MILLERTON — Kids Time, Millerton’s longtime indoor play space, has closed for good after more than two decades as a staple of childhood birthdays and family celebrations.
Owner Ken Thompson shut the doors Sunday, Feb. 8, after hosting the final birthday party at the once-bustling Route 44 attraction. The business, which Thompson built and ran largely on his own since opening in 2006, had slowed in recent years and was no longer financially sustainable, he said.
Thompson, who owns the commercial building that also houses Avocado Cafe, Millerton Athletic Club and a beer store, said he explored downsizing and other options before ultimately deciding to close.
“It was never about the money,” Thompson said. “It was about the kids and the joy on their faces — you can’t put a dollar amount on that.”
Families came to Kids Time for birthday parties and open play, drawn to the colorful maze of slides, mats and climbing features Thompson built and maintained himself. Children who visited him knew him simply as “Mr. Ken,” and he was rarely without small rituals — including a basket of lollipops offered to kids on their way out.
A view through a porthole on the custom-made jungle gym that Ken Thompson built for his business, Kids Time. Thompson shuttered the business after 20 years on Sunday, Feb. 8, after hosting one last party.Photo by Aly Morrissey
For some families, the final party marked a generational full-circle moment.
“I brought my kids here when it was in the bigger space, and now they are grown up and have been bringing their own kids,” said Tilly Strauss, who celebrated her grandchild’s first birthday at Kids Time on Sunday. “We’re really going to miss this place.”
For Thompson, those generational moments reflected the persistence and determination that defined both his business and his own life.
The fastest way to get Thompson to do something, he said, is to tell him he can’t — a stubborn streak that once pushed him to buy his own bicycle at age nine and later to hand-build and run Kids Time as a one-man operation for more than 20 years.
A mechanic by trade, Thompson said he never imagined the turn his life would take when he purchased the large commercial building on Route 44. At the time, he learned it was the only property in Millerton zoned for children’s recreation — a detail he overheard at a town meeting.
“I thought, ‘What kind of person would I be if I had a space for kids and didn’t give back to local families with children,’” Thompson recalled.
He waited more than a year for approvals before letting his imagination take over. Thompson spent months transforming the industrial space into an indoor world designed for children to jump, bounce, climb and slide.
Even in the earliest stages, he involved kids in the process. Thompson ran a logo design contest in his daughter’s fourth-grade classroom and said he was thrilled when one student incorporated a clock — an image that became the Kids Time logo for the next 20 years.
“It was brilliant,” Thompson said. “I had never thought of that before.”
Ken Thompson, center, emerges from a red slide at his kid's party and play business in Millerton. Thompson intends to donate the red slide to the Village of Millerton to use in the playground at Eddie Collins Memorial Park on North Elm Street.Photo by Aly Morrissey
After more than a year of sourcing play equipment, painting, repairing ceiling tiles and doing the physically demanding work himself, Thompson finally opened the doors to Kids Time in the spring of 2006.
“It was a complete dud,” he said, laughing.
His business partner at the time decided to leave and move back to Arizona, Thompson said, leaving him to buy out the business and run it alone. Then, almost unexpectedly, families began to show up.
At its peak, Thompson said he was booking as many as six birthday parties a day — all of which he ran himself.
“My pockets were stuffed with cash,” he recalled.
Kids Time operated for years as a weekend destination for local families until the COVID-19 pandemic upended normal operations. Thompson survived the shutdowns and later downsized to a smaller space — a move he handled on his own — but the business never fully returned to what it once was.
Still, Thompson said he will always look back on Kids Time — which he called “the best job in the world” — with pride and fondness.
“It was a life-changing experience,” he said. “I wish I could keep it going.”
Thompson’s daughter, KT, thanked her father publicly for the space he created.
“Thank you for building me the coolest place in the world, for being the best dad anyone could ask for and for leaving a lasting mark on all of us through your kindness, dedication and joy,” she said.
As the final birthday party wound down Sunday afternoon, Thompson invited guests to take pieces of Kids Time home — climbing mats of all shapes, colors and sizes — free of charge.
“I’m just happy they’ll have a new home,” Thompson said, visibly moved by the idea that pieces of Kids Time would continue to bring joy and play to children elsewhere.
Thompson has also offered Kids Time’s iconic red slide to the Village of Millerton and hopes it can be incorporated into the playground at Eddie Collins Memorial Park.
Engineer Zak Hall, left, and architect Kristina Dousharm of Kristina Dousharm Architects present plans to build a new grocery store and renovate an existing building for an ice cream shop at the Planning Board on Wednesday, April 8.
Christopher Gumprecht — who owns the property under the name C.G. 79 Realestate LLC — and business partners Bryan Seiler and Benjamin Abrahams received approval for the cannabis dispensary in December 2025. That business will occupy a historic weigh station building on the property, which is separate from the proposed grocery store and ice cream shop.
