With Water Dept. demolition on the horizon, Farr-Killmer leads project to rebuild

Caroline Farr-Killmer
Aly Morrissey

Caroline Farr-Killmer
MILLERTON — Caroline Farr-Killmer never imagined herself managing construction projects for a municipality. As a college student studying criminal justice, her future seemed rooted in law. But after the fire devastated Millerton’s Water and Highway Department building in the snowy, pre-dawn hours in February, Farr-Killmer stepped into an unexpected leadership role and hasn’t looked back.
“I would’ve laughed if someone told me I’d be working for a municipality and, let’s face it, in such a male-dominated space,” Farr-Killmer said of her current role as fire project manager for the Village of Millerton.
Farr-Killmer, who also serves as secretary for the village Planning and Zoning Board, was initially hesitant to take on the added role. Without a background in construction or municipal infrastructure, she worried about being taken seriously as a 25-year-old woman.
“I’m a young woman with no experience managing fire recovery or construction projects,” she said. “But everyone’s been respectful, patient and understanding.” Farr-Killmer credits Mayor Jenn Najdek for setting the right tone and paving the way as a role model.
Farr-Killmer’s responsibilities now include coordinating with contractors, village trustees, engineers and state agencies. She manages demolition timelines, monitors code compliance, documents inventory losses and keeps the public informed.
“It’s not often you see a young woman managing a demolition crew or working with state officials on infrastructure,” she said. “But I don’t have to pretend to know everything. I just have to ask the right questions, listen and make decisions that move things forward.”
In the weeks after the fire, Farr-Killmer made near-daily visits to the charred building, camera in hand. She documented the shifting structure — from collapsing rafters to snow-drenched equipment — helping the village rebuild its lost inventory piece by piece.
“Photographing the entire building became a way to track what was lost,” she said. “But every time I came back, something else had crumbled.”
Farr-Killmer said the fire was only the beginning.
“People think the fire was the disaster,” she said. “But the real challenge is everything that comes after — the paperwork, the insurance, the rebuilding plans and the deadlines. That’s where the work really begins.” She stressed that from the outside, it might not look like progress is being made. But the village has been working around the clock to move things forward and recover all lost items.
Despite the pressure, Farr-Killmer credits her confidence to her roots in the community and the support around her.
“When you work in a positive and supportive environment, it makes all the difference,” she said. “There’s a lot of work to do, but when you have that backing, it’s a whole different world.”
The demolition of the building is expected to begin this summer with BELFOR Property Restoration. The process will take place in phases to safely dismantle and clear the site. Additionally, Farr-Killmer and village leaders are working to develop plans for two separate replacement facilities: one for the Highway Department and another for the Water Department, each designed to meet current building codes and future needs.
Though she’s still figuring out what comes next, Farr-Killmer has considered returning to her roots in criminal justice — possibly advocating for wrongly incarcerated women.
For now, she is enjoying working in a supportive municipality and learning on the job.
Nathan Miller
A white Subaru sits on Old Route 22 after a collision with a Volkswagen at the intersection of Powder House Road and Old Route 22 in Amenia on Tuesday, May 19.
AMENIA — A car crash closed the intersection of Powder House Road and Old Route 22 for an hour Tuesday, May 19.
A white Subaru and a grey Volkswagen collided on Old Route 22 shortly after 6:15 p.m. Tuesday. Dutchess County Sheriff's deputies on scene said the drivers were transported to the hospital with injuries but are in stable condition.
Authorities said the crash was still under investigation and could not release additional details at this time. It's unclear if the cars contained additional passengers.
The vehicles were towed away just before 7 p.m. and the intersection was reopened by 7:15 p.m.
Aly Morrissey
Heavy stone garden ornaments, a specialty of Judy Milne Antiques from Kingston, at Trade Secrets 2025.
Tucked away on Porter Street in downtown Lakeville, Project SAGE is an unassuming building from a street view. But cross the threshold a week before Trade Secrets — one of the region’s biggest gardening events, long associated with Martha Stewart and glamorous plants of all varieties — and you’ll find a bustling world of employees and volunteers getting ready for the organization’s most important event of the year.
“It’s not usually like this,’ laughed Project SAGE director Kristen van Ginhoven. “But with Trade Secrets just around the corner, it’s definitely like this.”
Van Ginhoven points to towers of boxes containing event programs, various ribbons, elegant decor and stacks of magazines, all in preparation for the event.
Project SAGE will celebrate its 26th year hosting Trade Secrets, but it’s so much more than a garden event.
“It’s a fundraiser for domestic violence prevention and intervention,” van Ginhoven said. “Anybody who attends knows they’re supporting a really meaningful and important cause.”
The fundraiser accounts for at least 30 percent of the organization’s overall budget, she said, and attracts around 3,000 people from across the region each year, creating an unmatched opportunity for Project SAGE to share its mission and generate support.
The event, though expensive to produce, generates enough income to significantly support Project SAGE’s direct services and prevention services.
Officials said a wave of new underwriters have emerged this year.
“We’re very grateful, because we live in a time when funding is uncertain,” van Ginhoven said.
Hundreds of copies of the annual Trade Secrets guide sat at Project SAGE headquarters, ready for distribution at the event. The book doubles as a domestic violence resource, complete with warning signs, myth-busting information and scripts for difficult conversations.
Volunteers will be present throughout the event to connect with community members. Each volunteer must be certified as a domestic violence counselor in order to work with Project SAGE.
“It means they can help us drive clients, move clients, take them to appointments or the grocery store,” van Ginhoven said.
Project SAGE officials said education about domestic violence should start early. The organization has developed a comprehensive curriculum spanning early childhood through grade 12 and visits schools throughout the region. The class of 2026 will be the first graduating class at Housatonic Valley Regional High School to have received all four years of training from Project SAGE.

