PINE PLAINS — Hailed by many for their patience and perseverance, the Stissing Mountain Class of 2020 was at last rewarded for their hard work with the graduation ceremony they had been waiting for these last few months on Sunday evening, July 12.
“We waited patiently to give the students the best graduation ceremony we could given the circumstances,” said Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School Principal Tara Grieb, “and I believe that patience paid off. We are so happy for them.”
Yet just when the district anticipated smooth sailing for its long-awaited graduation ceremony, inclement weather prompted the district to postpone the ceremony date on Friday, July 10, and then the rain date on Saturday, July 11. Graduates, families and faculty members breathed a sigh of relief when the weather cooperated on Sunday, and they proceeded to move ahead with the ceremony that evening.
Graduation was closed, limited to graduates, a handful of administrators, the necessary district staff and two seats per graduate’s family. The ceremony was also live streamed to the district website at www.ppcsd.org. By the stroke of 6:30 p.m., the graduates were ready to accept their diplomas.
With the music of “Pomp and Circumstance” starting to swell, the graduates stepped onto the football field behind Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School, dressed in their Bomber blue graduation caps and gowns. In the days of the COVID-19 pandemic, they maintained a 6-foot distance from one another as they advanced onto the field in the direction of their seats, also set 6 feet apart.
Superintendent of Schools Martin Handler welcomed all, and recognized the challenges this year’s graduates faced in the last three months of their senior year — from the outbreak of COVID-19 to having their graduation date postponed by Tropical Storm Fay — and all they had missed out on. Handler commended the Class of 2020 on their perseverance.
“Whatever came their way, they bounced back,” he said.
Handler added he admired their resilience, character and patience.
“I am so proud of this class, the Class of 2020, and I’ll remember you folks always,” he proclaimed.
Though he took a moment to acknowledge “the elephant on the field” in terms of what his class had missed out on, essayist Timothy Roach II shared the memories he said he’ll cherish from his time in the Pine Plains Central School District, amusing the crowd with anecdotes about his classmates and stories of all the little mishaps they shared.
“Even with an outcome like this, there is still a silver lining,” Timothy said. “We may not have the memories of our senior trip, I may not be getting the proper pandemic-free graduation, but what I do have is the memories that got me to where I am now, the times that built all of us from the ground up.”
“We’re finally getting our outdoor graduation,” valedictorian Leah Schmid declared. “All it took was a global pandemic.”
Even as she acknowledged all that they had lost from their senior year, Leah shared her admiration in seeing how the graduates had made their families proud and created an unbreakable tie among each other.
After reflecting on the lessons he learned as a Stissing Mountain student and admiring the Class of 2020’s diverse population of athletes, scholars, musicians, artists and activists, salutatorian Ryan Marino said, “These unexpected circumstances have shown what my peers and I have known all along: That the Class of 2020 is the best class at Stissing Mountain and will go on to great things.”
Turning the crowd’s attention to the current tensions surrounding racial injustice and inequality, essayist Mikayla Quinn reminded her fellow graduates, their families and the faculty of the ways they could engage in the evolving call for change.
“I know this may not be the right time or place to talk about this,” she said, “but it is always the right time and place for these conversations.”
At long last, it was time for the graduates to accept their diplomas, officially closing the book on their time as Pine Plains scholars. For each name that was announced, graduates savored their moment in the spotlight and the celebration of their labors of the last four years.
“Ladies and gentleman, this is the Class of 2020,” Grieb announced, and the crowd went wild as they rose from their seats to applaud the new graduates.
Legal Notice
Brevi Properties LLC
Brevi Properties LLC, a domestic LLC, filed with the SSNY on 8/27/2025. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to 16 Peaceable Way Dover Plains, NY 12522. Purpose: Real estate management. Section 203 of the Limited Liability Company Law.
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Legal Notice
Notice of Formation of Studio Yarnell LLC
Notice of Formation of Studio Yarnell LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on October 20, 2025. Office location: Dutchess County, NY. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to: 279 McGhee Hill Road, Millerton, NY 12546. Purpose: Marketing consultancy.
