There has been much discussion in the village about the departure of father and son Larry and Steve Merwin from the village Water Works and Highway Department. The operators resigned in February after taking issue with Mayor Marty Markonic and the Village Board.Steve Merwin had been on the job for 10 years, his father for 40. Both said Steve was treated unfairly and that too much was expected of him as head of the department.“I have been targeted by certain board members recently, due to political and personal reasons, that made a hostile work environment,” Steve wrote in his Feb. 24 letter of resignation. He gave his last day of work as March 14, but using the remainder of his “vacation time and personal time” to carry him through, he said in the letter.But Markonic said that he sees it differently.“The harassment and hostile work environment didn’t exist,” said the mayor. “I never raised my voice or belittled him. I’ve been there; I’ve been harassed. I don’t want to push that on anyone.”Steve, however, disagreed, and repeated that he was harassed. Often times it was by the public at village meetings, he said, where he found no support from the board.“Usually, when it snowed there would be a whole bunch of complaints and the board would take the resident’s side and not hear what we had to say,” Steve said. “I got berated for 20 minutes at a meeting and the board never stopped the guy from berating me. I would call that a hostile work environment.“The board never defended me, and it was like that when my father was running things too,” he added. Larry resigned one week after Steve, in support of his son. Markonic said it all began, he believes, after he and another board member spoke to Steve about keeping a daily log of his activities.“It wasn’t that big of an issue, but we felt his monthly reports were lacking and we were really trying to help him out with doing his daily foreman report so he had something to tell us during our monthly report,” Markonic said. “We would ask him, ‘What did you do this month?’ And it was always the same kind of thing. ‘Nothing, really,’ he said. That wasn’t getting the board the answers it needed.”Steve said their request went too far.“I did my job and didn’t feel I needed to tell them every minute of every day,” he said. “They wanted me to justify my job and it’s pretty self-explanatory. All that amounted to was micromanaging. I told them if they wanted to know something all they had to do was ask. It was a petty thing to fight over.”The mayor said after that meeting, though, he felt like the matter was straightened out, and that they “were all in agreement” by meeting’s end.“There was no real burden put on him in order to stay there and there was no discussion about him resigning or losing his job,” said Markonic. “I was completely shocked when he turned in his resignation. I felt for sure he just went and got a better job somewhere, like so many people do.”Steve, though, said he left that meeting “not knowing whether I had a job or not,” and that he felt the meeting was completely negative, rather than positive.Markonic disagreed.“I just think he’s one of those people that you cannot tell him what to do and that’s it. He’s going to do it his way or he’s not going to do it,” he said. “So he resigned and turned in his keys.”“We had to run out and get a new water operator right away,” Markonic said. “So we were never without a water operator.”The village hired two people the very first day, thanks to Village Trustee Rob Cooper’s connections, the mayor said. One was the water operator at The Kildonan School. The other was former Village Trustee and North East Muffler owner John Heck. The pair between them had the necessary licenses. They agreed to work for a “modest amount,” according to Markonic.“What happened, we found out the next day that we have a system with over 1,000 customers and that they also needed a Class D license. They had Class A, B and C,” he said. “The next day we called … Marco D’Antonio [from Amenia]. We were fine again. Jimmy Milton was very helpful, he knows the system and walked Marco through. It was in the course of one day.”D’Antonio was hired for $1,450 for the month of March, and that amount included the completion of “a plethora of reports,” according to the mayor. In March the annual water quality report is due and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) report is due. Markonic said the agreement with D’Antonio was worth it, and if asked he believes he’ll also help out in April.“From there we’re working with New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) to see what procedures we’ll have to go through,” said Markonic, adding the water system is safe and far from vulnerable, as the Merwins have insinuated. “I think we will hire out a company who just oversees the water, and not take over the water so we’ll be in complete control of our water system at all times.”Lastly, Markonic said, wanting to bring closure to the issue, is the point that though the Merwins have expressed displeasure at the situation, in the final analysis it was their decision to resign.“I didn’t fire them,” the mayor said. “I didn’t force them to resign. It was completely their choice to do what they did.”The Merwins, for their part, said they, too, are ready to move past this. Steve said he’s ready to “move on and be done with it.” When asked if he or his father plan to take any action against the village, he said they would not.
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One systemic consequence of slavery is the loss and obscuring of the histories of those who were enslaved. Records were often not kept about where Africans had been stolen from or who they were related to. Families were torn apart, leaving nothing but the faintest traces of the past. The delineation point, where genealogists can no longer trace histories back, is refered to this as the “document wall.”
Today, 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and more than 160 years since the Emancipation Proclamation, there is a growing effort to restore some of the history stripped from enslaved people and their descendants. Among the leaders of these efforts is Mills, president of the Alex Breanne Corporation, a nonprofit organization that works to identify previously anonymous Black Americans from history and connect them with their living relatives.
The work began with Mills’ sister, who started digging into their family’s past in the 1990’s and introduced him to this emerging world of genealogy. Through that process, the Mills family discovered their great-great-grandfather, Ned Mills, who had been enslaved in Texas. His last name came from his final enslaver and remains the family surname. Through their research, they found that the document wall directly affected their ancestor, who learned of his liberation on June 19, 1865, now commemorated as Juneteenth.
“For the first time,” Mills writes on his website, “American slavery wasn’t something that had happened to anonymous people in a history book. It had happened to my family.”
The discovery gave Mills a familial pride he had been missing for years. That pride fueled his desire to help others find their own history. In 2023, Mills received his certificate in genealogical research from Boston University. He has used his expertise to help descendants of enslaved people uncover histories they never dreamed of learning.
