Letters to the Editor - 8-8-24

Appeal to help historic Kemmerer farm

Dear Neighbors and Friends,

My name is Dani Nicholson and I am writing to you as a deeply concerned member of our honorable agricultural community. The Kemmerer Family, which has proudly farmed in Stanfordville for generations over 100 years, have lost nearly everything in a massive barn fire on July 18. The crippling effects caused by this tragedy in our communities are immeasurable.

The Kemmerer family has been a pillar of support in our communities for generations, both as community members and as local business owners. Hunt Country Supply, their family business, serves hundreds of our farmers in the Hudson Valley each month, providing thousands of our animals with necessary supplies for their survival including hay, feed, shavings, and other imperative resources. Over decades of service, their business has become a highly regarded lifeline that our communities and our beloved animals have always been able to rely on.

Emily Hay, a fourth generation farmer of the Kemmerer Family, is well known in local communities for her generous contributions. Many of us have fond memories of visiting her former store in Pine Plains, Hay’s Country Feeds ‘N Needs. Emily has also founded a non-profit organization for longtime farmers facing hardships, known as the Centennial Farms Foundation. Now, as this family faces their own devastating hardships, it is up to each of us to do our part to help them and our communities to recover quickly from this tragedy.

While the family continues to sift through the ashes and process the total extent of their losses, this much is true. They have lost:

• Three huge barns

• Their entire farm store

• Tons upon tons of their hay, shavings, feed, and other necessary supplies they provide for our four-legged friends

• All of their farming equipment including; a tractor, 6 baling wagons, a skid steer, multiple mowers and balers

• An accumulator

• All of their butchering and slaughtering equipment

• Their flatbed truck, essential for them to make deliveries

• A walk-in freezer and seven additional freezers filled with freshly butchered pork, beef, and chicken

• Decades of records, memories and other irreplaceable items

The destruction of the fire exceeds their insurance coverage by a large amount. Damages have been currently estimated to nearly one million dollars, and their insurance will only cover part of that, at best. The Kemmerer’s desperately need our support to be able to rebuild the farm in order to keep their businesses running.

There are so many ways to help and show your support — spread the word, make a donation, support a fundraiser, attend an event, keep an eye out for equipment for sale, volunteer, send words of encouragement, whatever you can spare. Please get involved in any way that you can. It all counts and makes a huge difference.

By showing your support for the Kemmerer’s, you will also be helping many other businesses and residents in our local communities. Our farmers and all of our animals urgently need our help in order to preserve all of the agricultural beauty that we’ve come to love by living here and calling this place our home.

Together, we can make a difference, and help the Kemmerer family to rebuild their legacy so they can continue to keep other local farms operating smoothly.

Checks can be made payable and sent to:

The Kemmerer Farm

391 Shuman Road

Stanfordville, NY

Dani Nicholson

Pine Plains

Grateful to Heastie, Barrett on park funding

New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Assemblymember Didi Barrett’s announcement to provide substantial funding to build the pool and pool house at Eddie Collins Memorial Park was a welcomed surprise. We are grateful to them, all our donors, and past and present leaders at the state, county, and local levels of government for their support and commitment to our efforts to revitalize the Park.

This latest commitment puts a new community pool now within reach. This project has been a long, complicated process, and the Project Committee still has plenty of work ahead to finish the Park. We also understand the ongoing responsibilities of a project of this magnitude, and we are taking the necessary steps to ensure long-term maintenance costs do not burden taxpayers.

Thank you, Speaker Heastie and Assemblymember Barrett. We sincerely appreciate your commitment to our community and making a 10-year dream come true. We look forward to seeing you at the ribbon cutting in the not-too-distant future.

Stephen Waite,

Chairman,
Eddie Collins
Memorial Park
Revitalization Committee

Millerton

Kudos for ‘What to Do’

I am a supporter of your wonderful newspaper. I want you to know how fantastic the emails are from Natalia Zuckerman. Concise and informative they are the perfect guide to what is happening in our area. She is a gem and a welcome and needed fixture to The Lakeville Journal!

Joan Osofsky

Lakeville