Carissa Unite, manager at Oblong Books in Millerton, with one of the store’s electric ductless mini-split units for dispersing warm or cool air, depending on the season, using air-source heat pump technology.
DUTCHESS COUNTY, N.Y., and LITCHFIELD COUNTY, Conn. — “Installations are increasing every day,” said Charlie Lillis, who co-owns L&L Mechanical in Goshen, Connecticut, with his wife, Lisa. Two years ago, the Lillises added heat pumps to the propane- and heating oil-based systems they install and service. Today, heat pumps comprise about 80% of the installations they do.
Many homeowners and businesses in the region are switching their heating and cooling systems to electric air-source heat pump technology.
They are distinct from ground-source heat pumps, which are more expensive, and from the more historically common HVAC systems used in the region like boilers, furnaces and air conditioners.
Local contractor Jason Lemon is having a similar experience: “I use them all the time. I just put two in the newly renovated Terni’s building in Millerton, and used them in what used to be the Falls Village Gift Shop.”
Heat pumps are single electric appliances that can heat, cool and dehumidify. They absorb heat energy from the air and transfer it from one place to another, pulling heat out of a building in summer and into it in the winter, even when outdoor temperatures are at their coldest.
Heat pumps can rely on ducts to disperse heated and cooled air, or wall-mounted units called mini-splits. They are more efficient than boilers and furnaces, and they do not require propane or heating oil. Some property owners use them as supplemental HVAC units while others replace their fossil fuel-based systems with heat pumps entirely.
“We have an older forced air system in the building,” said Meg Sher, director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village, Connecticut, “but mini-splits do the main job of heating the library’s big main room.”
Carissa Unite, store manager at Oblong Books in Millerton, said that eight wall-hanging mini-splits were installed there last year, some on each of the store’s three floors. The new system is very popular among the booksellers who spend their days in the historic building.
“The middle-grade section used to be an oven in the summer,” said Oblong Junior’s children’s bookseller Therese Stanford. “Now that we have the mini-split down here, the store stays evenly cool throughout the summer, and warm in winter. Customers stay longer.”
Rebates and federal tax incentives make the cost of installing heat pumps competitive with boiler, furnace and air conditioner installations. Lillis found that with last year’s rebates, it was cheaper to install a heat pump system than a traditional air conditioner. This year’s rates are a little lower and Lillis is finding the cost to be about even for both.
“Customers in many cases can be eligible for rebates of up to $4,000. It depends on the size and type of system that is installed,” said Ricardo Jordan, energy efficiency manager for Eversource, the electricity delivery company operating in northwest Connecticut.
Jordan recommends that customers interested in exploring heat pumps go to the EnergizeCT website, a collaboration between the state and utility companies to increase electrification statewide:
“Residents can schedule a no-cost consultation with a heat pump specialist through EnergizeCT to learn about rebates and incentives, to ask technical questions and to find qualified contractors. Our Home Energy Solutions Program can provide homeowners with an in-home assessment of energy savings options for their space and can bring in a certified heat pump installer to conduct an assessment. There is additional support for those who are income-eligible.”
As for his sense of whether customers are seeing savings on their energy bills, Lillis said: “They’re definitely saving money. People call saying, ‘I’m not paying for oil anymore and my electric bill didn’t go up too much.’”
When asked about the cons of a heat pump system, Lillis had trouble thinking of any. “With a heat pump, the temperatures coming out of the vent are a lot lower than oil or gas systems, so it will take longer to heat up an already cold house,” Lillis said. “It’s best to leave the system set at a consistent temperature.”
While heat pump systems are known for being quiet, the compressor outside needs to be thoughtfully placed, as it can make noise like a traditional air conditioning compressor.
“Tens of thousands of heat pumps have been installed in Connecticut,” said Jordan. “Customers are telling us that they want this in their homes, they want to go off fossil fuels. Because of that demand, we have developed programs to help people navigate the process. There is a network of trained, qualified contractors listed on our website who know how to work with our programs.”
Graham Corrigan
Millbrook resident Jackie Bachor hugs her horse, Dessie, during a tour of her barn and Pilates studio on Tuesday, April 21.
MILLBROOK — Local Pilates instructor Jackie Bachor has led a career that has taken her from rural upstate New York to Miami and back again — where she is forging a new path that blends her passions for fitness and equestrianism.
