From left, Vincente Mercado, Ren Babcock, Leandra Costa, Coraline Dell’Amore, Jenna Martin and Elliot Campbell were each awarded $100 as first place winners in the 10th annual Friends of the Pine Plains Free Library Young Writers competition.
PINE PLAINS — Young writers have a step up in the world of communication thanks to the Pine Plains Friends of the Library, which recently announced winners of the 10th annual writing competition.
The group has distributed some $10,000 in prize money over the years and provides an important opportunity to have students’ writing acknowledged.
Friends’ board member and coordinator of the contest Victoria LoBrutto, says that the much of the credit goes to the teachers who encourage students in the sixth through 12th grades to enter.
In many cases, they provide a helpful push by assigning the competition as homework. Topics range from those assigned to those chosen by the young writers themselves.
LoBrutto, who contributes garden articles to the New Pine Plains Herald, judges the competition, this year reading all 75 of the entries. She says she “keeps in mind” the New York State writing standards, but is mainly focused on the creativity and imagination of the writers which, she notes “cannot be taught.”
Having watched the progress in students’ writing over the years, she says, “I’m pleasantly surprised. From sixth grade to eighth grade some of the writing is pretty sophisticated. And then when they get to high school, you can see there is a real development.”
LoBrutto is even hopeful that she will someday see the name of one of the competitors she has followed annually on a book.
Besides giving credit to the teachers, LoBrutto cites the Pine Plains Free Library’s teen writing program, which, according to Head Librarian Dee Ann Johnson, is run weekly each Friday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. with both virtual and in-person sessions.
Johnson, in the same spirit, lauds the Friends saying, “They are indispensable. They work so hard on our behalf, and we are grateful for all they do for us and for all the programs they run.
In addition to cash awards, winners of the writing program are acknowledged in the graduation program and each participant receives a certificate provided by Moore and More printing of Millerton which is known far and wide for its generous support of many local not-for-profits.
The winners of each category in this year’s competition receive prizes of $100 for first place, $50 for second and $25 for third with a number of others receiving recognition through honorable mention.
Top winners in order of their placement are: Grade 6 - Group 1 - fiction - Coraline Dell’Amore, Juliet Shiels, and William Galliher; Grade 6 - Group 2 - fiction - Jenna Martin, Amelia Anderson, and Christopher Spada; Grade 6 - Group 3 - fiction - Elliot Campbell, Madison Johnson, and Margaret Johnson; Grade 8 - poetry - Vincente Mercado; Grades 9 - 12 academic non-fiction - Leandra Costa, Joshua Dolansky, and Charlotte Phillips; Grades 9- 12 - creative non-fiction - Leandra Costa, Joshua Dolansky, and Estrella Ruano; Grade 9- fiction - Ren Babcock, Brianna Blackburn, Kaylei Murphy; and Grade 9 - 12 - poetry - Ren Babcock, Emma Henderson, and Kaylei Murphy.
Nathan Miller
The former Jehovah’s Witness hall at 5603 Route 22 south of the Village of Millerton awaits interior renovations to retrofit the building for use as North East’s new Town Hall.
MILLERTON — Plans to renovate the former Jehovah’s Witness hall on Route 22 to serve as North East’s Town Hall will move forward, with construction expected to begin this winter, Town Supervisor Chris Kennan said.
North East Town Board members are expected to move ahead with existing plans for a new Town Hall building, scrapping an earlier idea to remove a courtroom from the floorplan.
Town Supervisor Chris Kennan read a prepared statement at the Town Board’s Thursday, Aug. 13, meeting praising the existing floorplan that was originally drawn in 2025 by engineering firm LAN.
He later said on Saturday, Aug. 15, that a representative from LAN will appear at Town Hall on Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 5:30 p.m. to talk board members and the public through the design. Kennan expects to start soliciting for contractors soon after and work to begin by winter.
“One of the reasons for now trying to really step on the gas is to enable this to be put out to bid so that contractors can have an indoor project for the winter,” Kennan said.
