Major projects were Millbrook’s focus in 2024

MILLBROOK — The village anticipates welcoming former Trustee Peter Doro to the position of Village Mayor in January following his election in November, along with two new Trustees. The exercise of reflecting on the past year shows accomplishments and progress on some major projects.

Millbrook’s youngsters did their part. The annual observance of Arbor Day in late April saw students enrolled in Grades K-2 at Elm Drive Elementary School helping with the planting of an elm tree in honor of their school.

In May, work began on the Stanford Road bridge over the east branch of Wappinger Creek, replacing the old structure with a new wider bridge. Stanford Road remained closed to traffic for the summer months.

On June 1, the village welcomed a new Chief of Police. Keith Dworkin.

For the first time since 2015, the Millbrook Library sought and received voter approval of a November ballot proposition to increase library funding within the town’s annual budget, only the third such funding request in the library’s history. Voters approved an increase of $165,000 to a new total of $349,000 for library support.

Following two public information sessions in October and November and mailings to each household, a mid-November special referendum on the school district’s capital plan saw defeat of all three proposed construction elements.

Three years in the planning, the project would remediate actively leaking roofs at two schools, the more severe problem found at the Middle School. The capital projects would install lifts for ADA-required access and allow for air quality monitoring and improvement within all schools in the district.

Because the plan includes critically needed maintenance work and repairs to areas with water damage, the district will continue the discussion into 2025 on a revised plan which voters can support.

Two major construction projects were a focus throughout the year. In late August, a contract was awarded by the Board of Trustees to replace storm drains on Washington Avenue. The work was completed before the end of the year.

A project to upgrade the village wastewater treatment plant received advice from the town’s bond counsel on how to amend the original 2022 resolution to reflect higher project costs of about $10 million.

A December report given at a Trustees meeting, presented by a representative of the engineering firm of Tighe and Bond, reviewed the status of required studies and early steps toward completing grant applications. The coming year will see continued progress.

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less