Now standing in the sun-drenched studio space of True Pilates Millbrook, Bachor has found space for both. The studio doubles as a stable loft, looking down on Bachor’s horses Dessie and Sammy. When Bachor points around the space to identify Pilates equipment, it’s as if she’s naming horses. At the center of the room is the Cadillac, a raised bed with overhead bars. To the side sits the Barrel, an arced apparatus designed for optimal spinal mobility.
By the far wall sit two Reformers, padded tables with a variety of appendages. It’s on the Reformer that she’s trained pro athletes for years, shocking some of humanity’s biggest muscles with deceptively simple exercises.
“Pilates smokes out all the weaknesses in your body,” said Bachor. “It removes compensatory movement. When we get out of bed in the morning, we compensate.”
Bachor made a career out of Pilates that took her down to Miami to work for the Miami Dolphins NFL franchise, where she was responsible for helping players prevent and work through injuries during the regular season.
One of the other strength coaches, Wayne Diesel, put it to Bachor this way: “He said, ‘you’re not afraid of big movements and you’re really patient. If you can convince a 1,200-pound animal to do things your way, what’s a 300-pound guy got on that?’”
But long before Bachor started training NFL players like Antonio Brown, Jaelan Phillips, and Kenny Stills, she trained horses. Bachor was just four years old when her namesake Aunt Jackie introduced her to the equestrian lifestyle. There’s a photo on Bachor’s desk marking the moment: a tiny child dwarfed by her steed, all grit as she approaches a jump.
Two of her horses, Dessie and Sammy, greet her with head bobs and whuffles when Bachor enters the barn. Dessie has recently recovered from a serious injury, and Bachor spent long stretches in his stable during the recovery, playing opera through the speakers. “That’s why he’s so opinionated,” Bachor laughed as Dessie bobbed and shook his head. “He still thinks I should spend four hours a day with him.”
During her early years growing up in Boiceville, New York, however, keeping horses was both a passion and unsustainable. “Unless you’re really talented or you have a lot of money,” Bachor said, “you don’t get that far in the horse business.”
Still, she was able to make it work for a time. Bachor organized hunting trips in Hyde Park, and helped run a stable with her partner at the time. When the relationship ended, however, the bills started piling up. “I had all these horses and I didn’t have any way to pay for them…it was a really low point in my life.”
That’s when Bachor’s sister introduced her to Pilates. It was a comfort, both physically and emotionally. Bachor decided to become an instructor, making trips into Manhattan to train under the first lady of Pilates, Romana Kryzanowska. Kryzanowska was a protégé of founder Joseph Pilates, and is largely responsible for promulgating the practice after Pilates passed away in 1970.
When another instructor asked for help introducing Pilates to a string of Equinox fitness clubs, Bachor jumped in with both feet. “My work ethic from the farm and the horses really helped me out,” she said. “That made me very popular with the managers when they saw the numbers. I was just trying to survive.”
After a session training the NBA player Jayson Williams and NFL running back Curtis Martin, Bachor started to earn a reputation among pro athletes. “I remember Curtis saying to me, ‘I should have done this when I was playing,’” she said. “‘This would have helped me so much.’” Soon Bachor was getting opportunities to teach outside of New York.
One such offer meant moving to Miami—and giving up her horses. “I had to walk away from it,” Bachor said. “I remember saying to my Aunt Jackie, who got me involved in horses in the first place, ‘Oh, that yoke is off my neck.’ And it broke her heart, but I truly felt that way at the time.”
Once again, Bachor fully committed. This time, it was to her new Miami lifestyle. She found an apartment by the beach, bought roller blades and some five-inch heels, and started networking. But initially, the work didn’t come. “I had to build this business up from nothing,” said Bachor. “I didn’t have any friends, and I didn’t really care for the woman that I was working for…that was a whole other kind of low.”
That started to change after Bachor helped a linebacker named Kelvin Shepherd with his untreated scoliosis. The strength coach took notice, and asked who had helped Shepherd heal. When Shepherd told him, a chorus of other voices from the locker room sang Bachor’s praises.
Soon after, Bachor got the call: the Dolphins wanted to hire her as a Pilates instructor for the season. She squeezed a Reformer machine into the back of her truck and set up shop at the practice facility.
At first, the brutality of the sport was jarring. “When the team brought me in, they said, ‘These guys go through a car wreck on Sunday,’” she remembered. “We have six days to put them back together for the next car wreck and we have to do that for 16 weeks. Can you help us?’”
But even though Bachor had been hired, there was no guarantee the Dolphins themselves would take to Pilates. Back then, it was unfairly typecast as a woman’s workout. And the players could be unpredictable, skipping sessions or suffering injury. “The first person that came in to work with me was Kenny Stills,” Bachor said. “He knew that I needed support, and he was that kind of person.”
