Recent sales in Village of Millerton and Town of North East
The red 4 bedroom/2 bath house at 132 North Center was completely renovated and originally listed at $424,000 before selling in May for $370,000.
Christine Bates
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George McGhee of Pine Plains restores a historical marker commemorating the location of the Irondale Cemetery.
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MILLERTON — History is a family tradition for George McGhee of Pine Plains, who restores deteriorated historical event markers in and around the town of North East.
McGhee, a longtime employee of Herrington’s in Millerton, draws on his experience in the hardware trade to repair the recognizable blue-and-yellow signs to their original condition.
The Pine Plains native took to restoring the degraded signs owing to his grandmother’s influence. “My grandmother was a historian, so as a kid I’d help with the historical society and I’d do odd repair jobs for older people,” McGhee said. “More recently, I saw the signs deteriorating, so I thought to myself, ‘well why not just paint them?’”
Historical markers are installed by the state government through an application process, but maintenance of the signs is far from centralized and usually relies on volunteers like Mr. McGhee. According to the website of the New York State Education Department,“Local authorities maintain, repair, and replace historical markers often in cooperation with local historical groups and volunteers.”
McGhee assumed the role of maintaining signs in and around Dutchess County out of his own interest in seeing the signs properly cared for. “I just started repairing signs on my days off,” he said. “I didn’t ask anyone at first but now I’ll talk with the historical societies in villages, if they have one.”
Mr. McGhee brings his experience from the hardware profession to refurbish the markers with precision, down to the exact shades of blue and yellow paint used originally. “The first coat of blue paint is Rust-Oleum Royal Blue and the writing is Sunburst Yellow — that’s how [New York State] wants the signs done. You can get all that from the internet on the historical pages,” the volunteer restorer said.
Restoring the signs correctly is an extensive process. “I take some drives that are quite lengthy in mileage. One day, if I’m going through the area, I’ll stop and clean [the marker] and then I’ll wait a week and do the next part of it,” McGhee said.
To date, by his own accounts, Mr. McGhee has restored 64 signs in total, including 24 near Gallatin, 18 in his hometown of Pine Plains and five in Millerton.
McGhee cites the Hammertown and Rippon Road signs as the most historically significant markers he has restored. The signs respectively commemorate the Hammertown Sheath — a large, defunct manufacturing business dating back to the 1800s — and the boxing matches which occurred in Boston Corners during its lawless period.
The distinctiveness of Mr. McGhee’s services has attracted interest all over New York from people looking to restore signs of importance to them. “Two weeks ago… [a woman] sent me pictures of a sign [on her property] with the paint pretty well popped off,” McGhee said. “I asked her, ‘whereabouts are you?’ and she said ‘about 15 miles west of the Finger Lakes.’”
History may be in the past, but George McGhee’s restoration efforts are ongoing.
“I don’t plan to stop anytime soon,” Mr. McGhee said.
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Farmland vista where the proposed 42 megawatt Shepherd’s Run Solar Farm is planned along Route 23 at the entryway to the rural hamlet of Copake.
Photo by John Coston
COPAKE — State regulators have issued their second notice of incomplete application this year for Hecate Energy LLC’s proposed Shepherd’s Run solar project.
On June 27, the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission found Hecate’s most recent application deficient in eleven areas. The company had filed an application in late December, which also waskicked back for deficiencies in February.
“Hecate continues to engage in a productive dialogue with ORES and the community. We look forward to moving ahead with a project that helps meet the state’s clean energy goals while protecting the rural character of Copake and the surrounding communities,” said Matt Levine, project director.
The project proposed by the Chicago-based developer of solar, wind and energy storage projects, has been a flashpoint for the rural hamlet’s residents since it initially was discussed in 2017. Then, it was planned as a 60-megawatt solar farm to be located near the intersection of Routes 23 and 7. In February 2024, the state granted a motion from the Town of Copake to dismiss the application, and Hecate regrouped, filing last December.
Citizen groups have both opposed and supported the project. In a recent statement following ORES’s notice of deficiencies, Sensible Solar for Rural New York said it is “unconscionable that ORES ... is ignoring smoke and fire risks to the adjacent Taconic Hills Central Schools” and residents near the 215-acre facility.
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Spongy moth larvae feed on tree leaves, contributing to stress that could kill an ailing tree.
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MILLBROOK — The spongy moth epidemic of eastern Dutchess and Columbia Counties and northwestern Connecticut appears to be receding after more than three years of infestation, based on forecasting work and early-summer land surveys undertaken at Millbrook’s Cary Institute.
The spongy moth epidemic has marked widespread defoliation, affecting trees particularly in the area of the New York–Connecticut border.
The current epidemic appeared in Dutchess and Columbia Counties and in Connecticut’s northwest corner in 2021 as a result of various regional ecological factors, combined with the spongy moths’ ability for rapid proliferation.
“The white-footed mouse, which preys on spongy moth [egg masses], is usually enough to keep the population under control,” said Clive Jones, a terrestrial ecologist at the Cary Institute. “If the mouse population collapses, as it did, then the spongy moth population can escape.” Populations of parasitic wasps and flies, which bring the population down to normal levels, can take a few years to grow enough to curb the spongy moth. During this time, when the moths have few significant predators, their population grows unchecked and they rapidly defoliate trees.
This year’s wet spring contributed to the counter-epidemic of both a virus and a fungus antagonistic to spongy moth larvae.
