
Main Street gets new sidewalks on Monday, June 3, a project identified as a goal of the Comprehensive Plan.
Christine Bates
Main Street gets new sidewalks on Monday, June 3, a project identified as a goal of the Comprehensive Plan.
MILLERTON — Progress made by the Town of North East and the Village of Millerton to achieve the goals of the 2019 Comprehensive Plan was reviewed at a special meeting of the Town Board on Thursday, May 30.
The North East Town Board, Village Mayor Jenn Najdek and members of the Town’s Zoning Review Committee and residents collaborated in a discussion that evaluated actions taken since the Comprehensive Plan was adopted 4 1/2 years ago.
The plan was created with involvement of residents, business leaders and elected and appointed officials as a policy document to guide future decisions about growth, regulations and capital improvements. The overarching goal was to prioritize “economic and environmental resiliency” in a time of climate disruption.
“It’s a good time to look back at the plan, and its contents and goals, and to see what we have done and if it’s consistent or not,” said Town Supervisor Chris Kennan.
The plan lists actions that the Town and the Village could take over a decade or more, and categorized them as short-, medium- and long-term initiatives.
Edie Greenwood, chair of the Town’s Zoning Review Committee, which currently is completing a review of zoning in the Town’s commercial district, said the Comprehensive Plan guided the committee in its work.
The group reviewed the status of certain goals that were considered high priority in 2019.
Community Calendar
The consensus regarding this goal was to collaborate with the Village and the NorthEast-Millerton Library “to see what we can do to create a community calendar,” Kennan said.
Form new committees
One of the Plan’s goal is to form new committees as outlined in the plan. The group endorsed this strategy but also commented on the the challenge finding people who are willing to volunteer.
Town/Village meeting
Mayor Najdek and Supervisor Kennan were fully open to holding a joint public meeting in the future and to make it an interactive event.
“I’m all for it,” Najdek said.
Communication goals
Kennan, noting that no single mode of communication to reach a community can succeed, pointed to updated websites, especially for the Village, and the Town’s newsletter, which is sent to 350 email addresses.
Recreation, events
Mayor Najdek said the Village’s new recreation director will help organize events and activities, including a summer program for children at the park set to start in July.
Townscape also was mentioned, along with the North East Community Center, the library and the Millerton Business Alliance as contributing to meeting the Plan’s goals.
Major strides
Kennan lauded the work completed to date on engineering studies for the wastewater project and said that while financing remains to be achieved, the Village and the Town have made significant progress.
“The engineering work completed already moves us farther than many other communities I’ve talked to,” Kennan said.
The 2019 plan calls for improvements to the downtown sidewalks, and Mayor Najdek noted that with one side of Main Street completed, work was scheduled to begin this week on the north side of Main from Dutchess Avenue to the crosswalk in front of the library.
The Comprehensive Plan calls for ongoing improvements at Eddie Collins Park. Phase I was completed in 2022 after a $2.2 million renovation, and Phase II is designed to include a pool, bathhouse and community room.
“Five years ago we established the goals for Eddie Collins Park, for sewers and for sidewalk upgrades,” Kennan said. “That’s another check mark.”
The Plan is a large document that covers a range to topics from 5G wireless installation to parking-lot planning, along with housing, including affordable housing, zoning, agricultural matters such as “right to farm,” climate matters, and viewsheds, to name a few.
Kennan pointed to the plaque on the wall in the back of the Town Hall meeting room signifying Climate Smart Bronze certification, thanks to the North East/Millerton Climate Smart Communities task force.
One observation from the group was an assumption that many residents probably are unaware of the Comprehensive Plan.
Kathleen Spahn, who recently moved to the Village, told the group, “As a newcomer to town, I have to say that I was doing research on where to land and one of the things that I noticed in Millerton and North East was the existence of both the Comprehensive Plan and the climate task force, so I think that they’re big selling points for the area.”