Bachor soon found other ways to drum up business. “Anybody that won the Super Bowl got free Pilates the next offseason,” she said. “A couple of the guys took me up on it.”
Pilates began to take hold across the league. As her career flourished, Bachor returned to her love of horses and riding. She built a barn back home, but could only enjoy it from afar. “I started to realize how much of that was who I am,” she said. “South Florida wasn’t the right place for that.”
For a while, the Dolphins continued to fly her to Miami on a weekly basis. But the NFL is a notoriously thankless employer. Look no further than some of Bachor’s clientele: Antonio Brown, after nearly a decade as the league’s top receiver, was repeatedly injured and dogged by controversies. Kenny Stills faced backlash after kneeling alongside Colin Kaepernick in protest of police brutality.
Then in 2025, the Dolphins started the season 2-7 and shuffled their coaching staff. GM Chris Grier was out. With him went the strength coach — and Pilates advocate — Dave Puloka. Jackie Bachor’s weekly flights to Miami came to a halt.
“Sometimes you let go of one dream to chase another,” she said from the studio loft of True Pilates Millbrook. The room is lined with signed photos of Bachor and the pros in training. Wide windows overlook the horses in their box stalls, and beyond them barn doors open onto horses grazing in rich green paddocks. Laughter echoes up from places unseen. Bachor shares the space with a few other horse owners, and good vibes abound.
“It’ll be the first year that I’m not doing anything football-related,” Bachor said. “That was great for my resume, but boy, it was tiring. I would fly out on a Monday afternoon and come back Tuesday night.”
Now that’s time spent at the stable, or out with the local hunt club. Bachor has also started designing Pilates workouts specifically for equestrians. “You have to be able to control your body,” she said. “It’s very hard to do that when you’re on a moving target.”
Bachor is also looking for opportunities to teach for free. It’s a habit she picked up at Miami’s Lotus House, the largest women’s shelter in the country.
“They weren’t athletes, but they tried really hard and they loved it,” Bachor said. “They loved that somebody was coming to do something fun with them, and trying to make them feel better. Because I’ve been there.”
Nathan Miller
Kanchisar Jaradhanaiphat, left, and John Schildbach hope to open Muanjai Tea on Main Street in Millerton by June 6.
MILLERTON — The former home of Candy-O’s on Main Street will soon get new life, with a Bangkok-inspired tea shop expected to open in June.
Millerton residents John Schildbach and Kanchisar Jiradhanaiphat hope to open Muanjai Tea on June 6. The couple — who are set to be married in May — are currently securing permits to renovate the former candy store, with plans to transform the space into a Thai-inspired tea shop modeled after urban cafés, featuring an elevated atmosphere and menu.
“This isn’t going to be a bubble tea shop,” Schildbach said, describing a menu that seeks to bring authentic Thai tea culture to Millerton.
Highlights will include nom yen — a pink milk tea made with sweetened condensed milk and flavored syrup — as well as coffee cham yen, a blend of coffee and tea. The menu will also feature Thai tea ice cream floats, lattes and matcha drinks.
But the pair don’t want to limit the menu to just desserts and sweets. Schildbach said they are aiming for a sophisticated — yet affordable — menu that offers an authentic, approachable take on Thai tea shops.
That desire for authenticity will be built into the space itself, Schildbach said. Plans for the tea shop include adding a wall to create a service window typical of Bangkok tea shops, accented with tile and wood details.
The goal is to fit in with Millerton’s current lineup of Main Street businesses, while providing a unique experience for locals and visitors alike.
“It’s going to be like you’re in a tea shop in Thailand,” Schildbach said.
The pair are currently waiting approval from the Dutchess County Department of Health for the tea shop’s septic system — a process that Schildbach said is causing the biggest delays and may require adjustments to planned interior seating.
Businesses in Millerton rely on private septic systems that limit allowable capacity. That friction between local business interests and Health Department regulations spurred village and Town of North East officials to collaborate on a municipal wastewater system that’s planned to begin construction in 2027 with a target completion date in 2028.
In the meantime, Schildbach and Jiradhanaiphat must seek approval from county officials before officially opening. Schildbach said he hopes inspectors will consider the incoming wastewater system and grant some leeway for the tea shop.
