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Developers propose 174-room resort at abandoned Roe-Jan School
Nathan Miller
Jul 28, 2026
The former Roe-Jan Center School on Route 22 in north Copake was abandoned in 1999. Developers are proposing turning the building into a resort and spa.
Photo by Nathan Miller
COPAKE — The long-abandoned Roe-Jan Center School could soon be transformed into a large hotel and wellness resort.
Engineer Alan Didio of Chatham and architect Paul Bennett of New York City are currently before Copake’s Zoning Board of Appeals with a proposal to turn the 41-acre site into a hotel and resort. The plans include a 97-room hotel in the former school building, 31 standalone lodges and cabins containing an additional 77 guest rooms, three restaurants, two bars, a spa, Pilates and yoga studios, a gym, saunas and steam rooms, a farm store with on-site greenhouses, retail shops including a bakery and an ice cream shop, two swimming pools, two hot tubs, a pickleball court, and a tennis court.
The school building was abandoned in 1999 when the Taconic Hills Central School District consolidated operations into a Craryville, New York, campus. It is currently owned by Markland Columbia LLC, which purchased the property for $500,000 in 2014.
The proposal calls for renovating the existing buildings on the property, with additions to the former school to accommodate hotel rooms, dining areas, and many of the resort’s amenities, including the spa, gym, bars, and retail space.
New construction will stretch around the outside edge of the property that sits along the west side of Route 22 between Copake and Hillsdale. Drawings show a planned road running around the perimeter of the property providing access to 15 lodges with between three and five bedrooms. Walking paths will lead to 16 additional smaller lodges, with one to two bedrooms each, planned to line a new retention pond that is to be located in the southern portion of the property.
All together, the lodge buildings will total more than 64,000 square feet of new building footprint on the property. That’s in addition to the 97-room, 82,000-square-foot hotel that is planned to occupy the abandoned school and an addition to the building.
The proposal is still in its early stages, having first been introduced to Copake’s Zoning Board of Appeals at that board’s May 28 meeting. The proposal is currently undergoing a public hearing at the Zoning Board of Appeals, which began on Thursday, July 23, at Copake Town Hall.
Gina White, who operates Mandala Yoga & Arts in a building just south of the abandoned school, said she’s waiting to watch the development move through regulatory processes before forming an opinion on the project.
Generally, though, White thinks the plans are likely to be positive for the area. “It’s a resort town,” she said.
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Local playwright brings ‘Amenia’s Spycatcher’ to Town Hall stage
Joseph Brennan
Jul 28, 2026
George Bistransin points out a headstone marking the final resting place of Ephraim Paine in the Old Amenia Burying Ground.
Photo by Joseph Brennan
AMENIA — When Amenia resident George Bistransin stumbled across a century-old newspaper account describing the arrest of a Revolutionary War spy in his hometown, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. That discovery inspired Amenia’s Spycatcher, an original historical play that will debut Aug. 21-23 at the Amenia Town Hall Theater as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.
The play tells the story of Ephraim Paine and his wife, Mary, who are buried today in the Old Amenia Burying Ground on Mygatt Road. Bistransin wrote, directed and produced the play, hoping to transport audiences back to the late 18th century through historically accurate language, characters and settings.
“It was my hope that when people enter that theater that they are back in the 18th Century,” Bistransin said. “No anachronisms, only old-fashioned language.”
The inspiration struck after Bistransin, 70, read an article from a 1900 edition of the Amenia Times recounting the arrest of a Revolutionary War spy.
History has shaped much of Bistransin’s life. Before writing Amenia’s Spycatcher, he translated plays by Roman playwright Plautus for schools.
Bistransin said the play has occupied months of his life and is the latest expression of his lifelong fascination with history.
He said he wants Amenia to understand Paine and the conflicts in his life. “I think it is an examination of relationships,” Bistransin said. “Romantic love versus familial love, duty, the sacrifice you have to make for other people.”
Paine fled Connecticut to avoid paying taxes to a state church and went to sea as a whaler to avoid debtor’s prison. Bistransin based much of his tale on the account offered by Paine’s descendant, Martha Bockee Flint, who wrote the article recounting the story of her great-great-great stepmother, who risked her life for colonial freedom.
