HARLEM VALLEY — Last week The Millerton News ran Part I of its Year in Review of 2021, reflecting back on the second year of how Harlem Valley residents enduring living through the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the economy, home life, education, work, relationships and so much more. (See here)
This week the paper continues its look at how the northeastern Dutchess County communities we call home fared last year, and some of the top issues our town and village governments dealt with as they worked to ensure our quality of life remained high. What follows are some of the top stories from 2021.
Having raised more than $1 million for Phase One of the temporarily-renamed Millerton Community Park’s revitalization of Eddie Collins Memorial Park off Route 22, local leaders, volunteers and supporters celebrated the ground-breaking last August.
The roughly $8 million project will completely redo the park as a massive recreation space for the entire community, with a brand new ADA-compliant pool, playground, soccer field, baseball field, basketball courts, trails, pavilion and more. Most of the money to pay for the project is being raised through donations, grants and other contributions.
In Millbrook, demolition of the former Bennett College campus began in October to make way for the 32-acre Bennett Park, which will connect to the soon-to-be-done Thorne Building Community Center (TBCC), a multi-purpose community center that will provide various creative spaces for the whole community. The village finally handed over the Thorne Building to the 501(C)3 nonprofit TBCC. The project has been years in planning and the entire community has been involved in the process from the get-go.
Silo Ridge Field Club in Amenia sponsored a community rodeo in October at Keane Stud Farm, also in that town. A couple of thousand attended, although some animal activists were not very happy about the event.
Look for Part III of The Year in Review in next week’s issue of The Millerton News.
Throughout the state local municipalities dealt with the new marijuana law in 2021. Last March, New York joined 19 other states across the U.S. in legalizing adult-use recreational marijuana when it passed the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA).
Former Governor Andrew Cuomo gave municipalities in New York until Dec. 31 to decide to opt in or opt out of allowing cannabis dispensaries and marijuana lounges.
After careful consideration, the towns of North East, Amenia and Washington decided to opt out of allowing both cannabis retail dispensaries and on-site lounges; Pine Plains decided to opt in to allowing cannabis dispensaries, but not lounges.
Countering the happy milestones reported, the Harlem Valley also experienced its share of trials and tragedies in 2021. State and local authorities addressed issues concerning anti-Asian bias, anti-masking concerns and even an anti-Biden banner hung in full view of passing motorists and school buses.
Local school districts faced COVID-19 outbreaks and concerns about state mask mandates; the Pine Plains Board of Education dealt with harsh complaints from parents about mask breaks for their children.
In Amenia, more than 42 lawsuits were refiled against the town by residents of Silo Ridge Field Club, who claimed they were unfairly assessed. The Amenia elections were dragged into the mess as candidates tied to Silo Ridge — one who was suing the town — ran for Town Board.
In early November, the Millerton Fire Company responded in minutes to a devastating house fire on South Elm Avenue that claimed two lives. The community pulled together in support of the families affected by the blaze, organizing fundraisers, food drives, clothing drives and even finding some of the displaced families housing.
While dealing with the ongoing pandemic, Harlem Valley residents sought appointments to get their COVID-19 vaccines at the pop-up clinics organized by Dutchess County agencies, local pharmacies and school districts, followed by second doses and booster shots.
Following last November’s historic national election, our 2021 local elections could be considered calm by comparison. But perhaps not everywhere.
In Amenia, a new independent party, Amenia Strong, formed. Its slate of candidates ran in the Republican Primary, with some success, as well as in the General Election, running against incumbent candidates running for Town Board and town supervisor.
Among the Amenia Strong candidates was supervisor candidate Julie Doran, the office manager of Silo Ridge. Along with her estranged husband Peter and Stoneleaf Construction LLC Principal Juan Torres (whose company is partner to Silo Ridge Ventures), Doran was among those who filed a lawsuit against the town of Amenia challenging the entire tax roll for inequitable assessments.
New York State also experienced a change in leadership in August when Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation from office following multiple reports of sexual harassment — all of which he denied. In his place, New York State Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul stepped forward as New York’s first female governor. Hochul plans to run for a full term as governor on the Democratic ticket come November.
Look for Part IV of The Year in Review in next week’s issue of The Millerton News
Jim Archer of Elk Ravine Farm takes a seat on Billy the water buffalo on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
Archer bought the farm 30 years ago. He was living in Katonah, New York — where he grew up — and finding success as a contractor when he decided he wanted plenty of land in the country.
He bought the 90-acre property and spent 10 years prepping and building before he could move onto the farm. Then the real work could begin.
Archer has a passion for environmentalism and conservation that runs deep. His farm is under conservation easement with the Dutchess Land Conservancy, and the main goal of his operation is to raise livestock to aid in maintaining endangered habitats.
Archer raises Scottish Highlands cattle and Southeast Asian water buffalo because of their affinity for rugged terrain and dense, unappetizing foliage. They serve as all-natural weed-eaters, Archer said, going into habitats and eating plants that more typical livestock would avoid.
“They’re replacing an herbivore that has become extinct through millennia,” Archer said.
