Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Letters to the Editor - The Millerton News - 5-27-21

Thank you, Millbrook first responders

This past Saturday, around 8:30 a.m., a blue-sky clear sunny day, flowers-blooming and birds-chirping, as I proceeded in to the intersection of Route 82 South across Route 343, the front end of my Rav4 was sheared off and the vehicle totaled by a driver who blew through a red light at that intersection.

I want to express my deep appreciation to Officer DelGiudice of the Millbrook PD, to the Millbrook Fire Department personnel and to Darius Robustelli of Northern Dutchess Paramedics, all of whom responded promptly to the scene and who exhibited calm and kind professionalism.

God Bless and Thank Goodness for our wonderful First Responders and to our Municipalities (and their taxpayers) who support them! 

Kenneth B. Liegner

Millerton

 

Vote Amenia Strong and your taxes will go up

A local real estate broker said to me the other day, “If your house (which I bought for $35,000 40 years ago) sold for $1 million tomorrow, the assessor would assess it for the new buyer at $1 million.

Why? Because real estate assessments are based on Fair Market Value, and Fair Market Value is the price a willing buyer pays a willing seller in an open market.

According to a New York Times March 5, 2015, Real Estate article, the houses at Silo Ridge will be “priced at an average of $5 million but are going up to more than $10 million.”

I spoke in favor of Silo Ridge then at the Planning Board because I knew the real estate assessments and taxes for the properties developed there would be good for Amenia’s tax base. Now, the residents of Silo Ridge object to their properties being valued at Fair Market Value — the price they paid for them.

What’s fair is fair. What you paid for your new home is what it’s worth: It’s its Fair Market Value. And that is what a fair and objective assessor should value it at. I think New York State Case Law will support this longstanding precedent.

If the candidates for “Amenia Strong,” all associated apparently with Silo Ridge, win the Republican Primary and then defeat the Democrat slate in the General Election, you can be sure they will disagree with a Fair Market Value assessment. 

If they have their way, their assessments (and real estates taxes) will go down, and your assessment and taxes will go up.

Daniel F. Brown

Amenia

 

The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Millerton News and The News does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Latest News

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notice

Notice of Formation of Kaits Kleaning LLC. Art. Of Org. filed with SSNY on 05-22-2026. Office Lo-cation: Dutchess county. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 24 Attlebury Hill Road, Standfordville NY 12581.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tenmile Distillery is making history the old-fashioned way

Cheers! The Revolutionary Whisky Series at Ten Mile Distillery, each named for a significant battle of the American Revolution, celebrates America at 250.

D.H. Callahan

In December 2024, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially established the Standard of Identity for American Single Malt Whisky. It was the first new classification in more than half a century, creating new possibilities for American distillers. One of the distilleries taking advantage of this new landscape is Wassaic’s Tenmile Distillery. It is well positioned to make history because Tenmile has always honored traditional whiskey-making practices.

Single malts are often associated with Scotch whisky. Perhaps that’s why, years before the new standard was adopted, Tenmile hired Shane Fraser, a Scottish master distiller with 30 years of experience at some of Scotland’s most prestigious distilleries. Fraser began designing the distillery from the ground up. Alongside owner and general manager Joel LeVangia, he emphasized time-honored traditions, favoring hands-on craftsmanship over the increasingly automated methods used by larger producers. When it comes to making the best whisky possible, Tenmile believes in learning from the past. That philosophy extends beyond the distilling process.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

Belinda Sinclair

Dean Chamberlain
Sinclair’s show explores the ways women have been practicing forms of magic for centuries, and there is plenty of history to tell.

Belinda Sinclair is the kind of magician who impresses people who don’t like magic. Her tricks are mind-boggling. Her stories are captivating. And if she picks you to write your name on a card, get ready to be wowed. Repeat attendees of her shows, of which there are many, take almost as much delight in watching new jaws drop as they do in seeing an illusion reach its astonishing conclusion.

Since the summer of 2025, Sinclair has been baffling local audiences at the Hughes Memorial Library in West Cornwall, but her magical run comes to a close at the end of August.

Keep ReadingShow less

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

Renée Fleming, Andris Nelsons and Thomas Hampson.

Hilary Scott

On Friday, July 17 at 8 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, two of the greatest American voices of their generation, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson, join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance of excerpts from John Adams’ groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China.” The piece, performed earlier this year in Boston and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, is a highlight of a program that also includes “Meditations on Grace” (2024) by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon, and the melodic and technically demanding Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.

Fleming is internationally celebrated for her vocal and dramatic artistry, as well as for her advocacy for the powerful impact of the creative arts in health. Hampson has long been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time and has received countless international honors for his singular artistry and cultural leadership. Both performed in “Nixon in China” earlier this year at the Paris Opera under the baton of Kent Nagano.

Keep ReadingShow less
Local playwright revisits Revolutionary moment in “Rebel Town”

The cast and crew of “Rebeltown: The Musical.”

Jack Sheedy

John Alan Segalla was working in Boston a few years ago, giving historic tours at the site of the Boston Tea Party. Now, as America celebrates 250 years as a nation, the Canaan native is about to debut a new version of his original musical, “Rebel Town,” inspired largely by the Boston Tea Party, the protest that helped launch the American Revolution.

“It wasn’t until I got to Boston and learned the Tea Party story that I fell in love with this moment in history, and I saw the story as wildly compelling and very important, and really a story that was very misunderstood, mistaught in schools,” Segalla said at a recent rehearsal in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, ahead of the show’s July 10 opening.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.