Martha Wendt Nesbitt
Latest News
Fair play
Aug 27, 2025
Maddie Sartori of Millerton and her dog, Millie, competing in the Dock Dogs canine aquatic contest at the Dutchess County Fair in Rhinebeck, New York, on Sunday, Aug. 24.
Photo by Olivia Valentine
This year’s county fair welcomed visitors for six days of livestock shows, fried food and carnival rides from Tuesday, Aug. 19 to Sunday, Aug. 24.Photo by Olivia Valentine
Elm Drive Elementary School in Millbrook.
Archive photo
MILLBROOK — Since voters approved planned construction work throughout the Central School District, the district board decided on a phased approach to the work in order to move ahead with the most pressing needs.
A statement from Elliot Garcia, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Personnel, outlined the two phases in three parts and gave a timeline for completion.
“The process is detailed and lengthy, but necessary to be certain that the work is done properly,” Garcia said, adding that the start of actual construction work is still months away.
The project is currently in the Schematic Design Phase, Garcia explained, a step when all of the project plans are drawn, including engineering, architectural design and equipment specifications. Part of this design phase is to create a detailed assessment of current conditions such as precise measuring of each window slated for replacement.
Once the detailed plan drawings are completed, they need to be submitted to the state’s Education Department for review and to make any modifications to meet state law and building codes. It will take time to complete the back-and-forth negotiation of those findings before the phased project can go out for bid, Garcia said.
As bids are received, they will be opened publicly and reviewed by district administration and then passed on to the Board of Education for awarding of contracts. Construction will begin soon after, to be scheduled by the contractors.
The overall project has been broken into three phases to allow the most pressing repair work, involving less design work, to progress more swiftly through the process, Garcia explained. An example is the work that is critically needed at the Middle School.
Design work on the two parts of Phase One is to be done first. The design of the Middle School roof replacement, HVAC replacement and Energy Performance began in June, Garcia reported. Plans for that aspect are projected to be submitted to the state Education Department in March 2026. Under that schedule, work might be expected to occur over two summers, 2027 and 2028, when school is not in session.
The other Phase One work will involve the Middle School accessibility renovations and window replacement, with work projected to occur over a nine-month period between July 2026 and May 2027.
The design of Phase Two — Elm Drive and Alden Place — would be slated to begin in June 2026 with plans submitted to the state by spring 2027 and construction projected to occur in summer 2027 aiming for completion in summer 2028.
Overall, the entire project will likely take a minimum of three years to complete, Garcia said of the timeline.
“These much-needed improvements to our buildings will help us better build our students for their futures, and we can only do so thanks to the incredible support we received from our voters,” Garcia said.
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Total unclaimed funds account owners estimated from the complete list of currently active unclaimed funds accounts released to the Millerton News by the Office of the New York State Comptroller
Chart by Nathan Miller
The New York Office of the Comptroller currently holds about $70 million in “unclaimed funds” belonging to Dutchess County residents.
Unclaimed funds are a collection of money that has “been lost or forgotten over time, including old bank accounts, uncashed checks, stock certificates, and unused gift cards,” according to the Office of the State Comptroller’s website.
Reporting from the nonprofit newsroom New York Focus in June revealed the comptroller has over $20 billion in total unclaimed funds, the largest collection of lost property in the nation.
The Millerton News obtained the current list of unclaimed fund accounts that included names and addresses of over 8,000 residents of northeast Dutchess County. That’s a little over two in every five people in the region.
All numbers and figures derived from this list are only estimates due to inconsistencies in the addresses kept in records.
Millbrook addresses comprised the largest portion of account owners, numbering over 3,000.
Millerton addresses are associated with 1,500 account owners and Amenia addresses with 1,200.
Stanford and Pine Plains also logged about 1,100 accounts each.
For northeast Dutchess County account owners, 10% of the money owed comes from uncashed New York State-issued checks.
Each record in the list includes a name for the account holder and the unique account number, a recorded reporter for the lost funds, a description of the lost funds and the year the funds were reported. The complete list of funds held by the state comptroller contains over 12 million records from 1985 to 2025.
The state comptroller does not publicly release the amount of money held in each account. Amounts could range from as little as a single cent to hundreds of dollars.
