were frustrated by the way the closure was communicated, describing it as abrupt and lacking transparency.
Finegan Ferreboeuf, a resident of Ancram whose child has been enrolled in the toddler room since May, said the decision could have been handled more thoughtfully and done less harm to families, staff and children.
“I think all of the families involved understand that the early childcare landscape is incredibly difficult, and people are aware that there is a loss of funding at NECC,” Ferreboeuf said. “Where we feel disappointed is that we weren’t allowed to be involved in any of this. There was a real lack of communication with the community and the stakeholders.”
Sergent and Banning said a combination of factors led to the difficult decision.
When Dutchess County stopped accepting new applications for childcare subsidies in early September — citing high demand and limited funding — the ELP was already facing declining enrollment as many preschoolers transitioned to universal public pre-K programs.
The resulting loss of tuition and subsidy revenue created a severe financial strain, prompting a series of emergency board meetings to evaluate the situation and explore potential solutions.
“The board spent several weeks analyzing a variety of strategies to avoid closure,” Sergent said. “But by the end of October, it became clear that we couldn’t save the program.”
Between June and mid-September, NECC also learned it would lose $350,000 in grant funding and earmarked donations. Sergent said roughly 60% to 65% of NECC’s overall budget comes from grants, 20% to 25% from donations, and 15% to 20% from fees and registrations — a structure that leaves nonprofit organizations vulnerable when any single stream falters.
Sergent and Banning added that the organization is also contending with rising costs across every department, from insurance and utilities to staff salaries and rent.
NECC continues to serve many of the community’s most vulnerable residents through its food, transportation, and case management programs — all facing rising demand and higher costs.
“We’re working with the county and others to make sure there’s food available for people impacted by SNAP reductions and the rising cost of living,” Sergent said. “Families are having to make impossible choices — paying for rent, keeping a vehicle to get to work — and food doesn’t always make the cut.”
While parents expressed deep appreciation for NECC and its staff, many were disappointed by the lack of consultation before the decision was made.
Ferreboeuf described a tight-knit community, saying that parents would have rallied to help keep the program afloat, even if temporarily. “The way the announcement was made was disappointing and feels antithetical to the fabric and character of NECC,” she said.
One former ELP parent said NECC’s limited marketing and sparse social media outreach suggested missed opportunities to boost enrollment and awareness about the program.
“In my mind, there was more that the organization could have been doing to fill spots,” said Hannah Schiller of Pine Plains, whose daughter entered the program at its inception three years ago and left at the end of the summer to join a public Pre-K.
Schiller also noted the strong parent community, saying “a lot of parents have skills that could have contributed to the support of the program.” She said that her daughter loved her time there and the program provided a critical need for working families. “We’re a working family so it was crucial to us to have a nearby daycare that we could afford.”
Emily Redmond, who has been the ELP Director for the past year and a half, criticized the private nature of the decision. She added that she and her colleagues would have valued the opportunity to discuss potential solutions before the decision was finalized.
“I want to be clear that I believe deeply in NECC’s mission,” Redmond said, “The work they do is vital to this community and should be supported.”
Redmond told The News that she was fired for alerting her staff about the impending closure after a Thursday meeting with Banning and Sergent. NECC leadership had planned to deliver the news themselves on Friday during a full ELP staff meeting. Redmond said she chose to inform her staff early so they could hear the news directly from someone they trusted — and have the chance to leave “with their heads up” and say goodbye to the children in their care.
Three staff members have lost their jobs, with the center scheduled to shut down completely by mid-December.
“I knew the position I was putting myself in,” she said. “Maybe it would have bought me another four weeks of employment, but then I’d be gone too. So I had a choice — I could be a loyal rule follower until the end, or I could go out supporting my staff the way I felt they truly needed to be supported in that moment. I chose the latter.”
She said the impact on the youngest stakeholders – the children enrolled at the ELP – should not be taken lightly. “Anyone familiar with child development understands how critical it is for young children to have the chance to process loss and say goodbye.”
Kim Yarnell, a current ELP parent, described Redmond as “a phenomenal leader,” adding that families “can’t say enough about the work she was doing to make the program healthy and successful.”
