Business association needs to get to work

The Pine Plains Business Association is trying to resurrect itself. But it needs help. Badly.

In fact, the group, which is well-known for its fabulous feats during the holidays when it puts on the Parade of Lights and earlier in the year when it sponsors the spring planting day, doesn’t meet otherwise.

According to volunteer Ibis Guzman, one of the men who is trying to drum up support for the nearly 30-year-old group, if businesspeople and residents don’t make it to the February meeting that is being planned to reorganize the association, the powers-that-be may just let it die. That would be a real shame.

Through the business association the town of Pine Plains has a tool it can use to leverage many of the things a small community needs to better publicize itself — especially when there’s no Chamber of Commerce to do the work. The business association can help get word out when new shops and restaurants open, or when existing ones hold special events. It can generate publicity for community activities like the town’s Decorating Day, which also holds the promise of bringing in potential clientele to the town. It can also be useful in drawing new businesses to the town and thereby creating a more vibrant business community. All of these things are possible, if the business association takes the time to reorganize, make some goals, create a strategy and get to work.

Certainly there’s an abundance of creative and thoughtful minds living and working in the town to help get this group in gear. The founders of the group, Bob Taylor, Bill Boyles and Don Peck, would be pleased as punch to see it going strong again. Years ago they organized the group to bring Pine Plains reliable phone service. They accomplished their goal with great success. Now, as Taylor says, he wants to encourage others to “take a few minutes and see if they can contribute any ideas and thoughts to what the group’s goals and aspirations should be.�

We recommend those living and working in Pine Plains do the same. They should then mark the date of Feb. 24 on their calendar, and at 7 p.m. stop by the Lions Club Pavilion on Lake Road, where the business association will hold its meeting. To those who attend, don’t be shy, just contribute what you can. After all, it’s your town and it should grow in ways that benefit you and your neighbors. Smart planning is at the root of a healthy community and having a strong business association will only help support in meeting that goal.

Latest News

Classifieds - 4-25-24

Help Wanted

Grounds/Maintenance Position: Berkshire School has an opening for an individual to perform routine seasonal outside maintenance and grounds work, and event set-ups and breakdowns. This position requires heavy lifting and the ability to work as an effective member of a team. Some weekend and holiday hours are mandatory. This is a full-time, year round position with excellent benefits. Interested parties should contact Gabe Starczewski, gstarczewski@berkshireschool.org 413-229-1211.

Home Health Aide: Active senior woman seeks assistance with light home and care, including, some cooking, drive to doctors, shopping, occasional dog sitting. Flexible work arrangement. Possible live-in large one-bedroom apartment. Rent negotiable. Call Vicky at 860-435-2106. Leave message.

Keep ReadingShow less
Robert J. Pallone

NORFOLK — Robert J. Pallone, 69, of Perkins Street passed away April 12, 2024, at St. Vincent Medical Center. He was a loving, eccentric CPA. He was kind and compassionate. If you ever needed anything, Bob would be right there. He touched many lives and even saved one.

Bob was born Feb. 5, 1955, in Torrington, the son of the late Joseph and Elizabeth Pallone.

Keep ReadingShow less
The artistic life of Joelle Sander

"Flowers" by the late artist and writer Joelle Sander.

Cornwall Library

The Cornwall Library unveiled its latest art exhibition, “Live It Up!,” showcasing the work of the late West Cornwall resident Joelle Sander on Saturday, April 13. The twenty works on canvas on display were curated in partnership with the library with the help of her son, Jason Sander, from the collection of paintings she left behind to him. Clearly enamored with nature in all its seasons, Sander, who split time between her home in New York City and her country house in Litchfield County, took inspiration from the distinctive white bark trunks of the area’s many birch trees, the swirling snow of Connecticut’s wintery woods, and even the scenic view of the Audubon in Sharon. The sole painting to depict fauna is a melancholy near-abstract outline of a cow, rootless in a miasma haze of plum and Persian blue paint. Her most prominently displayed painting, “Flowers,” effectively builds up layers of paint so that her flurry of petals takes on a three-dimensional texture in their rough application, reminiscent of another Cornwall artist, Don Bracken.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Seder to savor in Sheffield

Rabbi Zach Fredman

Zivar Amrami

On April 23, Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield will host “Feast of Mystics,” a Passover Seder that promises to provide ecstasy for the senses.

“’The Feast of Mystics’ was a title we used for events back when I was running The New Shul,” said Rabbi Zach Fredman of his time at the independent creative community in the West Village in New York City.

Keep ReadingShow less