Millerton News Editorial

There are two main takeaways from the recent Amenia Wastewater Committee (AWC) presentation made at the Thursday, Aug. 18, Amenia Town Board meeting.

One: Amenia, like so many other municipalities throughout the Harlem Valley, the state and the country, is in dire need of a wastewater system to ensure its economic future and vitality.

It’s not always that the state is praised for spending taxpayers’ hard-to-earn and harder-to-save money. In the case of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) decision to conduct two $50,000 studies, with funding coming from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), we consider it money well spent.

For those readers who are unaware, The Millerton News is a local, independent community weekly newspaper, a rare thing these days. It is owned by The Lakeville Journal Foundation based in northwest Connecticut, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formed in 2021 that also owns The Lakeville Journal, its sister newspaper in Connecticut.

The challenge of keeping any business or service going for 125 years cannot be overstated: As times change, needs change, and there are no easy answers to remaining relevant. So for a small community weekly newspaper like The Lakeville Journal to have continued over all these years was not a given.

Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro announced on Tuesday, July 26, that the county will be injecting more than half a million dollars — $526,763 to be exact — into three of our Harlem Valley communities shortly, thanks to the Municipal Investment Grant (MIG) Program.

This month, on July 8, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) made public news of a highly sought after designation by municipalities throughout the Empire State.

It’s been a tumultuous time for the village of Millerton, the Millerton Police Department (MPD) and the citizens of both the village and the town of North East that the MPD protects, as the Village Board has been hashing out whether it should keep the local, part-time force or abolish it and instead hire the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office (DCS

We all know our local libraries are some pretty magical places. Same goes for our community centers, in the towns and villages where we are lucky enough to have such organizations.