Permanent budget increase for NorthEast-Millerton Library on the ballot Nov. 5

NorthEast-Millerton Library.
John Coston

NorthEast-Millerton Library.
MILLERTON — The NorthEast-Millerton Library Board of Trustees aims to secure a $50,000 tax revenue increase on election day with a new 414 budget vote.
Currently, the library receives $125,000 annually in tax revenue after its last budget vote in 2007. The Town of North East has been donating an additional $50,000 every year since 2019 to the library. However, those yearly donations are not a reliable source of income.
According to the library’s website, the additional funds could cease if other budgetary needs arise or the administration deems in necessary. The budget vote this year will secure the $50,000 for the library every year forward.
“Our operating budget does [rely on the 414 income], you know, we have grants and donations and we do fundraising,” library Board of Trustees President Debbie Ruppel said. “That helps support other things, but programming, our salaries, our day to day expenses of running a building all come from the money that the town pays us.”
The library funds its services through a combination of tax revenue, donations and grants, yet some of these bring complications. Many contributions are earmarked for specific projects and many grants cannot be used for operating expenses, leaving labor costs and materials up to their tax revenue.
“Minimum wage went up so all of our employees had to have raises,” Ruppel said. “We honestly feel like we underpay; they make a decent salary, but we wish we could give them more. We have a wonderful director, and we wish we could support her better. We give no health benefits. Fortunately, the people who work for us have benefits through a spouse.”
This will not cost taxpayers any more money, as the Library Board of Trustees does not have the authority to raise taxes. According to the website, after the additional money is secured, the total tax revenues supplied to the library will remain consistent every year.
Native Dogwood berries
The new fall cleanup
The almost two-month drought has made the exuberance of fall color all the more enchanting. How remarkable are the oaks this year, with their jewel-tone shades of deep red and reddish orange.You might not have been able to differentiate between oaks when all the leaves were all green, but now the swamp oak is distinct in color from the red, white or pin oak.
The pinkish purple of the almost translucent mapleleaf viburnum leaf makes up in color, if not quantity, what the gaudy burning bush used to accomplish on our property.I spotted a small volunteer Nyssa sylvatica by its shockingly brilliant red color, Pantone number 180, to be exact.Its seed may have traveled along with a mountain laurel we planted over a decade ago.
By now, you know to leave the leaves on the ground and not sweep them up. It might seem untidy, but these leaves are the winter home for caterpillars and other beneficial insects that will feed baby birds when they hatch in spring.Turn your attention instead to another kind of fall clean up.
With many of the leaves gone, you can now clearly see the lingering leaves and berries of the invasives that are causing harm to your soil and trees. It is peak burning bush season; their scarlet leaves signal you to them.The smaller ones — less than 2 feet high — are easily pulled out of the ground with roots intact.Same for the pale-yellow leaves of bittersweet vine running vertically on trees — pull them out and observe the orange roots.
Pulling after a rain is always easiest. After a hard frost, we will need to move on to other tasks, as plant roots might easily snap off from the stems, remain in the ground and regrow.Our next window for pulling will be the spring thaw.
If you feel ambitious, the bright red berries on bittersweet and burning bush — as well as those on barberry and multiflora rose — scream for your attention.These will require a gloved hand and secateurs or loppers. Add the berries to your fireplace or a winter bonfire so that they don’t have a chance to germinate.

The abundance of berries on our native shrubs and trees this year is quite the bird buffet. A few weeks ago, the migrating birds were stocking up on aronia berries while here, in a friend’s backyard, a hedge of gray dogwood was stripped of its white berries overnight.The rest they seem to spare for the over-wintering birds, who here at least will have dogwood, winterberry and the American holly that the robins will strip bare in early March.
All of these are native and most of them were planted by us.I have written in a previous Ungardener column of the science behind why native berries are critical sustenance for overwintering and migrating birds (“Birds in a Candy Store,” January 2024) and why the berries on the pervasive and invasive barberry, bittersweet, burning bush and multiflora rose do not provide our feathered friends with the fats and proteins they require to survive.
Leaving leaves, removing invasives and planting natives that grow food for birds — these are the new fall chores. Have a wondrous autumn season!
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
Dancers at the Raleigh Hotel's teen club, 1950s-early 1960s.
Our trip to the Borscht Belt Museum at 90 Canal St., Ellenville, New York, was a delight.
The museum brings the Catskills’ golden age to life through many great displays — photos, articles, videos, items, and even entire rooms recreated to resemble those in the hotels and bungalows that once dotted the area.
We learned a great deal about the many resorts in Ulster and Sullivan counties that sprang up during the 20th century. The history is truly fascinating. In the 1920s, many Jewish New Yorkers sought to escape city life and found cheap land in Sullivan County. Eventually, about 1,200 families established farms there.

