Part III
HARLEM VALLEY — Last week readers of The Millerton News caught up with stories from August and September of 2020, as many struggled with the challenges of a difficult year that included not only the coronavirus pandemic and a faltering economy but closed schools and months of quarantine. In this week’s edition, the year in review wraps up with a last look at the headlines between the months of October through December.
October
On Thursday, Oct. 8, the North East Town Board approved a new two-year police contract with the village of Millerton, marking the first time the two municipalities opted for a two-year rather than a three-year contract.
That same day, the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office responded to a two-car fatal crash on Route 22 in Amenia that resulted in the tragic death of a 2-year-old girl. The crash involved a 2018 Nissan Sentra operated by Millerton resident Reneisha Johnson who was reportedly struck by a 2000 Ford Explorer operated by Amenia resident Forrest McBreairt. Johnson’s young daughter, Ellie Dunlop, was a passenger in the Sentra. Johnson and Ellie were initially transported to Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie, and then flown to Westchester Medical Center, where sadly, Ellie later passed away.
Pine Plains Pharmacy owner Nasir Mahmood was recognized by the National Community Pharmacists Association for his dedication to his work with the 2020 Calvin J. Anthony Lifetime Achievement Award.
As local, county, state and national candidates campaigned for office during the 2020 elections, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that Millbrook’s Emma Rosi, a longtime scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, had been appointed to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board.
November
Eager to participate in the process, voters swarmed to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to vote in the 2020 elections. Many had voted early through mail-in or absentee voting. After days spent waiting in anxious anticipation for early voting and absentee ballots to be tallied from across the nation, voters celebrated the historic election of former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden as the 46th president over incumbent Donald Trump, and Biden’s running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, as the first Black-South Asian female vice president.
Despite COVID-19, the Pine Plains Free Library and The Little Nine Partners Historical Society devised a way to host its annual Evergreen Cemetery Tours, both virtually and in-person. The in-person tours were re-scheduled due to inclement weather, but then enjoyed by the community without a hitch.
While local communities organized their respective Veterans Day celebrations to honor those who have served in this nation’s military, local Town Boards adopted their municipal budgets for the 2021 fiscal year.
More than 40 years after it was purchased by the husband and wife team consisting of the late Robert and Carol Sadlon, The Millerton Moviehouse was put up for sale by Carol, who announced she is seeking “new stewards” to lead and guide the theater’s growth and evolution into the future.
Meanwhile, the Harlem Valley Rail Trail opened its new northbound extension, which stretches from Main Street in Millerton to Under Mountain Road in Ancram.
One month after officially opening under a hybrid learning model, the North East (Webutuck) Central School District reported its first case of COVID-19 at Eugene Brooks Intermediate School on Friday, Nov. 6, prompting administrators to close all school buildings and shift to a full remote learning model. A second case of COVID-19 was reported at Webutuck Elementary School on Monday, Nov. 9, and as more coronavirus cases came to light, the district postponed its reopening plans; students and staff didn’t return to campus until Monday, Nov. 30.
The village of Millbrook reflected on the impact that “Living Millbrook” magazine co-founder and publisher Rona Boyer had on the community after her passing on Friday, Nov. 27, from lung and kidney issues at the age of 74.
December
The debate over whether face masks stop the spread of COVID-19 loomed close to home as readers reacted to an article and editorial published in The Millerton News on Thursday, Dec. 10, followed up with more coverage on Dec. 17 and Dec. 24, regarding the Talk of the Towne Deli’s stance against the state mask mandate, a fine issued by the health department to the deli for violating the mandate, as well as a verbal attack on one customer at the deli by another. The deli was later identified as one of many businesses whose signs was damaged by vandals, along with the NorthEast-Millerton Library, the Salisbury Bank & Trust and other businesses on Main Street.
The town of North East and the village of Millerton rejoiced as State Assemblymember Didi Barrett (D-106) helped secure a loan worth half a million dollars for building their shared highway garage on Route 22.
The Trevor Zoo at Millbrook School was awarded a $19,000 matching Recovery Challenge Grant to build a new red wolf breading facility.
On Monday, Dec. 14, the Dutchess County Police Reform and Modernization Collaborative released a comprehensive report on police reform as a guide for Dutchess County municipalities to create their own police reform plans. The report was based on months of meetings among police professionals and public forums, which gave community members the chance to offer input.
Construction at the Amenia Free Library continues for its long awaited expansion project, with an opening date for the new addition scheduled for Wednesday, June 30, 2021.
In Pine Plains, the Willow Roots food pantry and The Stissing House joined forces to cook and distrubute meals for local families during the pantry’s annual Christmas Party on Sunday, Dec. 20, bringing some much needed cheer to those in need during the holiday season.
Having dedicated seven years of community service as the adult program director at the Millbrook Library, Diana Bontecou retired on Dec. 31. The community expressed its thanks for her years of service.
Sabrina Jaar Marzouka led the Oct. 2 Department of Community and Family Services Forum.
POUGHKEEPSIE — On the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 2, the Dutchess County Department of Community and Family Services (DCFS) held an open forum at the Department of Mental Health to discuss a five-year Child and Family Services (CFS) Plan.
Fiscal and staffing challenges aside, the focus of DCFS remains on refining the five-year plan, meeting its targets and serving the county’s most vulnerable residents, many of whom depend on these supports simply to survive.
The forum, which provided residents with detailed information on county services and programs for the domestic, physical and emotional wellbeing of children and adults in the county, also gave attendees the opportunity to weigh in on the plan, which runs from 2024 through 2029.
Dutchess County is obliged to provide a plan detailing social services offerings to New York State every five years, DCFS Commissioner Sabrina Jaar Marzouka said. The county works in conjunction with the state to identify programs for further development and improvement.