The move comes after three years of deliberation over the renovation plans. The town purchased the former Jehovah’s Witness hall in 2023 for $440,000. The Town Board put initial plans — designed by former Millerton resident Jeanne Vanecko — out to bid the following year, but ultimately rejected the bid because the estimated cost was too high.
Current plans are estimated to cost about $1.4 million, Kennan said. He compared that price tag to Town Hall projects in neighboring Pine Plains and Pleasant Valley, New York. Pine Plains is seeking to build a brand new Town Hall building, with costs expected to reach about $4 million. Pleasant Valley also opted to renovate an existing building, but those renovations cost more than $8 million.
The new Town Hall building will have space for independent offices for most town employees and departments, and more space for town records. The building has 4,513 square feet of floor space — nearly twice as much as the current Town Hall at 19 N. Maple Ave.
Additionally, the building will be fully compliant with the Americans With Disabilities act. The former Jehovah’s Witness hall is a single-story structure with no basement, so all records and government operations will be located on ground level.
And the plans boast a much larger board meeting room, which doubles as the town’s court. That room will have capacity for up to 40 people to attend government meetings.
Earlier this year, Town Board members considered contracting with a neighboring municipality for courtroom space. The move would have removed the courtroom, holding cells and judge’s chambers from the floorplan. Those talks fizzled shortly after the town’s justices — Casey McCabe and Dennis Johnson — spoke out against them in public comment during a June 11 Town Board meeting. Kennan said that criticism led to further talks with the town’s department heads to evaluate their needs and find a path forward.
“The more I’ve looked at it, the more I really feel we have a very good plan,” Kennan said.
Jacquelyn Drain
Eric Alexander
Democratic incumbent Eric Alexander is facing Republican challenger Stefanie Hubert in the November general election for Dutchess County Legislature District 25.
The District 25 election is going to be largely defined by pressing issues in the county such as affordability, government transparency, emergency medical services, small business restrictions and housing.
The 25th district represents and serves the communities of Amenia, Millbrook, Pleasant Valley, Washington and Wassaic. Whoever is elected on Nov. 3 will represent these towns from January 2027 until the end of 2028.
Alexander currently holds the position after being elected in 2025. Due to the mandate made by New York State in 2023 changing all local elections outside of New York City from odd to even years, Alexander now must run again after entering office in January.
“Unfortunately I’ve been in this role for 7 months now and I’ve got to start campaigning again, but my campaign will always be based on the effectiveness of my work,” Alexander said. “It’s been a motivation to get going and get things done.”
Alexander’s election last year marked an end to the decade-long Republican majority in the Dutchess County Legislature. He attributed the Democratic majority as being key in making progress.
Since being in office, Alexander has focused on using tax dollars more effectively, affordability and bringing awareness to resources available to county residents. With a background in finance having worked on Wall Street in trading and asset management, he applied that experience to the legislature. Alexander is also the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Emerson College in Boston, his alma mater.
“There’s a lot of work to be done and there is a lot of room for improvement in county government,” Alexander said. “In terms of transparency, in terms of working in a bipartisan way, in terms of just being more effective in not wasting tax dollars.”
The Republican candidate challenging the incumbent is Hubert, a local business owner.
Stefanie HubertPhoto provided
“I think it’s part of our civic responsibility to participate in local elections and also to build a community,” Hubert said. “As a Republican, seeing that the tides have changed that it was intrinsically my responsibility to step up and see if we could win back at least the seat in District 25.”
Hubert and her husband own a trucking and heavy equipment company. Hubert is currently the Executive Director at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Putnam County. Considering her background, Hubert’s campaign focuses on ensuring that Dutchess County is a place where small businesses can thrive while making things easier on business owners.
“It is difficult to keep up with all of the mandates and taxes and everything else that is thrust upon us,” Hubert said. “So trying to make sense of some kind of compromise that allows certain taxes to be paid out but also to not eat away at the bottom line of a small business owner.”
In addition to small businesses, if elected Hubert hopes to focus on the agriculture industry, less high density housing and youth development. Seeking more traditional values in the area, she envisions a return to more small community ideals, bringing the county back to how it was about 5 to 10 years ago.