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Notice of Publication
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF
NEW YORK
COUNTY OF DUTCHESS
Index No. 2025-51557
FORECLOSURE SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS
LLACG COMMUNITY INVESTMENT FUND,
Plaintiff,
-against-
DONNA PARILLO, AS HEIR, DEVISEE, DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF EDWARD P. SWEENEY, DECEASED; BRENDA J. SWEENEY, AS HEIR, DEVISEE, DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF
EDWARD P. SWEENEY, DECEASED; DONALD E. SWEENEY AS HEIR, DEVISEE, DISTRIBUTEE
OF THE ESTATE OF EDWARD P. SWEENEY, DECEASED; EDWARD P. SWEENEY AS HEIR,
DEVISEE, DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF EDWARD P. SWEENEY, DECEASED; JAMES
RICHARD SWEENEY AS HEIR, DEVISEE, DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF EDWARD P.
SWEENEY, DECEASED; ROSEMARY SWEENEY AS HEIR, DEVISEE, DISTRIBUTEE OF THE
ESTATE OF EDWARD P. SWEENEY, DECEASED; SCOTT P. SWEENEY AS HEIR, DEVISEE,
DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF EDWARD P. SWEENEY, DECEASED; THOMAS SWEENEY AS
HEIR, DEVISEE, DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF EDWARD P. SWEENEY, DECEASED; RENEE PERRY AS HEIR, DEVISEE, DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF EDWARD P. SWEENEY,
DECEASED; ANY AND ALL KNOWN OR UNKNOWN HEIRS, DEVISEES, GRANTEES, ASSIGNEES, LIENORS, CREDITORS, TRUSTEES AND ALL OTHER PARTIES CLAIMING AN INTEREST BY, THROUGH, UNDER OR AGAINST THE ESTATE OF EDWARD P. SWEENEY, DECEASED; NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND FINANCE; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON BEHALF OF THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE; “JOHN DOE #1- #50” and “MARY ROE #1- #50”, the last two names being fictitious, it being intended to name all other parties who may have some interest in or lien upon the premises described in the Complaint,
Defendants.
TO THE ABOVE-NAMED DEFENDANTS:
YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED and required to serve upon plaintiff’s attorney an answer to the complaint in this action within twenty days after service, or within thirty days after service is complete if the summons is not personally delivered to you within the State of New York. The United States of America, if designated as a defendant in this action, may answer or appear within sixty days of service hereof. If you fail to answer, judgment will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the complaint.
Trial is desired in the County of Dutchess. The basis of venue designated above is that the real property that is the subject matter of this action is located in the County of Dutchess.
NOTICE
YOU ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME.
If you do not respond to this Summons and Complaint by serving a copy of the answer on the attorney for the mortgage company who filed this foreclosure proceeding against you and filing the answer with the court, a default judgment may be entered and you can lose your home.
Speak to an attorney or go to the court where your case is pending for further information on how to answer the Summons and protect your property. Sending a payment to your mortgage company will not stop this foreclosure action.
YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR
THE. PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT.
Dated: October 14, 2025
MCMICHAEL TAYLOR GRAY, LLC
By: s/ Patricia Pirri, Esq.
Attorneys for Plaintiff
3550 Engineering Drive, Suite 260
Peachtree Corners, GA 30092
(404)474-7149
10-23-25
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MILLERTON — The North East Town Board held a special workshop meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 4, to finalize a years-long review of its commercial district zoning code — a process that has spanned 100 meetings over four years.
Town officials had hoped the meeting would mark the completion of the most complex phase of the overhaul — approving a final draft of zoning edits to be sent to the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development for review before scheduling a public hearing.
But the process was delayed after Town Attorney Warren Replansky, who joined the meeting via Zoom, raised procedural questions about whether the document before the board was a “preliminary draft” or a final version.
Replansky said that although the zoning document itself is largely complete and not expected to undergo major revisions, the accompanying local law still needs to be reformatted before it can “pass muster” with the county and the state. The update is primarily technical — ensuring the law is structured correctly for formal adoption and filing — but it delayed the board from scheduling a public hearing.
Regardless, the Board voted unanimously to adopt a resolution authorizing the Town Supervisor to forward a copy of the proposed zoning amendments to the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development and the town’s Planning Board for “preliminary review” prior to the commencement of the formal local law adoption process.
The board also approved a motion to allow Town Clerk Tilly Strauss to send copies of the Zoning Code amendments to the Zoning Board of Appeals, Conservation Advisory Committee, Village of Millerton, Town of Amenia, Town of Ancram, Town of Pine Plains, Town of Stanford and Town of Salisbury, Connecticut.
