Letters to the Editor - The Millerton News - 7-7-22

Primary care is Nuvance’s priority

As the chair of Primary Care at Nuvance Health, I work closely with Sharon Hospital’s leaders and community physicians to expand access to primary care across Sharon Hospital’s service area. This work is essential to creating a healthier community, but it also poses many challenges, such as recruiting and retaining practitioners to our many types of medical settings, especially in rural health environments. Today’s critical workforce shortage has further increased the challenges we face.

In a rural market like ours, we must be creative to attract new talent to the area to build and maintain a strong primary care infrastructure for the future. Please know we are leaving no stone un-turned in our efforts.

In addition, we are partnering with our region’s public officials to pursue a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designation to lower the barriers we currently experience in our recruitment efforts. Together with our current medical professionals and Sharon Hospital’s community board, we continue to identify strategies for attracting new clinicians to the area and create a supportive and welcoming environment upon their arrival.

In fact, our local recruitment committee — led by our board of directors — spearheaded the newly released Sharon Hospital recruitment video, which featured local actors and trusted Sharon Hospital physicians discussing what they love about this community hospital and our region.

I am happy to share that through these myriad efforts, we have hired three new primary care professionals in the last year.

The new members of our team are Tamar Wilms and Karen Arel, nurse practitioners, and most recently, a Harvard Medical School-educated physician who will join the Sharon Hospital team in September as a primary care clinician.

These new clinicians join a team of professionals who have been providing top-notch primary care to residents across Sharon Hospital’s service area for many years.

As we welcome new primary care clinicians and continue recruitment, we appreciate the continued dedication of our long-time teammates. We are working hard to ensure they are supported in serving this community.

We will continue to get creative in attracting new clinicians so we can transform care to best support the needs of our community into the future. We look forward to continuing to partner with Sharon Hospital’s board, community physicians and entire community in this important work.

Cornelius Ferreira, MD

Chair, Primary Care at Nuvance Health

Brookfield, Conn.

Sartori says ‘thanks’ to Millerton voters

Over the last four years of being on the Village Board, I have learned that nothing in municipal government is simple. Instead, there is a steep learning curve with constant challenges. However, it is gratifying when the board’s goals are accomplished, and projects fall into place.

Also, there is never just one thing happening or one issue to resolve in our thriving Village. There are several projects in the works and daily decisions to consider. I am working to make the Village as effective and efficient as possible so the taxpayers feel confident that their money is spent wisely to benefit of the whole community.

I wish to extend my sincere thanks to the Village voters for reelecting me to the Board of Trustees for a third term. I care deeply about the community that we live in, and I’m doing my best to make it a better place to live and work.

Alicia Sartori

Deputy Mayor

Millerton

In war and in peace, in conflict and in comfort

The Amenia and Dutchess County Historical Societies are pleased to present “In War and Peace, In Conflict and Comfort: The Remarkable Bockée Family.”

This program, scheduled for Saturday, July 16, at 2 p.m., at The Smithfield Presbyterian Church, will reveal the outstanding contributions of several generations of Bockées and will display many of the Bockée family treasures that have been given to both societies for this purpose.

Dutchess County Historical Society (DCHS) Executive Director Bill Jeffway and Archivist Melodye Moore will join me in presenting this chapter of local and county history. Several descendants of the Bockée family plan to attend the special event.

Nancy Link Greer, a Bockée descendant now living in Millbrook, recently contributed ancient documents from the 1700s, family photos from many generations and dozens of hand-written journals from the 1800s to the Amenia Historical Society. A beautiful quilt, made in 1883 as a tribute to the beloved headmistress of the Bockée School in Poughkeepsie, was given to the DCHS.

Another Bockée descendant, Jean Oakley Fisher, contributed to the DCHS two Bockée portraits from the early 1800s and a Civil War surgeon’s chest that had been preserved by the family over the years.

The Bockée men and women of northeastern Dutchess County deserve to be remembered for their involvement in local and state government and for their service in times of war and peace, through education, medicine and law.

One prominent member of the family, Jacob Bockée, served in the Revolutionary War and then later became a member of the New York State Assembly. While there in Albany, he proposed a bill for the abolition of slavery in the state, which became the model for the law enacted in 1799.

The event on July 16 is open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

Betsy Strauss

Vice president,
genealogist and archivist of the Amenia Historical
Society and Dutchess County Historical Society
Board Member

Amenia