
Voters turned out Wednesday, Oct. 18, to meet local and county political candidates at the Pine Plains Free Library. Photo by John Coston
PINE PLAINS — The long table at the candidates event on Wednesday, Oct. 18, at the Pine Plains Free Library held places for 12 candidates, starting with the two candidates for Dutchess County Legislature: incumbent Republican Gregg Pulver and Democrat Chris Drago.
Town Board candidates Jeanine Sisco and Kevin Walsh, both Democrats, were in line with Republican contenders Paul Murphy and Jim Smith. For the position of town justice, there was Democrat Stella Isaza and Republican Rich Brenner. Also present were Republican Lisa Ambrose and Democrat incumbent Carl Baden, who are running for highway superintendent; and Town Supervisor Brian Walsh and Town Clerk Madeline DaFoe, who are both running unopposed. The two Walshes are not related.
Over 100 people filled the library’s Community Room at the Pine Plains Library for the forum. The sponsors were The Millerton News and The New Pine Plains Herald. Ryan Orton of Stanford moderated the program.
Supervisor Walsh and DaFoe indicated that they are happy with their work, and will continue to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. The candidates had a brief time to introduce themselves; this was followed by questions from the audience and the forum ended with closing statements from each of the candidates.
Sisco and Kevin Walsh are longtime residents, and both have raised families in Pine Plans. They jointly agree that they will preserve the rural and historic character of the town; conserve open space; protect and promote agriculture; create housing options for young families and seniors in particular; and will promote employment, small business and transportation options. Also, they would like to relocate Town Hall to the center of town, and will look into the possibility of a central septic system.
Murphy is a 50-year resident of Pine Plains who wants to see programs for youth and seniors expanded. He’d also look into ways to help businesses thrive and grow, as well as into affordable housing. He would also preserve the rural aspect of the town.
Murphy and Smith are proponents of fiscal responsibility, believing government should be run as an any other business: with a budget, plans and long-range goals. Smith is pro-solar, believing that solar energy is what is in the future, and he sees the benefits in it, having faith that the zoning board will make sure everything is done appropriately.
Isaza has experience as a practicing attorney for more than 28 years, having served as a criminal defense attorney, and is a former assistant corporation counsel for the City of Poughkeepsie. Living in Pine Plains for more than 20 years, she is a member and former president of the Pine Plains Lions Club, and is a member of the New York Bar Association and the Dutchess County Bar Association.
As a defense attorney, she looked for fair sentencing including alternatives to incarceration when suitable. She has handled cases in housing, domestic violence, and matrimonial and family law, and speaks fluent Spanish.
Brenner is in real estate, but feels that one doesn’t need a law degree to be a town justice. His experience includes 25 years in law enforcement as a deputy sheriff and investigator, and working with the district attorney’s office.
Serving in the Pine Plains Hose Company as well as a member of the town and school boards have given him the experience to make good judgment calls. He’d rather see mistakes corrected than repeated, and rehabilitation rather than punishment.
“Pine Plains is my home and the community is my family,” said Baden. He has learned a lot over that past four years, has built up relationships, honed the skills of himself and his crews, and wants to continue to use that experience to make the roads in Pine Plains safer under all circumstances.
Ambrose has stated that she will give up her current job to be full-time at the highway department if elected. A 20-year Pine Plains resident, Ambrose is a volunteer firefighter, and said that she plans to work side by side with the maintenance crews, and will strive to work with surrounding areas and the New York State Department of Transportation in bad weather and emergency situations.
The majority of the questions were for Pulver and Drago. Pulver is serving his sixth one-year term as chairman, and has served in the Legislature since 2014. A farmer by trade, Pulver said he enjoys doing what he does, and helping people. When asked about an accomplishments in the Legislature, he mentioned the Dutchess County Stabilization Center in Poughkeepsie. He worked with Legislator Will Truitt to pass a countywide animal abuse registry law as well as passing an anti-tethering law. He worked with Assemblymember Didi Barrett and others on obtaining the Mobile Health Unit RV.
Drago, feels that the current leadership is not working, mishandling tax dollars and not meeting basic needs of constituents in northern Dutchess County. He is particularly upset by the $25 million renovation of the Dutchess Stadium.
He will work toward obtaining better emergency and mental health services, and wants better cell coverage and a climate-ready infrastructure. A native son, Drago said he is a business leader, and has his finger on the pulse of what the county needs. He wants to keep Dutchess County affordable and keep young people here.
SHARON — Angela Derrick Carabine, 74, died May 17, 2025, at Vasser Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was the wife of Michael Carabine and mother of Caitlin Carabine McLean.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated on June 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Saint Katri (St Bernards Church) Church. Burial will follow at St. Bernards Cemetery. A complete obituary can be found on the website of the Kenny Funeral home kennyfuneralhomes.com.
Sam Waterston
On June 7 at 3 p.m., the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington will host a benefit screening of “The Killing Fields,” Roland Joffé’s 1984 drama about the Khmer Rouge and the two journalists, Cambodian Dith Pran and New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, whose story carried the weight of a nation’s tragedy.
The film, which earned three Academy Awards and seven nominations — including one for Best Actor for Sam Waterston — will be followed by a rare conversation between Waterston and his longtime collaborator and acclaimed television and theater director Matthew Penn.
