NORTH EAST — The future of the Millerton Elementary School (MES) was the issue at a joint village and town boards meeting on Thursday, March 1, at Town Hall. The village of Millerton and the town of North East are trying to decide if the former school building could provide for the needs of both municipalities without draining resources.On the table is a possible move of both town and village outposts to the 25,000-square-foot building on Route 22, just south of the main traffic light at the intersection of routes 22 and 44.The two boards ultimately voted to spend $9,100 on an energy audit by L&S Energy Services, a company certified by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), but village Trustee Yosh Schulman thought the move was hasty.“I thought there were more things that could be done before we spend that money,” Schulman said.The energy audit will seek to determine why the costs of running MES are what they are, from the electricity bill to the heating bill and the cost of cooling the building.“We didn’t want to make the call [of obtaining the building] by just sitting around and discussing it,” said Millerton Mayor John Scutieri. “We want to show our due diligence, and document what costs what. As much as people don’t want to see that old building sitting empty, we have to know if it’s too costly and if we have to walk away, or if the report comes back with great ideas of how we can utilize the building and prompt us to move forward.”The former Millerton Elementary School has not been used as a school since 2009, when the North East (Webutuck) Central School District closed the building and moved toward consolidating its campus on Haight Road. Since then the district has been trying to figure out exactly what to do with the building.But MES hasn’t been sitting vacant. The North East Community Center (NECC) uses a portion of the building for its after-school program, its summer camp as well as its GED program. There also have been talks about using the large space for artists’ lofts, galleries, recreation, businesses and more during the past few years.Both the town and village have considered using the 25,000-square foot building — with 10 large classrooms, a large auditorium with a stage, a ground floor with a gym and outdoor grounds — for a town and village hall. Both the mayor and town Supervisor John Merwin acknowledge if the town and village opt to use the space they must share it.“We could not do this by ourselves,” he said. “I really see this as a joint effort and think the rest of the board feels the same way.”Certainly the mayor does“Heavens, no. We could not do this without the town,” Scutieri said. “It really is going to be an expense even for both municipalities, which is the reason why we haven’t jumped on this in the last few years. And we need to be able to justify [the expense].”Which brings the boards back to the audit. NYSERDA is paying for 50 percent through an available grant; the town and the village are hoping to shoulder the remainder of the cost with the school district. If Webutuck does not chip in, the town and village will split the remainder of the $4,500, with the town paying 60 percent and the village 40 percent. The vote to do so was made at the March 1 meeting; only Schulman voted against the action. He explained that first and foremost there’s a question if the village even needs the extra space.“I would want a study on the current viable options for utilizing [what we have], as well as for utilizing [MES] and its extra space, including renting it out, selling excess space, etc., and what will happen to our current municipal buildings,” Schulman said, adding the study on MES should be paid for by the school district since it’s the district trying to market the building. “I thought that should be done first.”Additionally, Schulman said there’s no real pressure for the village to act right now. He also said there are positives about the current Village Hall, like its location, smack in the middle of Millerton, walkable for most village residents. He said the town, really, has more of an incentive to move. Merwin agreed, but said he thought the village would benefit as well.“There are benefits, like having both municipalities under one roof. We’d be working together a little more closely, and people could take care of their business at the same time,” he said. “There would be plenty of room and other organizations could use the space.“The negatives are that it’s an old building and there [are probably] financial constraints,” Merwin added. “We have to find out what paying for heat and maintenance would increase to, and that’s a concern with today’s budgetary problems with caps and so on.”One positive, the school district is willing to sell MES to the town and village for $1, as it believes taxpayers have already paid for the building and should not have to pay for it a second time around.Another issue that was addressed last week related to a letter sent to both the town and village from Webutuck Superintendent of Schools James Gratto in January, about the district possibly selling off a portion of the property.Merwin described the property as being “to the south of the school, by the old Grange building.” The letter from Gratto stated that the school district has “received a request to consider selling a section of the [MES] property.” He said the land in question is along the western and southern sections of the elementary school.“The [school] board is interested in your input regarding this proposed sale due to interest the village of Millerton has had previously in acquiring the parcel,” Gratto stated. The superintendent asked for the boards’ response as to whether the sale of the land would affect their interest in acquiring the building and property.The issue was discussed by both boards; they agreed it would make a difference; they wrote Gratto stating so.“We asked the school board not to sell it quite yet,” Scutieri said. “It wasn’t a desperation sale, so the school did agree if it had an impact on our decision it would hold off [on selling that portion of land], and they agreed.”
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Voters wait in a line that stretch out the door to receive their ballots at the NorthEast-Millerton Library Annex on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. Voting machines had recorded a total of more than 700 ballots cast in Millerton by 4:45 p.m.
