HARLEM VALLEY — Last week The Millerton News ran Part I of its Year in Review of 2021, reflecting back on the second year of how Harlem Valley residents enduring living through the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the economy, home life, education, work, relationships and so much more. (See here)
This week the paper continues its look at how the northeastern Dutchess County communities we call home fared last year, and some of the top issues our town and village governments dealt with as they worked to ensure our quality of life remained high. What follows are some of the top stories from 2021.
Having raised more than $1 million for Phase One of the temporarily-renamed Millerton Community Park’s revitalization of Eddie Collins Memorial Park off Route 22, local leaders, volunteers and supporters celebrated the ground-breaking last August.
The roughly $8 million project will completely redo the park as a massive recreation space for the entire community, with a brand new ADA-compliant pool, playground, soccer field, baseball field, basketball courts, trails, pavilion and more. Most of the money to pay for the project is being raised through donations, grants and other contributions.
In Millbrook, demolition of the former Bennett College campus began in October to make way for the 32-acre Bennett Park, which will connect to the soon-to-be-done Thorne Building Community Center (TBCC), a multi-purpose community center that will provide various creative spaces for the whole community. The village finally handed over the Thorne Building to the 501(C)3 nonprofit TBCC. The project has been years in planning and the entire community has been involved in the process from the get-go.
Silo Ridge Field Club in Amenia sponsored a community rodeo in October at Keane Stud Farm, also in that town. A couple of thousand attended, although some animal activists were not very happy about the event.
Look for Part III of The Year in Review in next week’s issue of The Millerton News.
Throughout the state local municipalities dealt with the new marijuana law in 2021. Last March, New York joined 19 other states across the U.S. in legalizing adult-use recreational marijuana when it passed the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA).
Former Governor Andrew Cuomo gave municipalities in New York until Dec. 31 to decide to opt in or opt out of allowing cannabis dispensaries and marijuana lounges.
After careful consideration, the towns of North East, Amenia and Washington decided to opt out of allowing both cannabis retail dispensaries and on-site lounges; Pine Plains decided to opt in to allowing cannabis dispensaries, but not lounges.
Countering the happy milestones reported, the Harlem Valley also experienced its share of trials and tragedies in 2021. State and local authorities addressed issues concerning anti-Asian bias, anti-masking concerns and even an anti-Biden banner hung in full view of passing motorists and school buses.
Local school districts faced COVID-19 outbreaks and concerns about state mask mandates; the Pine Plains Board of Education dealt with harsh complaints from parents about mask breaks for their children.
In Amenia, more than 42 lawsuits were refiled against the town by residents of Silo Ridge Field Club, who claimed they were unfairly assessed. The Amenia elections were dragged into the mess as candidates tied to Silo Ridge — one who was suing the town — ran for Town Board.
In early November, the Millerton Fire Company responded in minutes to a devastating house fire on South Elm Avenue that claimed two lives. The community pulled together in support of the families affected by the blaze, organizing fundraisers, food drives, clothing drives and even finding some of the displaced families housing.
While dealing with the ongoing pandemic, Harlem Valley residents sought appointments to get their COVID-19 vaccines at the pop-up clinics organized by Dutchess County agencies, local pharmacies and school districts, followed by second doses and booster shots.
Following last November’s historic national election, our 2021 local elections could be considered calm by comparison. But perhaps not everywhere.
In Amenia, a new independent party, Amenia Strong, formed. Its slate of candidates ran in the Republican Primary, with some success, as well as in the General Election, running against incumbent candidates running for Town Board and town supervisor.
Among the Amenia Strong candidates was supervisor candidate Julie Doran, the office manager of Silo Ridge. Along with her estranged husband Peter and Stoneleaf Construction LLC Principal Juan Torres (whose company is partner to Silo Ridge Ventures), Doran was among those who filed a lawsuit against the town of Amenia challenging the entire tax roll for inequitable assessments.
New York State also experienced a change in leadership in August when Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation from office following multiple reports of sexual harassment — all of which he denied. In his place, New York State Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul stepped forward as New York’s first female governor. Hochul plans to run for a full term as governor on the Democratic ticket come November.
Look for Part IV of The Year in Review in next week’s issue of The Millerton News
Alexandra Peter's collection of historic samplers includes items from the family of "The House of the Seven Gables" author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
It’s not that Peters has delusions of grandeur, with those small black or white cards a part of the fantasy. In the past few years, her samplers have gone on outings to historical societies and exhibits. Those small black cards are souvenirs.