“People live here because it’s a nice, rural community that has a lot of opportunities,” she said. “We live here because we don’t want it to become a city or urban area for which it’s not.”
One issue that transcends party lines for these candidates is Emergency Medical Services in the county. Services have become privately owned in the area causing costs to skyrocket with some towns having to pay nearly a million dollars a year. The system is also volunteer based, not paid. Both Alexander and Hubert have noted the gravity of this issue and seek bipartisan collaboration to fix it.
“I think all of us are entitled to emergency medical services should we need it. I don’t think the amount of time that it takes to get to your house should be determined by whether or not it’s a paid ambulance corps,” Hubert said. “I think that’s a large decision that’s being discussed in Dutchess County and I definitely think that’s a bipartisan issue.”
Elections will be held on Nov. 3. Go to the Dutchess County Board of Elections website to register and find your polling center.
Graham Corrigan
MILLBROOK — Representatives from the Millbrook Fire Department appealed for aid at the Washington Town Board meeting last week.
The department is underfunded, fire district officials said. Old equipment, aging infrastructure, and a glut of new members have stretched the department to its breaking point. “Usually we’re the ones doing the helping,” said Fire Captain Kelly Tomasulo, “but today we’re asking you for help.”
The department covers 64 square miles, serving the Village of Millbrook and Town of Washington. Active firefighters contribute an estimated 30 to 50 hours per month, though officer hours can be far more. Members also devote time to fundraising intended to offset costs to taxpayers. The department is staffed entirely by volunteers, and responded to 955 emergency calls last year, equal to two to three calls per day.
The department’s budget totaled $991,000 last year. Of that, $600,000 is allocated to an ambulance contract with Empress EMS, which the department said is “on the cheap side.” They expect that number to double when the contract comes up for renewal next year.
That leaves $391,000 for the fire department’s remaining expenses, including apparatus maintenance, protective gear, training, fuel, utilities, and firehouse upkeep.
Equipment is also aging past recommended replacement timelines. The National Fire Protection Association recommends replacing apparatus after about 20 years; the department states several of its trucks are “well beyond that standard.” NFPA guidance also calls for gear to be replaced every seven to 10 years, but the department reports some of its gear is over 20 years old, and many members have only one set of gear, when two are recommended. Tomasulo said they have borrowed gear from neighboring departments just to equip the firefighters.
The department also cited space constraints at its firehouse, which was not designed for today’s truck sizes. Tomasulo said there are about 3 inches of leeway when returning a truck to the firehouse.
A silver lining in all this is Millbrook FD’s increased membership. At a time when many volunteer services are disbanding from lack of interest, approximately 50 people have joined the Millbrook volunteers over the past two years. But the department said this growth brings additional costs for gear and equipment as call volume, infrastructure needs, and equipment costs continue to rise.
As a point of comparison, the department estimates that replacing volunteer coverage with paid staffing for just three firefighters would cost between $240,000 and $315,000 per year, covering partial daytime staffing only. Nights, weekends, and major incidents would still require volunteer response under that scenario.
Before responding to a call, members complete state-mandated training. New York State firefighter certification includes roughly 80 to 100 hours of entry-level training and 120 to 160 hours for Interior Firefighter certification, plus annual safety training and ongoing drills. Basic EMT certification requires approximately 150 to 180 hours, with continuing education required every three years. Combined, the department states that firefighter and EMT training totals 350 to 450 hours before a member is fully qualified.
The department is asking the community to “support them, equip them,” and “stand behind them when they answer the call.”
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Jacquelyn Drain
Farming in the U.S. has changed dramatically over the past 50 years, as consolidation and difficult economic conditions have reduced the number of active farms nationwide by nearly 30%.
New York has been especially affected. The state lost 10% of its farms between 2015 and 2025, nearly twice the national rate during that period. Farmers in northeastern Dutchess County attribute much of the decline to rising labor and equipment costs that many operations can no longer afford.
Turbulent weather has also caused a loss of crops. After the freeze in April, New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey is calling on the Secretary of Agriculture to provide low interest loans to farmers who experienced crop loss because of the extreme conditions.