They raised dairy cows and meat animals — such as chickens, beef cattle, lambs and veal — but not pigs. They also grew vegetables. However, farming was difficult due to the area’s poor soil and the physical and financial challenges involved. Middlemen often cut into profits, so many farmers began renting out rooms and outbuildings, and feeding their guests.
These guests were treated like family and served wholesome food in generous portions, what they called “a full hand.” The farms had an abundance of meat, vegetables, milk and cream, and they made butter, sour cream and cheeses on-site. If a guest wanted another potato, they got one.
Soon, the farmers realized it was more profitable to grow hospitality than potatoes. The resorts emerged — organically, you might say. It was one of the earliest “farm-to-table” hospitality movements in the region.

Eventually, some resorts added entertainment like music, dancing, comedy acts and the famous Simon Says game. They even offered childcare using local teenage counselors. It all worked remarkably well.
These resorts became springboards for musicians and comedians who went on to build careers and perform in larger venues, including Las Vegas.

It’s all laid out wonderfully in a charming brick building for visitors to explore and enjoy. Plans are underway to open a restaurant there — tentatively named “Fort Lox” — featuring Jewish delicacies such as borscht, knishes, blintzes, and bagels with lox. Both indoor and outdoor seating will be available.
The addition of food will make the experience even more enriching, and we plan to return. But don’t wait — check it out now and relive the memories.
The application estimates a UBP (unit-based pricing) model at the Salisbury/Sharon Transfer Station will lower waste yields by 25-40% in the two towns
SALISBURY/SHARON — The governor’s office announced on Oct. 29 that the Salisbury/Sharon Transfer Station will receive a state grant to implement a unit-based pricing system —known as UBP or “pay as you throw” — and expand its composting operations.
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) awarded the transfer station $266,692 through its Sustainable Materials Management grant program. The funds will support a gradual, three-phase transition to a pay-per-bag model to replace the current $150 flat fee paid by households. Both the Salisbury and Sharon selectboards endorsed the application when it was submitted in June.
Under the new system, residents would pay based on the amount of trash they generate rather than a single flat rate. Smaller households, such as retirees or couples, would pay less, while larger families that produce more garbage would pay more.
Per the application, “the goal of the three-phase process is to gain as much support as possible for the program.”
On Oct. 30, Brian Bartram, manager of the transfer station, said efforts to switch to a UBP system began in 2000 when the proposition was met with community backlash. Another attempt to look into UBP was initiated in the early 2010s, but it didn’t go anywhere, said Bartram.
UBP is controversial because while it brings costs down for some, it will not benefit the larger households who have grown used to the flat rate. There is evidence, though, especially from nearby Massachusetts, that the system lowers overall residential and commercial waste production.
The application estimates a UBP model at the Salisbury/Sharon Transfer Station will lower waste yields by 25-40% in the two towns, as it has in other Connecticut towns like Woodbury and Guilford/Madison.
Part of the waste reduction comes from diverting food scraps out of the trash. The savings to the town with the program will help further develop the transfer station’s growing composting initiative. Cornwall was also awarded an SMM grant on Oct. 29 in the sum of $15,000 to build its own composting program.
Bartram said the purpose of the phased strategy is to allow for “parachutes” or “fire extinguishers” in case the system proves to be inappropriate for the towns or widely unpopular. In the immediate term, the selectmen have the right to decline the grant money, even though they signed on to the application in the early summer.
Bartram said if the two selectboards choose to accept, the first step will be to compile an advisory committee for the project with members on both sides of the UBP issue.
Once that team is assembled, the first phase will be “groundwork” and will begin with deliberating implementation specifics about pricing, bag distribution andpublic outreach efforts.
As of Monday, both first selectmen expressed enthusiasm at the transfer station’s success with its application and for beginning the initial process.
Following the groundwork stage is the “launch”phase in which the Committee will initiate widespread community engagement as the program kicks off for a mandatory 1-year run, which will have to be approved by both selectboards. The final phase outlined in the application is the “monitoring” phase where feedback and program results are reviewed and the system is streamlined for long term success.
