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.”