PINE PLAINS — For the latest installment in the nonprofit’s “Video of the Week” series, The Stissing Center shined the spotlight on a performance by singer Chelsea Fingal DeSouza, with music by Sophia Zhou, on Monday, Nov. 16.
Each weekly installment in the Pine Plains performing arts center’s newest series is meant to showcase diverse videos performed at, for or about The Stissing Center.
Accompanied by Zhou on the piano, DeSouza sang, “The Town is Lit,” a song based on the words of author Toni Morrison, within The Center’s completely redesigned performance space.
A video of DeSouza’s and Zhou’s performance can now be viewed online on the YouTube channel, “The Stissing Center.” Viewers are invited to subscribe to the YouTube channel for more videos and to tune in each week for a brand new addition to the series.
— Kaitlin Lyle
A map showing the planned wastewater service are within the Village of Millerton. Shaded parcels will be receiving wastewater installation.
MILLERTON — Construction on Millerton’s long-awaited wastewater system could begin in early 2027 and wrap up by the spring of 2028, according to an update delivered at the Village Board’s Sept. 9 workshop meeting.
The presentation — led by Erin Moore of Tighe & Bond, an engineering and environmental consulting firm — outlined the timeline, design, and costs of the project, which is a joint initiative with the Town of North East.
For the town, the service area will include the Boulevard, an area officials see as key to future development. For the village, the system will serve multiple parcels stretching from Main Street up to Century Boulevard and including side streets down to South Center Street.
“There has been a lot happening, and it’s really exciting,” Moore said as she detailed how the system would function, what it would cost and how it would be paid for.
The plan calls for a step-system, which uses small septic tanks and pumps to carry wastewater from individual homes and businesses to a new treatment plant on a village-owned parcel off Mill Street.
While homeowners will pay the electricity to run the pumps, which Moore describes as an “incredibly efficient system and operates infrequently,” the village will be responsible for installing and maintaining the equipment through permanent easements. An added benefit for residents, Moore noted, is that replacing traditional septic fields could free up outdoor space, potentially allowing for development on previously protected leach fields.
The total project cost is estimated at $13 million, which includes construction, engineering, contingency and legal fees.
The village’s share is about $10.8 million, with annual operations and maintenance projected at $144,000.
Funding to date includes $200,000 from a Dutchess County Municipal Investment Grant, nearly $960,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency secured through Congressman Pat Ryan, and just over $5 million from the New York Environmental Facilities Corporation.
A zero-percent interest loan through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund will cover about 30% of the remaining balance, leaving roughly $5.7 million still to be secured.
Moore said the next step is for trustees to finalize and sign the engineering contract, which will unlock the remaining EPA funding. Board members have been asked to submit final questions within the week so the contract can move forward. The NYSEFC funding also requires a short list of outstanding items before it can be closed.
Over the past two years, house-to-house investigations and individual conversations with residents have taken place, surveys have gone out, and geotechnical testing have been completed across the service area.
Moore said that once the final authorization is given — conservatively estimated by January 2026 — the design should be finished within a year, and construction within a year after that.
“We have a great team that is really excited and ready,” she said.
In addition to the existing grants, the village and town are preparing to pursue new funding opportunities. As announced at a recent Town of North East board meeting, the municipalities are in talks to apply jointly for the state’s New York Forward program, a competitive grant which offers two $4.5 million awards for small communities. Town Supervisor Chris Kennan and Village Mayor Jenn Najdek said the wastewater project would be the focus of their application, which is due next month.
Author Elizabeth Gilbert spoke to a sold-out crowd at The Bardavon in Poughkeepsie on Sept. 10 during an event presented by Oblong Books, celebrating the release of her new memoir, “All the Way to the River.”
Grace McLean co-wrote and stars in “Penelope.”
The Ancram Center’s 10th Anniversary Season continues this fall with “Penelope,” a cabaret-style musical based on Homer’s “The Odyssey,” told from the point of view of Penelope, Odysseus’ long-suffering wife. With music and lyrics by Alex Bechtel and a book by Bechtel, Grace McLean (who also stars) and Eva Steinmetz (who also directs), “Penelope” runs Sept. 19-21 and 25-28.
