The Smithfield Church’s traditional Christmas Concert and Tea drew an enthusiastic overflow audience on Saturday, Dec. 7, to hear a varied holiday program performed by the Smithfield Chamber Orchestra, the final concert of the Bang Family Concert Series. The orchestra acknowledged the standing ovation at the concert’s end.
AMENIA — Long a tradition within the Smithfield Valley, the annual Smithfield Church Christmas Concert and Tea thrilled an overflow audience on Saturday, Dec. 7. In addition to offering a varied selection of music within its historically authentic sanctuary space, the concert was dedicated to the memory of celebrated organist Will Carter of Pine Plains.
Performing under the baton of conductor Milt Lee, the Smithfield Chamber Orchestra of 14 members played a varied program of seasonal holiday music, along with Brazilian jazz, folk, Broadway and as an encore, “Jingle Bell Rock.” The audience got into the act with a sing-along portion that proved to be so successful it will likely become part of the annual tradition.
This year’s concert carried additional importance with the dedication of a plaque to the memory of organist Will Carter who in 2008 was the first featured solo organist to perform at the Christmas Concert and Tea. He went on to become the church’s regular organist for Sunday services. The plaque will be permanently affixed near the 1893 Johnson and Sons tracker organ that Carter relished playing. Carter died in the spring of this year.
Matt Finley, Director of the Smithfield Chamber Orchestra and a Pine Plains resident, noted that he first met Carter in Pine Plains, having learned that Carter was the owner and proprietor of the Pine Plains Wine and Spirits Shop, just 200 feet from Finley’s home. The musical connection was made.
Carter had served as church organist at Riverside Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. He was twice decorated by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to church music. His celebrated tenure at The Smithfield Church provided the concluding chapter in his professional performing life.
To view the concert video, go to www.thesmithfieldchurch.org.
Bill Schmick
The U.S. and Mexico are the only countries out of 19 other OECD countries where a substantial portion of the population lacks any form of health insurance. In the U.S., about 8% of the population, or 27 million people, are uninsured. That number is about to grow larger.
That data is part of an independent research study conducted by The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation. And that is despite the U.S. has spent more on health care than any other nation. In 2024, we spent 18% of gross domestic product on health care. That is nearly two times as much as the average OECD country.
Over a year ago, the Republican led U.S. Congress cut health care spending by cutting public subsidies for private health care insurance which caused millions to lose healthcare coverage. While on paper the savings seemed justifiable, in reality the cuts have just shifted the burden of paying for the uninsured patient to the hospitals, and ultimately, the taxpayer.
Before you ask, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act mandates that hospitals provide treatment to patients with emergency medical conditions, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. This federal law was enacted in 1986 to prevent patient dumping, where hospitals would refuse treatment to individuals based on their inability to pay or lack of insurance. This places hospitals and other health care clinics in harm’s way.
This is not some dire predicament that may happen in the years to come. Some for-profit hospitals are already reporting a 20% increase in uninsured visits, and one company is expecting as much as $1 billion less in profits for this year. And the administration is only getting started.
As part of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the administration and Congress are cutting an additional $625 billion in Medicaid over 10 years. The CBO estimates another 7.8 million people will become uninsured as a direct result of these changes. That would bring the total number of newly uninsured Americans to almost 17 million.
And the trend is not your friend. Baby Boomers of all income levels are retiring and will need increasing health care regardless of their ability to pay. If you look at the demographics, those most impacted by these changes are low-income adults in Medicaid expansion states. Young adults (ages 19-34) will be hurt as well. To put that in perspective, that’s 3 in 10 Gen Zers who are vulnerable according to the Urban Institute. People with disabilities who do not qualify for federal disability benefits (2.6 million), and rural residents, where it is estimated that $155 billion in reductions of Medicaid spending will occur.
In 2025, the federal, state, and local governments collectively spent $30.6 billion to cover the medical costs of uninsured patients, according to recent government studies. The total cost to taxpayers is higher when you consider uncompensated care costs. Each newly uninsured person can generate as much as $900 in lost revenues for hospitals, two-thirds of which translates into loss profits. Uninsured patients frequently pay 2 to 5 times more for care than insured patients. And that was before the ACA reductions and the expected cuts in Medicaid coverage.
