![Making it happen in North Canaan](https://lakevillejournal.com/media-library/first-selectman-brian-ohler-right-welcomed-town-halls-new-executive-assistant-paul-mattingly-saturday-march-2.jpg?id=51725523&width=1200&height=1017)
First Selectman Brian Ohler, right, welcomed Town Hall’s new executive assistant, Paul Mattingly, Saturday, March 2.
Kathryn Boughton
First Selectman Brian Ohler, right, welcomed Town Hall’s new executive assistant, Paul Mattingly, Saturday, March 2.
NORTH CANAAN—Sometimes the best ideas are right before our eyes, obvious but unrecognized.
Put some new eyes on the problem, however, and they are quickly detected.
That is the case with an initiative at the North Canaan Town Hall, where First Selectman Brian Ohler has begun “Make it Happen Mondays,” a time at the beginning of the week and the beginning of the day when contractors and homeowners can find all the building officials they need in one place.
“I had thought about it for a while,” Ohler said. “Speaking with residents and contractors, I heard complaints that the office hours were piecemeal — one office is open, another closed. The building process takes numerous steps, so in an effort to improve the permitting process, we decided to bring all the offices together at one time, under one roof.”
From 8 to 11 a.m., people can visit the building official, the fire marshal, the zoning enforcement officer and a representative of the Torrington Area Health District at Town Hall. “They’re all here, willing and able to assist people to complete the permitting process,” Ohler said
Ohler has made other shifts in the Town Hall schedule to accommodate the public. An early riser himself, he said: “My office hours start at 5 a.m. A lot of contractors start early, and if they only have 15 minutes to get business done, I am here.”
His office is also open until 8 p.m. on Monday to accommodate residents who work out of town. Tuesday through Thursday, the day ends at 4 p.m., and on Friday, his doors are open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
A further change is that new executive assistant Paul Mattingly will remain at his desk from noon to 1 p.m., a time the office has traditionally closed.
“This acknowledges that most residents take their lunch from noon to 1 p.m.,” Ohler said. “Most offices here have been closed. We will start with the front office, and I am hoping the elective offices will follow our example.
Elected offices at the Town Hall hours are open 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. (closed noon-1 p.m.), Monday through Thursday.
“A lot of what we are doing seems simple, but it hasn’t happened before,” Ohler observed. “People are very appreciative. Even if they don’t take advantage of it, just knowing Town Hall is open makes them happy.”
He adds that the accessible door on the east side of Town Hall now opens automatically, easing access.
“I look at the town as running a business, and the taxpayers are my customers,” he said. “I am trying to make the town customer-centric.”
Other initiatives are obvious at the landfill. “We’re showing the town what we are doing with the cleanliness of the transfer station,” he said.
An accumulation of discarded refrigerators and the like has been eliminated and the points for access and egress have been changed to facilitate flow. Transfer station stickers are now checked at the entrance to ensure only residents deposit trash.
Beyond the visual impact, he is addressing costs. “People know we all must pay taxes, but they want to know those taxes are working in ways that are beneficial,” he said. “I’ve put a moratorium on porous bulky waste until we can put a roof over the bin. We pay by the pound to dispose of it. What happens when cushions, carpets and sofas get wet? They weigh more.”
Similarly, separating food scraps from the waste stream will greatly reduce weight, an initiative he would like to put in place in late spring.
He admitted that not all measures he takes are popular. “I just take it as feedback. I do get some pushback from residents at the transfer station,” he said. “They think when they buy a sticker, it allows them to bring anything they want.”
Abstract art display in Wassaic for Upstate Art Weekend, July 18-21.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene from the Amenia garden tour.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else.
I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.