In New York, the state legislature first enacted statutes that gave definition to Comprehensive Plans. “The comprehensive plan identifies what the community looks like now, what it should look like in the future (goals, objectives, principles), how the community intends to get there (regulatory standards, devices and legal instruments) and why it should be done (protection, preservation, conservation, enhancement, growth and development),” according to a legal memorandum issued by New York’s Department of State.
The Comprehensive Plan can be found at: www.townofnortheastny.gov/comprehensive-plan-2019.
Olivia Wickwire, no. 2, tags out a runner at first base. The Webutuck Warriors varsity softball team beat the Germantown Clippers 14-7 at home Friday, April 25.
AMENIA — Webutuck girls varsity softball beat visiting Germantown 14-7 Friday, April 25.
Yelling from the dugout is apparently just as important to the game as throwing. Webutuck players cheered and shouted at their teammates on the field the whole afternoon. Photo by Nathan Miller
The game started off with an early lead from Germantown. The Clippers scored three runs in the first inning.
The Warriors responded in kind with a run of their own in the bottom of the first. The real magic started to come in the second inning, when Webutuck held Germantown with no runs and managed to rack up five in the bottom, brining the score to 6-1 at by the end of the second inning.
Abby Keefer, no. 8, waits at third base for an opportunity to run to home plate. Photo by Nathan Miller
On the mound, Webutuck pitcher Madison Kruger, no. 10, showed great skill dispensing of batters. Kruger struck out 16 batters through the game.
In the fifth inning, Germantown’s batters managed three more runs, spurring the Warriors back into action in the batters box. Webutuck responded with six more runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Germantown managed another run in the sixth, but Webutuck scored two more, brining the score to 14-7 going into the top of the seventh.
Webutuck Warriors pitcher Madison Kruger, no. 10, racked up 16 strikeouts during the game.Photo by Nathan Miller
A few hundred feet away the varsity baseball squad played against the boys from Germantown.
The Warriors won that matchup 4-3 after a tie-breaking run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Webutuck pitcher Troy Brazee led in strikeouts with six. Zach Latrell had two and Pearse Williams had one.
AMENIA — The Town Baord signed a resolution bringing an end to a history of litigation between Amenia’s Zoning Board of Appeals and principals of Kent Hollow Mine at a special meeting on Thursday, April 24.
It was a brief meeting with no public discussion before the vote except to make a clarifying change in the resolution’s wording, suggested by the Special Counsel to the town, George Lithco.
Under the conditions of the settlement, Kent Hollow will limit its soil mining work to 33 acres on its 82.3-acre Kent Hollow Road property, as agreed to in a 2017 permit application, and will limit the amount of mined materials to 15,000 yards annually, limiting the amount that may be taken from the property for its own use to 750 yards each month.
Operations are also to be limited to weekdays, with no operations on weekends, holidays or after sunset. The amendment made by Lithco before the resolution’s approval was to indicate that the word “annually” was to refer to a calendar year.
Mining phases are to be limited to five-acre parcels at any one time, with Kent Hollow agreeing to reclaim the mined areas as part of each phase whenever two acres have reached their final grade and are no longer used for mining.
Kent Hollow Mine has operated a small-scale sand and gravel mining operation since first applying for and having been granted a permit in 1978 as a non-conforming use. That original permit expired in 1989. The mine sought to expand operations through a 2016-17 application process.
It then submitted an application to the town of Amenia to increase operations in 2016 but withdrew that application shortly afterward, resubmitting it in February 2017.
The ZBA denied that 2017 application based on the mine’s non-conforming use designation and other issues, leading Kent Hollow to appeal. Litigation suing the town and officials resulted seeing the case considered eventually by the Dutchess County Supreme Court and the Southern District of New York.
During a special meeting on Monday, April 28, the Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to authorize the settlement that had been agreed to by the Town Board. ZBA members David Menegat and James Wright recused from the vote.
Tim Middlebrook, President of the Columbia Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, left, Amenia Town Supervisor Leo Blackman, center, and Amenia Historical Society President Betsy Strauss unveiled a new historical marker at the Old Amenia Burying Ground on Saturday, April 26. The marker commemorates revolutionary war veterans buried at the cemetery where the Red Meeting House once stood on Mygatt Road.