In this era of populism, where the GOP majority is already razor-thin, some might think that this kind of legislation is tantamount to political suicide. It would be, but politicians are a crafty lot. Most of the cuts in Medicaid will only become law after the midterm elections this year. In which case some of the base that Republicans depend upon the most to deliver a majority in Congress in November won’t realize the devastation to their well-being until it is too late. I won’t mention the potential loss of life involved since some might accuse me of valuing human life more than money.
Hospitals and emergency rooms will continue to absorb rising uncompensated care from a combination of state-directed payment cuts, much higher charity care, reduced Medicaid/ACA funding, and limited stopgap state programs. Some will attempt to pass on those higher costs to you via increased premiums on your own health care. Others will need to apply to the government to bail them out. In which case, you, the taxpayer, will pay for those bailouts as well.
Our health care system is a wreck. The U.S. has one of the lowest rates of physician graduates and the lowest rate of primary care physicians per 1,000 people. Americans also have one of the highest rates of dying prematurely where men are more likely to die from avoidable causes than women.
The U.S., on average, has the poorest health outcomes of any high-income country, according to The Commonwealth Fund. The May 28, 2026, paper “U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2026” argued that a “Lack of universal coverage, weak primary care infrastructure, high out-of-pocket costs, and a complex insurance system contribute to and exacerbate the nation’s uniquely poor performance relative to its peers.” I couldn’t have said it better.
Bill Schmick is a founding partner of Onota Partners, Inc., in the Berkshires. Bill’s forecasts and opinions are purely his own and do not necessarily represent the views of Onota Partners Inc. None of his commentary is or should be considered investment advice.
Millerton News
The following excerpts from The Millerton News were compiled by Kathleen Spahn and Rhiannon Leo-Jameson of the North East-Millerton Library.
Railroad Seeks To Abandon Branch Line
WASHINGTON, D. C.- The New York New Haven and Hartford Railroad has filed a brief with the Interstate Commerce Commission seeking to abandon the Pine Plains-Shekomeko branch of the railroad on the grounds that maintenance of this section of road is not justified. According to figures provided by the railroad company, it will cost $13,000 to maintain the track for the next five years. The 5.1 miles of track is of sixty-pound rails rolled in 1888 and if operation of the branch is to be continued, the rails should be replaced, the railroad argues.
Missing Dover Man Returns
John Fleck, 38, of Dover Plains, who was the object of a search by the Dutchess County sheriff’s office and Poughkeepsie police after he disappeared on Tuesday afternoon of last week, returned to his home the past week-end. Fleck went to Poughkeepsie to visit his father, who was seriously ill, and was not seen after leaving his father’s home. When he finally returned home he gave the explanation that he had been looking for a job.
About Millerton
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Brusie are the parents of a son born Friday at Sharon Hospital.
Robert Valentine and Wallace Hart of Hartford are guests of Mrs. R. L. Valentine.
Mr. and Mrs. George Van Tassel left on Thursday for Alabama University after spending their vacation with Mr. and Mrs. Henry Van Tassel.
Fred and Howard Bain, R. J. Silvernale, Oliver Valentine, Roland Fenn and Yorke Blanchard enjoyed a week-end fishing trip in Vermont.
Miss Mary Finn, who is employed at Hotchkiss School, is spending a few weeks with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Finn.
Fire Destroys Buildings At Copake Resort
COPAKE, Aug. 28 - Two alarms were answered by the Copake Fire Department over the week-end. The most serious blaze broke out on the Island of Paradise at Copake Lake, at about 1:30 a. m. Sunday, destroying the main office building and seven cottages. No estimate has been made of the damage.
An oil stove set fire to the tenant house on the farm of Mrs. Maude White, occupied by the Cecil Decker family, Saturday morning. Members of the family extinguished the flames before the firemen arrived. The furnishings of two rooms were considerably damaged.
Captain Glendenning and family were in Schenectady on Monday.
Mr. and Mrs. Foster Ham visited friends at Kinderhook Lake on Monday.
$1,000 Fine and Year in Prison Face Buyers of Bootleg Potatoes
By MARK SULLIVAN
In “potato control,” passed by both Senate and House, there are provisions so extreme that it is fair to doubt whether Congress understood them. On its passage through the House August 14, only one hour was allowed for debate, and individual speeches were limited to five and three minutes. In the Senate, the debate was less than an hour. It is fair to assume Republican Representative Clifford R. Hope, of Kansas, was right when he said: “If this measure could be adequately and thoroughly discussed on the floor, there would not be fifty votes in the House in favor of it.”
