NORTH EAST — Applicant GRJH, Inc., was on the town Planning Board’s agenda for its Wednesday, May 11, meeting to seek amended site plan approval. GRJH owns the Sunoco gas station and convenience store located on Route 44 in the Boulevard District, technically part of the town’s BD-2 zoning district. As has become habit for the applicant and its attorney, no one made an appearance at the scheduled meeting. Typically GRJH’s attorney, Keith Nolan, appears on behalf of his client. According to Planning Board Chairman Dale Culver, on May 11 he received a letter from Nolan stating that, “his client does not want him to come” to the meeting, presumably to save on costs.The Sunoco station has been operating illegally since it opened for business a number of years ago. For one, its LED (light emitting diodes) illuminated sign is not allowed by the town’s sign ordinance. Another issue is that the business never attained a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) from the town’s building inspector, which is a standard requirement. That issue dates back to the Sunoco’s original application in 2005. The town has filed a lawsuit against GRJH and the owners of the property, Robert and Joseph Trotta, to seek an injunction “prohibiting the defendants from maintaining, keeping and operating the convenience store with gasoline sale component at the subject property,” which is still pending, according to a town resolution.In the meantime, the Planning Board has been entertaining a request from Nolan for amended site plan approval. On Dec. 8, 2010, it granted conditional approval predicated on a number of requirements. Most of those requirements have been met, albeit slowly. Those conditions include some of the following:• That GRJH submit an amended site plan including landscaping;• That the site plan shall not have illuminated or nonconforming signs;• That the site’s window coverage, by signs, meet certain specifications;• That the exhaust fan be painted, the illuminated and non-conforming signs removed and the balaster lights shrouded;• That the LED sign remain temporarily, only if specific requirements listed by the board are met;• That the amended site plan, with notations and changes, be submitted to the Planning Board chair for his review within 30 days of the Dec. 8, 2010, resolution (this deadline was missed);• That in the event that GRJH fails to make the required site plan improvements as required by the town, and within the time period specified by the town, the Planning Board shall have the power and authority to revoke site plan approval.As of March, Nolan said a number of those requirements had been met. As of May, more had been completed, including the shrouding of the lamps and the painting of the exhaust fan.
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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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