Latest News
A Millerton Fire Company truck pulling Santa and his helpers turning on Traver Place to bring gifts to residents on Saturday, Dec. 14.
MILLERTON — On Saturday, Dec. 14, the Millerton Fire Company spread holiday cheer with its fourth annual Santa Run.
The run, which included Highland Drive, Sharon Road, Route 22 and more featured the Fire Department who escorted Santa to help drop off gifts to about 80 children living in the Village of Millerton or the Town of North East.
“The goal of the Santa Run now is to keep the holiday spirit within our town and village [and] with all of the children that live within the town and village. We like to reach out as the fire department to our townspeople and village taxpayers, to give something back,” Kelly Rogers, a fire department member, said, “They donate to us all year long, so we like to give back to the community as well. So giving the kids a gift from Santa is just magical.”
The concept of the Santa Run began as a result of the pandemic. “We started it because of COVID,” said Rogers. “We used to gather back after the Parade of Lights on Black Friday night. We would gather back at the firehouse, all of the restaurants in town would donate food to us, and then we would all have food with Santa, and the kids could wait in line and see Santa,” Rogers said, “But due to COVID, we had to discontinue that.”
While the Santa Run is made in mid-December, it actually begins at the end of October. On Halloween night, young people who live in the community who trick or treat at the firehouse are given a letter to fill out and return to the Santa Mailbox. The mailbox sits outside the fire department’s building starting Nov. 1, waiting to receive as many letters from children as possible. In the letter, each child is supposed to tell Santa what they want for Christmas.
“All the volunteers come together and drive all of the fire trucks in a parade, and we bring Santa to all the addresses that we have of the kids that wrote letters,” said Rogers, “We bring Santa to all their houses. They get to get a picture with Santa, and Santa gives them a gift.”
The Santa Run began at 10:00 in the morning and ran until 3:30 p.m., ensuring each child who turned in a letter received their gift from Santa.
MILLERTON — Krista A. Briggs has joined The News as Managing Editor.
Briggs, who lives in Cold Spring, is a journalist with a broad background that ranges from news and feature writing to managing transcription and translation projects for legal and municipal clients.
Briggs graduated from Long Island University — Post with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, and holds a Master of Science in Special Education from Dowling College.
The News is pleased to welcome Briggs, which has been focused on building newsroom strength since Covid days.
“I’m very pleased to have joined the creative and dedicated staff at the Millerton News,” said Briggs. “I’m really looking forward to partnering with the Millerton community and its surrounding areas to produce a newspaper we can all be proud to call our own.”
James H. Clark, chief executive officer and publisher of LJMN Media, the nonprofit that publishes The Millerton News and The Lakeville Journal, said, “Krista is a welcome addition to our growing newsroom, particularly at this point where we seek to broaden and deepen coverage of our communities.”
The Millerton News, which last year reopened its office at 16 Century Boulevard in Millerton, is available by mail, at newstands throughout the region, and online at www.millertonnews.com.
Amenia takes tea
Growing in popularity, the monthly meeting of the Amenia Library Tea Society on Saturday, Dec. 14, attracted participants eager to sample Indian teas, traditional dishes and culture. The society meets monthly on the second Saturday at noon. The January meeting will feature teas and treats from Africa, including a purple tea, said to be delicious.
MILLERTON — During a board meeting on Thursday, Dec. 12, the North East Town Board discussed the new emergency medical service contract with Northern Dutchess Paramedics, building department fee schedule changes, and a dispute between neighbors.
With respect to emergency services, the Town of North East, Dover and Amenia will be entering into a new three-year contract with EMS provider Northern Dutchess Paramedics. The three towns previously had a five-year legal agreement with the same provider that will expire on Tuesday, Dec. 31.
As part of the agreement, the Town of North East will receive ambulance services starting at $511,558 for 2025. The cost will increase to $696,345 for 2026, and will rise to $746,345 by 2027. In the previous contract Northern Dutchess Paramedics had increased their service fees by 2% each year.
While costs are concerning, the length of the contract is flexible. “We can terminate it at any time,” said Warren Replansky, the town’s attorney. “We’re not bound for the increases for next year and the year after. We’re hoping that something will happen in the interim, if there’s some relief. It’s a real problem that all municipalities are suffering from … the cost of ambulance service to communities has skyrocketed, part of it due to COVID, part of it due to inflation.”
The town negotiated with Northern Dutchess Paramedics over the originally stated cost of services, which would have started at $646,345 and increased its budget by 71% compared to the EMS budget during 2024.
“I certainly don’t want to be the one board member to say we won’t have an ambulance service because you just don’t want that to happen,” said Councilman Ralph Fedele, who pointed out North East’s unique needs. “A city like Poughkeepsie that has a high population and a lot of turnover, they don’t have the problems that we have,” he said. “The state has got to realize that, and there has to be some help coming. There has to be because it isn’t fair for a town like ours to start taking money out of our reserves.”
Another item discussed during the meeting centered on the approval of changes to the Town of North East building department fee schedule, which would have been effective beginning Wednesday, Jan. 1. It has been tabled until the next town board meeting.
“I don’t agree with increasing the burden of any resident to increase the fee of $25 to $60 because, personally, I’d like to encourage folks to make improvements or to build and there’s things in this about improvements to food trucks, and we don’t have food trucks in the town of North East,” said councilwoman Megan Winkler, “For those reasons, at this moment in time, I can’t support an increase.”
Two concerned residents on Cooper Road also attended the meeting with concerns regarding an illegal dwelling in the area during the public comment portion of the meeting. In addition to their comments, a brief video was played which apparently recorded an altercation with some of the involved parties.