The organization’s partnerships extend throughout the region and include on-site training in schools and nonprofit organizations, including the Sharon Playhouse. Community support also goes directly to Project SAGE, including a recently donated array of colorful gift bags bearing positing affirmations and filled with toiletries and basic necessities from students at the Frederick Gunn School in Washington, Connecticut.
The people who visit Project SAGE have often left uncomfortable or dangerous situations and leave without any belongings.
“Some of them have nothing,” van Ginhoven said. “They just show up because they had the courage to leave.”
Project SAGE staff say many referrals come through local hospitals, police and sister agencies.
The organization serves people in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
With the stress of event planning mounting, van Ginhoven spent a “previous life” preparing for this exact moment. She spent 30 working at the intersection of arts and activism, having co-founded WAM Theatre, a Lenox-based organization focused on stories and issues affecting those who self-identify as women and girls. During her tenure, WAM donated $100,000 to 25 local and global organizations working toward gender equity in areas such as girls’ education, teen pregnancy prevention, gender-based violence, sexual trafficking awareness and midwife training.
“I love the adrenaline of putting on a show,” van Ginhoven said with a laugh. With the help of volunteers and organizers, she said she isn’t bothered by the stress.
“The show will go on,” she said.

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
Jennifer Almquist
Caroline Kinsolving and Gary Capozzielo at home in Salisbury with their dogs, Petruchio and Beatrice
"He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly."
Caroline Kinsolving
Actor Caroline Kinsolving and violinist Gary Capozziello enjoy their quiet life with their two dogs in Salisbury, yet are often pulled apart to perform on distant stages in far-flung cities. Currently, the planets have aligned, and both are working in Hartford, across Bushnell Park from one another. Bridgewater native Kinsolving is starring in “Circus Fire,” the current production of TheaterWorks Hartford, while Capozziello is a violinist and assistant concertmaster of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. While Kinsolving hates being away from home, she feels the distance nourishes their relationship.
“We are guardians of each other’s confidence and self-esteem,” she said.
“We met during the pandemic, a bleak time,” Kinsolving said. “On our first date, we met at The Hickory Stick Bookshop and walked outside six feet apart. We fell in love.”
They lived in a tiny studio near Averill Farm in Washington, Connecticut.
“He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly,” Capozziello said with a laugh. “When I told her I was a violinist, she mentioned ‘Appalachian Spring’ by Aaron Copland. I sent her a recording of me playing it, and it became our song.”
“For our wedding, we wanted all our friends and family out in the field listening to that music,” Kinsolving said. Capozziello’s friends from Orchestra New England performed the piece at their wedding.
“Circus Fire,” written by Connecticut’s own Jacques Lamarre and directed by Jared Mezzocchi, is a multimedia world-premiere tribute to the Hartford Circus Fire. On July 6, 1944, the big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus caught fire, killing 167 and injuring 700 in Connecticut’s worst fire disaster.
Capozziello, who grew up in Fairfield, began: “I came from very limited means, though my parents gave me the kind of support that mattered most. I had a hard time in school. My music teachers, noticing my knack for music, kept me in school.” As he became a teenager, he realized how demanding classical violin truly is. “I had the honor of playing in a master class for Isaac Stern when I was 18,” he said. “That was the wake-up call. He was relentless with my intonation, telling me I must ‘feel the fire in my belly.’”
At SUNY Purchase, he “met a wonderful violin teacher who taught me to play, study and practice five hours a day.” After studying at the New England Conservatory, Capozziello earned his doctorate from The Hartt School in 2018. He now teaches at The Hotchkiss School and performs with the Hartford Symphony.
He explained that his role as assistant concertmaster is the direct line between conductor and musicians, and that the orchestra is “a family dynamic, a democratic unit, truly a living, breathing organism.”