The Cary Institute, in its 2025 forecast of the spongy moth’s prevalence, estimated the outbreak would abate during the summer, leading to a negligible population of spongy moths in previously-affected areas. “We see the population collapse due to the fungus and the virus and due to the other natural enemies’ population growing because of the moth’s rise,” Jones said.
Given the passage of an appropriate period of time for natural mechanisms to control the moth population, “we knew at Cary that there was a very low probability of much defoliation by the spongy moth [in previously-affected areas] this year,” Jones said.
Jones and his colleagues at the Cary Institute compiled their forecast of the danger the spongy moth would pose to trees this summer through the collection of data at the Cary Institute’s own 1,924-acre arboretum, the observation of satellite imagery and through samples taken around the Hudson Valley and into Connecticut’s northwest corner.
Defoliation rarely kills trees directly, even if it occurs for years in a row. But defoliation in conjunction with other harmful factors does kill trees. “Many of the trees out there are fine… but quite a lot have succumbed due to the drought in 2022 and then defoliation in ‘23 and ‘24,” Jones said.
“Spongy moth flare-ups are not cyclical in the sense that they are regularly spaced,” Jones said. “You can fit a periodicity to spongy moth outbreaks which shows that they occur about every 10 years, but it’s no more than a very rough guideline and can be completely wrong.” Before the 2021 epidemic, the last spongy moth infestation occurred in Millbrook nearly
30 years prior, limiting the statistical measures which can be taken to forecast a future spongy moth epidemic.
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Michael Kashgarian
Jul 09, 2025
SHARON — Michael Kashgarian, MD (Mike), died peacefully at home in Hamden, Connecticut, on June 28, 2025, surrounded by his loving family and the sounds of his favorite Irish folk music. Mike and his beloved wife Jeanie (d.2019) were longtime residents of North Haven and Sharon. Mike was a devoted husband, father and grandfather, a distinguished physician, professor, colleague and mentor. He had wide-ranging interests – he was a music lover, a wine connoisseur, an avid fly-fisherman, and enjoyed gourmet cooking and travel.
Born on Sept. 20, 1933, in New York City to Toros and Araxie (Almasian) Kashgarian – both survivors of the Armenian Genocide – Mike was raised with a deep appreciation for learning and the responsibility to make the world a better place. He attended public schools and graduated from Bronx High School of Science, already showing the brilliance and curiosity that would shape his life’s work. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and philosophy from New York University in 1954 where he sang tenor in the glee club and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry that same year. He went on to receive his Doctor of Medicine from Yale University School of Medicine in 1958.
After an internship in Internal Medicine at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and a research fellowship in Renal Physiology at the University of Goettingen in Germany, Mike returned to New Haven to join the faculty of the Yale School of Medicine where he became a full professor and served as vice chair and interim chair of the Department of Pathology. He also held a joint appointment in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. He retired as an Emeritus Professor in 2008.
Mike was a world-renowned, dedicated and prolific academic and clinician in the field of Renal Pathology, he was the founder of Yale’s Diagnostic Renal Pathology and Electron Microscopy Laboratory and also served as Chief Pathologist at Yale New Haven Hospital. His research advanced the understanding of the cell biology of kidney function, from the role of ion transporters to the mechanisms of acute and chronic kidney disease. He published a vast body of pioneering collaborative scientific work in renal physiology and cellular and molecular biology, including the Diagnostic Atlas of Renal Pathology, currently in its 4th edition. Among numerous awards and honors, he was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recognized by Osaka City University, the Postgraduate Medical Institute of Saint Petersburg, and was a recipient of both the Jacob Churg Distinguished Achievement Award and Robert Heptinstall Lifetime Achievement Award from the Renal Pathology Society where he also served a term as President.
Mike touched the lives of countless students and colleagues throughout his career at Yale and as a visiting professor at over 50 universities throughout the world. Active in the Yale community, he served as the Resident Faculty Head at Harkness Hall, a Fellow at Jonathan Edwards College, Editor in Chief of Yale Medicine, secretary of the Board of Governors of Association of Yale Alumni and was recognized with Distinguished Service Award of Association of Yale Alumni in Medicine.
A lifelong learner with a sharp mind and a kind heart, he found joy in nature, music, and family. Introduced to fly fishing by his father-in-law, Harry Caldwell, he spent countless treasured hours on rivers and streams across North America. He was a longtime member of the Potatuck Club in Sandy Hook, the Walton Fishing Club in Cornwall, and the Tobique Salmon Club in Matapedia, Quebec.
He supported many charitable organizations and served on the boards of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
But his greatest joy and pride was always his family. He was married for 60 years to Jean Gaylor Caldwell, who passed away in 2019. He is survived by his two daughters and their spouses, Michaele Kashgarian and Mark Rose, and Thea Kashgarian Obstler and David Obstler; and by his four grandchildren, Alison Gaylor Obstler, Eugenia Coley Rose, Andrew Caldwell Obstler, and Harry Caldwell Rose. He also cherished his extended family, especially his many nieces and nephews.
He will be remembered not only for his intellectual brilliance and professional legacy, but for his warmth, humility, generous spirit, and sense of humor. It was in his family, in the quiet of nature, and in the pursuit of knowledge that he was truly happiest.
Contributions in his memory may be made to The Michael and Jean Caldwell Kashgarian Scholarship Fund at the Yale School of Medicine.
Checks can be made payable to Yale University and mailed to:
P.O. Box 7611, New Haven, CT 06519-0611
Please note “Michael and Jean Caldwell Kashgarian Scholarship Fund” in the memo line.
A memorial will be held in the fall. Arrangements are with the Hawley Lincoln Memorial, New Haven.
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