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Innisfree Community Day Aug. 30
Aug 20, 2025
MILLBROOK — The magnificent gardens at Millbrook’s Innisfree will be offering free admission to area residents on Community Day scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 30.
Arrive early to view the sunrise beginning at 5 a.m. or come later to wander and absorb the garden’s serenity and perhaps join in one of the day’s featured events, available at reduced rates. The gardens will remain open until 5 p.m.
Garden admission is free for residents of Amenia, Clinton Corners, Dover Plains, Millbrook, Millerton, Pine Plains, North East, Stanford, Pleasant Valley, Washington, Wassaic, and Wingdale.
Special events offered at reduced rates will occur during the day, including a guided garden tour led by Kate Kerin, Landscape Curator, beginning at 10 a.m. A stress relief program will begin at 1 p.m., led by Cris Caivano guiding a group through Qigong and Acupressure.
For details and registration go to www.innesfreegarden.org. Visitors must register separately for the free general admission or the special events that carry discounted rates.
Innisfree’s Community Day is being supported by a grant from the Northeast Dutchess Fund, a program of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Innisfree Garden is found at 362 Tyrrel Road in Millbrook.
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National day of protest
Aug 20, 2025
Photo by Leila Hawken
A larger than anticipated number of protesters, all from area towns, assembled at Fountain Square in Amenia on Saturday, Aug. 16, to participate in the national day of protest themed “Fight the Trump Takeover.”More than 40 protesters populated the four corners of the intersection of Routes 44, 22, and 343, eliciting enthusiastic response from passing motorists, mostly supportive.
Photo by Leila Hawken
A larger than anticipated number of protesters, more than 40, all of whom were from area towns, assembled at Fountain Square on Saturday, August 16, to participate in the national day of protest themed “Fight the Trump Takeover.” Organizer Kimberley Travis of Amenia and protester Nick Lacy of Poughkeepsie paused for a photo.
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SHARON — Gold Dog LLC, the applicant behind a long-contested housing development in Sharon, was given the Planning and Zoning Commission’s nod to move forward with the project on Wednesday, Aug. 13.
The plans call for a 24-unit condominium complex of 12 duplexes arranged around a central driveway and cul-de-sac, situated on grove-like woodland between Hospital Hill Road and Amenia Road.
While not designated as affordable, the development may help provide some much needed diversification of Sharon’s housing market, several of the project’s supporters have said.
The approval was delayed from the Commission’s last meeting in July in expectation of a third-party review of the application’s stormwater runoff plans among other technical details, which was received in early August. At the July meeting the commission showed preliminary signs of approving the project, which has been hotly contested since P&Z reviewed a previous application from Gold Dog in 2023 that was denied.
That tone held last Wednesday, when P&Z Secretary and Fire Marshall and Building Official Stanley MacMillan Jr. read a motion to approve the plans. The motion, which is available in full in the Aug. 13 meeting’s minutes on the town website, stated the project is “consistent with infrastructure capacity and the development of the community” and “will allow for a reasonable use of the property which is consistent with the character of the underlying zone.”
The motion, which passed unanimously, contained 16 conditions of approval, including: the establishment of a homeowner’s association; that open space on the property, which is planned to be the majority of the eight-acre parcel, be conserved under easement; and that a six-foot tall non-transparent fence be built on either side of the proposed entrance driveway to the development on Hospital Hill Road to protect neighbors privacy, which has been one of the hottest subjects of debate throughout the hearing process.
Carol Flaton, who serves on the town’s Board of Finance, has submitted several letters advocating for the project since the hearing began in the spring. After the decision on Wednesday, she reiterated her stance: “I respect and understand the concerns that the neighbors have but this proposal is exactly what’s in the zoning regulations,” adding that she felt the plans align with the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development.
“It just kind of fits,” she said.
Residents in closer proximity to the development site were less pleased by P&Z’s verdict. “[P&Z] couldn’t care less about the neighbors,” said Pablo Cisilino outside Town Hall. Cisilino owns 71 Hospital Hill Road with his wife Silvina Leone, and both have been outspoken against the project since its application fell onto the Land Use Office’s desk. Cisilino said he would promptly speak to his attorney about possible avenues of recourse.
“We’re definitely going to do something,” he said as he stepped into his car.
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MILLBROOK — Extension of a walking trail as part of the planning for Bennett Park was discussed at the regular meeting of the Planning Board on Monday, Aug. 11.
Following discussion, a public hearing on the woodland trail extension was scheduled for the next regular Planning Board meeting on Monday, Sept. 8, to begin at 6 p.m. at Village Hall.
Reviewing the plans were Engineer Richard Rennia of Rennia Engineering and landscape architect Ryan Manning of R Design Landscape Architecture of Millbrook. The trail will enhance public use of the 35-acre property, once the campus of Bennett College.
A woodland trail as part of the site plan was previously approved as part of Phase One, but an amendment to extend the trail to an entrance off of Franklin Avenue brought the project back to the Planning Board for approval.
“The only modification is in how to make the walkway better,” Rennia said. Wood chips would be laid to define the 5-foot-wide trail, but the length of the connector to Franklin Avenue would be a harder compacted gravel.
Plans avoid tree removal, Rennia said. Manning added that the plans are using wood chips to have less impact on the existing healthy trees.
No lighting is proposed for the interior trail. Existing lighting at the entrance would be retained.
“The plan was to protect trees and carve as little as possible out of the land,” Rennia said, describing minimal grading that would be needed at the site.
Planning Board chairman Frank Redl asked about what would be done with the few trees that will be removed. Manning replied that the trees would be chipped and used to line the path.
Looking to the future, Manning felt that as occasional storms fell trees, five or six benches could be planned to be fashioned from the trees and placed along the path.
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