Bartram said he was confident in the plan, but that he understands the difficulty in bringing an unfamiliar program to the transfer station. “I think it’s a good idea but there are so many nuances,” he said. He stated it will be the job of the committee to discern the best way to move forward with a program that could help the state mitigate its waste crisis.
Since the closure of the Materials Innovation and Recycling facility in Hartford in 2022, Connecticut has shipped more than 40% of its municipal and commercial waste to landfills across state borders, which is expensive to the state, towns and ultimately residents.
The federal government shutdown has delayed SNAP benefits payouts nationwide, prompting New York State and Dutchess County governments to distribute millions of dollars in aid to food banks and pantries.
Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino announced on Friday, Oct. 31, that $1.5 million in reserve emergency funds would be distributed to food pantries across the county. The county plans to distribute $150,000 per week for 10 weeks to pantries across Dutchess.
The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program — commonly referred to as SNAP or food stamps — has never faced a delay in benefit payouts in its modern history.
Volunteers at the Food of Life Pantry — run by Amenia’s St. Thomas Episcopal Church and Charlie Paley of Sharon — said they expect the freeze in SNAP disbursements to strain a community that is already under stress.
Jim Wright, warden of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church, said keeping the food pantry stocked has become more difficult as free and reduced-price food from the Albany-based Food Bank of New York is increasingly scarce. He added that ongoing cuts to funding and staffing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have only exacerbated the problem.
That scarcity has pushed the pantry to lean harder on other organizations such as the Tenmile Farm Foundation in Dover Plains, which Wright said has delivered 24,758 pounds of fruits and vegetables to the pantry this growing season.
“What’s been happening since late January is that there’s been less and less food that’s either free or lower price,” Wright said. “So many of our partners have stepped up.”
The Tenmile Farm Foundation is part of a network of like-minded organizations in the Tri-corner region of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts that collaborate to promote access to nutritious, locally-produced food at an accessible price or for free.
The North East Community Center’s Food Programs Director Jordan Schmidt heads up the network — officially known as the Tri Corner Nutrition Security Coalition — as part of her role in charge of the community center’s food pantry and outreach programs.
Among the coalition’s partners is Tri-Corner F.E.E.D., which offers an alternative to traditional pantries. Linda and James Quella of Sharon, Connecticut, formed the organization and opened a market in Millerton that sells locally-produced groceries at subsidized prices.
Blake Myers, manager of the Tri-Corner F.E.E.D. Market on South Center Street in Millerton, collaborates with the coalition. She said the coalition has been closely monitoring local residents’ access to food, allowing its member farms, pantries and nonprofits to quickly redirect supplies when needs arise.
Tri-Corner F.E.E.D. operates a market with tiered pricing. Customers can sign up to buy groceries either at full price, at a 30% discount or at a 60% discount depending on their need.
Myers echoed Food of Life volunteers’ concerns about the community’s increasing dependence on local food pantries.
She said food pantries are supposed to be a resource in emergencies. “What’s happened is that they are now a regular resource that people need in order to feed their families,” Myers said. “This case of the SNAP benefits being cut is an emergency emergency, because there’s already so many families that are barely scraping by.”
The Rev. AJ Stack of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Amenia said the most effective way to support the Food of Life pantry is through cash donations. “We can purchase things at much lower prices elsewhere,” Stack explained, adding that every dollar goes further when the pantry buys in bulk from its suppliers.
Myers offered a similar perspective when it comes to supporting Tri-Corner F.E.E.D. She told The News that customers with the means can best assist the nonprofit by purchasing items at full price — providing revenue that helps fund the market’s mission to offer affordable food to those in need.
“All of our shoppers here are by word of mouth,” Myers said. “Which is really important to me, because I wanted the experience to be something that people wanted to return to and feel comfortable.”