The Town Board held a special workshop on the town’s financial future on Thursday, April 3, at its aging highway garage — a tangible visual aid for one of the night’s topics. Key issuesAs town Supervisor John Merwin told those at the lightly attended meeting, “this is a workshop on the major financial issues on our plate for the next few years.”What followed was a PowerPoint presentation on the critical issue of ambulance coverage for the town come Jan. 1, 2015 — which is when the North East Fire District says its Emergency Medical Service (EMS) will no longer be able to provide daytime coverage due to a lack of volunteers.The other issue addressed at the meeting was the highway garage, built in the 1920s and clearly on its last legs. The board spoke of the need for the town to relocate, rebuild and revive its highway facilities.EMS needs and numbersMerwin began his presentation with the ambulance situation. The prospect of no ambulance squad was something he said the board was “not even willing to consider.” That’s why it has held meetings previously with fire district personnel and volunteers to brainstorm solutions. The inevitable, it seems, is to hire a commercial provider for the daytime shift.According to the town supervisor, “the ball park costs for this coverage have been estimated by Dutchess County Emergency Response officials to be somewhere between $200,000 to $400,000 a year for 12-hour-a-day coverage.”The tax implications of that are as follows:Inside the village, for a home valued at $150,000, $176.73 currently goes toward emergency services. Outside the village that charge rises to $452.07 for a home of the same value.If the town winds up paying $200,000 for EMS coverage, inside the village a home valued at $150,000 would end up paying $231.99 for emergency services. That’s $55.26 more than what it now pays. Outside the village a home valued at $150,000 would be charged $507.23 for EMS, $55.16 more than it currently does.If EMS commercial coverage costs the town $400,000, a $150,000 home inside the village would pay $287.15 for coverage, an increase of $110.42 from its current charge. A home of the same value outside the village would pay $562.50 for EMS coverage, which is $110.43 more than the current fee.“When we look at the $400,000 figure, if it was that high, hopefully it’s not going to be anything near that,” said Merwin. Highway garageThe conversation then segued into the state of the highway garage, located on South Center Street right off the Webatuck Creek. As the supervisor said, years ago there were “two things placed far away and near the water — highway garages and landfills.”That doesn’t happen today, and for good reason. Environmental concerns plague the garage site, not the least of which is the fact that the salt and sand piles are located only feet from the creek. Those materials seep into the water causing harm to the creek and its inhabitants.Additionally, there is no oil/water separator at the garage. The floor drains have been sealed as directed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Employees must work in mud and water when doing repair work. The DEC does not permit water to be pumped outside, yet there are no adequate facilities to wash highway equipment inside.As far as space constraints, three large pieces of equipment and six attachments are currently stored outside. Plows need to be removed when trucks go inside the garage. There is also insufficient room to perform proper equipment maintenance, according to Merwin, who added outside storage of equipment takes its toll on the machinery as well, sometimes leading to early replacement of equipment that could cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.The supervisor also reported that the garage does not have a proper ventilation system. He said the windows are in poor condition and do not open, and that the overhead insulation is saturated with diesel soot.As far as structural issues, aside from being in overall poor condition, the garage roof leaks during heavy rains. The electric service to the building is inadequate and must be updated. There is a lack of shower facilities and eye-wash stations for emergencies. There is inadequate sand and salt storage; what’s there does not meet with DEC standards and employees reportedly have to “climb through snow and ice to remove the tarp from the sand and salt pile.” Also, the fuel storage is not sufficient, as well as being too close to the trout stream.Future facilities?The town wants to buy a new piece of property (the existing garage sits on a too-small one-acre site) and build anew. According to town engineer Ray Jurkowski of Morris Associates, the estimated construction costs of a new garage (including engineering, inspections and contract administration) amount to $1,895,969. That does not include the purchase of the property itself, which Jurkowski said would likely be in the area of $300,000, bringing the total project cost to roughly $2.2 million.What could make such a large project feasible for the town is that one of its larger debts is nearly paid off. The landfill remediation project bond has $195,000 left to be paid; $95,000 is due in October 2014, with another $95,000 due in October 2015. Once that’s paid the town will be free and clear of that financial obligation. It could then take on the financial commitment of a new highway facility more comfortably, according to the Town Board.“We know we’ve got the EMS issue, but as we said, the issue of the highway garage is not going to get any easier with construction costs and highway costs,” said Merwin. “Now is the time to get it done, but we want to know what people think about the possibility of doing something.”