Following the nationwide implementation of tariffs and high gas prices in the area, output costs have skyrocketed. This has impacted items such as packaging, machines and parts for equipment, which are essential for farmers, throwing off their losses to profit ratio, decreasing their net income. Finding and paying employees a livable wage is another issue facing these businesses with a high cost of living and the seasonal nature of working in this industry.
The Hudson Valley has also migrated away from dairy farming, a once thriving industry in the area, to more industrial and community supported agriculture models in order to survive.
Sarah Chase owns and operates Chaseholm farm in Pine Plains, one of the few remaining dairy farms in the area. Chase expressed these concerns regarding rising costs. After taking over her family’s dairy farm in 2013, she has had to raise prices to combat increased expenses.
“There didn’t seem to be much of a way around it, especially because our employees continue to need increased wages with their costs going up too,” Chase said. “Everything is expensive and that makes it harder to farm.”
Julie Schroeder, owner of Silamar Farm in Millerton, is considering selling after significant changes in the industry. The commonality of farmers leasing land rather than owning property due to high costs has changed the culture significantly.
“When we bought the farm in 1963, there were 49 mostly dairy farms in North East,” Schroeder said. “Now, there are very few farmer-owned farms that haven’t sold their development rights.”
Sisters Hill farm in Stanfordville, owned by the Sister of Charity of New York, is closing after 27 years as a part of the congregation’s downsizing which began in 2023. Dave Hambleton has been a Farmer and Director of the property since its opening and has trained nearly 70 apprentices during his time there. Without having ownership of the property despite running the farm for the last nearly three decades, Hambleton is feeling the effects of land easements.
In the Hudson Valley, small businesses have been vital in keeping farms alive. By consistently purchasing from and working directly with farmers, local restaurants and grocery stores have been able to forge a mutually beneficial relationship.
Tri Corner F.E.E.D., a food market in Millerton, is bridging the gap between farmers and shoppers who are often priced out of eating locally. The store offers a sliding scale for pricing, ensuring that people of all incomes can afford locally grown, healthy food.
“Food at the price that the farmers need to receive is sometimes inaccessible for a large amount of our community that have interest in local food,” said Blake Myers, director of food programs for Tri Corner F.E.E.D. Industrial growers are able to achieve higher economies of scale due to their increased output and in turn offer lower prices for customers.
Full Circus Farm, owned and operated by Miriam and Mark Stonehill, primarily sells their fruit and vegetables to local farm stores such as Tri Corner F.E.E.D.and Big Rock Market in Stanfordville.
“One of the great things about working with local farm stores is that they aren’t dictating our prices, we set our prices,” Mark Stonehill said. “There’s a lot of farmers that aren’t in that lucky position.”
Farm to table restaurants also have been a resource for farmers in the area. Willa, a Millerton restaurant specializing in sourcing locally grown ingredients, opened in 2023. Willa prides itself on showcasing a menu that changes nearly every day based on seasonal availability.
“We are really blessed where we’re located in this area because there is such a bounty of small scale organic farmers and we’re able to source from such a close radius,” said Alanna Broesler, co-owner of the restaurant.
Despite these efforts to support local farms, some restaurants must source their food from greater distances to make up for the recent decline in output. Pasture Kitchen, a farm to table restaurant in Millerton, gets approximately 60% of their food from farms in the Hudson Valley, citing availability issues for this widened radius.
“It definitely does make you have to work a little bit harder to find those networks and they might not always be as close to home as you hope,” said Will Lanier, a manager at the restaurant.
Farmers also face challenges when working with local restaurants and stores. Full Circus Farm has moved to working with larger distributors such as the Hudson Seed Company in addition to local businesses.
“It can be really tough to work really closely with another business and then they go out of business,” Stonehill said. “That’s one of the challenges of farming and selling locally is that it’s a difficult business environment for other small businesses.”
In light of these hardships, interest and support from the community is largely valuable in sustaining local farms despite the current turbulent conditions.
“I could not do what I do without interest from community members and where their food comes from,” said Sarah Chase. “It’s the only reason I exist.”