The playwright also drew on the journal of the wife of a German general who fought for the British at Saratoga and passed through Amenia as a prisoner of war.
Bistransin described the play as his gift to the town. He spearheaded the production with the help of a $15,000 Dutchess County grant secured by Betsy Strauss and the Amenia Historical Society. Bistransin took on writing, directing, producing and casting the play largely by himself.
Bistransin acknowledged a few key helpers along the way. Anna Bonelli illustrated the posters that now advertise the show across town. Town Hall custodian John Nowak found the scenery and lighting from local resident David Palmieri. Town librarian Victoria Herow helped research the obscure historical figure.
Long before this play, Bistransin started his professional career as a park ranger in Boston overseeing burial grounds. After a stint teaching Latin, he founded Theater Ludicrum, where he learned from Roman drama how playwriting works.
Eventually he grew tired of city life and sought broader pastures, bringing him to Amenia in 2016. While working as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he remembers saying to himself, “I don’t want to die in a railroad apartment in Queens.”
He rode the train to the end of the line and found a place to raise goats like his sister did in Ohio. Since then, Bistransin has volunteered with the Amenia Historical Society. He also helps maintain the Old Amenia Burying Ground, where Paine and other Revolution-era Amenia residents are buried.
Bistransin jokes that he has been as stubborn as his billy goat, Ferdinand, in seeing the production through. He also knows that taking on nearly every aspect of the play leaves little room to blame anyone else if it falls short.
“An actor does a good job in a well-made play,” he said. “I made all the decisions. Not only am I comfortable with that, but I don’t want any interference. If it’s bad, it’s my fault.”
Despite the pressure, Bistransin said he feels fortunate to have had the opportunity to tell an overlooked chapter of Amenia’s history and hopes residents will come out to experience it. “I feel so lucky to have this opportunity,” he said.
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Horse trials
Madi Long
Jul 28, 2026
Ariel Grald rides Adagio’s Nobility around the showjumping ring at the 41st annual Millbrook Horse Trials on Sunday, July 26. The Millbrook Horse Trials is an annual event that combines dressage, showjumping and cross-country.
Photo by Madi Long
Ariel Grald rides Adagio’s Nobility around the showjumping ring at the 41st annual Millbrook Horse Trials on Sunday, July 26. The Millbrook Horse Trials is an annual event that combines dressage, showjumping and cross-country.
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Workforce housing subdivision impacts declared negligible
Leila Hawken
Jul 28, 2026
AMENIA — Months of deliberation over the environmental impacts of a proposed workforce housing subdivision concluded Thursday, July 23, when Planning Board members voted to move the project forward to site plan approval.
The environmental impact analysis phase in connection with the Cascade Creek subdivision application was completed following the Planning Board’s unanimous vote for a “negative declaration” as part of the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process.
The proposal, submitted by the Hudson River Housing of Poughkeepsie, calls for a 28-home workforce housing development on a 24.13-acre parcel between Cascade Road and Route 22. The developers also aim to preserve open space and environmentally sensitive land.
The negative declaration means the Planning Board found the proposed workforce housing development is not expected to have significant adverse environmental impacts, allowing the application to move forward to the site plan review stage without requiring a full Environmental Impact Statement.
That action allows the developer to proceed to the site plan phase of the application process where actual plans for the subdivision are submitted for consideration by the Planning Board. Public hearings will be included in that site plan process.
A significant issue within the SEQR process had been the board’s concern about the volume of water storage that would support firefighting efforts within the planned subdivision.
Attorney Alec Gladd, of Cuddy & Feder LLP out of Fishkill, New York, representing the developer, stated that the fire department is asking for water storage capacity data that could only be answered within the site plan phase. Currently, the developer is offering on-site fire suppression and home sprinklers in each housing unit.
“We have met the requirement for now,” Gladd said, noting that the SEQR analysis is an environmental review.
The issue of firefighting capacity can be raised again later in the process once the site can be tested for water availability, advised Planning Board attorney Cassandra Britton.