AMENIA — Tim Middlebrook of the Sons of the American Revolution and Amenia Historical Society President Betsy Strauss unveiled a new historical marker honoring Revolutionary War vets in the Amenia Burying Ground.
Rain all morning had threatened the event, but historical society members, lovers of history and sons of the revolution persisted and the rain let up just in time.
The gathering at the old burying ground on Saturday, April 26, began with Middlebrook, president of the Columbia Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, talking about the process of acquiring the sign from the Pomeroy foundation. He thanked the Burke family, longtime neighbors of the burying ground, for the work they and their father, Bill Burke, had done with the cemetery.
Bill’s son, Stephen, said he and his father spent a lot of time mapping and cleaning the burying ground. “Putting the stones back up,” he said. “Putting them back up again.”
Stephen said his father had completed a map of the burying ground with the identifiable plots. That was part of Bill Burke and Betsy Strauss’s work with the historical society to find revolutionary war veterans and attain historical recognition for the cemetery.
“It’s pretty impressive, it’s all this poster board that he put together,” Stephen said. “When I first saw it I said ‘wow.’ Then my sister Karen said ‘Oh we’eve already translated all that and into this.’ I thought I had found a hidden gem.”
Tim Middlebrook of the Sons of the American Revolution and Amenia Historical Society President Betsy Strauss told the crowd of neighbors and historical society members about the centuries-long history of the Old Amenia Burying Ground and listed the names of the known Revolutionary War veterans in the cemetery. Photo by Nathan Miller
After Middlebrook’s remarks, the crowd moved into the burying ground for snacks and mingling, where the graves of revolutionary war veterans had been marked with American flags.
Betsy Strauss had lists of the names for visitors:
Col. William Barker
1740-1820
Daniel Bartlett
1755-1837
John Bates
1756-1801
Maj. Simeon Cook
1726-1811
Maj. Robert Freeman
1727-1798
John Garnsey
1734-1799
Robert Hebard
1737-1798
Capt. Job Mead Sr.
1735-1819
Job Mead Jr.
1761-1838
Capt. Abiah Palmer
1758-1834
Capt. Elijah Park
1744-1795
Capt. David Parsons
1748-1812
David Rundall
1757-1848
Samuel St. John
1752-1785
Father Andrew O'Connor
AMENIA — Father Andrew O’Connor celebrated his first Easter at the Church of the Immaculate Conception after arriving in February to serve the parishioners of Amenia, Pine Plains and Millerton.
In an interview with The Millerton News, he commented that Easter was a time to see whole families together and meet young people home from college or prep school. His busy schedule includes masses on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and another on Sunday night at Choate Rosemary Hall prep school when he visits his family in Connecticut.
Now that spring has arrived the new priest is enchanted by our rural landscape. “Sometimes I ask myself if I wandered into Austria.”
When asked why he was sent by the New York Archdiocese to Amenia, O’Connor mused that these decisions are never quite clear but that perhaps it was because of his fluent Spanish and love of Guatemala, or maybe his faith in the power of art. O’Connor is a visual artist who believes that the church and art nourish each other. He has a background in literature and the fine arts and is already making plans for a sculpture depicting the Ascension.
His book, “A Tuscan Résumé,” which is available at Oblong Books, describes a brief sabbatical in Florence studying sacred art. In 2000 Father O’Connor founded Sacred Art Heals, a Catholic not for profit, that fosters collaborative projects with local artists in parishes from Mississippi to Paris. His fashion line, Social Fabric, produces organic cotton with natural dyes in Central America for clothing made in the United States. Cameron Diaz modeled his linen shorts in a Vogue feature article.
Father O’Connor discovered his talent for learning languages at an early age — first French, then Spanish, Irish in Dublin, Italian and now he’s studying German. He became ordained in 1996 and served in parishes in the United States, Europe and Latin America. For the last ten years he was pastor of St. Mary’s Church in New York City’s East Village where he was part of a Lower East Side preservation effort. Here he is supportive of reopening St. Patrick’s church in Millerton.