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Library on the ballot
Oct 30, 2024
Libraries have become the heart of many communities, serve to promote the health of the community through a growing number of varied programs and by offering communal space where people come together to work and play. On Nov. 5, three libraries in our region are asking for an increase in funding from voters to enable them to continue with a reliable source of funding — and remain cornerstones of social and intellectual life.
In Millbrook, it has been nine years since the Millbrook Library, which serves the Village of Millbrook and the Town of Washington, sought an increase. The Amenia Free Library is seeking an annual increase from the town to meet a continued demand for more services from those who use the library, not to mention pressure from operating expenses common to all institutions — utilities, salaries and supplies — to name a few. The NorthEast-Millerton Library is seeking a budget increase from taxpayers to secure additional funding that the Town of North East has been providing since 2007.
Chapter 414 refers to a chapter of the laws of 1995 in New York State that was amended to enable citizens of a municipality to decide how much to tax themselves for library services.
In November 2023, voters in Pine Plains approved a funding increase for the Pine Plains Free Library, which at the time was only one of two libraries out of 26 in Dutchess County that didn’t receive voter-directed funding. The ballot measure was approved.
In Millbrook, in what is only the third time in the library’s history that it has sought an increase, voters will be asked to increase funding by $165,000 to $349,000. In Amenia, voters are asked to increase funding by $20,000 to $245,000 annually. The NorthEast-Millerton Library’s request will not cost taxpayers any more money, but will ensure a consistent source of revenue of $175,000 annually.
Libraries perform a critical role in our communities, and they have evolved along with our needs far beyond the role they played in the past century. Often they are the new town meeting place where important issues are discussed in a forum venue. They support digital literacy, civic health, the education of young and old and much, much more.
They are not just places to read books. Every town should have a library. Just as municipal services are funded, libraries deserve community support for what they give to us in return. In Amenia, the average increase on a property assessed at $300,000 would amount to about 40 cents per month. A bargain.
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STANFORD — When an ambulance arrives in the next three years to save a life in Stanford, it will be doing so largely thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor who recently gave what Town Supervisor Wendy Burton describes as a “jaw dropping” $2 million to pick up the lion’s share of that service’s annual fee of $750,000.
When families build memories in the soon to be created Dot and Ira Burdick pocket park, named respectively after the former historian and town supervisor, their appreciation should go to Gayle Bontecou for the $150,000 donation she made in memory of her late husband Jesse — one of many they made over the years.
Both contributions were announced in a recent newsletter by Burton who says, “we have something going on here” with the gifts representative of the way in which the once fractured town has “come together” and is now a “town that just wants to take care of itself” with citizens stepping up to manage the many needs.
In discussing the donations, she explained that in the past, the “must have” ambulance service had been provided by volunteers such as those currently at the fire department whom she says are “the best ever.” However, when the volunteers needed to be replaced by a professional service, it came with an eye-popping $62,000 cost per month — 92% of which will now be covered for the next three years by the donation.
The other contribution, the new park, will adapt wetlands for nature trails, a pond, historic and nature kiosks, bird houses and a pollinator field. When the donated land was accepted five years ago, it was with the provision that tax money would not be used on it.
When Bontecou, whom Burton describes as “an incredibly generous woman” asked what the town could use, Burton showed her the park plans. She reported Bontecou “said, ‘I’ll write a check for $150,000’ and one of us started crying.”
Burton feels that citizens stepping up is typical of Stanford and believes it may have begun with the privately funded library which is now the “center of the town,” with the “best programming in the world.”
Similarly, the recreation park was built by some 200 citizens sharing their talents in everything from carpentry to hole digging to child care with the efforts under the direction of the organizing company.
Burton also pointed with pride to the way in which the community came together to support the Kemmerer family after a horrendous fire destroyed the heart of their 100 year old farm, raising $100,000 through Go Fund Me with local goods and services donated to a $25,000 auction.
Burton, a 17 year resident of Stanford, who has been supervisor for the past five years says that some days are filled with people complaining that “a garbage truck dropped garbage in front of their house or they don’t like the way a tree was trimmed or there’s a pothole and you’re just going, ‘I’m not the Master of the Universe here.’ And then you have a day like this and you go, ‘Wow! I love my job.’”
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MILLERTON — The Millerton Police Department has received $220,000 from New York’s Division of Criminal Justice Services to update infrastructure and aid in supplying officers with uniforms and firearms.
In July, Millerton’s Police Department requested an increase in funding to support the officers on duty.
The Chief of police, Joseph Olenik, requested more funding so that his officers could receive uniforms and firearms through their budget. Olenik said officers would have to pay for their uniforms and firearms, which could cost an individual around $1,200.
“We received an additional $220,000 in funding from criminal justice services, which will be used to update computers, police cars and purchase laptops for officers working from home,” Olenik said. “They are also installing a new surveillance system and access control system for the police station.”
The funding surpassed what the chief was hoping to receive, which was $8,000 to help officers with uniforms and firearms. Now, with a larger budget, Olenik can make departmental updates that were not possible beforehand.
“We are slowly getting the equipment in,” Olenik said, “I would say within the next month, by the end of November, we should have pretty much everything.”
The chief also said officers are receiving training for the new equipment to ensure everyone’s safety.