As to whether the country understands “potato control” there need be no doubt whatever. The country does not understand it. Newspapers contained little or nothing about it. This was natural, for “potato control” was enacted merely as one amendment lumped among many others as the “A. A. A. amendments.” It is one of the conditions of the whole New Deal that when so much is being done, newspapers cannot fully report all of it. It will be interesting to see how the country feels when it does understand potato control.”
Col. Roosevelt And Family Visit Amenia
AMENIA, Aug. 28 – Colonel and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt and their son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. McMillan, were week-end guests at the De La Vergne Farms Hotel. While here they enjoyed the fishing in Turkey Hollow.
Among recent visitors at the O’Neil homestead were Commander Menton, U. S. Navy and Mrs. Menton of Woodhaven, L. I.
Dover Bank Is Robbed
Still under investigation by the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Department is a break-in at the Dover Plains branch of the Bank of Millbrook on Route 22.
The bank alarm went off at 3:06 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 23. The intruders evidently gained entrance through an attic louvre on the 1st floor structure, breaking through the ceiling to the main business area of the bank.
The culprits got away with close to $300 in wrapped coins. No suspects have been arrested.
Town, Village Are Stalled On Joint Police Plan
A plan to form a joint police department for Millerton and North East, discussed at a Village-Town Board meeting on July 26, has apparently stalled for the time being.
Millerton Mayor John Hermans said he is opposed to a joint police department. Village Attorney Walter Davis said legal research into the matter has stopped. Town Attorney Robert Trotta said the only way a joint department can be formed is through a Town-Village election. And North East Supervisor Frank Perotti, when asked if a joint department will indeed be formed, said, “We don’t know yet. We’re just going to drift along the way we are for the time being.”
At the July 26 meeting, the Village and Town Board discussed the Town’s interest in contracting with the Village for police services - a plan that differs from a joint police force. At the meeting, Trotta, basing his position on a 1973 State Attorney General’s opinion, said, “The town may not contract with the Village for police services out in the township. My advice would be for the town not to get into that arrangement.”
Fixed Price?
Prices on gas pumps in Millerton Tuesday read the same as they did one month ago, $1.55. Meanwhile, gas prices in nearby communities continue to decline. In Amenia, prices at the pumps for unleaded regular were $1.49, down 10 cents in the past month. But at the Cousin’s Mini Mart in Wassaic, the price had dropped to $1.46.
During June and early July, it appeared there was a price war in Millerton as gas prices were dropping between 7 and 9 cents a week.
At that time, they were the lowest prices in the area. However, prices have remained unchanged during the past few weeks.
Christine Bates
The property at 48 Verbank Road sold for $865,000 in June, close to Washington’s 12-month median of $900,000 as of July 31. The sale price was significantly higher than the $550,000 paid in 2021.
MILLBROOK — The median price of a single-family home in the Town of Washington and Village of Millbrook reached $900,000 for the 12 months ending July 31.
The latest annual figure was 1% higher than the $890,000 median recorded for the 12 months ending July 31, 2025, and sharply higher than the $492,500 median for the same period in 2024.
Single-family home sales in Washington have remained low since the beginning of 2022. Thirty-one homes sold during the 12 months ending July 31, down from 43 during the previous 12-month period. Twenty-four homes sold during the period ending July 31, 2024. Sales peaked during the pandemic, with 64 homes sold in the 12 months ending October 2021.
As of last week, 43 properties of all types were listed for sale, including four commercial properties on Franklin Avenue in the center of Millbrook. The 36 single-family homes on the market remained concentrated at the high end, with 14 listed for more than $1 million. Eleven were priced at or below the current median of $900,000, including just one below $500,000.
Listed below are properties transferred during March, April, May, June and July which were not previously reported as sold.
March
1 Pilgrim Lane — 2 bedroom/2 bath home on 0.23 acres in the Village of Millbrook transferred to Jill Sutherland for $425,000.
4-9 Bartel Place — 24 unit, 5,340 square foot commercial building in the Village of Millbrook transferred to Hudson River Housing Inc. for $639,936.
3283 Franklin Ave. — Converted residence in the Village of Millbrook transferred to M&K Imports LLC for $650,000.
561 Verbank Road (Parcel 209387) — 41.27 acres transferred to William Coleman Trustee for $350,000.
5103-5105 Route 82 — Multiple residences on 1.17 acres transferred to Salt Point Serenity House LLC for $600,000.