This strategy centers natural habitat management strategies rather than herbicides that could leach into water tables, potentially causing more harm to critters than the good that would come from removing invasive plants.
The water buffalo are especially fond of an invasive called phragmites — also known as common reed. These non-native plants form dense clods that choke out native species, according to the New York Invasive Species Information website, eventually killing all diversity in a wetland.
“Scottish highlanders don’t want to go where the footing is bad,” Archer said. “So I asked if we could proceed with Southeast Asian water buffalo and we’ve been working with them for about two years now.”
The operation is under expansion with 13 water buffalo and between 35 and 40 highlands cattle.
Archer’s environmental work is expensive, though, and he refuses to accept donations or even volunteer labor to help him with his operation. Instead, he sells educational tours of his Amenia farm to fund the conservation efforts. “I have to earn what I get,” Archer said.
Jim Archer keeps sheep, goats, pigs, emus, horses and a variety of fowl on his farm on Smithfield Valley Road in Amenia.
Archer has amassed a menagerie of animals at his 90-acre farm — all raised from adolescence by him and his fiancee — including pigs, sheep, highlands cattle, water buffalo, emus, goats, pheasants, horses, pigeons, ducks and peafowl.
Tourists start by meeting the highlands cattle, the animal that generally draws a group to the farm, Archer said. “Everybody wants to pet a fluffy cow.”
Archer’s tours put visitors in direct contact with nearly every animal on his farm, except for the horses. Those are just for pulling Archer’s restored stage coaches, including a re-creation horse-drawn ambulance — a hobby for him and his fiancée.
The experience can be overwhelming for some. “I get a lot of people that cry,” Archer said, because many of his visitors are urban or suburbanites with limited experience with animals, and the interactions can be moving.
“Somebody was suffering a loss of their partner,” Archer said. “They came here to see the animals to help through their grieving process. Billy, the water buffalo, was laying down so she sat down and he put his head in her lap. The whole time we were there — 30, 45 minutes — she was just there bonding with him.”
“Emus are dinosaurs,” Jim Archer said as he exposed the claw located on his emu’s wing.Nathan Miller
Nathan Miller
The most divisive animals on the property are the emus. Archer has five of them that live in an enclosure with some goats. The emus are curious and friendly, but they have a funny way of showing it. The birds have to explore things using beaks, leading to a lot of nibbling and pecking as visitors stand in the pen with them. Some people, understandably, find that a little annoying, Archer said.
Interested visitors can book tours through Archer’s website, www.elkravinefarm.com, or by texting 914-262-4737. A two-hour tour of the farm for a group of four people costs $250. An appointment is required to visit the farm.
The Haystack Book Festival, a program of the Norfolk Hub, brings renowned writers and thinkers to Norfolk for conversation. Celebrating its fifth season this fall, the festival will gather 18 writers for discussions at the Norfolk Library on Sept. 20 and Oct. 3 through 5.
Jerome A. Cohen, author of the memoir “Eastward, Westward: A Lifein Law.”Haystack Book Festival
For example, “Never Take the Rule of Law for Granted: China and the Dissident,” will be held Saturday, Sept. 20, at 4 p.m. at the Norfolk Library. It brings together Jerome A. Cohen, author of “Eastward, Westward: A Life in Law,” and Mark Clifford, author of “The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong King’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic” in dialogue with journalist Richard Hornik to discuss the rule of law and China.
The Council on Foreign Relations stated, “Few Americans have done more than Jerome A. Cohen to advance the rule of law in East Asia. He established the study of Chinese law in the United States. An advocate for human rights, Cohen has been a scholar, teacher, lawyer, and activist for sixty years.”
Cohen, a professor at New York University School of Law and director of its U.S.-Asia Law Institute, revealed his long view on China: “We are now witnessing another extreme in the pendulum’s swing toward repression. Xi Jinping is likely to outlive me but ‘no life lives forever.’ There will eventually be another profound reaction to the current totalitarian era.”
Mark Clifford, author of “The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic.”Haystack Book Festival
In “The Troublemaker,” Clifford chronicles Lai’s life from child refugee to pro-democracy billionaire to his current imprisonment by the Chinese Communist Party. Clifford is president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a Walter Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and holds a PhD in history from the University of Hong Kong. He was the former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and The Standard (Hong Kong and Seoul).
Journalist Richard Hornik, adjunct senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu.Haystack Book Festival
Richard Hornik, adjunct senior fellow at the East-West Center, will moderate the discussion. Hornik is the former executive editor of AsiaWeek, news service director of Time magazine, and former Time bureau chief in Warsaw, Boston, Beijing and Hong Kong.
Betsy Lerner, author of “Shred Sisters,” is giving the 2025 Brendan Gill lecture at the Haystack Book Festival.Haystack Book Festival
The Brendan Gill Lecture is a highlight of the festival honoring longtime Norfolk resident Brendan Gill, who died in1997. Gill wrote for The New Yorker magazine for fifty years. Betsy Lerner, New York Times-recognized author of “Shred Sisters,” will deliver this year’s lecture on Friday, Oct. 3, at 6 p.m. at the Norfolk Library.
Visit haystackbookfestival.org to register. Admission is free.