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Jennifer Almquist
Painter Sam Guindon is an earnest young man who paints light with the skill of John Singer Sargent. Guindon’s attention to technique harks back to an earlier time when artists studied under a master, learned anatomy, perspective, how to make their own pigment, and closely observed the work of great artists. Guindon has studied oil painting since he was nineteen. In a recent show of his paintings in his hometown of Norfolk, Connecticut, Guindon sold 40 of the 42 paintings he exhibited.
Guindon’s sketchbooks are windows into his creative mind and a well-traveled life, packed with vignettes, ink drawings, observations and thoughts written in the margins. His subjects range from sketches done in gouache at the National Gallery, to ink drawings of vine-covered trees in Costa Rica, to the interior of an airplane drawn with the perspective of a fisheye lens, to colorful bottles of hot sauce. Currently Guindon is teaching art at the Compass Atelier in Maryland.
Artwork created by Guindon.Jennifer Almquist
The Creators Interview:
Jennifer Almquist: What are your plans after you come home to Norfolk this winter?
Sam Guindon:Picasso said, “There’s no great art without great solitude.” I plan to spend a year solo creating one thousand paintings on paper in Santa Fe, Norway, Costa Rica, and Ireland.
We went to Costa Rica, where my dad is from, for a year when I was in 3rd grade. I will be there for three months doing some work on our house this winter. I’m going do some plein air (in the open air) painting in the jungle.
JA:Tell me your earliest memory of wanting to draw or paint. How old were you?
SG:My first memories are very illustrative, light-filled - as if they are paintings. The first drawings I did, when I was two, were very imaginative. I drew a lot of monsters as my earliest subjects. I liked drawing monsters because the anatomy is never incorrect. You have the freedom to just draw whatever you imagine.
JA: How have your paintings evolved?
SG: Only more recently did my art come around to being representative of anything. I guess it was more just a desire to create things, as opposed to capturing things. Now the desire to create has been fused with the desire to record the world. In that sense, especially with plein air paintings, you can capture your experience. I think the sketchbook is similar in that it’s a record of my journey throughout the year.
Work from Sam Guindon's sketchbook.Jennifer Almquist
JA:Your sketchbooks are wonderful. Where did you draw these?
SG: Those are copies from the National Gallery of different artists. The sketchbook has turned into half sketchbook/ half journal which is fun to look back on. It feels more lived in.
JA:When did you realize that you wanted to go to school for this?
SG:I went to a liberal arts school, Hamilton College. I was not sold on being an art major. My mom told me when I was a kid that I should do something that I loved as a career. That pushed me to have the courage to study art.
JA: Did you have a teacher that influenced you?
SG: My advanced painting teacher was the first to introduce a more traditional kind of education. She had us do master studies, taught us about different pigments, their history, how you use them.
JA: What was your plan after college?
SG:Taking classes online through Compass. My teacher has changed the way I paint. He taught me how to mix color in a scientific way.
Artwork created by Guindon.Jennifer Almquist
JA: In your recent show in Norfolk of smaller paintings, you sold out! How do you explain that success?
SG: The new paintings have a different feeling, a little more raw, more accessible. Before I had only shown my studio work. I learn more about painting from these smaller, direct observation pieces.
JA: Your paintings are of everyday things like tractors and bulldozers, workshops, hydrants, and your own sneakers. What draws you to your subject matter?
SG:Those are my dad’s tractors - they’re from Belarus. They are Soviet era and have a lot of personality. I remember as a kid working with these immensely powerful things that could crush you so easily. They are rusty, they misfire in the winter, they’ve got hydraulic leaks. If you’re a kid who looks closely at things, they have meaning that other people don’t feel or see. It is a shame that we lose our child’s eye, through which everything has meaning and beauty. That is something that I think about, finding a sort of equanimity by just finding beauty in uncelebrated things, quiet things.
JA: Did you like reading books when you were little?
SG:I loved reading books, especially fantasy. In Costa Rica life is slow, so we spent a lot of time just reading from the old library, and drawing. I love Percy Jackson and Tintin. I just learned Andy Warhol and Herge, the author of Tintin, were good friends!
JA:Do you like the paintings of John Singer Sargent?
SG:He was one of the painters that got me into this. He’s the gateway drug to more traditional painters. It is cool to see his sketches because you can see the artist’s hand. He was good at showing you what he wanted you to see in his paintings.
Artwork created by Guindon.Jennifer Almquist
JA:Your favorite artists?
SG:Jeremy Mann, Mark Boedges, Richard Schmid, Antonio Lopez Garcia, Rackstraw Downes, Quang Ho, George Bellows, Camille Corot, Gustave Caillebotte, Peter Paul Rubens, and Franz Kline.
JA: Do you dream in paintings?
SG:If I am working on a painting intensely, or drawing, then I will dream about it.
JA: There is much creative shorthand in the world now, using artificial intelligence, digital cameras, or 3D printing. Your ability to paint, using your mind and your hands, is going to be an increasingly rare skill. Will you resist the ease of modern forms of image creation?
SG: Different factors make it rare. The more art that I make, the more insulated I am against like that kind of influence. Because you really can’t be making something while distracted in a million ways by your phone.
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