In the meantime, the town’s legal counsel will work to finalize the local law’s formatting to comply with official filing requirements. If acceptable, the town may schedule the official public hearing at this week’s board meeting, to be held on Thursday, Nov. 13.
“This is an important waypoint in the work that we have done to rezone the commercial portion of the town,” said Supervisor Kennan at the special meeting before giving credit to those involved in the lengthy process and its 100 meetings. “I just want everyone to wrap their heads around that,” said Kennan. “That’s a lot of volunteer time. That’s a lot of work that went into this.”
Without making any promises, Kennan expressed his hope that the process can be completed before the end of the year, prior to the conclusion of Councilman Ralph Fedele’s term, allowing him to cast a vote to approve the zoning changes after dedicating significant time to the effort.
Town officials said they hope the County review process will not drag on as they have already reviewed an earlier draft. The document is currently 181 pages long.
In addition to the zoning discussion, the Board approved two additional resolutions.
The first authorized a grant application to the Hudson River Valley Greenway for $30,000 to hire planning consultant Nan Stolzenburg, who will guide the residential and agricultural zoning review expected to begin in early 2026.
The second resolution approved a contract with LAN Engineering for the new Town Hall renovation project. The firm will handle both the engineering and architectural work, including updates to ensure bathrooms are ADA-compliant and interior modifications. The town previously rejected a $940,000 renovation bid from another architect earlier this year. “I believe that we’re going to be able to get this done for a lot less,” said Kennan, adding that while the new proposal is “not inexpensive,” it’s a comprehensive and complete plan to move the project forward.
The Dutchess County Real-Time Crime Center, which came online over the course of the past year, is being hailed as a first-of-its-kind collaboration between county, state and local law enforcement agencies, District Attorney Anthony Parisi told The News on Friday, Nov. 6.
Real-time crime centers are emerging nationwide as powerful surveillance tools. They link networks of government, business and privately owned security cameras into centralized systems accessible to police. These centers often employ artificial intelligence technologies such as facial recognition, license plate scanning and video analysis that can compress hours of footage into minutes of usable data.
Dutchess County’s new center — officially called the Analysis & Real-Time Crime Intelligence Center, or ARTCIC — brings those capabilities under one roof for use by the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police and local departments.
“This is really one of the first collaborations of all agencies into a single project, a single real-time crime center,” Parisi said.
Among the vendors supplying equipment and software is Flock Safety, a rapidly growing company that produces license plate readers and AI-driven video systems designed to detect suspicious activity and alert law enforcement.
Parisi said the cameras process video on site, using artificial intelligence to identify possible threats such as a firearm on school grounds or a crime in progress. Alerts are sent directly to the center’s analysts, who review the footage and dispatch officers as needed.
Flock’s software platform, FlockOS, serves as the backbone of the Dutchess system, connecting camera feeds from across the county and processing that video in real time, generating data that law enforcement can search to track people and vehicles across wide areas.
According to the company’s website, FlockOS is now used by thousands of law enforcement and public safety agencies nationwide. Its widespread adoption, however, has drawn criticism from privacy advocates.
Use of the products has come under scrutiny amid concerns about data security and allegations that unrelated agencies — including federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and police departments in other states — have been able to access local law enforcement data without warrants, and in some cases potentially violating state privacy laws.
In May 2025, the tech outlet 404 Media reported that Flock data stored by local law enforcement had been accessed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents through informal “side door” requests. The report also cited a Texas case in which police allegedly searched the national Flock database to track a woman who had an abortion, noting that officers recorded the reason as “had an abortion, search for female.”
Following that report, several police departments in Washington State suspended use of Flock’s system. The company responded in June, saying it had restricted access to databases in Washington, Illinois, California and Virginia to comply with local data privacy laws. Flock also disputed the reporting, stating its audits found “not a single credible case of law enforcement using the system to locate vulnerable women seeking healthcare.” The company said the Texas case involved a missing person investigation, not a criminal probe.
Parisi stressed that Dutchess County’s data remains under local control.
“We own our data and we control our data,” he said. “No one can have access to our data outside of the people we give access to.”