Photo by Graham Corrigan
Roush won that contest with 598 votes to Walsh's 465, according to preliminary election results available on the Dutchess County Board of Elections website. That's a margin of nearly 13 percentage points. Walsh won reelection last year by just 8 votes in a contest with Town Board member Kevin Walsh.
Some voters said their decision was influenced by Walsh's handling of controversy earlier in the year following a report from the New Pine Plains Herald that the town had entered into an $80,000 agreement with surveillance company Flock Safety without the Town Board's approval.
“We need a change locally,” said Mary Woods, a resident in her 80s. “I didn’t like the camera stuff. And nationally, this is the most important midterm of my life.”
“I broke lines to go with Roush,” said a woman named Eileen who declined to share her last name. She said her vote was influenced by the Flock controversy, but her chief concern was the lack of affordable housing in the area.
Other Pine Plains residents were more concerned about finding future-looking candidates, regardless of ideology. “We want someone who wants what’s best for the community,” said Lisa Zayas. “Who will bring in businesses, improve water and sewage, and make Pine Plains alive again. I don’t care who does it — it’s not political.”
Poll watcher Jim Petrie — who also chairs the Pine Plains Democratic Committee — said attendance was steady throughout the day. “It was non-stop from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” he said, commending the poll workers charged with processing voters. “They’ve barely had a chance for coffee.”
Alexander secures County Legislature seat
At the county level, Legislator Eric Alexander defeated Republican challenger Stefanie Hubert to secure reelection. He will now serve out a full two-year term representing Amenia, Washington and the eastern portion of Pleasant Valley in the County Legislature. He secured his reelection with 54.6% of the vote, with 2,583 votes to challenger Stefanie Hubert’s 2,143.
Alexander, a Town of Washington resident, was first elected to the seat in an upset election last November. He defeated Republican incumbent and fellow Washington resident Deirdre Houston, who served in the position for eight years and was re-elected four times in a row.
In his first year, Alexander took an active role in the Flock camera controversy and encouraged EMS reforms. He’s also been an advocate for animal welfare, recently launching the county’s first hotline to report animal cruelty.
Alexander, Walsh and other candidates that were elected to two-year terms last November had their terms cut short by a year due to a state mandate. New York State required all local and municipal elections to align with the even-year midterm and presidential election schedules starting this year. Officials elected to four-year terms last November will have to campaign for reelection in the next presidential election in 2028.
Amenia voters fill out their ballots at Church of Immaculate Conception. Voters weighed in on a variety of high-profile positions, including governor and attorney general.Photo by Graham CorriganDemocrats' strong showing
During an election results watch party in Poughkeepsie, the next chapter started for Dutchess Democrats. “I don’t have to campaign tomorrow,” Alexander said with relief. He, along with County Legislator Chris Drago, North East Supervisor Chris Kennan, had gathered with fellow local candidates to watch the results come in. The Democratic wins piled up: Nakia Simmons won her County Legislature bid to represent Poughkeepsie, as did David Siegel in Lagrange.
One exception was in the State Assembly, where Republican Anil Beephan fought off a challenge from Democrat Brooklyn Talarico for District 105, which includes Amenia and Dover. Beephan won with 54.2% of the vote.
But Democrats' overall success in Dutchess County aligns with national trends. Preliminary results from the Dutchess County Board of Elections indicate voters across the county were more supportive of Democrats this year than in previous midterms. That sentiment appears to have affected results in the county for statewide races such as governor and attorney general.
Dutchess County has leaned Republican in statewide and national elections. In 2022, the last time Governor Kathy Hochul was on the ballot, she lost the county by more than 5,000 votes. This year, preliminary results show that Hochul came out on top among voters in Dutchess County. She secured 63,452 votes from Dutchess County voters this year, a more than 14% increase in votes from 2022 despite an overall drop in total ballots cast in that race by about 1,000 votes. Blakeman ended the night with 49,458 votes.
Eric Alexander, back right, watches voting results for his County Legislator race alongside his staff and fellow Dutchess Democrats. Alexander retained his seat, defeating challenger Stefanie Hubert by 440 votes. Photo by Graham Corrigan
Data from other races makes the trend more clear. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, State Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, all Democrats, out-performed their 2022 elections by thousands of votes in races that saw no significant shifts in overall turnout.
Local sentiment
Voters in Millerton were mixed in their support, and had differing views on what was important in this year's election. Many voters who spoke to The Millerton News as they left the polls said they were supporting Democratic candidates to counter the Trump administration, expressing dissatisfaction with his policies regarding immigration, the economy and conflict in Iran. Just as many focused their energy on New York State and dissatisfaction with Governor Hochul, calling attention to high utility bills and local affordability.
Donna Scott and her husband, John, said they didn't have any particular issues at the top of mind as they cast their ballots, except disapproval for President Trump. They said they felt it was important to vote for candidates at every level who would work to fight against the president's agenda.
