North East Board lauds Sharon Hospital merger

Sharon Hospital in Sharon, Connecticut
Archive photo
MILLERTON — Town Supervisor Christopher Kennan began the Thursday, April 10, Town Board meeting with the “good news” of the approved merger of Nuvance Health, owner of Sharon Hospital, with Northwell Health, the largest health system in New York.
“This is great, great news for our community,” Kennan said. “More than half of the patients at Sharon Hospital come from New York.”
The financial struggles faced by the hospital have dragged out for years, leading to a proposed effort to end labor and delivery services that encountered strong opposition from the community and political leaders.
Last spring, Nuvance Health announced its intent to combine with Northwell.
Kennan also reported to the board that Board Member Lana Morrison, who was absent from the meeting due to an accident, had communicated that her treatment experience at Sharon Hospital was positive.
Kennan also informed the board that the town is moving forward on the renovation at the new Town Hall location on Route 22.
The current Town Hall on North Maple Avenue dates to the early 20th century and no longer meets needs. The town purchased the former Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses south of Millerton.
Town Attorney Warren Replansky has been working with Suburban Propane to complete the purchase of an existing propane tank so that the HVAC units can be turned on allowing renovation work to move forward.
Kennan also said the Town and the Village of Millerton have been encouraged to reapply for $3.2 million in federal wastewater grants that last month congressmen dropped — along with other earmarked funding provisions — from a continuing resolution.
Kennan said he received a call from Sen. Chuck Schumer’s, D-NY, office indicating that the grant was “very likely to be approved” if resubmitted. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, both supported the original application.
The Village and the Town have continued to work on the design for the $13.9 million project.
“This is a key building block for us in terms of more retail and housing, and we have been working on it for years,” he said.
Board members also received news that the Town Planning Board had given site approval for a food market to be opened at Millerton Square Plaza by the owners of the Sharon Farm Market, and that a new restaurant would be opening at the site of the former McDonalds on Route 44.
An attorney for owners of 36 acres of vacant land located at Route 44/Route 22 and Smithfield Road presented a petition to the Board seeking a zoning amendment to permit hospitality uses in an agricultural district.
John and Kristen King envision an “agri-immersive” experience by including a winery with up to 24 rooms for overnight guests. Weddings and other events would take place at the property and it would feature a restaurant and workforce housing.
Attorney Joshua Mackey, of Mackey Butts & Whalen, in describing his client’s petition, noted that a zoning amendment would apply to all properties within the Town’s Agricultural District, and would support farmers both farming and hospitality operations.
Mackey said he would attend an April 15 Town Board meeting when the petition could be accepted for consideration.
Kennan reported that he recently met with Town Supervisors from Amenia and Dover along with fire chiefs from those towns and North East and County Executive Sue Serino and A. Gregg Pulver, assistant county executive, to discuss what can be done to address the current Emergency Medical Services cost crisis.
Kennan said the county recently purchased two ambulances to supplement services, especially in high demand areas, which typically are the ones with denser populations and those along the Route 9 corridor. North East experiences less than one call per day. Last year the budgets of the three towns — Amenia, Dover and North East — were impacted by sharply rising EMS costs.
The Board approved the rollover of a Bond Anticipation Note in the amount of $3,568,274 at an interest rate of 3.25% offered by the Bank of Millbrook, which offered the lowest rate of four banks.
The funds are for the new highway garage, which opened last year.
Sandra Oberhollenzer, of White House Crossing Road in North East, spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting about a planned 150-foot cellphone tower to be located on the east side of Route 22 just north of the intersection with Cattalino Road in Ancram.
Oberhollenzer, who had attended a March 27 Planning Board meeting to raise awareness of the project, noted that the tower, in Ancram’s Scenic Corridor Overlay Zone, is expected to be visible by North East residents.
Oberhollenzer was critical of the plan, commenting on what she described as a lack of needs assessment, issues related to the coverage map and a lack of a technology assessment.
Homeland Towers LLC’s balloon test has been postponed due to windy conditions since it was first planned on Feb. 22.
To a question about whether North East would have any standing in the matter before another town, Town Attorney Replansky noted that adjoining municipalities have standing in certain circumstances under New York state law.
According to the Ancram Planning Board, the balloon shall be flown from approximately 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Groundbreaking of the new pool planned for Eddie Collins Park has been delayed after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation intervened to determine the status of wetlands in the proposed building site.
MILLERTON — The long-awaited groundbreaking for a new community pool at Eddie Collins Memorial Park — once expected this past April — now faces significant delays with no definitive timeline in sight, Mayor Jenn Najdek said.
The primary setback stems from a still-pending permitting process, as the village awaits final approvals from the Dutchess County Board of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation regarding septic placement and wetland buffers. A patch of wetlands on the site — roughly five feet by five feet, Najdek said — requires a protective buffer, which could range anywhere from 5 to 100 feet. That determination will dictate whether the current pool design needs to be altered or moved altogether.
“We’re still working to understand what’s acceptable,” Najdek said, “but we have several backup plans ready.” She and members of the park’s revitalization committee have been working closely with lead engineer Kevin Hasselwander of LaBella Associates to explore those alternatives.
