CORNWALL — A plan to enhance access to the Housatonic River off of Lower River Road is moving toward completion. However, a controversial platform to provide handicapped access for fishing and other recreational activities has been scrapped.Meghan Ruta, Connecticut Water Protection Manager for the Housatonic Valley Association, came to the May 8 Housatonic River Commission (HRC) meeting to offer an update on “The Bend” River Access and Stormwater Improvement Project. It has been quietly moving forward with design work that included a survey that revealed the property, a rough parking area and boat launch on land owned by Connecticut Light & Power, is not as large as was thought. That prompted a new look at the proposed platform, which was not favored by the HRC.“The downstream property boundary is a lot closer than we thought,” Ruta said, “and now we don’t really have room for the platform. Also, a board member noted it’s a fly-fishing-only zone, so a platform makes no sense.”The project is one of dozens funded through the $7.75 million Connecticut Natural Resource Damages Fund for restoring natural resources in the Housatonic River Basin. It was part of the consent decree in the $15 million settlement with General Electric over the release of PCBs and other chemicals from its Pittsfield, Mass., plant.Awards were made in July 2009. The Bend project received $222,586. Ruta said she expects to have more design details to bring to the June 12 HRC meeting. Projects are expected to get final approval by the end of June, with funds released in the fall.Ruta and commission members discussed issues of the parking lot, and the need to control the footprint. “The parking area seems to have expanded into the [river] buffer zone,” HRC Chairman Bill Tingley said. “Maybe some rocks or plantings can be placed as buffers.”He is also concerned about the need to stabilize and better define a boat launch. It is and will be a public boat launch, and is the put-in point for the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department’s rescue boat. Ruta said steep slopes there will have to be dealt with to make it safer for both uses. Work will include replacing invasive plant species with native varieties, installing a public toilet, likely a solar-powered composting model, and the addition of a kiosk to provide safety and education materials.
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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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