The beauty of cleanliness

Cleaning trash from the sides of the roadway may not sound like much fun to some, but to Amenia Councilwoman Vicki Doyle there are few better ways to spend the weekend. It’s not because she enjoys picking up litter, but because she relishes the end result — a cleaner, brighter, more eco-friendly town.That’s why, for the past seven years while she’s been in office, Doyle has organized annual spring cleanup days, corraling volunteers from around town to help clear away dirt and debris along Route 22 and other thoroughfares in Amenia. Doyle’s efforts are made on behalf of the Enhancement Committee, which works in unison with the town’s Conservation Advisory Council (CAC); the two organize the typically well-attended event. This year the cleanup was held on Saturday, April 30.What makes the day such a success is that there are so many others who participate as well: Boy Scouts, Lions Club members, members of Earthworks (all of whom are in the Adopt-a-Highway program), as well as members of the highway department, Town Board, transfer station and local residents, among others.“These people are outrageous,” Doyle said of the volunteers, noting their efforts stem back more than 20 years, to when Jack Rooney manned the transfer station and people lined the streets to drop off trash collected from around town. “It’s important to thank everyone, and impossible, but they know who they are.”Doyle named Jim Fraleigh and John Culligan, in particular, who run the town’s transfer station these days, as key players in the cleanup’s success. She said the pair makes sure there are extra helpers and Dumpsters to accommodate all the rubbish.“They are always eager to support these efforts, though it is so much extra work for them,” Doyle stated. “They wanted to accept free household trash at the station this year for those who suffered from the floods in Wassaic, but with the tight budget, [town Supervisor] Wayne [Euvrard] didn’t think we could do it this year.” While Doyle is quick to commend others, as is this paper along with her, we also want to shower some of that praise onto the councilwoman herself. She has stayed true to the cause of cleaning up Amenia and making the town as beautiful as it can be. Aside from transforming the streets from sooty to sparkling every spring, Doyle helps with the Garden Club’s daffodil project each fall. That entails hundreds of bulbs being doled out to residents free of charge, so they can be planted throughout the town in time for full bloom come April. The Garden Club, an arm of the Enhancement Committee, also helps clear out the whiskey barrels every year, which then have new flowers planted inside for a pretty and pristine look throughout the hamlets of Wassaic and Amenia. The clean roads, manicured streets, fresh flowers, tidy planters — they all add to the charm of the town and, as Doyle will explain to anyone who will listen, help Amenia work toward its unending goal of economic development. The work might seem inconsequential, but it’s not, it all contributes to the big picture — to the prosperity and preservation of an active and beautiful town’s identity, i.e., Amenia.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less