One of the 60 current LED streetlights in the Village of Millerton, at the corner of Dutchess Avenue and Simmons Street. Along with 78 new fixtures, they will be replaced with warmer, dimmable bulbs and comfort lenses, using existing poles.
MILLERTON — Millerton’s Village Board unanimously approved a plan to convert all 138 of its streetlights to warmer-light, dimmable, energy- and money-saving LED fixtures on Monday, Dec. 11.
Currently, streetlights in the Village are owned and maintained, for steep fees, by Central Hudson. Sixty are LEDs which have been installed piecemeal as needed, and the remaining 78 are the older sodium vapor lights, a peachy-toned light that tends to reduce color vision at night.
In the new plan, Central Hudson will continue to own, and to be responsible for the lamp posts, and the village will purchase the LED lights and the “arms” that connect the fixtures to the poles.
A contract with RealTerm Energy, of Quebec, Canada, will reduce maintenance fees from over $27.5k this year to just $4,000 per year.
Apart from their longevity — LED lights boast a 15-20 year life span compared to the six to eight years that sodium vapor lights last — LEDs offer superior color rendition for the human eye, meaning that they enable us to see better at night. They also reduce energy use, leading to significant savings for the village in both monies paid out and greenhouse gases emitted.
The project will cost roughly $175,000, according to the board’s estimates. The village plans to pay for it by taking out a 10-year bond for no more than $160,000 and to fund the rest out of its reserve.
Laurie Kerr, a local architect who, along with some others, has shepherded this project through its many stages, said, “it’s a case of needing to spend money to save money.”
Cash flow, including bond repayment, will be net positive starting year one, as compared to current payments. After the bond is paid off, the village will save over $34,000 a year, with an estimated savings of over $250,000 over 15 years, adjusting for inflation. This is a conservative estimate of savings, because the LEDs will likely last for more than 20 years.
“There aren’t that many ways to cut expenses from a small village’s budget,” Kerr said, “so this is a positive.”
“This change also earns the Village 8 of the 120 points needed for Climate Smart Bronze,” said Kathy Chow, the Climate Smart Communities Coordinator for North East and Millerton. This, among other actions, will bring the Village to a NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities threshold which will trigger a grant of at least $5,000, said Chow.
To those who may have reservations about LED lighting, it is worth noting that older LEDs typically had high Kelvin numbers — the harsh bluish light noticeable in the over-4,000 range — but the newer installs will be 3,000 Kelvin lamps. The new streetlights will also feature “comfort lenses” which will reduce glare.
Each fixture in the new generation of LEDs has “smart controls” that enable one or several of the fixtures to be dimmed as desired — for example, very late at night. Well-aimed downlights with partial cutoffs will also preserve more of the dark sky needed by birds and insects.
The vote concluded three years of discussion and debate among board members. Two more steps — approval by the Public Service Commission, and the securing of a bond — are needed before the project can move forward. A reasonably short installation period is anticipated.
AMENIA — The first day of school on Thursday, Sept. 4, at Webutuck Elementary School went smoothly, with teachers enthusiastically greeting the eager young students disembarking from buses. Excitement was measurable, with only a few tears from parents, but school began anyway.
Ready for her first day of school on Thursday, Sept. 4, at Webutuck Elementary School, Liliana Cawley, 7, would soon join her second grade class, but first she posed for a photo to mark the occasion.Photo by Leila Hawken
Millerton Police Chief Joseph Olenik shows off the new gear. Brand new police cruisers arrived last week.
MILLERTON — The Millerton Police Department has received two new patrol cars to replace vehicles destroyed in the February 2025 fire at the Village Water and Highway Department.
The new Ford Interceptors are custom-built for law enforcement. “They’re more rugged than a Ford Explorer,” said Millerton Police Chief Joseph Olenik, noting the all-wheel drive, heavy-duty suspension and larger tires and engine. “They call it the ‘Police Package.’”
Olenik worked with The Cruiser’s Division in Mamaroneck, New York, to design the vehicles.
“We really want to thank the Pine Plains Police Department for their tremendous support,” Olenik said. After the fire, “they were the first ones to come forward and offer help.”