April
Verbank Road (Parcel 606895) — 37.18 vacant acres transferred to Millbrook Estates for $875,000.
May
97-101 Wing Road — 5 bedroom/4.5 bath estate on 33.99 acres transferred to Philip Tom for $3.24 million.
10 Halcyon Road — 1.55 acres transferred to NLF Bus Portfolio LLC for $1,427,840.
June
24 Valley Farm Road — 3 bedroom/1.5 bath home in the Village of Millbrook on 3.34 acres transferred to Luke Hayman for $300,000.
48 Verbank Road — 3 bedroom/2 bath home on 1.61 acres transferred to Christian Borle for $865,000.
1190 Chestnut Ridge Road — 5 bedroom/6 full bath/2 half bath home on 21.34 acres assessed at $3.46 million transferred to Shearburn GST LLC for $9.65 million.
4388 Route 82 — 6 bedroom/4 bath home on 10.09 acres transferred to William J. Coate Trustee for $900,000.
July
1 Johnson Lane — 2 bedroom/1 bath cape on 2.13 acres in the Village of Millbrook transferred to 1 Johnson Lane LLC for $850,000.
33 Upper Lane — 3 bedroom/3bath townhouse condo in the Village of Millbrook transferred to Linda Ray for $775,000.
447 Butts Hollow Road — 2 bedroom/1 bath on 12.5 acres transferred to Louisa Levison for $1.35 million.
4098 Route 44 — 4 bedroom/3 bath home with two cottages transferred to Allison Musmand for $2,225,000.
188 Nine Partners Lane — 4 bedroom/4 full bath/2 half bath on 28.38 acres transferred to Patrick Magnarella for $2,027,500.
Nine Partners Lane (Parcel 772290) — 3.02 acres of vacant land transferred to Patrick Magnarella for $350,000.
Crescent Road (Parcel 654563) — 2 acres of vacant land transferred to 47-49 Crescent LLC for $60,000.
Route 44 (Parcel 659462) — 2.8 acres of land transferred to Sutton Acres XL LLC for $150,000.
*Town of Washington recorded real estate transfers not previously reported as sales from March 1 to July 31 from Dutchess County Office of Real Property. First Key MLS and market data from InfoSparks. Details on each property from Dutchess Parcel Access. Current listings from One Key MLS. Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Advisor with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in Connecticut and New York.
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Leila Hawken
Amenia residents discuss the ecology of the town’s bogs and fens during a Conservation Advisory Council meeting Wednesday, Aug. 19.
AMENIA — Local bogs and fens have quietly supported the town’s environment for thousands of years, storing carbon, absorbing water and preserving records of ecological change. But these fragile wetlands can be damaged quickly.
Christy Gast and other members of Opera Turbia joined the Amenia Conservation Advisory Council for a public meeting Wednesday, Aug. 19, as part of the group’s research for an opera about U.S. wetlands.
The three-act work will premiere at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, known as MASS MoCA, in North Adams, Massachusetts, on Saturday, March 20, 2027. It will be presented as part of an exhibition titled “Until We Get to the Core.”
Opera Turbia is co-directed by Camila Marambio and Ariel Bustamante, with collaborators Gast, Rosario Ureta and Antonia Peón-Veiga. The group’s research has taken its members to peatlands and bogs in Puerto Rico, Tierra del Fuego, the Berkshires and, most recently, Amenia.
The session began with a presentation by ecologist Terryanne Maenza-Gmelch, who explained how bogs and fens formed after glaciers retreated at the end of the Ice Age. Over time, pollen, sphagnum moss and other organic material accumulated in the wetlands, eventually forming peat. Core samples can provide a record of those environmental changes.
Much of the discussion focused on the difference between bogs and fens, both of which can be found in Amenia.
Bogs generally receive most of their water from precipitation, while fens are fed by groundwater or surface water. Both can accumulate peat, store carbon and help regulate water. Fens can also act like sponges, holding water and reducing flooding.
The group discussed Amenia’s ecological history, the environmental value of its wetlands and ways to conserve those resources.
Participants also considered alternatives to peat-based gardening products.
“We’re surrounded by wetlands,” Gast observed.
Resident Vicki Doyle noted that the wetlands south of Freshtown Plaza play an important role in absorbing stormwater runoff.