A meeting with regulators is expected in early July. Stephen Waite, chair of the Millerton Community Park Committee and a former village trustee, is hopeful that approvals will come soon to avoid further delay. “We’ve been advocating for this and planning for a long time,” said Waite. Nostalgic for his childhood summers at the park, he says he hopes to bring the same experience to a new generation soon.
Additional delays have stemmed from the February fire at the nearby Village Water and Highway building, as well as a prolonged contract process with NY SWIMS — a $150 million state initiative aimed at expanding public access to swimming statewide. Finalizing that contract triggered a new State Environmental Quality Review, requiring a public comment period that further pushed back the timeline.
Despite the hurdles, Najdek remains optimistic. The project is now “99% funded,” she said, with $7.56 million secured from three separate New York State grants.
An official Request for Proposals was originally scheduled for release in April but is now on hold until the wetlands and septic system designs are finalized. “We’re waiting for final approval from the county Board of Health and the DEC,” Najdek said. “Once we have that, we can finalize the design and put the project out to bid.”
Current plans and renderings call for a five-lane swimming pool and a 3,600-square-foot pool house featuring locker rooms, offices and a community room with a commercial kitchen. While the original goal was to align the opening with Millerton’s 175th anniversary, that timeline could now be out of reach.
Still, village leaders say they’re committed to seeing the project through — however long it takes.
Chris Virtuoso reorganized parcel records in the North East Town Hall basement by parcel number during the process of scanning and digitizing the documents.
MILLERTON — Within the walls of the two-story Victorian housing the North East Town Hall lies a room-full of town records dating back to the late 19th century. Stored in labeled cardboard boxes and protected by dehumidifiers, the records are in the process of being dated, organized, and scanned into categorized online programs.
As the Town Hall works to relocate to 5603 Route 22 at the former Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witness, the consolidation and digitalization of records, as well as the disposal of those unneeded, is a time-sensitive project. Marcy Wheatley, the Deputy Town Clerk, emphasized their current heavy focus on organizing and scanning. “Now, when we move, we can get rid of a lot,” Wheatley stated.
The digitalization process in North East began in November of 2015, when the program LaserFiche was selected due to a grant shared with the nearby towns of Amenia, Dover Plains and Beekman. The program was shared until 2024 and now each town scans documents separately to their individual clouds.
The organization and scanning process is a daunting one because the Town Hall keeps historic, business, judicial and assessors records. Town Clerk Elizabeth “Tilly” Strauss explained that it is a learning process to go through the records, organize and keep or destroy based on retention schedules of certain items.
There are two forms of scanning and storing documents that the town has utilized. The Town Clerk’s office uses the system BAS for scanning vital records, minutes, invoices and resolutions. This system is updated constantly as new information comes in, but Wheatley, along with other offices in the Town Hall, has been working backwards to digitize all of the old files as well. Wheatley scans documents for about an hour every afternoon. “That’s what it takes to keep up to date,” she said. There are currently 3324 files in the system.
The other mode of scanning and storing documents is through the IPS system, which gets records from planning, zoning, building and assessors. Chris Virtuoso, who started as a tax collector in 2021, stepped up to lead this half of the process beginning in 2022.
“He had a big task. He had boxes all over the place. He was spread out, he was intense and focused,” Wheatley said of Virtuoso. According to Wheatley and Strauss, the project did not only include scanning and reordering, but a complete reorganization.
“What happened was, a lot of files were under the names of farmers, but they then either got sold or were subdivided,” said Strauss. “Chris has been scanning and organizing into and by parcel number instead of name.”
Virtuoso first began this project by finding parcel locations on the assessors map and looking through files of names and addresses. He then sorted through boxes to find the parcel numbers, organizing them into new boxes based on zone and ordered by parcel number.
“If somebody buys a parcel now and they want to know the history, they can go down there with the number for the parcel and those folders are in there,” stated Virtuoso. “That was the end goal, to get everything from alphabetical order into parcel number order.”
Virtuoso had also found a log tracking all cases by number, which went back until 2005, and added blank pages for all of the newly-scanned files dating back to 1968. This book is now up to date, and current cases and pages are added every year.
“You become like Sherlock Holmes,” said Virtuoso. “What I always kept in mind was, when I’m not here anymore, will someone be able to figure this out?”
From his start in 2022 to March 2023 when both planning and zoning were completely up to date, Virtuoso would come to the Town Hall every morning to scan for two or three hours, five days a week, while still maintaining his career as a realtor.
As of March 2023, when Virtuoso wrote a report on his progress, 361 case files were scanned for the Zoning Board of Appeals. He had also deleted and destroyed any duplicates, removed any metal that may damage the documents, resecured the folders, and organized everything by parcel number with room for additional files.
“He went above and beyond,” Wheatley stated.
Virtuoso — and the Town Clerks — are eager to move to the new Town Hall property. “Look, this is an old home, it’s charming, but we need room for all those files, we need more space and offices,” said Virtuoso.
