The past week was an eventful one. 

Voters headed to the polls for elections that ended up with some surprise results. We won’t know how it all will work out until our newly elected officials settle down to business with our reelected incumbents.

Last weekend our communities also came out to celebrate Veterans Day, gathering for ceremonies at public memorial sites. Assemblies were held in elementary schools, where students expressed their gratitude and respect for our service vets. 

As voters, we are primed to want to know the results of an election as soon as possible. Our curiosity is magnified when we begin to hear that some elections were upsets. As families, we value  the recognition accorded to our veterans, and look forward to the images of our youth presenting a thankyou message to a vet, or to see a gathering of our neighbors around a war memorial with American flags waving in the air on this annual day of remembrance — part of our lives since the end of World War I. 

This week The Lakeville Journal provides a rundown of last week’s elections,  and our reporters write about Veterans Day events across the region. But we didn’t wait to tell you about what happened on Election Day. On Election Night we worked late to post results as soon as they became available, first on our Instagram account @lakevillejournal. Managing Editor Riley Klein created quick summaries of races in all the towns: Salisbury, Kent, Cornwall, Sharon, North Canaan and Falls Village. Flipping through the pages of each post leads to photos of the winning Selectmen. The Instagram posts were followed by longer writeups the next day on tricornernews.com, our website.We updated the outcome of elections for commissions and boards and other municipal posts.

As a printed weekly newspaper, we adhere to a seven-day cycle. Every Tuesday around noon we send our paper off to the printer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. But as we have done for some time, when big news happens we get it out to you as fast as we can. We know that our readers are looking for their news on smartphones, computers and tablets. We have no plans to end print publication. This week’s paper has full-page coverage of the 2023 election and Veterans Day events.  But we are stepping up to provide our readers a better news feed throughout the week on the kind of platform that has become the go-to source for news by more than eight out of ten American adults.

To meet readers more frequently on this dominant news turf The Journal is getting ready to unveil revamped websites later this month. 

The new websites will be called lakevillejournal.com and millertonnews.com. We also will drop the paywall, meaning access to the news no longer will be restricted to those who subscribe. The goal is to offer a digital news feed on your digital device more than once a week and to reach more readers. 

While residents of Litchfield County and eastern Dutchess County  live under different governing  arrangements, there is abundant cross-border interest in the rest of what life has to offer. Each paper will have its own identity on its unique website, and the two sites will be linked so readers can digitally “cross the border,” just as they frequently do now in everyday life.

Thanks to your continued support, we are preserving the heritage of a weekly newspaper and updating our digital feed to better meet you where you look for news.

Latest News

Fallen trees injure man, destroy fences at dog shelter

Two uprooted locust trees still lie in the yard in front of Animal Farm Foundation’s original kennels where they fell on a fence during a storm on Thursday, June 19.

Nathan Miller

AMENIA — Fallen trees, uprooted and splintered during a thunderstorm, injured a man, destroyed fences and damaged a dog kennel at the Animal Farm Foundation facilities in Bangall.

Isaias Nunez was cleaning along a road on the property with Marco Ortiz, another employee of the dog shelter, when the storm rolled in on the afternoon of Thursday, June 19.

Keep ReadingShow less
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

Keep ReadingShow less
Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit millertonnews.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

Keep ReadingShow less