“Sprinklers are for evacuation of people from their homes, but you still need water to fight the fires,” said Planning Board Engineer John Andrews. Water storage to support home sprinklers is separate from water storage to fight fires.
Peter Deister, chairman of the local Board of Fire Commissioners, attended the meeting and expressed his concern about the issue of adequate water storage capability. The fire department has scheduled a second meeting with architect Richard Rennia, who designed the project, on Monday, Aug. 10.
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Memorial service to honor local art curator
Leila Hawken
Jul 28, 2026
Paula Pelosi
Photo provided
AMENIA — Friends and community members are invited to celebrate the life of local art curator Paula Pelosi at the Smithfield Church.
A significant loss to the contemporary art world, as well as to her many local and area friends, the life of Pelosi will be celebrated at a memorial service set for the Smithfield Church on Saturday, Aug. 1. The service will begin at 2 p.m.
Pelosi died this year in April after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.
The memorial service will be led by the Rev. Douglas Grandgeorge, Pastor of The Smithfield Church.
Pelosi’s career brought her close to luminaries in the art world including years as an executive assistant and curator for artist Frank Stella, an association that led her to divide her time between her home in Amenia and her Brooklyn home. She looked after all details of curating and hanging Stella’s exhibitions world-wide and assisted in the management of his local horse farm. In addition to art-related travel, Pelosi enjoyed traveling for pleasure to experience remote regions.
Community service was an important aspect of Pelosi’s life as she served 10 years as a member of the Amenia Zoning Board of Appeals.
“I knew Paula as a friend and a colleague,” said Judy Westfall on Friday, July 24, remembering Pelosi’s service on the ZBA, when Westfall served as ZBA Secretary. “She loved Amenia and always looked to the future with great pride and enthusiasm.”
“She was a kind and gentle woman with a great heart. She cared greatly about her work and the many friendships she had in Amenia. Her presence is missed,” Westfall said, noting that Pelosi’s smile brightened the mood at every ZBA meeting.
“I always referred to her as the ‘Queen of the ZBA’ because she was the only woman member,” Westfall said.
“She was a wonderful woman,” said Town Supervisor Rosanna Hamm on Friday, July 24, adding that she regretted not having had an opportunity to work with Pelosi longer to know her better. Hamm began her term in office in January 2026.
Tributes offered by Town Hall staff and ZBA members carried effusive praise and genuine appreciation for Pelosi’s service to the town.
“Paula led a very interesting life,” Hamm said.
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New ‘tower garden’ brings year-round greens to NorthEast-Millerton Library
Jacquelyn Drain
Jul 28, 2026
NorthEast-Millerton’s new “tower garden” in the center of the library will grow lettuce and other leafy greens.
Photo by Jacquelyn Drain
MILLERTON — The NorthEast-Millerton library is cultivating a new program to address food access in the community through its new “Tower Garden,” an indoor growing system that allows the library to produce and distribute vegetables, herbs and flowers year-round.
The tower garden, described as an aeroponic vertical growing system, came to the library through a grant issued by The Library of Local. That initiative stems from a partnership between the Mid-Hudson Library System and The Understory, an organization that promotes ecological resilience in the Hudson Valley.
The kit provides the tower, made out of plastic tubing, as well as a starter pack with seeds and instructions. The tubing inside carries water from a tank on the bottom to rain down on the seedlings. There are also four lights attached that mimic sunlight necessary for growth. The librarians have also added googly eyes on the contraption giving it an abstract face. Currently they are growing kale, rainbow chard, basil, dill, lettuces and snapdragons.
Library Director Rhiannon Leo-Jameson is spearheading this project and has strong hopes for the garden despite its unusual look.
“During the downpour the other day it started to water itself and I think the person in the library thought we had sprung a leak and panicked for a second,” Leo-Jameson said. “As they really start growing, people are gonna be noticing it more and more.”
The Library hopes that this addition will produce enough yield to distribute to the community. They have previously put on programs to assist with providing food to community members, such as opening a small food pantry during the COVID-19 pandemic and adding garden beds in the backyard. They are hoping to provide more once the Tower produces significant growth.
“We’ve struggled with food access in our community,” Leo-Jameson said. “We thought ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do something more.’”
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