The News has submitted public records requests for Flock search data to both the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office, which have not yet been fulfilled.
Parisi said crime prevention was a major motivation for creating the center, describing it as a tool to help law enforcement act proactively rather than reactively. He added that transparency and public engagement are priorities for his office, and said a public-facing transparency portal is planned.
Those initiatives have yet to materialize. As of early November, the Dutchess County government website contains no mention of the real-time crime center, its policies or community outreach programs. The only public statement remains a November 2024 announcement of grant funding to establish the center.
The District Attorney’s independent website, dutchessda.org, uses the CRIMEWATCH platform to share information online. The site includes a link under “ARTCIC – Analysis & Real-Time Crime Intelligence Center” that redirects visitors to a Flock Safety-maintained page, where residents and businesses can register private security cameras to the county network.
Parisi has discussed the center with The Daily Catch in Red Hook, New York, but no other area media outlets have reported on the center since the county received the grants last year. Local stakeholders told The News that they had little to no knowledge of the Real-Time Crime Center.
Parisi admitted his office has had some trouble drumming up community interest in the program.
“I think I was somewhat naive in how much interest I thought the community would have in being a part of those types of projects,” he said. “There really hasn’t been the interest that I thought there would be.”
Meredith Rollins is the local writer behind Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries podcast “Medal of Honor: Stories of Courage.” The series highlights recipients of the nation’s highest military award for bravery, sharing their extraordinary acts of valor and sacrifice. Season two was released this summer and Rollins reveales that a third season is on its way.
SHARON, Conn. — After 20 years as a magazine editor with executive roles at publishing giants like Condé Nast and Hearst, Meredith Rollins never imagined she would become the creative force behind a military history podcast. But today, she spends her days writing about some of the most heroic veterans in United States history for “Medal of Honor: Stories of Courage,” a podcast produced by Malcolm Gladwell’s company, Pushkin Industries.
From her early days in book publishing to two decades in magazines and later a global content strategist for Weight Watchers, Rollins has built a long and varied career in storytelling.
“I’ve learned a lot with each career shift, but the higher I went up the masthead, the less it was about writing and editing,” said Rollins. “I missed the creative process.”
While the podcast isn’t her first writing project, it marks her first foray into audio storytelling.
“During the pandemic I used to listen to mostly true crime podcasts when I was doing the laundry, driving my kids somewhere or working in the garden,” she said. Now Rollins gets to write one, and approaches each episode with awe and a reporter’s curiosity.
After 30 years of friendship with Malcolm Gladwell, the pair decided to collaborate on a project that would combine their shared journalism roots with stories that celebrate bravery and courage.
“Malcolm approached me about a project, and he was looking for a subject that he believed would really bring people together in this fractured political time we’re going through,” said Rollins.
Enter “Medal of Honor.”
The podcast’s namesake is the highest U.S. military decoration for valor, awarded for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.” Each episode brings to life the story of a Medal of Honor recipient — often with the cinematic pacing and emotional resonance of a feature film.
“Medal of Honor” released its second season this summer, and production on a third season is underway. While Season One was narrated by Gladwell himself, Season Two introduced a new voice with firsthand experience. J.R. Martinez is a former U.S. Army soldier, author, motivational speaker and winner of Dancing with the Stars Season 13.
Writing for two very different narrators, Rollins said, has been both a challenge and a joy.
“As we’ve gotten to know each other and gotten deeper into this project together, I can almost predict how J.R. will react to certain moments,” she said. “He brings so much heart and humanity to the stories.”
Both her father and father-in-law served as Marines, but Rollins said military history was never top of mind until Gladwell pitched her the idea.
“The deeper you get into a subject you don’t know about, the more excited you get about it,” she said. “It’s been a way for me to learn about the incredible sacrifice woven into our country’s history.”
Rollins approaches each episode of “Medal of Honor” by looking first at the act of sacrifice itself, which she describes as “a moment that often happens in a flash.”
She dives deep into research, gathering biographical details from their upbringing and motivations to the circumstances that led them into combat. She then recreates the atmosphere of the conflict, setting the scene with vivid historical detail.
“These men would tell you they were just average guys,” said Rollins. “And if you believe that, then you have to believe we’re all capable of that same bravery or selflessness. It has really shown me the incredible courage we all have, and our ability to do right in the world.”