“I don’t think you’ll meet with a whole lot of problems with the public,” said former Millerton Mayor John Scutieri from the audience. “We’ve been talking about it for 20 years.”Problem solvingMillerton Mayor Marty Markonic asked about the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), and whether “anybody has approached the larger businesses to ask if their employees would like to join?”Merwin replied he had, but that “the interest wasn’t there.” The supervisor added, “You’re looking at a group that is just plain worn out.”It takes 260 hours worth of training to become an EMT, and another 60 hours of training every year to maintain that certification.“What about the village and town incentivizing their employees [to volunteer]?” asked Markonic.The issue of how difficult it is for volunteers to get out of work during the day was raised, as employers have no obligation to release them from their duties. Additionally, those who would be willing to release their employees can’t always do so due to circumstance; workers also might be unable to reach an emergency in time due to how far away they work. EMTs who work for the town’s Highway Department were given as an example.“They’re going to be out working on other things,” said town Councilman George Kaye, adding by the time they reach an emergency it could be over and done with. “They can try to supplement and the guys go when they can,” said Merwin.Fire Commissioner George Lind said it’s improved “100 percent in the last six to eight months with fire [calls], but not EMS calls, that are made to highway employees.”“It’s about an hour round trip to answer a call, do vitals, get to the hospital, get back, and that’s assuming you don’t get another call,” said Fire Chief Keith Roger.“Marty, your point is good,” said Merwin, “but it’s a lot more difficult and there’s a lot of experience sitting over there and they’re tired out … But this board is committed to Jan. 1 that something will be in place.”“We should be working on some kind of incentive for our emergency services — EMTS and firefighters alike — some kind of tax break on their homes. It’s just as important,” said Scutieri.Everyone at the meeting seemed to agree.And, actionMerwin said the board was going to continue to address the issue, but that at the end of the day it must take action.“We can talk about this ‘til the cows come home,” he said, “but we’ve got to do something.”NASCAR Dave MacMillan, the only civilian present other than Scutieri, encouraged the board to move forward.“Why don’t you guys just come up with something for the taxpayers?” he asked. “Tell them you have to do this to be responsible. Make it a two-tier thing, don’t push the highway garage off.”MacMillan also noted the lack of public participation and said while people don’t make an effort to attend such meetings, that never seems to keep them from complaining.“I don’t understand why taxpayers don’t come out and get involved,” he said. “They’ll certainly complain when taxes go up because you have to build a new garage. This is the first step right here … take it to the public. If … you want my vote, let’s do both, and let’s do it right.”
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Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton\u2019s Main Street in 1985.
Provided
For Hermans, the award has prompted some reflection about why he has spent so much of his life involved in community projects.
“I was thinking about it this morning: Why do I do what I do?” he said. “And I think no matter what I’ve done, whether it’s been school board or rail trail, I’m trying to be useful to the communities I’m associated with.”
Hermans is perhaps best known as the longtime co-founder and steward of Oblong Books in Millerton, a business that began almost by accident. He and his first wife, Holly Nelson, were living in Millerton and looking for something to do during the winter. They had been painting houses, including the Grange Hall in Millerton, a job Hermans got through his aunt, who belonged to the Grange.
At the time, Hermans was also working in insurance for his father, doing collections.
“It was fine except I was doing collections, and it really kind of left me cold,” he said.
He and Nelson began thinking about what they might do together. Nelson was an avid reader, while Hermans had studied journalism and had worked in a record store. They noticed a chain of book and record stores operating elsewhere in the Hudson Valley and decided to follow that model.
And so Oblong was born.
Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton’s Main Street in 1985.Provided
“We really learned it by the seat of our pants,” Hermans said.
The business would eventually become a beloved and integral part of Millerton’s commercial life. But although Hermans may have learned the book business as he went, his affinity for retail — and for the connections that happen across a counter — had begun much earlier.
As a child, his second-grade teacher operated a little cardboard pencil shop in the classroom, and Hermans still remembers the satisfaction of selling a pencil for a nickel.
“I really liked selling somebody a pencil for a nickel,” he recalled. “I can remember that experience, and it was so pleasant.”
Later, while living in Arizona, he helped establish a food co-op and worked at the counter.
“I kind of knew that I liked doing that kind of thing,” he said. “It’s a nice way to be pleasant with people, but without making too much commitment to them.”
His relationship with Millerton also predates Oblong. His grandparents lived in the village, and he first came to Millerton as a baby. Over the years, he has watched the town change through several generations.
He remembers a Millerton with a much broader array of businesses, when stores such as Delson’s, the Main Street department store that stood for nearly 40 years in what is now Millerton’s Antiques Center, seemed to carry almost everything a resident might need.
“You could find everything from a set of dishes to a shotgun,” he recalled.
The rise of shopping malls changed that kind of downtown retail, he said, but Millerton has remained a lively commercial village.
“For us, it’s been a great place to have business,” Hermans said. “It’s a busy village.”
For Hermans, running a store was never simply about selling books and records. It was a way of being part of a place.
