Latest News
Millbrook Listens is listening. Project Leader Christopher Wilson paused for a photo at The Millbrook Library on Monday, Oct. 27. The year-long project to gather residents’ ideas for the village’s future is now underway.
Photo by Leila Hawken
MILLBROOK — A year-long effort is underway to help Millbrook residents define their vision for the community’s future and identify priorities that would enhance life in the village for generations to come.
The Millbrook Listens project, led by Christopher Wilson and a 20-member volunteer committee, aims to collect as many ideas as possible. Volunteers in colorful T-shirts have been attending community events, eager to hear residents’ thoughts.
“We have had over 200 idea submissions since Community Day that cover everything from walkability and town park improvements to community dances and masquerades to road safety concerns on Franklin Avenue to the need for more afterschool teen programming,” Wilson said in response to interview questions on Thursday, Oct. 23.
Residents can share their ideas using the Project/Idea Submission Form on the Millbrook Library website (www.millbrooklibrary.org) under “Resources.” The form also lets participants vote for their top three priorities.
Praising the commitment and talent of his volunteer team, Wilson said the project aims “to enhance, not to change” the village experience.
“I believe that the simplicity of just listening to what people care about will be the wellspring toward success,” Wilson said. “We are here to celebrate the traditions and heritage that continue to inspire people every day to choose Millbrook.”
Wilson said the project’s reach extends beyond the village limits, encouraging all residents—both in and around Millbrook—to share their ideas.
Broad in scope, the initiative invites open-ended input on everything from future development and infrastructure to the conservation of the natural environment, recognizing that all aspects of community life are interconnected.
“My education is in Parks and Public Management. Understanding and fostering the relationship between human and natural worlds is critical. If we continue to talk about them separately, we will continue to undermine the effectiveness of calls to action, Wilson said.
“Our environment includes the forest, the streams, the wildlife, as well as the businesses, houses, roadways, and people. So many speak about nature as something apart and different; it does not have to be one or the other, it is the harmony between accessibility and stewardship that needs to be achieved,” Wilson explained.
Drawing on his background in grants administration, Wilson said the project’s outcomes will help shape future goals for both the village and the town.
“We are looking to come out of this planning process with three priority projects that the community has voiced and voted on in order to show that we are unified in our direction,” Wilson said, a step toward seeking new funding sources and collaboration with potential funders.
Reflecting on his work as an outdoor educator, writer, and strategic planner, Wilson expressed a deep appreciation for the people, landscapes, and communities that have influenced his life.
“I have dedicated my life to articulating and securing funding for opportunities that inspire people and their communities,” Wilson noted. He serves as one of six select Fellows of the Funding Futures Program in conjunction with the Partners for Climate Action organization.
Two Millbrook Listens project information sessions are planned for November at the Millbrook Library. The first will be held on Monday, Nov. 17, from 1-2 p.m. and the second on Wednesday, Nov. 19, from 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Keep ReadingShow less
Industrial society is over
Nov 05, 2025
Ever since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution about 200 years ago, the world has been shaped with the maxim to end of piece work, terminating most cottage (meaning single person) output, and transitioning to a cohesive workplace where workers come together, each as part of the process, manufacturing goods, services, and product. Factories became the norm, mines were reorganized to train miners each to a singular task, leather workers tasked with portions of the whole making shoes as component parts, wheelwrights tasked for single spokes instead of the whole wheel, engine builders becoming specialists with pistons, cranks, molding individually, never together.
The whole point of the industrial society is that you mastered a single task and were a repetitive integral part of that physical process, making corporate end product dependent on assembly of product designed and compartmentalized to allow corporate structure to oversee the whole. We became an industrial society — workers and management, services and delivery, sales and marketing.
Some say we are now in a new industrial revolution. Revolution? For sure, but industrial? When every component portion of industry can now be made by machine or robotics, the age of humans fitting into the old Industrial Revolution pattern is over, redundant. We’ve begun a move to the knowledge revolution, wherein only knowledge and individual learning and intelligence determine societal structure.
Look, a robot can easily replace a car assembly worker. $35,000 and you’re done; a new “worker” capable of 24/7 operation, no pension, no benefits. For every 50 robots you need a technician, a knowledgeable technician, a human currently (until robots simply unplug, allow a replacement automatically in place, and take themselves off to a scrapyard). Same goes for all miners, truck drivers along freeways, airlines wanting AI and only one pilot in the cockpit, Madison Ave. using machine learning to design marketing campaigns, or Amazon firing warehouse workers for robots.
Some current trades, often thought of as menial labor, will have to reap greater respect. The knowledge of a plumber, fixing existing pipes and sanitation, are very specifically specialist-empowered — plumbers are a knowledge based industry. As are electricians, doctors, nurses, astronauts, teachers, and a host of other “trained” humans with complicated variables in their learning and output. Training is gaining knowledge, experience is improving that specialist knowledge – knowledgeable people are indispensable in the new society we are forging.
But the truth is, the shift from industrial to knowledge-based societal structures will be painful. The least educated will be — as they were in the mid-1800s — the worst hit. Deemed marginal consumers, marginal capitalist participants, some in power will either seek to take advantage by claiming to be “on their side” for political control or politicians in power will degrade social and medical services to allow the poorest, least educated, to perish. Make no mistake, there are already restructuring forces at workin America — either by design or by inevitable outcome of the switch from industry to knowledge. Gone already are the lifetime jobs’ plans and structures, job mobility is already the norm. Education (gaining knowledge and therefore a place in the new societal structure) has become more and more expensive — increasing the societal divide. Apprentices are gaining traction — as they did in the 1800s — to ensure specialist knowledge supports a sustainable societal future — everyone needs a plumber, car mechanic, nurse, electrician.