To do this, he uses a process called “reverse genealogy,” identifying a person from the past and working forward to discover their descendants. Along the way, Mills has found some remarkable people who fought for freedom on American soil, some of whom were never freed.
Pay Bill for Robin Starr’s service in the Continental Army.Courtesy the Alex Breanne Corporation
At the Cornwall Historical Society event, Mills will present the stories of four Connecticut families: Job Lathrop of Norwich, the son of Pirmus Armes, about whom Mills has published a book; Prince Mortimer of Middletown, also the subject of a book by Mills;, the three sons of London Wallace of Simsbury; and Robert “Robin” Starr of Danbury, who later lived in Cornwall and Sharon.
A few years ago, Cornwall Consolidated School social studies teacher Will Vincent reached out to Mills for research guidance on a local history project his students were undertaking. Together, they learned about Naomi Freeman of Cornwall. After purchasing an acre of land on Great Hollow Road in 1828, Naomi Freeman became the first Black female landowner in Cornwall.
The students petitioned the town to rename a road after the historic Cornwall resident In April 2025, Great Hollow Road was officially renamed Naomi Freeman Historic Road. U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes joined Mills and the Cornwall Consildated School students for a presentation of their research.
Since then, Mills has guided the students in their quest to learn more about Starr’s story. Starr was a Revolutionary War soldier who joined the Continental Army to earn enough money to buy his own freedom, receiving the Badge of Merit in the process. The stories of his descendents’ services are equally worthy of their own books.
In recognition of Mills and the students’ work, First Selectman Gordon Ridgway proclaimed Feb. 8 as Robin Starr Day.
Preregistration is required for the event at the Cornwall Historical Society. To learn more about Mills’ work, visit
alexbreanne.org.
John Mills speaking at Quinnipiac University.Courtesy the Alex Breanne Corporation
Stephanie Saetta runs Charlie Chicken Bones, a sanctuary in Salisbury.
Dogs have been at the center of Saetta’s life since childhood. She remembers going to the library to research different breeds and trying to convince her parents the family needed a dog. She had her heart set on an Irish Wolfhound, but she was more than happy when her mom brought home a West Highland terrier.
After college, she adopted Charlie as a puppy from a rescue on Long Island. He was a hound-shepherd-Rottweiler mix who suffered from intense seizures. Some veterinarians recommended euthanasia, but Saetta wasn’t ready to give up on him.
When Charlie would have an episode, she would sit with him, nose to nose, talking him through it. She learned to look for the moment he began to come around — when he could smell her again and his tail started to wag.
“You only get one or two of these soul connection dogs, so I do this in his honor,” Saetta said. “I like to think that all the dogs that come through are going to have that person that they connect with just the same.”
Through a network of women working to rescue animals in Texas, she learned about the desperate situations facing many dogs.
With limited space, some public pounds euthanize even healthy animals to make room. Limited access to veterinary care leaves sick dogs or unvaccinated puppies especially vulnerable.
Saetta saw that reality firsthand with a puppy named Gus, a Labrador mix she fostered who has since been adopted. Gus and his sisters had been dumped beside a road, where they were living under an abandoned car. People would leave food for them, but no one would take them to the pound.
“Even the people who rescue animals down there were like, ‘sadly, the best place for them to be is on the side of the road,’” she said. “That’s safer. Someone might actually help them that way.”
Saetta knows that there are far more dogs than any one person can save, but she also knows that helping one dog means one fewer on the street.
Stephanie Saetta,with her rescue dog George and Blue (left), a shepherd mix awaiting his forever home.Madi Long
Charlie Chicken Bone Sanctuary operates entirely through foster homes, a model that Saetta believes is best for the dogs and the humans hoping to adopt them.
Rather than moving directly from a difficult environment into a permanent home, the dogs have a chance to settle into a quieter setting. They can learn what it’s like to live with a family, sleep somewhere comfortable and receive affection without fighting for attention. Fostering also allows the rescue to really get to know each dog.
“As fosters, we’re honest,” said Saetta. We’ll tell you everything that’s been bad, everything that’s been good. What their temperament is and how they’ve responded to all the things they’ve experienced.”
A successful adoption is not just about finding a dog a home; it’s about finding the right home where the dog and family can thrive together.
Saetta is looking for more people willing to open their homes to foster dogs. She understands that the thought of growing attached and eventually saying goodbye can feel daunting. But she sees that goodbye a little differently.
Fostering means being part of a dog’s journey, even if only for a short time. It gives dogs a safe place to rest, the chance to trust again and the love they have gone without for much of their lives. And when the time comes for them to leave, it is not really a loss. It is the reward of knowing they are moving on to a forever home.
Blue, Saetta’s current foster, is hoping to find his perfect home.
Blue, a 7 year-old Shepard mix, is waiting for his forever home. Madi Long
Now around 7 years old, Blue spent most of his life wandering the streets of Texas. People sometimes left food out for him, but his mangy, dirty coat kept them from stopping to pet him. Today, he has a chance to experience something different.
Blue is still waiting for his forever home. Saetta believes he would do best as the only dog in a household or alongside another senior dog. He will need someone willing to continue working with him on his training and understand that a dog with his history needs patience.
But what he gives in return is a whole lot of love.
“He’s so enthusiastic, he’s so excited for life, he’s so friendly, and he’s got such a good heart, and he loves to cuddle,” Saetta said. “He’s a good, good, good dog.”
For more information on adopting Blue or how to foster, visit ccbsanctuary.org.
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