“It takes thousands of years to create [a bog], but it can be destroyed in a day,” said one resident.
After taking notes on words and phrases shared during the discussion, Natalia Zukerman led a collaborative songwriting workshop. Participants’ observations, memories and ideas became the basis of a song recorded by Opera Turbia that may be incorporated into a chorus at the MASS MoCA installation.
The Arts Mid-Hudson project is supported by the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with support from the governor’s office and the New York State Legislature.
For more info, contact cgast@ameniany.gov.
Christine Bates
Anti-Trump signs are visible through the smashed rear window of a Millerton couple's Subaru hatchback after an unknown vandal walked down their driveway and damaged the glass.
MILLERTON — A car displaying anti-Trump political messages was vandalized while parked in a Millerton couple’s driveway late Friday, Aug. 14.
The vehicle’s rear window featured a “No Kings” sign and an image of President Donald Trump referencing Iran and Jeffrey Epstein. The owners believe those displays may have prompted someone to smash the Subaru hatchback's rear window, although investigators have found no evidence confirming a political motive.
The residents, who asked not to be identified because they fear additional targeting, said the car was parked several car lengths from the street inside their Dutchess Avenue home in the Village of Millerton. They discovered the damage the following morning and reported it to the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office.
The residents have a long history of activism in the community, regularly participating in public protests of the Trump administration and advocating for residents to remove what they deem are offensive signs and imagery.
“People know we have protested antisemitic signs and Confederate flags in the village," one of them said. "Most Saturdays we join the demonstrations in front of the White Hart in Salisbury.”
Dutchess County Sheriff's Capt. John Watterson said the department hasn't seen evidence that the incident was politically motivated. There are currently no suspects in the investigation.
D.H. Callahan
Dennis James plays the glass armonica in Colonial costume.
In the early 1760s, Benjamin Franklin was one of the most popular people in the world. The writer, printer, inventor and electricity pioneer was known throughout the British Colonies in America, as well as in Europe, as a respected intellectual and diplomat. While we know him as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he spent almost a third of his life in Europe. Eight of those years were spent in France, working to secure support from the French military during the Revolutionary War. But before that, he spent 18 years in England as a diplomatic representative from the colonies.
It was during that time when Franklin first witnessed a musician play a series of glass bowls by wetting his fingers and drawing them across the bowls’ rims. The sound was haunting and otherworldly — like nothing he, nor anyone else, had ever heard before. But as Franklin was transfixed by the sound, he saw what many great innovators see when witnessing something new: inefficiencies. The musician was moving all over the place, working far too hard to make these angelic sounds. So Franklin went about fixing the problem.
In 1761, Franklin commissioned an English glass blower to make him 36 glass bowls of specific diameters and thickness. He then mounted them on a rotating, lathe-like structure, interstacking the smaller bowls inside the openings of the larger ones. Now, instead of reaching all around a table, the musician could play the bowls in a style closer to a piano, simply by moving his fingers. Franklin called his new invention the armonica, after the Italian word for harmony, “armonia,” and was known to play it for friends and visitors.
For somebody whose name is synonymous with money, his face famously gracing the $100 bill, Franklin wasn’t quite as capitalistically minded as one might expect. He declined to patent the invention, instead allowing other instrument fabricators to make their own without paying him fees. Possibly due to his altruism, the armonica caught on, with pieces written for it by such compositional legends as Mozart and Beethoven.
Now, the instrument is coming to Great Barrington as part of the Berkshire Opera Festival. For its 10th anniversary, the festival is presenting “Lucia di Lammermoor” by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. The opera, which will be performed in its original Italian, is one of the most prominent works in the “bel canto” style. The term “bel canto” translates to “beautiful voice,” but today, the style can be best summed up as a more dramatic style, allowing performers to match their vocal tones to subjects or moods. This essentially lets the singers act with their voices through song.
The opera is most commonly performed with a flute solo, but the Festival chose to enlist the armonica, as was originally called for by Donizetti. To play it, BOF is bringing in multi-instrumentalist Dennis James, who has already demonstrated his armonica skills to Berkshire audiences at the American premiere of George Benjamin’s opera “Written on Skin” at Tanglewood in 2013.
“Lucia di Lammermoor” will run at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington on Saturday, Aug. 22; Tuesday, Aug. 25; and Friday, Aug. 28. For tickets and more information, visit berkshireoperafestival.org/
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