Millerton — Arnoff Moving and Storage flipped the switch on the largest solar farm in the region on Wednesday, May 2, at its Millerton location. Arnoff Moving and Storage is a family business that started in Lakeville, Conn., in 1924. The company is now in its 88th year and making its biggest commitment to going green to date. Arnoff President Mike Arnoff said the commitment started a few years ago when the business decided it wanted to give back to the communities it operates in as much as possible. Arnoff decided to make a commitment to source as much of its packaging material from post-consumer recycled waste. “Today, three years later, 80 percent of all of our packing material is purchased from suppliers who make the packaging material to our specifications from recycled materials,” he said.Arnoff decided to take the company’s green initiative further and examined its truck fleet to see how it could reduce its carbon footprint. From last year until now Arnoff has improved 20 percent of the power units, making the engines that run the truck fleet more fuel efficient.Arnoff said many people don’t know the Millerton warehouse was previously a brownfield — a possibly toxic site. The property used to be the former Taconic Products K&E site, which the Arnoffs purchased in 2005 and cleaned up according to Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) specifications. The site has been removed from the New York State Registry of Inactive Waste Disposal sites and is now the biggest solar farm in the region. “Today Congressman Chris Gibson is going to flip the switch on our solar farm — the largest solar farm in the region,” said Arnoff on May 2. “Annually it’s going to produce, we hope, close to 100,000 kilowatt hours. Basically, it’s going to again reconfirm our commitment to looking for alternative fuel sources and making the world a better place.”Congressman Gibson, Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro, local elected officials and business representatives from around the region converged at the Arnoff headquarters in Millerton on Wednesday to celebrate and congratulate the Arnoff family on their green initiatives. Arnoff used the time to thank all who helped make the solar farm a reality. Salisbury Bank helped finance the $525,000 solar farm project; it was also how Arnoff learned about the different solar possibilities. Salisbury Bank held a university seminar in February of 2011 entitled, “The Financial Benefits of Solar Electric Energy.” After that seminar Arnoff took steps to make his business more “green” and energy efficient.“Not only have you enriched our community by taking an environmental eyesore and cleaning it up, you took it a step further and turned it into a responsible, forward-thinking environmentally-friendly project,” said Rick Cantele, CEO of Salisbury Bank.Hudson Solar is a full-service solar electric geo-thermal and solar hot water provider specializing in the design, installation and the servicing of renewable energy systems contracted with Sun Power. Hudson Solar was responsible for turning the Millerton warehouse into a solar powered facility. Vice President of Hudson Solar John Wright said it’s vital that there is political support for projects like this.“It’s critical that people like the Arnoffs take these measures to really investigate and learn about these technologies and implement them,” said Wright. “We have to move in the next century with new energy, and solar is one of the strongest components; it’s affordable, reliable, been around for a long time and it works.”The solar farm will generate 65 percent of the building’s usage and Hudson Solar hopes to add more solar panels in the future so it will generate 100 percent of Arnoff’s energy.To finance this project the federal government provided tax credit incentives. The system will pay for itself in the first few years and then it will be able to provide income for the business after that.Molinaro said that on the county level the government has been trying to work with companies like Arnoff to identify where they could expand and alter their alternative energy and clean energy options.“One of the industry clusters that the county has promoted through our economic development efforts is alternative energy ... in our efforts to secure new employers like Solar Tech at the former IBM plant,” said Molinaro.On a state level, Wright said Governor Cuomo announced in the last couple of weeks a new program called New York Sun Initiative. The governor announced he has goals to double solar power in New York state in 2012 and triple solar power in the state in 2013. Molinaro and Gibson both congratulated Arnoff for being a leader and setting an example for other businesses by transforming his business into a solar farm.“This county’s economic success and prosperity rides on the shoulders of those who are already invested in their community,“ Molinaro said. “There are very few businesses and very few families as invested in this community. Dutchess County is thrilled to be here today and join in this exceptional advancement in achievement.”
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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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