It is a brave new world, one which may well flourish, but currently is being undertaken by subterfuge, hiding the reality from civilians, workers, families — all who want to plan for their future. Without knowing what the future may hold — unless you are an architect or purveyor of the new knowledge society — most people haven’t got a clue. And history has shown that deliberate — but secret except for a few at the top — new societal change is going to hurt everyone, everywhere. The question is: How big will the backlash be?
Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, New York, now lives in Gila, New Mexico.
Keep ReadingShow less
Cancer is not a battle
Obituaries of people killed by cancer virtually always refer to the “battle” fought by the decedent. As in, “After a long battle with cancer, John Smith died at home yesterday.” Or, “Sarah Jones, who bravely battled cancer for years, passed away peacefully last night.” This convention has become so ingrained that both readers and writers of obituaries rarely give it a second thought. If they do, they might think it is somehow ennobling to describe someone as engaged in a life-and-death struggle.
But what are we really saying when we say that someone died as a result of this “battle”? We are saying that cancer won the battle – and the cancer victim lost it. Talk about adding insult to injury. The cancer victim is not only dead, he’s a loser.
Framing cancer as a “battle” blames the victim. Winning a battle means that you have fought harder or better than your adversary. Losing the “battle” with cancer implies that you failed to do enough to win. It sends the message that if only you had fought more, or been tougher, you might be alive today.
Talking about cancer in this way is offensive and wrong-headed. Suppose someone walking down the street is killed by a brick falling from the top of a building. No one would say that person lost his battle with a brick. But like that brick, cancer is something that just hits you. If the treatment you undergo is successful (as chemotherapy was in my case), you will live. If the treatment is unsuccessful, you will die. It has nothing to do with how much “fight” you have in you. All the positive vibes in the world will not rid a body of cancer.
None of this is meant to say that cancer patients should just give up, or shut down. They should of course assiduously seek the best treatment available, and rigorously follow their doctor’s orders. But doing everything one can to be cancer-free is not accurately or fairly described as “battling” cancer.
I recognize that no one describing cancer as a “battle” means to denigrate, demean, or blame the victim. But that is what happens, however unintentionally, when we speak in this manner. Out of respect for those who have lost their lives to cancer, let’s retire the “battle” metaphor.
James Speyer
Los Angeles, CA
Keep ReadingShow less
The following excerpts from The Millerton News were compiled by Kathleen Spahn and Rhiannon Leo-Jameson of the North East-Millerton Library.
November 1, 1934
Post Office In New Building
The Millerton post office was moved Tuesday night into permanent quarters in the new one-story brick building on Center Street. The post office has been situated in the erstwhile saloon of Charles A. Corey for the past five months, having been transferred there the first of April from the Shufelt building on Main Street. It was understood when the office was moved last spring that the new quarters, also situated on Center Street, were to house it only temporarily pending construction of the new building which was to have been ready for occupancy July 1.
Voting Machine To Be Demonstrated
Supervisor Frank L. Minor of the town of North East has announced that a voting machine will be demonstrated at the town room in the Brick Block Friday and Saturday from 10 a. m. to 9 p.m.
November 8, 1934
New Evidence Is Rumored In Germond Case
Important new developments are expected in the Germond murder case, according to prevalent rumors, although authorities have denied that any new angles have entered the picture and state that no definite information has been presented. Private agencies, however, have been attempting solution of the crime and are seeking to obtain evidence of sufficient strength to warrant official action, it is said.
Dobbin Honored On Birthday
MT. WASHINGTON-Saturday was dobbin’s birthday party day.
“Chubby,” a twenty-five-year-old Western broncho owned by Betty Melius, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. N. L. Melius, was the guest of honor at a unique birthday party held on the lawn of the Melius place here Saturday afternoon. Invitations were sent to four other saddle horses, and upon arriving at the scene of festivity with their child riders each of the equine celebrants was fastened to a tree on which a place card was tacked.
November 6, 1975
Residents Ignore Planning Hearings
No member of the public showed up at the Comprehensive Plan hearings held last week in the Village of Millerton and the Town of North East.
ERA Loses In New York
The controversial Equal Rights Amendment was handed a defeat by New York State voters on Tuesday, 1,724,189 voting no and 1,329,545 yes. (At press time, 92 per cent of all the State election districts had reported).
In Dutchess County, the ERA, Amendment 1 on the ballot, lost 35,566 to 20,784.
November 2, 2000
Proposed Charter School Board Answers Public School Critics
WEBUTUCK — If approved, will a proposed charter school in the Harlem Valley result in significant tax increases? Do charter schools and conventional public schools compete on a level playing field?
These are some of the questions being asked in the wake of the revelation last month that a Dover group has proposed to start a charter school at the campus of the now-defunct Immaculate Conception School in Amenia.
At a joint meeting of the Webutuck and Dover school boards last month, Webutuck Superintendent Justine Winters said if the proposed Harlem Valley Charter School (HVCS) draws evenly between the Dover and Webutuck districts, Webutuck residents could see a 9.1-percent increase in taxes to make up for the loss of state aid per student. Dover Superintendent Craig Onofry projected a 7.6-percent increase.
According to Mr. Herald, if the HVCS draws about 80 students from Webutuck, the district may have to consider closing one of its community elementary schools in Millerton or Amenia. Such a move is particularly vexing in light of a recently passed 120-million capital project that includes extensive renovations to both schools.
“We’d be smarter to keep those students in one school and revisit the central campus concept,” said Mr. Herald, adding that the district “would still have to stay within the money that was approved.”
[Mr. Slater] cited reported vandalism to charter school board members’ property in Hempsted, Long Island.
“There’s been threats made and they’ve had their tires slashed,” he added.
Keep ReadingShow less
loading