Once it’s open, the pair plans to offer drinks at a comparable price to surrounding businesses. To keep operating costs low, Schildbach and Jiradhanaiphat plan to staff the shop themselves at first. They plan to open the shop from Thursdays through Mondays, but have yet to set specific hours.
Schildbach said he plans to expand gradually, adding staff and menu items in step with growing demand.
Eventually, Schildbach and Jiradhanaiphat hope to broaden the menu to include Thai-American fusion and more complete meals, but the shop will initially focus on beverages and small bites.
“I think that would be really cool to bring some more of that,” Schildbach said, drawing attention to Thai cuisine’s rising popularity in the United States. “People seem to be excited about it.”
Graham Corrigan
New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey buys two books from Oblong Books in Millerton on Thursday, April 23, after inducting the business into the state Historic Business Preservation Registry.
MILLERTON — Fifty-one years after Dick Hermans and Holly Nelson opened Oblong Books, the Millerton bookstore has been recognized as part of New York State history.
Following a nomination from state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, Oblong Books was added to the New York State Historic Business Preservation Registry. Hermans and his daughter and co-owner, Suzanna Hermans, celebrated the designation Thursday alongside Hinchey, North East Town Supervisor Christopher Kennan and Kathy Moser, acting commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Hermans and Nelson opened Oblong Books in 1975 after graduating from college, finding a home for their bookstore at 32 Main St. Multiple relocations and more than 200 employees later, the business remains a fixture in Millerton.
“We’ve been through thick and thin,” said Dick Hermans. “I think we’ve been successful because we stay involved in the community.”
Employees of Oblong Books and local Town of North East and Village of Millerton officials gathered with State Senator Michell Hinchey on Thursday, April 23, to honor the bookstore’s placement on the New York State Historic Business Preservation Registry.Photo Provided
The designation honors New York businesses that have operated for at least 50 years. Oblong is the first business from Millerton to receive the honor. “Oblong has stood the test of time, even in the age of e-commerce,” Hinchey said. “It has remained authentically true to its mission of human connection.”
In 2001, Hermans opened a second store in Rhinebeck. Hermans’ daughter Suzanna started working at Oblong shortly thereafter, helping the store navigate the newly-imperiled physical market.
“We thought that was going to be the death knell of books,” she said, “but it turns out a physical book is actually a perfect object. You can share it with a friend, or you can keep it for 50 years.”
The bookstore is known not only for its literary inventory, but also for author events, music selections and children’s toys.
The owners’ commitment to community also extends to the nonprofit world: since 2023, Oblong has partnered with the Beacon Prison Books project to provide free books to incarcerated individuals in the region.
E-books are now available on Oblong’s website, too. But the space has largely remained the same, with its weathered wooden floorboards and cozy nooks. There’s a section for music and records upstairs, and Oblong Jr. downstairs for younger readers and toy connoisseurs.
Next time visitors stop by, they will see something new: a window decal bearing the New York State Historic Business Preservation Registry logo.
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Nathan Miller
A group of gardeners and community members hear Maryanne Snow-Pitts explain proper care for newly-planted tree saplings near the Harlem Valley Rail Trail in Wassaic after Snow-Pitts planted two serviceberry trees in celebration of Arbor Day on Friday, April 24.
Leila Hawken
AMENIA — The proposed workforce housing subdivision on Route 22 is awaiting feedback from the Amenia Fire Company after developers added more water tanks to plans for the property.
Planning Board members discussed other outstanding questions involving the Cascade Creek workforce housing subdivision at their regular meeting on Wednesday, April 22, continuing a conservation subdivision process that began nearly a year ago.
Board engineer John Andrews said that once the conservation analysis step is approved by the board, the next step will be the preliminary subdivision approval process that will likely need a public hearing. When that preliminary approval is granted by the board, then the developer, Hudson River Housing, will be able to begin the application process for final subdivision approval, which can involve another public hearing.
The next step in the present process, outlined by board attorney Cassandra Britton, is for the developer to submit to fire department officials the completed, agreed-upon package defining fire suppression plans, including water holding tanks, and a traffic study to measure estimated numbers of daily trips to be generated by the development.
The developer is working through the state Department of Transportation to develop more traffic studies. The planning board indicated that such studies must be completed before May 15, while schools are in session. Previous traffic density studies were done in June.
Summarizing the overall project, Peter Sanders of Rennia Engineering, representing the developer, said that Cascade Creek would consist of 28 lots on 24 acres, including two conservation parcels, arranged along a single 24-foot-wide road. Current drawings show two road cuts off of Route 22 to service a one-way subdivision road, although discussion continues on whether a single two-way entrance would be better.
