![New business brings unique classic car experience](https://lakevillejournal.com/media-library/motoriot-co-founder-jason-doornick-stands-in-the-showroom-of-the-new-business-surrounded-by-some-of-the-customized-classic-cars.jpg?id=51726201&width=1200&height=784)
MOTORIOT co-founder Jason Doornick stands in the showroom of the new business surrounded by some of the customized classic cars for sale.
Lynn Mellis Worthington
MOTORIOT co-founder Jason Doornick stands in the showroom of the new business surrounded by some of the customized classic cars for sale.
KENT – Area residents seeking to find custom-built classic cars won’t have to leave the town’s borders, thanks to a new business, MOTORIOT, that opened in February on Bridge Street.
For co-founder Jason Doornick, the opportunity to locate a showroom in Kent is coming home. He spent his formative years from age 11 to 17 living here, and his mom still lives in North Kent.
“We chose Kent because it was a familiar territory and the demographic I felt was very fitting for the kind of business I wanted to run,” Doornick said Feb. 17. “I knew that my personality as being a disruptor would kind of shake things up in Kent, which I feel like it needed.”
He further explained that he views Kent as a “conformist town,” and he wants to add a little bit of spice to the community.
“I think there are more opportunities here that people would love to have,” Doornick said, explaining he thinks services such as a car wash in town and a 24-hour automotive help service are future options he’d like to explore, as well as free repairs for single parents who can’t afford car repairs.
“So, when I say ‘disruptor,’ I want people to have a reaction to our business instead of just being like, ‘Oh, it’s another car place,’ ” he said.
Doornick said his goal is for people to have an individualized experience that serves customers’ needs and ultimately creates a culture.
The business is located at 21 Bridge St. at the front of the building. Iron Horse Customs is still at the same address in the rear.
Walking into the showroom, a visitor sees many Land Rovers as well as other vintage vehicles.
After Doornick left Kent, he spent quite a bit of time in Europe as an adult and he observed used Land Rovers that could be purchased from $5,000 to $10,000, and being customized and sold for as much as $400,000.
He realized it was a business opportunity he could take advantage of and, for five years, he has successfully imported and transformed these vehicles.
Anyone interested in a customized original Land Rover Series from MOTORIOT can expect to spend from $30,000 to $45,000. The Land Rover Defender Series is offered from $60,000 to $140,000.
Land Rovers were Doornick’s first focus, but now the business has expanded to many other vehicles, including transforming combustion engines into electric vehicles.
MOTORIOT has one other U.S. showroom — in Stamford — and four located internationally in Spain and Ecuador, with another planned in Colombia.
“We are incredibly excited to bring MOTORIOT to Kent,” said Charles Narwold, the company’s co-founder. “This move represents a significant step in our growth and our commitment to offering our clients a unique experience in classic car restoration and customization.”
Classic cars are legally defined as 25 years old but Doornick said he personally starts the vintage clock at 30 years.
“MOTORIOT’s story is one of continued adventure and a deep appreciation for automotive heritage,” Doornick said.
The business sources vehicles from all over the world and takes care of all the important details, creating a custom design with the new owner and then implement the build.
Kent Chamber of Commerce President Phil Fox said Feb. 20 that the chamber officers are glad to have MOTORIOT join the Kent business community.
“We are thrilled to welcome MOTORIOT into the Kent community as one of our newest businesses,” Fox said. “They bring an exciting niche into our business community here with specialty custom-built vehicles, and already completed amazing vehicles for sale.”
“Specializing in Land Rover vehicles and hard-to-find custom vehicles, they add to our existing automotive mechanical repair shops and our enthusiast automotive retail shops rounding out our automotive community here,” he said.
Fox said he anticipates that the business will attract many automotive enthusiasts from neighboring towns.
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.