Yarnell said she doesn’t place blame on NECC as an organization but sees the closure as part of a broader statewide and national childcare crisis.
Despite the closure notice, the ELP will remain open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., through Dec. 19 for families who still need care. The program will operate with a reduced staff until all children are placed in new programs or employees transition to other jobs.
“Families are not being turned away today or tomorrow,” Sergent said. “We are staying open through December for anyone that needs us.”
Additionally, NECC is partnering with the Child Care Council of Dutchess and Putnam Counties, which helps families find available and licensed childcare placements.
Yarnell – who relies on child care and said she was only able to move to Millerton because the ELP opened three years ago – immediately contacted the Child Care Council, learning that only one licensed facility within 15 miles of Millerton currently has an opening. Most other childcare providers have waitlists.
Banning acknowledged that the closure has been deeply painful for everyone involved.
“Once the decision was made, we needed to create and implement a process that treated all stakeholders with the utmost respect,” she said, noting that the announcement of the closure didn’t go as planned, given all the moving pieces. “That created additional anxiety and distress for everyone — the staff and the families — and we’re truly sorry for that.”
North East Town Hall on Maple Avenue in Millerton.
MILLERTON — The Town of North East will present its 2026 Preliminary Town Budget at a public hearing on Thursday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
At a recent board meeting, Supervisor Chris Kennan said the board worked to keep overall spending increases minimal while maintaining essential services — particularly emergency medical services that come at a significant cost.
The proposed budget shows total appropriations of $5,043,192, an increase of about 2.7% over last year’s spending plan. That figure includes all town funds — general, highway, fire and water — though fire protection and water district costs are raised through separate special-district tax lines.
The total tax levy rises from $3,606,045 in 2025 to $3,932,130 in 2026, an increase of roughly 9%.
As a precautionary measure, the Town Board voted in September to authorize an override of the state’s 2% property tax cap. The preliminary budget exceeds that threshold, an outcome Kennan said was expected given the significant spike in emergency medical service costs.
EMS spending marks the largest year-over-year increase in the proposed budget, with the town’s ambulance line rising from $511,558 to $696,345 — a 36% jump. The increase was anticipated under a multi-year contract with Northern Dutchess Paramedics (NDP). When that agreement was signed, town officials acknowledged the cost was steep but expressed hope that a regional or shared-service model could eventually reduce expenses.
In late August, The News reported that NDP would be acquired by Empress EMS, a privately held company expanding its footprint throughout the state and into the Hudson Valley. Kennan said he has remained in contact with Empress representatives, who confirmed they will honor the existing contract, ensuring local ambulance coverage through 2026 while the town continues to explore ways to reduce costs.
Kennan, along with two dozen other villages and towns in Dutchess County, has vigorously called for support from the County to address the EMS crisis. In an October letter obtained by The News, Kennan and the Dutchess County Supervisors and Mayors Association urged County Executive Sue Serino and the Legislature to intervene.
“It has become increasingly apparent that the fragmented nature of the current system results in disparities in service levels, response times, and financial burdens,” the letter said. “A county-coordinated approach would allow for the strategic allocation of resources, improved staffing and training, and equitable funding mechanisms that benefit every community.”
Proposed salaries for elected officials were also posted: Supervisor, $27,675; Councilmen (4), $6,200 each; Justices (2), $19,125 each; Town Clerk, $37,785; and Assessor, $38,500.
The town also proposes to continue its annual support of the North East Community Center with a $5,000 contract and an additional $500 toward the center’s transportation project. Following the recent funding referendum, the NorthEast-Millerton Library allocation increased to $225,000, up $50,000 from last year’s $175,000.
The preliminary budget is available for public inspection at Town Hall, 19 North Maple Ave., Millerton, Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Webutuck Elementary students ushered in Halloween with a colorful parade around the school parking lot on Friday, Oct. 31, delighting middle and high school students who lined the sidewalk to hand out candy.
Webutuck High School social studies teacher Kevin Kleespies let students pet his bear steed as they passed.Nathan Miller