"We don't like the way the administration is going, and we don't want to support him through the Senate and the House," John said. "Even our local representatives. I stand firmly on that."
Other voters, such as Audra Milano, took a different perspective. She said her decision was influenced by dissatisfaction with Hochul and high electricity and natural gas prices in the state. She said her daughter, who recently moved to Amsterdam, New York, after a stint living in Arkansas, has had to contend with $1,200 utility bills recently that she blamed on Hochul's administration.
"She wanted to come back closer to family," Milano said. "Now they're probably going to have to leave again, because they cannot afford their mortgage and that electric bill every month."
Amenia's polling location is Church of Immaculate Conception on Lavalle Road.Photo by Graham Corrigan
Many other races in northeast Dutchess County went uncontested — Stanford and Amenia did not have Republican candidates for Town Supervisor and Town Board. Amenia Town Supervisor Rosanna Hamm will now serve a full two-year term in the position after winning an uncontested election this year. She was first elected to that seat last year when she defeated Republican challenger Terrence McCauley.
Wassaic resident Damian Gutierrez will be taking a seat on Amenia's Town Board after an uncontested general election. Gutierrez previously served on Amenia's Town Board from 2016 to 2023. In Stanford, Town Supervisor Julia Descouteaux was reelected this year in an uncontested race.
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From then on, whenever our 2012 Mazda 3 has needed a tuneup, new brakes, tires or a new exhaust pipe, we’ve taken our car only to Dave. (It still purrs like a kitten when driven.) When you know diddly-squat about cars like I do but love the car you have so much you want it to last a couple of hundred thousand miles, you need a mechanic who knows his stuff, will be there for you and is fair and trustworthy. That’s Jones.
The second of four children, he was born not far away, in Sharon. When he was in grammar school, however, the family moved to Florida and stayed for five years. While only in his early teens, he started using what he simply calls his “knack for cars” to take engines apart and put them together again. “I made lots of mistakes,” he said.
It wasn’t until his family moved back to Connecticut and he was 16, a junior enrolled in a work/study program at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, that his car tinkering turned serious. Jones got a job working at Arnold’s Garage in Canaan, driving back and forth in what he considers his first “real car,” a ’69 Mustang. To this day, he still drives his second “real car” — a ’68 Dodge Dart that, when he was younger, he drove in drag races at Lebanon track.
After his stint at Arnold’s, Jones spent the next several years working at a succession of garages — Autosport in Sharon, Jack’s Auto Service in Wassaic and Hans Rocke in Lakeville. He then spent five years working with his father doing excavation but, realizing that was “a wrong turn,” returned to Autosport for another five years.
Jones also moonlighted, repairing friends’ cars in his yard in Salisbury. Growing tired of the buildup of cars on his property and, more importantly, realizing he’d be a lot better off financially if he opened his own shop, he took the plunge and purchased an abandoned gas station in downtown Lakeville in 1996, converting it into Lakeville Automotive.
Dave Jones, owner and chief mechanic at Lakeville Auto. Laurie Fendrich
He had to teach himself the business and bookkeeping side of things, which he says led to some mistakes that cost him considerable money. Eventually, he learned enough — along with his know-how with cars — to make his shop succeed.
Now, 30 years later and in his late 60s, Jones is at the point in his life where he’s “figuring out how to land the plane.” Not quite ready to retire, he’s deliberately slowing things down. For almost a year, he’s been without an assistant mechanic and, by choice, is working strictly on his own.
Several years ago, Dave bought a 25-foot pontoon boat. For the past eight years, he and his longtime partner, Edith Hanzy, have spent their summers moving lazily about Twin Lakes. In the fall, they have the boat wrapped up, and in March, they tow it south to Florida, where they’ve been renting the same house in Cape Coral for the past eight years. There, they moor the boat right outside their home and spend days and nights traversing the 400 miles of canals in the area, spotting manatees, beautiful birds and dolphins trailing them by day and gazing at the stars at night.
Jones reflects that it’s not as much fun working on cars as it was in his youth. Newer models have a plethora of electronic control modules (ECMs) and don’t require his kind of mind/eye/hand intelligence. He says — almost but not quite jokingly — that “Cars are evil.”
He doesn’t mean environmentally, although he understands the impact of internal combustion engines on our planet. He means the feeling that there are malevolent forces at work when you labor on a car. Only someone whose knowledge is built on years of experience working with his hands knows what it feels like for a bolt to suddenly, and for no reason, snap in half, thereby turning an hour-long repair job into a full day’s work.
Here’s to Jones taking a long, slow approach to landing that plane of his. Many of us want him to stay in Lakeville for a lot longer and not entertain any ideas about sailing away to Florida.
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