About 27 of the pieces from Peters’ collection have just left home again, and are featured at the Litchfield History Museum of the Litchfield Historical Society in an exhibit that Peters guest curated along with the historical society’s curator of collections, Alex Dubois.
A needlework example.Cynthia Hochswender
The exhibit is called “With Their Busy Needles,” and it opens with a reception on Friday, April 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. (The exhibit will remain open until the end of November.) Peters will give a talk called “Know My Name: How Schoolgirls’ Samplers Created a Remarkable History” at the museum on Sunday, May 5, at 3 p.m.
Although Peters was first attracted to samplers as a form of art and craft, she has come to see them as something more profound. Each sampler tells a story, but you have to know how to read between the lines of thread and fabric. Peters has become an able and eloquent curator of what were once educational tools just for young girls and women. She can look at one and give an educated guess about who made it, how old they were, where they lived and how affluent their family was (or wasn’t).
Some samplers were made on linen, others were made with silk. Some linens are fine, others are rough and homespun.
“Some of my favorites are made on what’s called ‘linsey woolsey,’” Peters said. “It’s a mix of linen and wool that’s been dyed green. It was uncomfortable to wear, but it looks great on a sampler!”
Younger girls often worked first on learning darning stitches, and would make simple samplers with letters of the alphabet. More advanced stitchers might create genealogies or family trees. Peters particularly loves to find multiple examples from one family.
“I have a couple sets that were done by sisters,” she said, “and a collection from the family of Nathaniel Hawthorne,” the American author of “The Scarlet Letter.”
All samplers, though, show the importance of girls within families, Peters said.
Alexandra Peters, left, is exhibiting needlework samplers from her collection at the Litchfield Historical Society Museum.Cynthia Hochswender
“Parents were excited about their girls getting an education and coming out in the world and displaying their accomplishments. It’s different from what we think.”
“We tend to scorn or disrespect things made by women, particularly if they’re domestic. But before the Industrial Revolution, all work was done at the home, by women and by men. There weren’t jobs that you went to, you did the work at home. Samplers, and needlework, are the work of women, the work of girls.”
Samplers were rarely sold, Peters said, except ones made to help Southern Blacks to escape slavery.
“They were made anonymously and sold at anti-slavery fairs from the 1830s to the 1860s. I have one that can be used as a potholder and it says, ‘Any holder but a slaveholder.’ I have another that must have been a table runner that says, ‘We’s free!’ We’d see some of them as offensive now, but they weren’t at the time; they were joyful.”
Every sampler tells a story, and Peters is an able and entertaining interpreter of those tales. Learn more by visiting the Litchfield History Museum and seeing the exhibit (complete with explanatory museum cards) and come for her talk about samplers on May 5. Register for the opening reception and for the talk at www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/exhibitions.
Oscar Lock, a Hotchkiss senior, got pointers and encouragement from Tim Hunter, stewardship director of The Sharon Land Trust, while sawing buckthorn.
The return of students on this working walkthrough was part of Hotchkiss’s Fairfield Farm Ecosystem and Adventure Team, a program that incorporates environmental stewardship in the learning experience.
The Hamlin Preserve is a 210-acre property with 2.5 miles of trails, and the Hamlin conifer grove restoration is a large-scale landscape forest preservation project.
Tom Zetterstrom, a tree preservationist, stopped to make the point to Hotchkiss School students that invasives have the power to dominate.John Coston
The group entered at the end of Stone House Road and proceeded into an invasive thicket that has already taken its toll on cedars and pines. Zetterstrom stopped the group for several lecture moments and demonstrations of the proper way to cut bittersweet.
Tim Hunter, stewardship director of the Trust, pulled out a folding handsaw that student Oscar Lock, a senior, used to sever a buckthorn at ground level.
Shaye Lee, a sophomore, took a turn with the saw on some privet.
As the group huddled under a close canopy of invasive vegetation that was overtaking everything in sight, Zetterstrom explained that invasive-laden patch was once productive farmland.
As the two-hour stroll-and-lop ended, the group assembled in a hay field on the property to observe a healthy American elm at the edge of the open field that has been saved by the Trust’s efforts.
Pointing to Red Mountain in the short distance, Zetterstrom told the students: “When you come back for your reunions — maybe in 50 years — you can say I helped save those trees.”