The show tells a story you think you know. In Homer’s poem about Odysseus’ return home after the Trojan War, Penelope is a minor character. She is trapped at home, lonely and isolated, yet she runs the city of Ithaca and fends off suitors.
“She is meant to be a paragon of fidelity,” said Paul Ricciardi, Ancram Center co-director, “but this version is a refreshingly feminist take on the Greek epic. And this Penelope has a lot to say.”
With genre-bending songs and a powerful narrative, presented in an intimate cabaret setting with a live band that doubles as a Greek chorus, the show reframes the ancient tale to bring the mythological Penelope to vibrant life with 21st century resonance.
McLean is a multi-hyphenate actress, singer, writer and teacher, and a breakout star of “Suffs,” the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical about the American women’s suffrage movement. This is the first time she is featured in a play she wrote herself. With humor and insight, she casts a spell that illuminates the myriad meanings in the classic text — waiting and loneliness, as well as determination and resilience.
This show promises to be a mesmerizing and unforgettable theatrical love letter to all who wait and hope.
The Ancram Center season continues on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. with Mary Murfitt’s “Framed: The Murder of Beulah Simons.” This is the second production of Ancram Center’s 2025 Play Lab series, which provides theatre artists of all practices the time, space and resources to develop new, innovative projects. “Framed” is based on true events: an Ancram love triangle in the early 1940s that ends with a murder, and a questionable trial that leads to the conviction of a young farmhand.
Every fall also brings a new edition of “Real People Real Stories,” Ancram Center’s signature storytelling program. Since 2016, this celebrated series has provided a forum for area residents to share humorous, poignant and surprising true tales about themselves. The production, at 3 p.m. on Nov. 22, will cap the 2025 season.
For tickets, visit www.ancramcenter.org
Richard Feiner and Annette Stover have worked and taught in the arts, communications, and philanthropy in West Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, and New York. Passionate supporters of the arts, they live in Salisbury and Greenwich Village.
Pine Plains Planning Board holds first cannabis public hearing
The proposed site of the Upstate Pines cannabis dispensary is the site of a historic weigh station where farmers would weigh their crops for sale.
PINE PLAINS — Planning Board members and residents gathered for the first round of public hearings concerning a proposed cannabis dispensary.
Upstate Pines, a Red Hook-based cannabis retailer owned by Brian Seiler and Ben Abrahams, is seeking to open a second store in the renovated weigh station building on South Main Street in Pine Plains.
Architect Kristina Dousharm of KDA detailed specific plans for the weigh station building — including six gravel parking spaces and a wheelchair-accessible entrance on the south side of the building — and some suggestions for future uses for other buildings on the site including a grocery store.
Public comment on the business was mixed, but generally criticism centered around the location rather than the nature of the business itself.
Sarah Jones of Pine Plains spoke in opposition, saying that as a member of the town board she voted to approve the town’s cannabis law and cited the ordinances distance requirements. That law requires cannabis retailers be at least 300 feet from an “essential service.”
“It’s really disheartening to me that those restrictions would not be complied with on the first dispensary application to this board,” Jones said. “We thought they were necessary, we thought they were reasonable.”
Jones and other critics also focused on the historic significance of the site, cautioning that the building ought to be preserved.
Supporters of the project touted the fiscal benefits the dispensary would provide to the town, including Town Board member Kevin Walsh.
Walsh also praised the efforts of Upstate Pines in restoring the building. “A great amount of effort has gone into preserving that building,” Walsh said. “It’s in now currently a far better state than it was prior.”
Owner Brian Seiler spoke up in support of his proposed store, also promoting the tax revenue benefits to the town.
“What comes with a cannabis store is positivity,” Seiler said.
The Pine Plains Fire District and the Hose Company submitted identical letters to the board objecting to the proposed site. The letters cited community events where children play on the fire house property as their chief reason for opposing the project.
“There is a law in place for a reason about the distance away from such buildings and it is our stance that the law was made for this very reason,” the letter states. “At no time are we objecting to such business, we are objecting to the location that is being presented.”
Planning board members decided to hold open the public hearing for the dispensary until the following meeting on Oct. 8. Members expect to be able to issue a decision on the distance waivers at the next meeting, pending clarification from the fire department on potential compromises with the developers.