Webutuck’s $12.6 million project to begin this summer

Courtesy Webutuck Central School District
AMENIA — The final contractor bids for the North East Webutuck Central School District capital improvement project were accepted at the WCSD Board of Education’s Monday, Feb. 12 meeting. Work is slated to begin this summer.
The board first proposed the Webutuck CSD capital improvement project in December 2022. Once the project was voted on and approved in May 2023, the board began soliciting contract bids.
The work will be done with no additional tax impact on residents because a capital improvement debt incurred 20 years ago will be paid off at the same time the new debt is added, and dollar for dollar, the amount is almost the same.
In December 2022, the board named three reasons for the proposed projects, saying they were need-based, necessary for the health and safety of the students and staff, and that they focused on critical infrastructure needs.
The improvements that the contractors will begin this summer include facilities updates: on-site parking, sidewalks and roofs must all be replaced due to aging and normal wear and tear. Some elements of the sanitary system have also aged out.
Taking care of the facilities means less chance of unexpected problems such as burst pipes — in January 2022, a burst pipe flooded the school’s auditorium with six inches of water — data loss, and missed school days, explained Webutuck CSD Superintendent Raymond Castellani.
In the Webutuck Elementary School (WEB), air conditioning will be installed in some of the classrooms used for summer programs.
An age-appropriate playground at Eugene Brooks Intermediate School (EBIS) for fourth through eighth grade students, who currently have no playground of their own, will also be built.
The Capital Improvement Project will also prioritize an emergency generator to provide protection of the security system, technology and mechanical operations throughout the school district.
At all three schools, the roofs will be replaced and unit ventilation systems that enable fresh air exchange will be installed.
At the intermediate and high schools, there will be milling/repaving of the parking lots and sidewalks as well as installation of a standby generator to protect technology in case of loss of power.
Castellani shared the winning bids after the Feb. 12 meeting. General construction went to Ferrari and Sons, Poughkeepsie, at $84,000; mechanical construction to Tancillott at $990,000; and electric construction to Foremost Electric at $514,900.
Sitework construction went to Land V Scape, Carmel, at $1.54 million, and state mechanicals for the elementary school went to TRANE at $540,918.
Roofing went to Garland Roofing at $5,918,000 million; and Field Turf USA will resurface the multicourt and tennis court for $108,674.
The work will most likely start as soon as school gets out, and Castellani hopes that it will largely be completed by the time school begins again in September.
The original capital plan from December 2022 can be found on the district website at webutuckcsd.org
A sign alerting drivers to the Route 199 closure on the side of Route 22 just north of the Smithfield Road intersection in the town of North East. Route 199 will be closed until Aug. 31.
PINE PLAINS — Route 199 will be closed between Chase Road and Shultz Road in the town of Pine Plains starting Monday, June 23.
State Department of Transportation crews are replacing a culvert under Route 199 east of the intersection with Shultz Road. Construction is scheduled to end Aug. 31.
A posted detour will route motorists around the construction. Drivers travelling from Millerton to Pine Plains on Route 199 will be routed north on Bean River Road to Ancramdale, New York, and then on to Route 82 southbound to Pine Plains.
Drivers travelling between Route 22 and Pine Plains should expect longer travel times during the closure.
Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.
In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.
Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”
Houston has shared the stage with stars ranging from Barbra Streisand to Motown great Mary Wells. “I have had the honor of portraying Elizabeth Freeman for three years in “Meet Elizabeth Freeman” by Teresa Miller. Our first reading of “1781” is in celebration of Juneteenth, which is wonderfully symbolic and poignant.” Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery. Two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, word of their freedom finally reached slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865.
Tombstone of Elizabeth Freeman in the “Sedgewick Pie” family burial ground in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Lonnie carter
MumBet, born in 1742 to African enslaved parents, was purchased at age six months by Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, for whom she worked until her thirties. Ashley helped write the 1773 Sheffield Declaration which stated, “Mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives, their liberty and property.” Rumor has it that MumBet overheard a reading of the document. After a traumatic household experience, MumBet left the Ashley home in Bartholomew’s Cobble, walked four miles to Sheffield, and asked attorney and abolitionist Theodore Sedgwick to help her gain her freedom.
Houston shared, “I live in Sheffield near where she was enslaved, in a house she would have passed on her walk from Ashley Falls to Sheffield. I am humbled by the fortitude and inner strength it must have taken for this woman to defy norms and take a stand for her own freedom.We Americans must still stand and fight for our rights to live free.”
Elizabeth Freeman spent her years as a free woman working for wages in the Sedgewick household, saving money to buy her own home in Stockbridge, where she was a midwife and healer. She died in 1829 and is buried in “Sedgewick Pie,” the family burial plot in Stockbridge. One of her great-grandchildren, W.E.B. DuBois, born in Great Barrington, was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. DuBois founded the NAACP.
Her tombstone reads: “She was born a slave and remained a slave for nearly thirty years. She could neither read nor write yet in her own sphere she had no superior or equal. She neither wasted time nor property. She never violated a trust nor failed to perform a duty. In every situation of domestic trial, she was the most efficient helper, and the tenderest friend. Good mother, farewell.”
The performance of “1781” will take place Thursday, June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main (103 Main St., Falls Village).Admission is free, donations gratefully accepted.
The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.
Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.
The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.
“When Susan and Gerald brought this to me, I immediately saw it as a chance for my students to make something meaningful and lasting,” said Martinelli. “It wasn’t just about painting a wall, it was about teaching kids to serve their community through their art.”
Martinelli introduced the project as an after-school club for grades four through eight. “I wanted students who were truly committed,” she explained. Interest was so high that she had to divide participants into rotating grade-level groups, with occasional full-team days for collaboration. The mural became a long-term endeavor, stretching across a school year and a half.
The painting was created on canvas, a nearly 4’ x 27’ roll, donated by Incandela. The paint came courtesy of school principal Ed Goad. With materials secured, the students dove into research, studying maps, landmarks, and city history to inform their designs. “They worked to capture the spirit of Torrington,” Martinelli said. “But also, to match the whimsy of a candy shop.”
The result is a mural that features a playful “candyland” version of the city, where important buildings and landmarks are sized according to their importance to both the client and the community. “They created this hierarchy of bubbles and buildings, this joyful visual story,” Martinelli said. “It’s full of life.”
Beyond art skills, Martinelli witnessed her students develop qualities often harder to teach: teamwork, communication, resilience. “They learned to scale up sketches, mix large batches of paint for consistency, and adapt their work when it overlapped with someone else’s. They really respected each other’s contributions.”
The project also reflected the Academy’s Catholic STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, and Math) approach to education. “This was STREAM in action,” Martinelli explained. “They used technology to scale and transfer designs, applied math for proportions and spacing, and worked collaboratively to problem-solve. But they also lived their faith — through service, solidarity, and joy.”
Martinelli believes the mural speaks as much to the process as it does to the final product. “Some of the kids who worked on it have already graduated, but they’re coming back for the unveiling. That says something.”
The unveiling of the mural will take place at The Nutmeg Fudge Company on June 11, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., where families, friends, and community members are invited to celebrate the students’ achievement.
Asked what stood out most from the experience, Martinelli said, “For me, the most rewarding part was watching a diverse group of kids work together — different grades, different friend groups — all collaborating with respect, flexibility, and positivity. They created something beautiful, together.”