Town fears state funds won't come

FALLS VILLAGE — The Board of Selectmen made an appointment to the Inland Wetlands/Conservation Commission, approved a request from the Fire Commission and discussed outstanding state grants and assistance at the regular monthly meeting Monday, Jan. 11.

The board appointed Alison Orr-Andrawes to the Inland Wetlands/Conservation Commission, replacing Gerry Nebor, who stepped down. Orr-Andrawes, who is also on the Planning and Zoning Commission, will be traveling for a couple of months and won’t begin her new duties until April. Her three-year term expires Dec. 31, 2012.

The board approved a request from the Fire Commission to transfer any unexpended funds from the fire department in the 2009-10 fiscal year to the town’s fire truck fund. (The commission asked last year that such an arrangement be made permanent, a move the selectmen declined to make.)

This will be an agenda item at the annual town meeting, which First Selectman Pat Mechare hopes will take place by the end of March.

Mechare reported that the paperwork for the three state grants outstanding — one for the renovation of 103 Main St. (the Falls Village Children’s Theater) and two for the volunteer fire department — has been submitted. She reported considerable red tape at the state level.

Mechare also said the town, along with the rest of the state’s towns and cities, has not yet received the Town Aid Road money from the state. She said other first selectmen at a recent meeting of the Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments fear that the aid, a major component of town budgets, will never materialize, a victim of the state’s financial woes.

And Mechare reiterated that a meeting between the Falls Village selectmen and their Salisbury counterparts to discuss future maintenance of the iron bridge will take place, probably at the end of this month.

Latest News

The Creators: Sitting down with Garet Wierdsma

Garet&Co dancers

Jennifer Almquist

On Saturday, March 9, the people of Norfolk, Connecticut, enjoyed a dance performance by northern Connecticut-based Garet&Co, in Battell Chapel, titled INTERIOR, consisting of four pieces: “Forgive Her, Hera,” “Something We Share,” “bodieshatewomen,” and “I kinda wish the apocalypse would just happen already.”

At the sold-out show in the round, the dancers, whose strength, grace and athleticism filled the hall with startling passion, wove their movements within the intimate space to the rhythms of contemporary music. Wierdsma choreographed each piece and curated the music. The track she created for “Something We Share” eerily contained vintage soundtracks from life guidance recordings for the perfect woman of the ‘50s. The effect, with three dancers in satin slips posing before imaginary mirrors, was feminist in its message and left the viewer full of vicarious angst.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kevin McEneaney, voice of The Millbrook Independent

Kevin McEneaney

Judith O’Hara Balfe

On meeting Kevin McEneaney, one is almost immediately aware of three things; he’s reserved, he’s highly intelligent and he has a good sense of humor.

McEneaney is the wit and wisdom behind The Millbrook Independent, a blog that evolved from the print version of that publication. It's a wealth of information about music venues in this part of Dutchess County interspersed with poetry, art reviews, articles on holidays and other items, and a smattering of science.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dealing with invasive species

Sam Schultz, terrestrial invasive species coordinator with PRISM, is holding a tool she calls a “best friend” in the battle against invasives: the hand grubber. She was one of the presenters at the Copake Grange for a talk about invasive species Saturday, March 2.

L. Tomaino

According to Sam Schultz, terrestrial invasive species coordinator with the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM), one of the best ways to battle invasive species is with a hand tool called the hand grubber.

In her work in managing invasive species, she refers to it as a “best friend.” Schultz and Colleen Lutz, assistant biologist with the New York Natural Heritage Program, delivered a lecture on invasive species at the Copake Grange Saturday, March 2.

Keep ReadingShow less
Arts Day for young creatives

Fourth graders at Arts Day

Lynn Mellis Worthington

Fourth graders from all of the schools in Region One gathered Wednesday, March 6, at the independent Kent School to expand their artistic horizons.

It was the 28th year that Region One has held Fourth Grade Arts Day, and this year’s event was coordinated by Kent Center School music teacher David Poirier. He quickly pointed out, however, that it was a team effort involving all of the art and music teachers in the region. He also saluted Geoff Stewart of Kent School, chair of the performing arts department and director of the theater.

Keep ReadingShow less