“We do not choose our goals,” Marzouka said. “They are prescribed by the state. So they give us a handful to choose from, based on what we determine to be our needs and from our data.”
The county can adjust goals as needed but must meet state requirements. These goals and their associated strategies are determined by research, data, and stakeholder meetings with companies, agencies, and individuals.
While DCFS team members tackled various components of the proposal’s planning stages, the end-result is expected to be a cohesive plan created by the state, county, and residents following public comment.
While programs such as Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), fall under the DCFS umbrella, the public session focused on three specific offerings — Child Protective Services, Preventive Services, and Adult Services.
Child Protective Services (CPS) seeks to ensure the safety of vulnerable children from suspected abuse, neglect or trafficking of minors. If confirmed, CPS may remove a child from the home. Its preference is for placement with relatives as opposed to foster care provided by strangers to maintain familial, environmental, and cultural ties.
“You don’t want the child to lose that connection,” Marzouka said. “Because that is their world.”
To prevent family ties from being cut, even temporarily, Preventive Services strives to strengthen affected families through domestic monitoring, motivational interviews, parental training/retraining, and family team meetings — strategies designed to expedite foster care discharge or circumvent foster care altogether.
Adult Services supports people in need of supervision (PINS) with a goal of preserving adult dignity. Currently, there are 30 adult guardian cases overseen by DCFS, a number which continues to climb.
Obstacles to the continuity of certain services remain.
Funding is a constant challenge. For example, childcare programs, the eligibility for which now includes working- and middle-class families, may run dry by 2025 unless the state provides relief.
Caseworker shortages present yet another challenge. To this end, the state has eased civil service requirements for positions such as social workers and case managers via NY HELPS, a program which may or may not be temporary.
According to Dutchess County’s Human Resources Commissioner Steven Rector, while specific data on caseworker shortages hasn’t been made available to his department yet, he concurs with Marzouka, who conveyed staff retention concerns.
“[These] titles are considered challenging to recruit for [and] with higher than average turnover,” Rector said.
On a cloudy Wednesday at the start of October, my girlfriend, Taylor, and I decided to enjoy the autumn afternoon by getting off our laptops and into the woods for some much needed movement. Having just moved to Norfolk as a new reporter for the Lakeville Journal, I was on the hunt for panoramic views of the landscape I now call home, accessible with the hour and a half of daylight left to us. Haystack Tower it was.
I’m not entirely unfamiliar with the landscapes of the Northwest Corner: I visited family and friends in the region as a child and would drive up on high school joyrides from my home in Westchester County. But calling somewhere home brings new meaning to a place, and I was eager to see a familiar view with a new sense of belonging.
To extend the walk a bit, we chose the yellow trail loop, starting from the bottom of the road leading up the hill off North Street. Our journey began on a neatly mowed path through a gently sloping meadow, with stands of purple-white New England asters poking out from a mosaic of green and red leaves and grasses on either side of the trail.
Our trail took us into a forest sporting half-autumn colors: some maple stands blazed gold and orange while others remained dark green. The occasional fiery swamp maple glowed bright red below the overstory, catching the glints of sunlight that managed to penetrate the cloud layer and canopy.
As we trudged up the forested hillside, my field of vision was so washed in texture — a chaos of rocks, roots, bark, and leaves of every shade — that my eyes almost started to ache.
The trail plateaued after a short climb into a new type of forest: three-story oaks underscored with hickory saplings. With a new composition, the forest assumed a browner and yellower hue than that of the maple-dominated lower hillside.
We eventually reached the imposing stone tower at Haystack Mountain’s summit, and we quickly climbed the winding stairs to find what we came for: 360-degree views of forested hills folding over one another as they spread into the distance, interspersed by patches of valley farmland. A copse of orange maples framed Route 44 as it passed through Norfolk below. This was the beautiful patchwork landscape I am lucky to now call home.
A relaxed jaunt down a wide carriage road took us around the mountain’s northeastern flank as eastern hemlocks leaned overhead and clung to the steep slope below. Reaching the car with daylight to spare, we decided to prolong the outing with an evening pint.
At Norbrook Farm Brewery, we were asked if we wanted to join a game of jukebox bingo. It looked like fun, but we couldn’t get enough of the October evening air, so we headed outside instead to sit fireside on the patio. Settling into an Adirondack chair, I sipped the brewery’s brown ale (the “Beckley Furnace Ale”). It was malty and crisp, and certainly one of the better in the style I’ve had recently. Taylor is partial to seasonal beers and opted for their pumpkin ale, joyously titled the “Gourdo.” I’m usually not a fan of pumpkin-flavored anything, but I agreed that this was a nicely balanced beer and enjoyed the few sips I took.
As the light faded on the hills, we noted that the foliage across the fields looked to be nearly peaking in the soft glow of the evening. A chill settled in and I huddled closer to the fire, eager to lean into the swiftly changing season in my new home.
Chilly rain sprinkles did not keep area art lovers away from the opening of the Kent Art Association’s Fall Juried Art Show on Sunday, Oct. 13. Judges for the event were association members Liz Maynard and Conrad Levenson. The show will continue until Saturday, Nov. 2, during the association's open hours.
Kent artist and long-term resident Carolyn Millstein (above) paused for a photo next to her piece, “Near Oakdale."
“SHELTER,” an art exhibit supporting The Gathering Place opened on Suday, Oct. 12, at the Royal Arcanum Building in Norfolk, Conn. Featuring works by fourteen area artists, proceeds from sales will benefit The Gathering Place based in Torrington, Conn., which provides essential services to the homeless across 26 towns in Litchfield County. Open weekdays, this vital resource offers everything from hot showers and laundry facilities to housing assistance. The exhibit runs through Nov. 24.