“I can’t wait,” Strauss stated. “We’re going to have new shelves and everything organized by departments. It’s going to be beautiful.” After condensing, destroying duplicates and scanning, all records will be brought to the new location, however, the digitized copies will serve as backup and for convenience.
Although the process is viewed as an overall success, there are still a few remaining hopes for the future. Virtuoso hopes for collaboration with other towns to buy or lease a large-format scanner for large-scale maps, blueprints, and other important documents that have yet to be scanned.
Virtuoso also hopes to make the Historical Society aware of the rich and unique history that he found within the basement boxes, opening the possibility for deeper understanding of the local area. “The files are important because they do have a certain chunk of history.”
Nora Garcia, 6, of Millerton, bottom right, gets a face painting treatment from Maddy Rowe, a Webutuck High School senior. Nora’s sister, Juliana, 8, top right, is decorated by Giana Kall, a Webutuck senior. The program was sponsored by the Webutuck PTA.
Locals and visitors packed into downtown Millerton Saturday, June 28, for the first ever Millerton Street Fair hosted by the Millerton News, the Millerton Business Alliance and Townscape. Representatives from local nonprofits, businesses along Main Street, Bee Bee the Clown and face painters from Webutuck High School drew in crowds all afternoon.
Festivities officially opened at 10 a.m., and a steady stream of visitors soon followed. Volunteer firefighters hosted a bouncy castle, a duck pool, a “put out the fire” ring toss game, and the “touch a truck” event at the fire department’s garage.
Bee Bee the Clown offered everyone attending the Millerton Street Fair balloon figures, jokes and musical sleight-of-hand. “I can make 50 types of balloon animals without thinking and probably around 100 if I concentrate,” the most complex being a rabbit in a top hat made from balloons, Bee Bee said. The clown, who also bills herself as Jackie the Magician, merged her two disciplines of clowning and magic to entertain visitors for the length of the fair.Bee Bee’s commitment to her craft appears beyond her performance, as reflected in her brightly-colored outfit and carefully-applied makeup. “The control exercised over the line work detail” of her eye makeup and the proper choice of footwear — no smaller than the size-16 shoes Bee Bee wore — are two of the aspects of clown dress which Bee Bee noted as being most important to her costume.Photo by Charlie Greenberg
The NorthEast-Millerton Library joined in the fun, hosting a book sale inside and a cookie bake-off on the front lawn.
Live music on the lawn of the Millerton Methodist Church supplied good vibes to those within earshot. The John Stey Band started the morning with classic country, western and bluegrass tunes. The afternoon wrapped up with a few hours of Afro-Cuban jazz from the Berkshire Resilience Brass Band.
Townscape and the North East Community Center joined in participating as non-profit organizations in the Millerton News Street Fair, coinciding with the regular weekly Millerton Farmers’ Market that attracts more than a dozen vendors to sell fresh produce, baked goods and more.
Eloise Gerstle, 2 and a half, posed with her balloon animal and her mother, Aimee Couture, both of Sharon, enjoying the fun of the Millerton News Street Fair on Saturday, June 28.Photo by Leila Hawken
Lisa Cope, Village of Millerton Town Clerk, was there to hand out “Save the Date” cards for next year’s 175th Anniversary of Millerton.
“I know it’s early,” she said. “but it’s coming.”
Amanda Coppola, the Webutuck Elementary School principal, was on hand to discuss after school programs, and mentioned a new pre-K program for three-year-olds that is the first in Dutchess County.
And Century Boulevard was packed with cars. License plates from across the Northeast could be spotted lining the wide street, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and even Pennsylvania.
Reporting and photography from Leila Hawken, Charlie Greenberg, Nathan Miller and John Coston contributed to this article.
Photo by Nathan Miller
Brody Reyes of Millerton, left, and Aaliyah Velie of Millerton, right, run and play with a beach ball in the parking lot of the Millerton Firehouse on Century Boulevard.
The Millerton Fire Company was a popular destination with its hot food — dogs and burgers and homemade french fries. The volunteer firemen ran the concession. Patti Lynch-VandeBogart was also on hand with popcorn and flavored ices.Kelly Roger, treasurer and a fire police captain of the department had pulled together the fire department’s food court.
A touch-a-truck event for children was popular, leading occasionally to a loud blast of a fire truck horn from an excited youngster.
The Thorne Building on Franklin Avenue in the village of Millbrook.
MILLBROOK — Summer fun is just around the corner, thanks to the fire department and the return of the Fire Department Carnival scheduled to open on Wednesday, July 9, and continue through Saturday, July 12, on the Thorne Building grounds on Franklin Avenue.
Opening night activities will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 9. The Carnival will open each night at 7 p.m., remaining open until 11 p.m.
There will be fun for everyone. All activities are free. Visitors can enjoy Bingo, games of chance, rides and games, and a 50/50 raffle drawing each night. Food will be available.
Music will be a feature on Thursday through Saturday. From 8 to 11 p.m. enjoy the sounds of DJ Gourmet on Thursday, Heavy Gauge on Friday, and Rhythm and Blues on Saturday.
Also on Saturday plan to be on hand for one of the largest parades in Dutchess County, starting at 6 p.m., proceeding along Franklin Avenue.