AMENIA — Charles and Charlene Mayville were recognized as Amenia’s Citizens of the Year at a brief ceremony in front of the town’s Christmas Tree at the annual Celebration of Lights on Sunday, Dec. 7.
Town Supervisor Leo Blackman, joined by Town Board members Rosanna Hamm and Nicole Ahearn and Town Clerk Dawn Marie Klingner, presented a certificate to the Mayvilles just after 4 p.m.
Blackman praised the couple for their dedication to community service and their volunteering spirit.
“They’re actually on their way to help another community right now,” Blackman said, explaining that the ceremony had to be moved up a half hour earlier to accommodate the recipients’ schedule.
Amenia residents Olivier and Augustine Agnez posing for a picture with Santa Claus at the Silo Bakery on Main Street in Amenia on Sunday, Dec. 7.Photo by Nathan Miller
“This is obviously a total surprise, and we’re really grateful that you’re thinking of us and what we do,” Charlene Mayville said. “I know there’s a lot of volunteers out there, and it’s just such a rewarding and fulfilling experience to do for others and to see happiness on their face when we’re done.”
The Citizen of the Year ceremony was part of Amenia’s annual holiday celebration. Downtown this year was free hot chocolate and cookies in front of the basketball court — where a fire pit warmed frigid hands and the Webutuck High School band played a collection of holiday tunes — Santa Claus sitting for pictures in the Silo Bakery on Main Street and arts and crafts at the Amenia Free Library.
Photo by Nathan Miller
Piper Sniffen, left, and her brother Xander color in an illustration of cats decorating a Christmas Tree at the Amenia Free Library's arts and crafts day during Amenia's holiday celebration on Sunday, Dec. 7.
The annual Millerton Fire Company Easter egg hunt returned to Eddie Collins Memorial Park on Saturday, April 4.
Tyler Dehoff discovers a piece of chocolate in a plastic egg at the zero to two-year-old egg hunt area.Nathan Miller
Families crowd into hay wagons for a parade down Main Street to the park before the egg hunt.Nathan Miller
Bob Stevens, right, enjoys the swinging sounds of country and western music during a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, with his son, Robert Stevens Jr., not pictured.
Stevens’s only son, 39-year-old Robert Stevens Jr., along with employees at the town garage and others in the community, remembered Stevens as a dedicated man with a singular passion for highway maintenance.
“It was an absolutely huge part of his life,” Robert said.
Robert Jr. said Stevens was as supportive as a father as he was dedicated to his work for the town. He recalled a week-long BMX biking trip to Camp Woodward in Pennsylvania that his father drove him to and from, making the round trip twice without a complaint.
“It didn’t matter how little or how far we were going,” Robert said. “If it was to support me, he was on. Always.”
Road crew foreman Shawn Morrison said that supportive nature extended to Stevens’s role as Highway Superintendent, where he prioritized the safety of workers and drivers above all else.
“He always said to me, ‘If you don’t feel safe doing it, then we’re not going to do it,’” Morrison said.
Morrison praised Stevens’s dedication to his post, saying he often worked long hours and weekends out of a love for the job. Winter was a favorite season, as Morrison said he was obsessive about clearing the town’s roads during snowstorms.
“A lot of people had nicknames out there for him — calling him ‘Bare-road Bob,’” Morrison said. “He was anal about his roads in the winter.”
Stevens rarely missed a day of work, for sickness or for pleasure, road crew employees and Town Supervisor Chris Kennan said. Joshua Schultz, a road crew member and Stevens’s godson, said he could remember one notable absence. “He took his son to Nashville,” Schultz said.
Photo providedBob Stevens, right, and his son, Robert Stevens Jr., pose for a photograph together. Robert remembered his father as a caring and supportive man following his death on Monday, March 30.Photo provided
Robert Jr. said he and his father traveled twice to Nashville, Tennessee — among the few trips they took together — but a third visit was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other travel opportunities often depended on Stevens’s work at the town garage. “If it was wintertime, he’s here,” Robert said. “He’s taking care of the town.”
Sickness didn’t keep Stevens at home either. Morrison said he would work from his well-known orange pickup truck to keep from spreading colds to people.
The orange pick-up truck was a fixture around town, Supervisor Chris Kennan said. Stevens was often spotted inspecting roads across town in the recognizable truck, when it wasn’t parked at the town garage while he worked in his office.
Kennan said the town will begin a search for a new Highway Superintendent, with a committee expected to form at the Thursday, April 9, Town board meeting. He also expects the board to install a plaque at the town garage on Route 22 honoring Stevens’s service.
Kennan proposed the plaque at a special meeting of the Town Board on April 1, saying a modest display would respect Stevens’s private nature.
“I’m excited that we’re going to put a plaque on that building,” Kennan said. “It’s appropriate that there be some reflection of what he put into it.”
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