With these difficulties and significant changes in the industry, some farmers are persevering for the love of the game.
“There is a lot of joy in farming and we do it not because we are making millions as farmers,” Stonehill said. “We do it because we love the lifestyle. We love our 5-year-old and 7-year-old getting to grow up on a farm and know where their food comes from and understand in a really special way the natural world and how we as humans fit into that natural world.”
Jacquelyn Drain
The retreat featured frequent walks through the woods around Yale Camp to take inspiration from nature.
FALLS VILLAGE, Conn. — I know nothing about nature aside from my reverence for its beauty. I took one environmental science class nearly four years ago but that is the extent of my knowledge. Despite this I had the pleasure of being surrounded by not only nature enthusiasts but also experts at the inaugural Yale Camp Writers Retreat held at Great Mountain Forest.
The background of the retreat was an essential, calming character. The rustic and historic Yale Camp, founded in 1940, is nestled amongst 6,500 acres of woods on Canaan Mountain. With 15 hiking trails, the forest is home to beautiful scenery and creatures.
The retreat was created by author Tom Shachtman in honor of local writer Hal Borland. Borland lived on a farm on Weatogue Road in Salisbury, Conn., towards the end of his life where he wrote all but one of his classic books such as “When the Legends Die” and “High, Wide and Lonesome.”
All the retreatants varied heavily in background but we all came together to discuss the common interests of writing and nature. From corporate finance to lawyers to students, we all brought our individual expertise into the discussion and connected at meals and free time, forming genuine social bonds with strangers over a single similar interest.
After arriving around noon on Friday, I set up my bunk, introduced myself to my roommates for the weekend and began to outline my goals and mindset heading into the retreat. There is no better setting to journal than sitting on a porch in a rocking chair looking out at the vast trees and rolling hills of the Northwest Corner.
The first day I went on a guided nature walk to Old Man McMullen Pond. There was a perfect reflection of the light blue sky and bright clouds on the still surface as rushing water poured over a beaver dam next to the pond. I sat on a bench looking out at the magnificent sight in awe.
Over the course of the weekend I attended three different sessions led by varying nature writers. Todd Davis, a writer, poet and environmental science professor, discussed the importance of the natural world and how he conveys it in his writing, connecting nature to human experiences without exploiting it. Former Director of the Sharon Audubon Center Eileen Fielding gave a beginners’ explanation of ecology, which was personally much needed, and provided examples on how to communicate scientific information to be easily digestible for readers.
The most enlightening experience for me was poet and environmentalist Evelyn Reilly’s session on Ecopoetics, an idea created by poet Jonathan Skinner referring to how writing can change our relationship with the environment. In preparation for this session I was instructed to bring a nature poem by another writer that I enjoyed and a poem of my own creation. Before this assignment, I hadn’t written a poem since probably third grade. It was a daunting task, to say the least. But I put my head down and told myself it doesn’t have to be profound, you don’t have to be the next Mary Oliver, just write something. After I wrote it, my mom insisted on seeing it and when she began reading it out loud to my dad, I ran into the other room plugging my ears to not cringe at my work.
I showed up to the session on the second day, palms sweating, 14 copies of my poem in hand as well as a Rupi Kaur poem from her collection titled “Home Body.” Toward the end of the session, after discussing what it means to be an ecopoet and analyzing several examples, we broke off into groups of three to discuss. When it came time to discuss my poem after hearing from some of history’s greatest, I was shocked to receive positive feedback. Though I greatly desired approval from my peers, concerningly, I realized as they were reading it that it didn’t matter. I was happy with the message it conveyed and its connection between human life and nature. It didn’t need to be one of the great works of art, it worked well and that’s all that matters.
This retreat marked a much needed time of reflection, grounding and reconnection to why I write.
Having attended a religious high school, retreats are not a new experience for me. However, this was my first time being embedded in nature with the sole focus of writing. My relationship with creative writing is similar to that of an old friend whom I drifted apart from because I had neglected to give it attention and time. This three-day experience gave me the opportunity to reconnect with what it means to be a writer.
