Town hires website designer

NORTH EAST — The Town Board agreed to follow the advice of town Supervisor Dave Sherman, who a number of months ago recommended the town hire JTWeb Services to design a municipal website. The Ancram-based business offered to build the site for a cost of $1,000 to $1,500. At that time, the majority of the board wanted to hear from other web designers, including Fisch Internet Solutions out of Fishkill. Fisch gave a bid of $3,000 to do the work requested by the town.By the Oct. 13 meeting, Sherman raised the issue once more, with a recommendation from Village Board member Yosh Schulman in hand. Schulman designed the village of Millerton’s website, along with volunteer Steven Williams. The Town Board had agreed it would seek Schulman’s advice on the matter.In Schulman’s emailed letter to Sherman, he stated that if the town was going to spend $3,000, he would recommend an outfit named MadWireMedia, from Colorado. Barring that, he said that “JTWeb looks like a great option.”At last week’s meeting, Councilman Tim Shafer asked what the issue was with the first vendor’s presentation (that first vendor being JTWeb Services); Councilman Carl Stahovec echoed his sentiment.Stahovec then moved to hire JTWeb Services, with Shafer seconding the motion. The rest of the board approved the motion, which passed, and the proposal set forth to accept JTWeb Services’ bid. The next step will be for Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky to draw up a formal proposal between the town and the vendor.JTWeb’s James Thompson proposal included managing the content through WordPress, which he said would help edit the information more easily and in a more timely and self-sufficient manner. There would also be provisions made for security.He added he can provide 24/7 support, although it’s not mandatory the town use his service for that support. His hosting fee is roughly $100 annually, plus an hourly fee, and he said that covers “anything that you require from me on an hourly basis.” In terms of time, at the initial presentation, Thompson said once he gets the content, he can pull the project together in a couple of weeks. The town is hoping to get the website up within a 90-day period.

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