Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Locals talk about the future of North East and Millerton

Locals talk about the future of North East and Millerton

Millerton and North East residents Arthur Moshlak, left, Tilly Strauss, second from left, Lenny Sutton, second from right, and Kathy Chow, right, met for the first time at the community talk while Dutchess Commission on Human Rights Executive Director Jody Miller, center, took notes on their conversation at the NorthEast-Millerton Library Annex on Wednesday, April 30. The newly acquainted group talked about accessible infrastructure, community organizing and events, local quality of life, and inclusive recreation opportunities.

Photo by Nathan Miller

MILLERTON — Residents of North East and Millerton gathered to talk about their desires for the future at the NorthEast-Millerton Library Annex.

The North East Community Center, the Dutchess Commission on Human Rights and the NorthEast-Millerton Library organized the group conversation that brought a crowd of 20 to the annex Wednesday night, April 30. There will be a second event at the North East Community Center on South Center Street on Saturday, May 3, from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

The attending residents shuffled to pair off with someone they didn’t know before and talked about positive experiences in the town and the village, what they would change if they could wave a magic wand and make it so, what the village and the town needs and how individuals and organizations can achieve those goals.

NorthEast-Millerton Library Director Rhiannon Leo-Jameson said the group talk Wednesday marks the return of a community conversation series that first started with a talk at the annex in 2021.

Arthur Moshlak, left, of Millerton and North East Town Clerk Tilly Strauss, right, voiced concerns over building accessibility and transportation in the town and the village, two issues they agreed impact quality of life in the area, at a community conversation hosted by NECC and the Dutchess Commission on Human Rights at the NorthEast-Millerton Library Annex on Wednesday, April 30. There will be another group conversation at the NECC building on South Center Street on Saturday, May 3 starting at 3 p.m.Photo by Nathan Miller

Representatives of the human rights commission, North East Community Center and the North-East Millerton Library collected notes on the conversations. Those notes will be collected, kept on record and distributed to town leadership, Leo-Jameson said, just like in 2021 after the first community talk.

Topics of conversation ranged from a desire of more robust and inclusive town wide events, more utilization of Eddie Collins Memorial Park for recreational programming, renewed focus on accessibility and infrastructure, and disappointment over sewer and wastewater treatment progress.

Latest News

Benjamin Franklin’s glass armonica comes to the Berkshire Opera Festival

Dennis James plays the glass armonica in Colonial costume.

Dennis James

In the early 1760s, Benjamin Franklin was one of the most popular people in the world. The writer, printer, inventor and electricity pioneer was known throughout the British Colonies in America, as well as in Europe, as a respected intellectual and diplomat. While we know him as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he spent almost a third of his life in Europe. Eight of those years were spent in France, working to secure support from the French military during the Revolutionary War. But before that, he spent 18 years in England as a diplomatic representative from the colonies.

It was during that time when Franklin first witnessed a musician play a series of glass bowls by wetting his fingers and drawing them across the bowls’ rims. The sound was haunting and otherworldly — like nothing he, nor anyone else, had ever heard before. But as Franklin was transfixed by the sound, he saw what many great innovators see when witnessing something new: inefficiencies. The musician was moving all over the place, working far too hard to make these angelic sounds. So Franklin went about fixing the problem.

Keep ReadingShow less
More than movies: Jeremy Boviard found his calling at The Moviehouse

Jeremy Boviard, General Manager at the Moviehouse in Millerton.

Annette Stover
There’s something special about sharing a story in a room full of other people.
— Jeremy Boviard

More than movies: Jeremy Boviard found his calling at The Moviehouse

Spend a few minutes talking with Jeremy Boviard about movies and you’re likely to forget what time it is.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

From grave to stage: “Zombie Prom” lights up the Sharon Playhouse

(From L to R) Jakob Kerr-Lucero (Jake), Charlotte Wise (Candy), Richie Crane (Joey), Brianna Vivace (Coco), and Vivian Burnham (Stage Manager) in rehearsal for Sharon Playhouse’s “Zombie Prom.”

Michael Kevin Baldwin

Jonny is dead. He’s also still dating Toffee. And he has every intention of making it to the prom.

That’s the basic problem at the heart of “Zombie Prom,” the gloriously campy musical comedy coming to the Sharon Playhouse Aug. 21-23.

Keep ReadingShow less

The flood that changed Winsted forever

The flood that changed Winsted forever
Jack Lutris presented “Inundated” Connecticut’s Great Flood of 1955 at the American Mural Project in Winsted.
Jack Sheedy

The flood of 1955 was more than a natural disaster for Winsted, Connecticut. It was a defining event that changed the town forever, according to historian Hamish Lutris, who discussed the flood and its aftermath during a presentation Aug. 7 at the American Mural Project.

“For Winsted, this is really the operative event in their post-World War II history,” Lutris said. “Winsted, for better or worse, has never really been the same since that flood. Half of Main Street got kind of wiped out.”

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.