Despite being hugely out of my comfort zone surrounded by many new people — all of whom are much more experienced than myself — I received a sign that I was in the right place.
My favorite movie is “Dead Poets Society” and the film introduced me to the book “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau. In the movie, the main character paraphrases a line from the book which reads, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Reading the book has always been on my bucket list but landed on the back burner for many years.
The first night of the retreat featured a raffle for campers to choose from a selection of books. When my name was called toward the end I approached the table and my eyes immediately darted to a 1939 copy of the book. I immediately grabbed it and couldn’t put it down the rest of the weekend. I knew that book was there for me and I was in the right place to learn how to suck out all the marrow of life, as Thoreau professes.
Jacquelyn Drain
Lilly Simons and Lauren Simons are proposing to turn the building at 185 Route 44 into an eight-unit apartment building. The structure once served as a restaurant and then as office space but has been vacant for several years, Lauren Simons said.
MILLERTON — The Greyhouse Apartment conversion occurring on 181-185 Route 44 made progress this week toward bringing the first housing to the Town of North East’s boulevard district following the area’s rezoning in April.
The North East Planning Board continued discussions on site plans for the apartments at their meeting on Aug. 12. The project, proposed by local petroleum distributor GRJH Inc., seeks to convert a former office building into eight apartments. Plans call for five one-bedroom apartments, two two-bedroom units and one studio.
At the meeting, mother-and-daughter duo Lauren and Lilly Simons presented on the changes made to plan drawings following the board’s last meeting on July 22. Since the meeting, the owners have agreed to install one EV charging station per the zoning requirements. Additionally, an inspection was done and concluded that the septic tank is not compromised in any way.
Despite these changes, there is still more that must be done in order to finalize the plans.
The town’s zoning law requires that a sidewalk be installed in front of the complex because it is in the boulevard district. However, there currently is no sidewalk along Route 44 to connect to at either edge of the property.
“We really can’t incorporate sidewalks without the rest of the development happening alongside with our budding property,” said Lauren Simons. “Do you want us to put a four foot sidewalk in front of our property going nowhere?”
Without existing sidewalks to connect to, consistency and location are large issues if individuals decide for themselves where and when sidewalks are installed.
“You’re basically saying whoever does it first decides for everybody where it’s gonna be,” said Dale Culver, chairman of the board. “What if the guy that finally starts the sidewalk decides ‘I don’t like their trees so I’m gonna put the sidewalk here,’ and then they are forced to take out those trees. I can see it happening.”
To curb this confusion, the board will draft an addendum for all plans moving forward until grants are found to create a pathway across Kelsey Brook and to install sidewalks on the road. The passage will state that property owners understand that they will be financially responsible for adding sidewalks in accordance with what the town decides in order to ensure consistency.
“Until we have a way for crossing Kelsey Brook, it is ludicrous to talk about putting sidewalks in,” Town Supervisor Chris Kennan said.
There was significant debate on whether or not the complex is required to provide an affordable housing unit. The zoning law states that if a complex has 10 apartments there must be one affordable housing unit. Beyond 10 a rounding system is used, meaning if there are 16 apartments that translates to 1.6 which would then be rounded up, requiring two affordable units. Confusion stemmed from whether or not the rounding applied to properties with fewer than 10 apartments which would then require the Simons to include an affordable unit.
“It’s just common sense to me that the language is crystal clear,” said Board Member Leslie Farhangi. “Less than 10 means no affordable housing unit needed therefore it stops, you don’t even go to the next section to consider rounding.”
The plans also include an office space on the first floor. The board stated that because the complex is not to be used for business purposes, it must be clearly defined that the office will not be rented out and will be used as a leasing office.
The board directed that before the next meeting, GRJH Inc. must present clarified information about the proposed lighting. Additionally, they must add the phrase “on site rental office use” to the plans to specifically define the proposed leasing office.
A public hearing has been set for Aug. 26 on the condition that the outlined changes be made to the plans with submission to the board at least a week before the hearing.
“We don’t want to hold the project up if it is going to create sorely needed units in our town,” Culver said. “But knowing on your end that the details have to be there.”
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