On May 2, Capozziello was soloist with Orchestra New England, performing the world premiere of Neely Bruce’s “Concerto for Violin,” along with “The River” by Jan Swafford and Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” at Battell Chapel at Yale.
“I care about bringing classical music into communities and spaces where people may not expect it,” said Capozziello.“Music is most powerful to me when it feels alive, humanand accessible, not distant or formal.”
For 20 years, Kinsolving has acted in film, television and theater in London, New York and Los Angeles. “I was first onstage at Washington Montessori School playing Peter Pan,” she said. “I improvised a line, got a laugh and liked the feeling.”
She enjoys performing Shakespeare. “I love Titania’s monologue because it speaks to our current climate crisis. Lady Macbeth surprised me. I fell in love with her while I was doing it. I could play those scenes forever; so much range and depth to explore,” she said.
Kinsolving added, “I love Shakespeare’s comedies for the fun and rhythm. I have loved Rosalind, Viola, Olivia, Helena and Kate, yet the top of my bucket list is Beatrice. Each character reflects a shade of my soul. Shakespeare had the brilliance to illuminate them. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be a list of their names.”
Kinsolving, whose parents, poet Susan Kinsolving and author William Kinsolving, live in Lakeville, studied at Milton Academy, universities in China, and Vassar College. Her theater training includes Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Yale Drama Intensive and she is currently studying online through Juilliard.. She founded Theatre for Good, which donates its proceeds to charity.
Both artists are looking forward to June, when they will have more time to spend with their dogs.
Natalia Zukerman
Nate King, “When I Was Younger And Now That I’m Older,” 2026, Digital projection, digital animation, photography.
The Wassaic Project, the 8,000-square-foot, seven-story former grain elevator transformed into a vibrant arts space, opens its 2026 Summer Exhibition, “Because, now is the time of monsters,” on Saturday, May 16, from 3-6 p.m. at Maxon Mills, launching a season-long presentation featuring 39 artists working across installation, performance, video and sculpture.
The opening celebration will include an afternoon of exhibitions and live programming throughout the historic mill building and its surrounding spaces. Gallery and Art Nest hours run from 12-6 p.m., with special presentations scheduled throughout the day.
Highlights include “Life’s a Game, Boy,” an end-of-year exhibition by the Wassaic Project’s JV and varsity art clubs (4-6 p.m.), showcasing work by students in grades 5-12 from across the region. At 4:30 p.m., artist Ace Lehner presents “Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure,” a participatory performance and installation that reimagines the barbershop as a space for queer world-making through improvised haircuts and collaborative exchange. Haircuts will be given on a first-come, first-served basis.
In the evening, artist Nate King will present “When I Was Younger and Now That I’m Older” (8-10 p.m.), a projection work that transforms the facade of Maxon Mills into a shifting visual field of memory, geometry and childhood imagery, reflecting on time, age and perception.
The exhibition, organized by the Wassaic Project, will be on view through Sept. 12 and brings together a wide range of contemporary artists working in and around the Hudson Valley region. More information is available at wassaicproject.org.
Natalia Zukerman
The Hotchkiss School will launch a major new addition to its arts programming with the inaugural Hotchkiss International Piano Competition, a three-day event taking place May 15–17 in Katherine M. Elfers Hall.
The competition will bring together young pianists ages 10 to 18 from around the world, with participants representing the United States, Thailand, Korea, China, Canada, and Azerbaijan. Performers will compete across multiple age divisions, culminating in final rounds that will be open to the public, offering audiences the opportunity to hear a wide range of emerging international talent in performance.
The jury features an internationally recognized panel of performers and educators, including Artistic Directors Fabio Witkowski and Gisele Nacif Witkowski of The Hotchkiss School, alongside Gloria Chien, Olga Kern, Leonel Morales, and Álvaro Teixeira Lopes. Together, the panel brings broad global experience as performers, pedagogues, and competition jurors, and will evaluate contestants over the course of the event.
Organizers describe the competition as both a rigorous artistic platform and an opportunity for cultural exchange, emphasizing performance under professional conditions and the development of young artists at a formative stage in their careers. Winners will receive a total of $25,000 in prize awards, along with opportunities for broader recognition and future performance engagement.
The competition is made possible through founding support from the Yang and Hamabata families. Murong Yang (Class of 2008), whose experience at Hotchkiss shaped her early connection to music and the arts, and her husband Corey Hamabata envisioned a program that combines artistic rigor with personal growth and international exchange. Their support establishes the competition as part of a longer-term commitment to nurturing emerging musical talent.
“This competition offers a platform for extraordinary young artists to challenge themselves, share their artistry, and connect with a global community of musicians,” said Fabio Witkowski, Artistic Director.
The final rounds of the competition will be open to the public, inviting audiences to experience live performances from some of the most promising young pianists on the international stage.
More information is available at hotchkiss.org/piano-competition.

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.