The comptroller’s website allows for a search of the list to initiate the claiming process.
Names of individuals, businesses and government organizations are varied on the list. The Village of Millerton has eight account numbers with outstanding unclaimed property from outstanding checks to vendors, New York State uncashed checks and other reported unclaimed property types.
According to the list, the Town of North East has an outstanding unclaimed property account dating back to 1997. The funds were reported by Pitney Bowes Inc. and recorded as relating to outstanding checks issued to vendors.
The village and town clerks expressed surprise at the reported unclaimed funds when the News stopped by their offices on Monday, Aug. 25, but vowed to start filing claims.
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The Northern Dutchess Paramedics station on Route 22 south of the Village of Millerton.
Photo by Aly Morrissey
MILLERTON – North East Supervisor Chris Kennan is focused on improving the financial challenges that rural communities face in maintaining emergency medical services.
He and other elected officials are urging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to sign a bill that recently passed both the Senate and Assembly but remains unsigned. The legislation would exempt EMS services from the state’s property tax cap, giving local governments more flexibility to manage costs and sustain their EMS programs.
According to the legislative justification for the bill, known formally as Senate S1515 and Assembly A2177A, “Many communities across New York State are struggling with providing emergency medical services to their residents for a number of reasons including rising costs, low reimbursement rates, and the lack of trained personnel.”
In an interview with The News, Supervisor Kennan highlighted the fiscal strain EMS places on the town’s budget. “I’ve reached out to everyone,” he said of his efforts to advocate for the bill. “I’m waving the flag as vigorously as I can.”
On May 27, the New York State Association of Towns released a memorandum supporting the bill, stating, “NYAOT strongly supports this measure that would remove EMS services from the real property tax cap, and therefore allow local municipalities to maintain, expand and better support their local EMS services.”
Even with its statewide benefits, the bill carries no fiscal impact for state or local governments, making it a practical solution despite being held up in legislative limbo. While the bill would significantly ease budget pressure, it represents only one step toward addressing EMS challenges in Millerton.
The town’s annual contract with Northern Dutchess Paramedics, which it shares with Amenia and Dover, exceeds half a million dollars in 2025 and is expected to spike above $700,000 next year. Kennan said one reason the cost is so high is because NDP is only partially reimbursed by those who use its services, and with “less than a call a day,” much of the financial burden falls on the town and taxpayers.
Meanwhile, EMS response disparities remain a critical issue in Dutchess County. In a June 13 open letter to County Executive Sue Serino, members of the Democratic Caucus of the Dutchess County Legislature acknowledged the launch of supplemental EMS services but criticized the effort’s effectiveness, calling for a more aggressive, long-term strategy.
“We believe the current approach remains a temporary solution — and one that still falls short of delivering equitable results across the entire county,” the letter states. It also references data showing response times in many rural towns remain well above acceptable targets. “This is not just a data point; it is a serious public safety issue affecting thousands of Dutchess County residents.”
Recent second quarter data further highlights these concerns, showing an ongoing imbalance in supplemental EMS response between rural and urban areas. It reveals that Region 5, which includes North East, Millerton, Amenia and Dover, almost never received supplemental EMS services provided by the county. Throughout all of Q2, supplemental EMS was dispatched only one time in Amenia but was canceled en route after interception by a closer agency.
The data also highlights the financial and performance disparities facing Region 5. Amenia and North East are among the highest spenders in Dutchess County, paying over $167 and $172 per person respectively for EMS coverage, more than three times what Dover spends. Despite that investment, response times for Region 5’s “Priority 1” calls, defined as potentially life-threatening emergencies, are the worst in the county with only 40% of calls responded to within the recognized standard of nine minutes or less. In contrast, Region 6, which includes the City of Poughkeepsie and the Town of Poughkeepsie, saw 84% of Priority 1 calls in 9 minutes or less.
While North East shows relatively better performance with no calls exceeding 15 minutes, Amenia and Dover see significantly more delays. Rural towns are paying high costs for EMS, yet still experiencing the slowest emergency response times in Dutchess County.
Asked what he would like to see from the County officials, North East Supervisor Chris Kennan responded, “I’d like to see them provide an additional ambulance over here so we could reduce the demand on NDP and our taxpayers.”
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