MILLERTON — The North East Fire District unveiled its refurbished 1991 GMC brush truck just one week ago. With only 12,000 miles on it, the company had to decide what the future of the vehicle would be.North East Fire District Commissioner Stephen Valyou was on the committee that made the decision.“The rear bumper was deteriorating. That was brought to our attention, and we formed the truck committee. The committee looked at the vehicle as a whole and saw that a lot of work needed to be done. We started pricing with other companies and found it would be well over $100,000 to replace it with a new truck,” he said.The rear bumper was rusting due to frequent wetness and the committee recognized it as a safety hazard.“The more we explored the more we were finding was needed to be done. It seemed a shame to just replace it though, since the mileage is so good,” Valyou said, adding that’s when the committee started to explore its options. “We started working with local vendors, including Sharon Auto Body. Roger over there was a huge asset. He went over the truck with a fine-tooth comb and worked with us to get everything on it done.”The truck body was taken off, sanded and repainted. The chassis was also sanded and repainted and the muffler and fuel tank were replaced.“Once the body came off and we looked at it there was no sense not to repair the truck,” said Valyou.Fire Chief Jason Watson was happy with the pricing.“We saved a good $75,000 of taxpayers’ money versus if we had just replaced it,” he said. “We need that vehicle in the fleet. It doesn’t get a whole lot of use but when you need it, it’s great to have it.”Watson explained the brush-truck is more versatile.“Now it has water and foam on it. It’s great for when you have to get off-road. It gets in places the big trucks can’t,” he said.The refurbishment also lifted the truck two inches higher.“The suspension was modified, bringing the truck up. It sat low before. Now we can put bigger tires on it, and it’s great for off-road,” Watson said.Both Valyou and Watson expressed their thanks to the local businesses who helped make the refurbishment possible.“Sharon Auto Body did abut 80 percent of the project. They were awesome to work with. We’re also really thankful to North East Muffler, Millerton NAPA, Herrington’s and Crane’s Outdoor Power Equipment in North Canaan, Conn. We wanted to keep this project as local as we could, and it was great to have everyone to work with so close to us,” said Valyou.Watson was also appreciative for the approval to move ahead with the project.“I’d like to thank to commissioners and the truck committee. Without their approval we wouldn’t have been able to do this,” he said.Valyou was confident that the project was the right option for the district.“We did the best we could with what we thought was right,” he said.With the GMC back in action, however, the district is now facing an issue with storage.“A lot of people wonder why they see the ambulance out front all the time. We just don’t have the room for it inside. We don’t want to put the GMC out there since we just did all this work on it,” said Valyou, adding the district is seeking extra storage space.“We have the 1968 FWD, which is an icon for Millerton. It’s topless, which was very rare in Dutchess County. It gets used a lot during parade season, but other than that it has to be stored inside since it doesn’t have a roof,” he said.The North East Fire District is seeking anyone with extra storage space, a spare bay in their garage or extra barn space to store non-essential items and vehicles.“If anyone is willing to help we’ll take what we can get. We’d like to get the vehicles indoors to prevent more wear and tear on them,” Valyou said.Anyone interested in storing items for the district can call the non-emergency phone number at 518-789-4645 and leave a message if there is no immediate answer.For more information on the Millerton Fire Company go to www.millertonfire.com.
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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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