Millerton News Editorial

Last week, students from around the Harlem Valley returned to school after what we can confidently assume was, for most, too short of a summer.

Having served The Lakeville Journal’s readership as reporter, executive editor and Compass and special sections editor (sometimes simultaneously) since 1999, Cynthia Hochswender will now be bidding the newspaper a fond farewell, leaving as Compass and special sections editor as of Oct. 7.

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.