Dousharm first introduced the additional concepts during the dispensary approval process, noting at the time that details were still preliminary but sufficient to meet environmental review requirements.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Dousharm argued that the prior environmental approval should still apply, saying the current proposal largely aligns with earlier plans.
Planning Board attorney Warren Replansky, however, pushed back, saying the board had clearly anticipated further environmental review once detailed plans were submitted.
Replansky cited the board’s Dec. 17, 2025, resolution, which stated that plans for the additional uses were not developed enough at the time to allow for “meaningful environmental review.”
The resolution also referenced guidance from Dutchess County Planning & Development that review could be deferred until the plans are "fully developed," and acknowledged that the Planning Board has jurisdiction to "conduct an additional" review.
"I don't know how it can be any more clear than that," Replansky said.
Planning Board members view plans for the proposed new grocery store and ice cream shop to be located at 7723 South Main St. on Wednesday, April 8. Photo by Nathan Miller
The exchange became tense, with back-and-forth between Replansky and Dousharm with occasional interjections from Planning Board Chair Michael Stabile, zoning enforcement officer Ed Casazza and town engineer George Schmidt.
Dousharm asserted that additional review under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act was unnecessary — a claim that Schmidt and Stabile appeared to support — because the described plans largely align with the preliminary details provided last year.
Replansky responded by pointing out that the preliminary details described renovating an existing building for the grocery store. He said the demolition and subsequent construction of a brand new building constituted a significant change.
"The Planning Board has a duty to conduct a SEQR review," Replansky said. "The fact that you don't agree that it's necessary is irrelevant."
Stabile recalled the board telling the applicants to return for "technical review" once plans for the grocery store and ice cream shop were developed. Schmidt said the board can use technical review to determine whether differences from early plan details require further environmental review.
Dousharm said she would compile a list of differences between the current proposal and earlier plans to assist the board in making that determination.
The applicants must now seek a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals to exceed lot area coverage limits before returning to the Planning Board for further review.
The annual Millerton Fire Company Easter egg hunt returned to Eddie Collins Memorial Park on Saturday, April 4.
Tyler Dehoff discovers a piece of chocolate in a plastic egg at the zero to two-year-old egg hunt area.Nathan Miller
Families crowd into hay wagons for a parade down Main Street to the park before the egg hunt.Nathan Miller
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
Bob Stevens, right, enjoys the swinging sounds of country and western music during a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, with his son, Robert Stevens Jr., not pictured.
Stevens’s only son, 39-year-old Robert Stevens Jr., along with employees at the town garage and others in the community, remembered Stevens as a dedicated man with a singular passion for highway maintenance.
“It was an absolutely huge part of his life,” Robert said.
Robert Jr. said Stevens was as supportive as a father as he was dedicated to his work for the town. He recalled a week-long BMX biking trip to Camp Woodward in Pennsylvania that his father drove him to and from, making the round trip twice without a complaint.
“It didn’t matter how little or how far we were going,” Robert said. “If it was to support me, he was on. Always.”
Road crew foreman Shawn Morrison said that supportive nature extended to Stevens’s role as Highway Superintendent, where he prioritized the safety of workers and drivers above all else.
“He always said to me, ‘If you don’t feel safe doing it, then we’re not going to do it,’” Morrison said.
Morrison praised Stevens’s dedication to his post, saying he often worked long hours and weekends out of a love for the job. Winter was a favorite season, as Morrison said he was obsessive about clearing the town’s roads during snowstorms.
“A lot of people had nicknames out there for him — calling him ‘Bare-road Bob,’” Morrison said. “He was anal about his roads in the winter.”
Stevens rarely missed a day of work, for sickness or for pleasure, road crew employees and Town Supervisor Chris Kennan said. Joshua Schultz, a road crew member and Stevens’s godson, said he could remember one notable absence. “He took his son to Nashville,” Schultz said.
Photo providedBob Stevens, right, and his son, Robert Stevens Jr., pose for a photograph together. Robert remembered his father as a caring and supportive man following his death on Monday, March 30.Photo provided
Robert Jr. said he and his father traveled twice to Nashville, Tennessee — among the few trips they took together — but a third visit was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other travel opportunities often depended on Stevens’s work at the town garage. “If it was wintertime, he’s here,” Robert said. “He’s taking care of the town.”
Sickness didn’t keep Stevens at home either. Morrison said he would work from his well-known orange pickup truck to keep from spreading colds to people.
The orange pick-up truck was a fixture around town, Supervisor Chris Kennan said. Stevens was often spotted inspecting roads across town in the recognizable truck, when it wasn’t parked at the town garage while he worked in his office.
Kennan said the town will begin a search for a new Highway Superintendent, with a committee expected to form at the Thursday, April 9, Town board meeting. He also expects the board to install a plaque at the town garage on Route 22 honoring Stevens’s service.
Kennan proposed the plaque at a special meeting of the Town Board on April 1, saying a modest display would respect Stevens’s private nature.
“I’m excited that we’re going to put a plaque on that building,” Kennan said. “It’s appropriate that there be some reflection of what he put into it.”
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
