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Dutchess County Sheriff’s report
The following information was provided by the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office as the Harlem Valley area activity report for Dec. 28, 2023 - Jan. 3, 2024.
Dec. 29 — Deputies responded to Downey Road in the Town of North East for a mother/son verbal domestic dispute. Matter resolved without further incident.
Dec. 29 — Deputies responded to the Taconic Distillery located at 179 Bowen Road in the Town of Stanford for a reported theft of various archery targets from that location.
Dec. 29 — Deputies responded to 7 Fish St. in the Village of Millerton for a reported neighbor dispute. Matter resolved without any further police intervention.
Dec. 30 — Deputies responded to 5546 State Route 22 in the Town of North East to investigate a one-car rollover property damage automobile accident.
Dec. 31 — Deputies responded to the area of 6137 Route 22 in the Town of North East to investigate a car vs. dog automobile accident. Matter resolved without further police intervention.
Jan. 1 — Deputies responded to the Cumberland Farms in the Village of Millerton for a reported dispute between the clerk and a customer over the sale of a lotto ticket. Customer gone upon patrol’s arrival.
Jan. 3 — Deputies responded to Route 343 and Yellow City Road in the Town of Amenia for a car vs. utility pole injury accident. Investigation resulted in the arrest of Joseph Winter, 32, for driving while intoxicated. Winter charged and is to appear in the Town of Amenia Court at a later date.
If you have any information relative to the aforementioned cases or any other suspected criminal activity, please contact the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 845-605-CLUE (2583) or email dcsotips@gmail.com. All information will be kept confidential.
All persons arrested and charged are alleged to have committed the crime and are presumed innocent until proven guilty and are to appear in local courts later.
Pine Plains and Stanford in 2023
Pine Plains bicentennial
Pine Plains celebrated its bicentennial in 2023, beginning with a Community Day on Saturday, Sept. 9. Other celebrations included several presentations from the Little Nine Partners Historical Society, including the story of Morris Graham and slave Andrew Frazier, who came to Pine Plains around the time of the Revolutionary War.
In June there was a presentation on Seymour Smith, who left his entire estate to the town of Pine Plains for the purpose of education; the elementary school in Pine Plains is named after him.
Carson Solar
After over a year of hearings and meetings, the Carson Solar power plant at Pulvers Corners has been approved following a state finding that the array would cause no negative impact on the local environment (no emissions, light, noise, etc.).
The plant was approved to start moving forward at the Nov. 28 Planning Board meeting.
At the end of December, a group of neighbors and landowners near the proposed project filed a legal action in New York Supreme Court in Dutchess County seeking an injunction on the project.
Updating Stanford’s Comprehensive Plan
Town Supervisor Wendy Burton expressed great pleasure that the Town of Stanford’s 40-year-old Comprehensive Plan has finally been updated. The process started in 2010. The 2023 Comprehensive Plan was passed unanimously by the Town Board Thursday, Dec. 14.
“I once again would like to thank the multitude of volunteers who participated in the process since 2010. This was a true, bipartisan effort and I am grateful to everyone who made the commitment to be involved in this important process,” said Burton. “In January we will interview volunteers for the Zoning Commission, send out Requests for Proposals to Zoning Consultants, and begin the long-term and critical process of reviewing our Zoning Code, which dates back to 1982.”
Stanford Parks & Rec
The Stanfordville Recreation Campaign received a grant for $247,420 from the New York State Regional Development Council. It is the largest grant the town has ever received. The funding will be used to renovate the Stanford Playground and Recreation Campaign, or SPARC, to update accessibility and safety standards for parkgoers of all ages, regardless of mental or physical abilities. In early January, organizing will begin for volunteers for the actual building of the park.
Library to host monthly Supper Club
Lenny Sutton, left, who suggested the new NorthEast-Millerton Library Supper Club, set to meet at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 17, in the Library Annex, joined Francis Mousseron as they sampled offerings at the Library’s Cookbook Club. That group meets at 1 p.m. on the second Saturday of the month in the Library Annex.
MILLERTON — As winter sets in, the NorthEast-Millerton Library has revived the age-old concept of a potluck supper club to give residents an opportunity to prepare favorite recipes and share them with others in a pleasant evening of companionship and warm feelings.
All are welcome to the inaugural event at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 17, in the Library Annex at 28 Century Blvd.
Of what library director Rhiannon Leo-Jameson hopes will become a monthly program, she says, “It’s a fun spinoff from our cookbook group, which normally prepares a recipe from a current book. But this is exciting because we have more freedom to choose to cook a favorite recipe instead.”
She gives credit for the idea to cookbook group member Lenny Sutton who, along with the group, came up with the month’s theme of “Soup, Chowder and Stews,” with more ideas for future sessions.
In addition to the main dishes, she said participants are also welcome to bring support items such as crackers, bread, tea and coffee, and noted that the contributions need not be homemade.
A soup dessert is also an option “if somebody wants to bring it.”
There is no charge for the evening, and dinnerware will be provided.
Leo-Jameson noted that while the supper will be taking place in the small front room, pingpong and board games will be taking place in the larger room “so if you don’t want to eat, you can go play.”
Nonprofits get support
The nonprofit sector has for years relied on government support to provide social services that otherwise would not be funded. In 2010, the Urban Institute, founded by President Lyndon Johnson as an independent social and economic policy group supporting the War on Poverty, reported that $1 out of every $3 given to public charities came from government sources. In other words, about one-third of crucial social services wouldn’t be available to local communities without government support.
In Dutchess County, the Agency Partner Grant Program, entering its 12th year, has been a source of funding for nonprofit organizations across the county. On the front page this week, we report on biennial grants totaling almost $2 million awarded in the last week of 2023 to 32 nonprofits in our community.
The competitive grants are awarded based on an organization’s ability to demonstrate its vital community role. In announcing the latest round of grants, outgoing Dutchess County Executive William F.X. O’Neil said: “Our Agency Partner Grant Program continues to serve as an important collaboration between local nonprofit organizations and Dutchess County Government to address critical needs in our communities. We thank the Dutchess County Legislature for its ongoing support of the APG program and the agencies that strive every day to improve the lives of our residents.”
The Urban Institute has pointed out — in its study of the mutual dependency of governments and nonprofits — that while nonprofits are dependent upon the public sector, so, too, is government dependent on the nonprofit sector.
Nonprofits deliver vital social services, strengthen communities, and promote civic engagement.
In Dutchess County, the 32 nonprofits receiving grants provide a broad range of services. Some are familiar: assisting students with special needs; offering afterschool programs that nurture academic, social and behavioral development; providing English as a New Language (ENL) courses for elementary school students; promoting literacy, job skills training and 4-H youth development.
This grant funding also aims to address a much broader range of community needs: homelessness prevention; senior nonemergency medical transportation; initiatives to reduce criminal recidivism; programs for enhancing parenting skills, helping grandparents and other relatives caring for children; LGBTQ+ teen support; food, nutrition and health programs.
The list of recipients across Dutchess County, which includes our North East Community Center and a number of organizations based in Red Hook, Rhinebeck and Poughkeepsie, represents an impressive array of nonprofits helping to fulfill the diverse needs of our community. (For the full list, click here.)