Sanders recalled that the planning board had visited the site on Wednesday, March 11, and had developed additional comments based on that visit, resulting in plan adjustments.
After consultation with fire officials, a tentative plan calls for the installation of two 30,000-gallon water storage tanks on site, though final approval from the fire company is still required.
Also, one of the lots that would have abutted Route 22 was moved to the interior of the subdivision, with more vegetation to be planted throughout to provide screening.
Responding to board concerns about wanting to promote diversity in home design, Sanders said that various flexible components will add variety, including garages, porches, decks and a variety of exterior paint colors. He added that the variables will become clearer during the design approval phase when the site plan drawings are presented.
Important to the planning board and to member Ken Topolsky in particular is an ongoing debate with the developer over whether local residents could benefit from a preferential system for selection to be able to purchase the homes in the development.
“I will continue to push on this,” Topolsky said. “What we need to do is serve residents of Amenia.” His research has shown that preferential systems are in place in some communities, leading him to reason that they are allowed.
Representatives of Hudson River Housing have maintained that such systems are not allowed.
Discussion is expected to continue at the next planning board meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 13.
Natalia Zukerman
Tremaine Gallery exhibit ‘Vulnerable Earth’ explores climate change in the High Arctic.
“Vulnerable Earth,” on view through June 14 at the Tremaine Gallery at Hotchkiss, brings together artists who have traveled to one of the most remote regions on Earth and returned with work shaped by first-hand experience of a fragile, rapidly shifting planet, inviting viewers to sit with the tension between awe and loss, beauty and vulnerability.
Curated by Greg Lock, director of the Photography, Film and Related Media program at The Hotchkiss School, the exhibition centers on participants in The Arctic Circle, an expeditionary residency that sends artists and scientists into the High Arctic aboard a research vessel twice a year. The result is a show documenting their lived experience and what it means to stand in a place where climate change is not theoretical but visible, immediate and accelerating.
That shared experience — weeks spent together navigating the waters around the Svalbard Archipelago —forms the connective tissue of the exhibition. Artists work across video, photography, performance and digital media, but what binds them is proximity: to the landscape, to one another and to the evidence of environmental change.
“The residency is fantastic,” Lock said. “You fly into the most northerly airport on the planet, get on a ship with a bunch of artists and then sail around the archipelago and find a bay or a glacier, get into little rubber boats and go to shore. There are three guides with rifles … and they form a triangle around us to protect us from polar bears, and then you’re just there.”
That immediacy — of risk, of beauty, of isolation — is evident in the work on view. “Everyone is concerned with the environmental shifts that are occurring, and you’re witnessing it out there,” Lock said. “We were cleaning the beach one day and there’s so much trash on this beach in the middle of nowhere … because there’s plastic in the sea. We are witnessing these things firsthand.”
Lock’s own contributions underscore how quickly the landscape is changing. In one piece, two photographs are mounted on a glacier-shaped metal stand. “I went to photograph the glacier, and we were sailing around and because of the map, we knew we were at the glacier, but we couldn’t see it,” he said. Dense fog, created by warming air meeting cold ground, obscured what should have been unmistakable. Only later, in post-production, did the glacier emerge. “In Photoshop, I could extract the glacier, but to the naked eye, it was no longer visible.”
Other changes are even more stark. Lock recalled the reaction of the ship’s captain comparing current conditions to his charts. “His ‘up to date’ map showed that the glacier was 8 kilometers between one side and the other, but we parked at one side, sailed and moored on the other side and it was 1.4 kilometers,” Lock said. “So, it’s just like bam. It’s happening so fast.”
There is a sense of urgency in these images, but the collection also is a testament to process and to the community that forms in such extreme conditions. “There’s quite a nice network of artists who are pretty tight,” Lock said. “We were on a ship together in tight quarters for three weeks, so we got to know each other really well. And I found connections across the work with my own practice.”
Mindful of the environmental stakes embedded in the work itself, Lock made decisions aimed at reducing impact when curating the exhibition. “A lot of this work I printed with their permission to cut down on my carbon footprint,” he said.
And yet, for all its focus on fragility and loss, the Arctic exerts a pull. “It was funny, I’ve been twice,” Lock said. “When I left the last time, I was like, oh, I don’t know if I need to go back. And then I got back, and all I wanted to do was go back.”
The Tremaine Gallery is located on the Hotchkiss campus at 11 Interlaken Road, Lakeville. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, 12 noon to 4 p.m.
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