FALLS VILLAGE — A second referendum vote on a new proposed budget for the Region One School District will be held Thursday, May 31.Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain said the schedule for revisiting the budget begins with a special meeting of the regional school board Thursday, May 17, 5:30 p.m. at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in the library.The district meeting, a formality at which the board votes to adjourn to referendum, is Wednesday, May 30, and the referendum is the next day.“It’s a very tight schedule,” said Chamberlain.In between the May 17 meeting and the district meeting there will not be a public hearing, because one is not required by law in this situation.The Region One school budget failed at a referendum vote Tuesday, May 8. The proposed budget had a bottom line of $14,967,549, an increase of 1.97 percent from this year’s spending plan (the fiscal year ends June 30).Two bonding questions — for a new roof at Housatonic Valley Regional High School ($2,034,900) and replacing a heating system and complying with an Americans with Disabilities Act audit ($1,554,460) — passed handily, with almost 76 percent of the vote.During the budget process, the practice of extending contracts for Region One administrators was criticized by two board members, Marilyn Yerks of Sharon and Gale Toensing of Falls Village, as well as First Selectman Pat Mechare of Falls Village and Marshall Miles of NPR radio station WHDD (91.9FM, which has its home in Sharon), among others.The administrators’ contracts are for three years. The All Boards Committee, comprised of the chairmen of all six town school boards plus the Region One board, recommended the contracts be extended by one year, with salary and benefit adjustments. The committee made a similar recommendation last year.Critics say this practice puts the district at a disadvantage when bargaining, and results in a continual three-year deal.Proponents have maintained that not to offer the extensions sends a signal to the administrator to start looking elsewhere for work.Region One Board of Education Chairman Phil Hart, when asked on Monday, May 14, if the defeat of the budget means the administrators’ contracts are void, was ready with the answer.“The contracts are valid,” Hart said. “I checked that. They have their raises and three-year contracts.”Chamberlain confirmed that the contracts are valid, and said that the administration will come to the special meeting with some recommendations for cuts in spending.There is some disagreement over the validity of the contracts. Miles said Monday that Region One Business Manager Sam Herrick had told him that the administrative contracts have not been drafted, much less signed. “They can’t be signed before the referendum,” said Miles, arguing that the contracts may thus be amended.Chamberlain, reached Monday afternoon, said that the board’s own vote on the contracts, as part of the budget process, is the relevant action. That the contracts have not been drafted yet is standard procedure, she said. “Typically we don’t have them done until summer,” she said.Chamberlain also said the board can ask individual administrators for concessions on the contracts.The five administrators involved are Chamberlain, Herrick, Assistant Superintendent Diane Goncalves, Carl Gross, director of Pupil Services, and Martha Schwaikert, supervisor of Special Education.At the board’s regular meeting Monday, May 7, the day before the referendum, the board voted to hear a presentation from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education on the results of a survey of how the state’s public school districts negotiate administrative contracts. That presentation will be in October.At the May 8 referendum, the vote in the six towns of Region One was 572 against, 472 for. Falls Village (86-33 against), North Canaan (133-61 against) and Sharon (144-53 against) voted no on the Region One budget.Cornwall (99-57 for), Kent (84-41 for) and Salisbury (142-111 for) voted yes.Last year, the Region One budget passed by a relatively slim margin of 45 votes.But turnout last year in all six Region One towns was 650. This year’s turnout was 1,046.The initial returns sent out Tuesday night by Herrick had the vote in North Canaan as 131-61 against the budget, but The Lakeville Journal double-checked the returns Wednesday morning, May 9, and North Canaan reported two additional “no” votes.The Region One budget has three component parts: Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Pupil Services (including special education) and the Regional Schools Services Center (popularly known as the Central Office).The high school budget proposal was for $8,479,851 (up 2.8 percent); Pupil Services was $5,550,269 (up .48 percent); and RSSC was $937,429 (up 3.41 percent).
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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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