AMENIA — Despite town Supervisor Wayne Euvrard’s assurances that price negotiations were ongoing, members of the town’s Trail to the Train Committee continue to voice their concerns about the Amenia Town Board’s handling of a project that will create a half-mile extension of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail from the Wassaic Metro-North train station south into the hamlet of Wassaic.At both the April 14 and 21 meetings, three members of the committee spoke out with concerns, including that the project is taking too long to complete and that cost estimates are more than the town can afford. At the April 21 meeting committee Chair Tonia Shoumatoff spoke in what she said was her first public address at a meeting regarding the project since the board voted 4-1 to choose engineering and design firm WSP Sells over the committee’s pick of Mark Morrison & Associates four months ago.Shoumatoff said she was “disappointed” in the Town Board for still not having a signed contract nearly five years into the project, and that she felt the project had “serious problems in terms of finances.”WSP Sells has submitted four initial proposals, all with different cost estimates. The lowest alternative is $707,000, more than $100,000 over the $600,000 ceiling that was initially set for the project.Two years ago Amenia applied for and received a $480,000 federal grant (with an additional $120,000 match from the town). That grant, Euvrard has pointed out, has required the town to follow strict federal guidelines in choosing an engineering and design firm. One of those restrictions is that the town choose a firm based solely on qualifications, without looking at cost estimates, the supervisor has said.No one is in disagreement that the quotes from WSP Sells are too high; several board members have stressed at recent meetings that the price needs to be negotiated down before the town signs a contract. Euvrard himself said that he would not sign anything without first meeting with the committee and with the approval of the board.But Shoumatoff said she was skeptical the town would be able to negotiate down to the $600,000 estimate; Euvrard replied that in meeting with county representatives, he had been told numerous times that the project would likely cost more than $600,000 anyway.In recommending Mark Morrison & Associates, the committee has said that the company believed it could complete the project within the town’s budget. Shoumatoff reiterated that point at the April 21 meeting and said that, in her belief, the town had three options: to negotiate with WSP Sells to bring the price to below $600,000, to turn the project over to the county or to get a second bid to bring the cost down.Euvrard acknowledged that the committee “has worked hard and has some good points,” but stressed that the board would continue to meet with all of the involved parties to reach an agreement that satisfied everyone.“We’re going to negotiate and follow procedures,” he reiterated.
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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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