“This came out of the blue,” Waterston said of the Triplex invitation, “but I love the town, I love this area. We raised our kids here in the Northwest Corner and it’s been good for them and good for us.”
Waterston hasn’t seen the film in decades but its impact has always remained present.
“It was a major event in my life at the time,” Waterston said of filming “The Killing Fields,” “and it had a big influence on me and my life ever after.” He remembers the shoot vividly. “My adrenaline was running high and the part of Sydney Schanberg was so complicated, so interesting.”
Waterston lobbied for the role of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for years, tracing his early interest to a serendipitous connection while filming in England. Even before Joffé’s production was greenlit, he had his sights set on playing the role. “I knew I wanted the part for years even before it was a movie that was being produced.”
What followed was not just critical acclaim, but also a political awakening. “The film gave all of us an intimate acquaintance with refugees, what it is to be a refugee, how the world forgets them and what a terrible crime that is.”
In Boston, at a press stop for the film, two women asked Waterston a pointed question: now that he knew what he knew, what was he going to do about it? “I said, ‘Well, you know, I’m an actor, so I thought I’d go on acting.’ And they said, ‘No, that’s not what you need to do. You need to join Refugees International.’” And join he did, serving on the organization’s board for 25 years.
Both Schanberg and Dith Pran, whose life the film also chronicles, were “cooperative and helpful … in a million ways,” Waterston said. Upon first meeting Pran, Waterston recalled, “He came up to me, made a fist, and pounded on my chest really hard and said, ‘You must understand that Sydney is very strong here.’ He was trying to plant something in me.”
There were more tender gestures, too. Schanberg used the New York Times wire to relay that Waterston’s wife had just given birth while he was filming in Thailand, adding to the personal and emotional connection to the production.
Though “The Killing Fields” is a historical document, its truths still resonate deeply today. “Corruption is a real thing,” Waterston warned. “Journalism is an absolutely essential part of our democracy that is as under siege today as it was then. It’s different now but it’s the same thing of ‘Don’t tell the stories we don’t want heard.’ Without journalists, we are dust in the wind.” Waterston added, “Democracy is built on the consent of the governed but the other thing it’s built on is participation of the governed and without full participation, democracy really doesn’t stand much of a chance. It’s kind of a dead man walking.”
When asked what he hopes the audience will take away from the screening, Waterston didn’t hesitate. “This is the story that puts the victims of war at the center of the story and breaks your heart. I think that does people a world of good to have their hearts broken about something that’s true. So, I hope that’s what the impact will be now.”
Tickets for the benefit screening are available at www.thetriplex.org. Proceeds support Triplex Cinema, a nonprofit home for film and community programming in the Berkshires.
Scott Reinhard, graphic designer, cartographer, former Graphics Editor at the New York Times, took time out from setting up his show “Here, Here, Here, Here- Maps as Art” to explain his process of working.Here he explains one of the “Heres”, the Hunt Library’s location on earth (the orange dot below his hand).
Map lovers know that as well as providing the vital functions of location and guidance, maps can also be works of art.With an exhibition titled “Here, Here, Here, Here — Maps as Art,” Scott Reinhard, graphic designer and cartographer, shows this to be true. The exhibition opens on June 7 at the David M. Hunt Library at 63 Main St., Falls Village, and will be the first solo exhibition for Reinhard.
Reinhard explained how he came to be a mapmaker. “Mapping as a part of my career was somewhat unexpected.I took an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS), the technological side of mapmaking, when I was in graduate school for graphic design at North Carolina State.GIS opened up a whole new world, new tools, and data as a medium to play with.”
He added, “When I moved to New York City, I continued that exploration of cartography, and my work eventually caught the attention of the New York Times, where I went to work as a Graphics Editor, making maps and data visualizations for a number of years.”At the New York Times, his work contributed to a number of Pulitzer Prize winning efforts.
In his work, Reinhard takes complex data and turns it into intriguing visualizations the viewer can begin to comprehend immediately and will want to continue to look into and explore more deeply.
One method Reinhard uses combines historic United States Geological survey maps with “current elevation data (height above sea level for a point on earth) to create 3-D looking maps, combining old and new,” he explained.
For the show at Hunt Library Reinhard said, “I knew that I wanted to incorporate the place into the show itself. A place can be many things.The exhibition portrays the exact spot visitors are from four vantage points: the solar system, the earth, the Northwest Corner, and the library itself.” Hence the name, “Here, Here, Here, Here.”
He continued, “The largest installation, the Northwest Corner, is a mosaic of high-resolution color prints and hand-printed cyanotypes — one of the earliest forms of photography. They use elevation data to portray the landscape in a variety of ways, from highly abstract to the highly detailed.”
This sixteen-foot-wide installation covers the area of Millerton to Barkhamsted Reservoir and from North Canaan down to Cornwall for a total of about 445 square miles.
For subjects, he chooses places he’s visited and feels deeply connected to, like the Northwest Corner.“This show is a thank you to the community for the richness that it has brought to my life. I love it here,” he said.
The opening reception for the show is on June 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. On Thursday, June 12, Reinhard will give a talk about his work from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the library.“Here, Here, Here, Here” will be on display until July 3.
Scott Reinhard’s 16-foot-wide piece of the Northwest Corner is laid out on the floor prior to being hung for the show. L. Tomaino
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