Music has remained another constant. Hermans continues to sell music at Oblong and hosts the radio program “New Harmony” on WKZE. The business of selling music has changed dramatically over the years, particularly with the rise of streaming, but Hermans has adapted.
He was initially reluctant to bring vinyl records back into the store because of their expense. But about four or five years ago, he began stocking LPs again, and they have become the main form of music the store sells.
He finds that many of the customers buying them are reconnecting with music they loved years ago.
“I do best with classic albums that people may have had when they were young,” he said. “And now that they’re retired, they want to hear it again.”
Hermans still reviews between 700 and 1,200 new music releases each week through the store’s distributor, Alliance Entertainment, carefully deciding what belongs on Oblong’s shelves.
That same commitment to place has led Hermans into a wide range of community projects. His work with the Harlem Valley Rail Trail is among the efforts he mentions when reflecting on his years of civic involvement. He has also served on the school board and has been involved with the Millerton Business Alliance and the Irondale Schoolhouse. He is now involved with The New Pine Plains Herald, which he sees as complementary to the work of The Millerton News and The Lakeville Journal.
“I really think that the important thing about this award is that people understand what a newspaper does to connect them to their community,” he said. “And if that means anything to their lives, they gotta support it.”
Hermans knew Mary Lou and Robert Estabrook and remembers them as people who were deeply conscious of their responsibilities to the community.
“They were really nice folks,” he said. “They were very conscious of what their role in the community was.”
There is, in fact, still plenty on his plate. Hermans admits he needs to scale back because he has taken on more than his current abilities can comfortably accommodate.
“To be given this award is very special,” he added. “But I don’t feel like I’m done.”
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Adamah Farm crew members planning out the day’s tasks on a late September day.
Janna Siller
Over my 15 years of growing vegetables in Falls Village, I’ve exerted my will over all kinds of conditions, from drought to humidity to crows with a taste for cantaloupe. That’s what farming is all about. You zip around the field, hopping on and off tractors, moving hoses and chasing weeds, all in an effort to arrange conditions in favor of your crops. It is the crops’ job to gulp up sunlight and move water through their stems, to transform solar energy into your next pesto or ratatouille or butternut squash soup. It is the job of the farmer to irrigate just enough but not too much, to slice dandelion leaves without damaging delicate cabbage roots, to pander and pamper and stay in tune with what plants need to thrive.
The easy part of farming is trusting plants’ resilience. I have seen bright green shoots barrel ahead out of a plant torn to shreds by hail. I’ve watched wilty, heat-stressed seedlings turn rigid overnight and greet the next morning with vigor. The hard part is letting go of what you can’t control. As our crops lapped up Friday’s gentle sunshine and I considered the weekend forecast, I imagined roots holding tight to wet earth and branches supporting each other in sideways, pelting rain. I made sure all of our storage crops were already harvested and tucked away. I battened down the sides of our greenhouses and wished the remaining field crops good luck.
The nor’easter didn’t materialize too dramatically in our corner of New England. A few broken branches and debris blown about, nothing like the July Fourth storm that sent half a tree crashing onto the deer fence and left crates of fresh veggies in coolers without power.
Fall storage crop harvests amid soil building cover crops at Adamah Farm in Falls Village. Janna Siller
Farming is an exercise in acceptance. To do it well and return year after year, you have to balance hubris and humility. The prize can often be a certain equanimity, a training in the art of moving into the next day even when the last one scrambled all your plans.
Epic change is not always about the unexpected. It also comes like clockwork on the seasonal calendar. As I type, the last of summer’s watermelons wait naively on the vine for a few hot days to finish ripening. Broccoli are holding their leaves wide as they did in June and July, only to find that the hours of sunlight decrease with each earlier sunset. Plants can’t pick up and go south or call the manager to order a bonus round of sunshine. Their growth slows and they get a resigned look to the hue of their leaves, so different from the frenzied growth of summer.
The release of fall is not tragic or gloomy. It is not an ending because so many fall tasks are about setting up for the new beginnings in spring.
We turn the vines that yielded thousands of pounds of fruit into the soil, where healthy microbes feast on their rotting stems. Then we plant cover crops — a mix of cereal grains like rye and oats and legumes like peas, vetch and clover. Cover crops hold the soil and its nutrients in place over winter, feeding the soil food web and adding organic matter that next season’s crops will need to grow.
We sort sprinklers and repair hoses. We inventory tarps. We take notes about which plants did well where and how we might try a new approach for this or that. We stack crates of cured garlic and onions and winter squash in a cool, dark room.
We save seeds from tomatoes and beans and lettuce, carefully labeling each variety for next season’s long, sunny days.
Janna Siller is the farm director at Adamah, a community farm in Falls Village offering CSA shares, educational programs and a food access program.
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