Millerton joins Habitat for Humanity on community recycling

MILLERTON — Village of Millerton Mayor Jenn Najdek met with Habitat for Humanity to discuss plans for a community recycling area.

“Every year, Habitat for Humanity likes to come in and do a volunteer-based project in the municipality where they are building a habitat house,” Najdek said at a Village Trustee meeting held on Thursday, Aug. 8. “That can actually get done and will be funded by them.”

The idea is to start with three concrete retaining blocks to store recyclings of metal, wood chips, and compost, which are planned to be located by the highway department behind the bank.

“The other decision the board would have to make is laying out what it would look like,” Najdek said. “If somebody wants a bucket of wood chips versus somebody that wants to load the back of their truck with wood chips. Is there a cost associated with it? Is it village versus town versus non-residents?”

The only material people can drop off at the recycling location is metal after calling the highway department to confirm they are allowed to leave it. The wood chips would be collected through pickups to prevent people from dropping off more than can be handled.

“They do metal recycling — the Village of Red Hook — and when I looked into it, I think they get roughly about $7,500 a year,” Najdek said. “It goes back into the highway department, which helps for equipment or maintenance.”

Millerton’s six-week summer camp program ended on Aug. 9.

The camp saw an average of 30 campers daily, the highest being 40 and the lowest 19 when most families took their vacation.

The kids got pizza and ice cream to celebrate the final day of camp. Crystal McCarthy, parks and recreation director, said, “We were going to do some type of cookout, but because of the rain we are going to do pizza.”

McCarthy plans to contact the parents who participated in the program to receive feedback on what could be improved for future summer camps.

“I am going to send out an email to all the parents and see if we can get reviews back from them and move forward,” McCarthy said. “We have our own things we would like to improve. However, getting feedback is going to be very important for next year.”

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less