The new police cruisers are outfitted with lights with automatically adjusting brightness to best perform in ambient conditions.Photo by Aly Morrissey
Since February, Millerton officers have been borrowing a patrol car from Pine Plains. With the new vehicles now in service, Olenik said he plans to thank Pine Plains officers by treating them to dinner at Four Brothers in Amenia and having their car detailed
The main entrance to Kent Hollow Mine at 341 South Amenia Road in Amenia.
AMENIA — Amenia residents and a Wassaic business have filed suit against the Town Board and Kent Hollow Inc., alleging a settlement between the town and the mine amounts to illegal contract zoning that allows the circumvention of environmental review.
Petitioners Laurence Levin, Theodore Schiffman and Clark Hill LLC filed the suit on Aug. 22. Town officials were served with documents for the case last week and took first steps in organizing a response to the suit at the Town Board meeting on Thursday, Sept. 4.
The lawsuit is the latest in a multi-year long legal battle surrounding the mine on South Amenia Road. After Kent Hollow Inc. — a subsidiary of Bethel, Connecticut, based homebuilder Steiner Inc. — applied for a state mining permit in 2017, the Amenia code enforcement officer issued the business a notice of violation.
At the time, Kent Hollow Inc. did not possess a special permit to conduct mining operations as required by Amenia zoning code, and the property did not reside in the Special Mining Overlay district established as part of rezoning efforts coinciding with the 2007 adoption of the town’s comprehensive plan.
Kent Hollow Inc. appealed the violation, claiming the use of the property as a mine predates amendments to town and state regulations. The Zoning Board of Appeals denied the appeal citing insufficient evidence in 2019. That spurred Kent Hollow to file two lawsuits — one in the New York State Supreme Court and a federal civil rights lawsuit — challenging the town’s order.
In July 2025, those lawsuits were brought to a close when the Town Board voted at a special meeting to accept a settlement agreement allowing Kent Hollow to continue mining operations under limited hours and quantities.
The most recent suit alleges the 2025 settlement amounts to contract zoning that allows Kent Hollow Inc. to skirt environmental review and the scrutiny of the permitting and rezoning process. Court documents allege Kent Hollow did not adequately prove a continuous, legal nonconforming use.
Supporting the argument, petitioners have submitted the court documents and decision from the 2019 New York Supreme Court case against the town Zoning Board of Appeals, and the documents from the preceding ZBA appeals process including receipts and tax returns from Kent Hollow Inc. purporting to establish the nonconforming use.
Kent Hollow Inc. formed as a subsidiary of housing developer Steiner Inc. and purchased the property in 1971, according to state and county real estate records.
Millerton News reporting from 1971 Amenia planning board meetings detail Kent Hollow’s pursuit of a four-section, 40-unit apartment complex on the property.
The News reported Kent Hollow was granted tentative approval on July 6, 1971, to build eight units on the site with the expectation that more would be built later.
The additional units never came to fruition and Kent Hollow apparently abandoned the housing project, opting to use the property as a gravel mine.
Attorneys for the Town of Amenia or Kent Hollow Inc. have not filed responses to the lawsuit as of press time.
AMENIA — While the courage and perseverance of Revolutionary era patriots is well understood and celebrated, the stories of the fate of British loyalists in New York are not as clear.
Seen as the initial event in observance of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Amenia Historical Society will present a talk titled, “The Plight of a Loyalist in Revolutionary New York,” examining the journal of Cadwallader Colden, Jr., spanning the period of 1777-1779. The speaker will be noted author, genealogist and historian Jay Campbell.
The talk is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m. at the Smithfield Presbyterian Church in Amenia. The handicapped-accessible church is located at 656 Smithfield Valley Road. Refreshments will be served.
Colden was the son of a New York Lieutenant Governor. He was a surveyor, farmer and mercantilist, serving as a judge in Ulster County. His fortunes changed dramatically with the dawn of the Revolutionary War when he remained loyal to the British Crown. His arrest came in 1776, just before the start of his journal.
Campbell is a historian specializing in Hudson Valley history, and the regional stories of Revolutionary era families.
