MILLBROOK — The Village Board held its annual organizational meeting on Thursday, Jan. 3, at the Village Hall. Mayor Laura Hurley took the board through the annual appointments, first reappointing Joseph Spagnola as deputy mayor. All board liaisons will remain the same as last year, with Spagnola and Edward Cox responsible for the Highway Department; Hurley and Thomas Whalen for the fire and rescue departments; Hurley and Spagnola for water and sewer departments; Michael Herzog and Spagnola for Buildings and Grounds; Whalen and Spagnola for Planning and Zoning; Herzog and Hurley for the Wappinger Creek Watershed; and Cox and Herzog for emergency planning details.The mayor proposed the appointment of Stanley Morse to the Planning Board to fill the unexpired term of Peter Doro. Morse’s term on the Planning Board run through Dec. 31, 2016. Village Clerk Linda Wiltse swore in Morse at the reorg meeting. Hurley also appointed Michael Schultz to the police department as a part-time officer with a six-month probationary term. Schultz was not present to be sworn in.Hurley appointed Van DeWater & Van DeWater as legal counsel for the village; D’Achille & Associates as the auditing firm; the town of Washington for snow removal; and The Millerton News, Poughkeepsie Journal and Millbrook Independent as official newspapers for the village.Hurley made the official depository for the village the Bank of Millbrook. All money received by the village treasurer, clerk and receiver of taxes will be deposited at that bank. Herzog submitted a draft of revision for the code of ethics; Hurley said it’s the board’s intention to work on the code at its meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 8.The Village Board will meet on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Village Hall. The rules for special meeting times were also reviewed and approved. It was announced that agendas for board meeting will be available on the village website in advance. The mileage allowance to reimburse village workers who use their person vehicles for official business will remain the same as last year, at 45 cents per mile. Hurley requested trustees and village officials continue with annual training and conferences; attendance at such training must be approved in advance by the Village Board.The four intermunicipal agreements with the town of Washington remain the same, including the fire contract, building and zoning agreements and the tanker truck agreement. The agreement with the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Services also remains the same. The Employee Handbook, amended in Jan. 4, 2012, was unchanged. The social media policy and violence in the workplace policy needed no adjustments. Similarly, the village emergency plan called for no changes either.The next regular business meeting for the village is set for Tuesday, Jan. 8, at 7 p.m.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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