KENT — The selectmen announced at their meeting July 3 that the town will apply for the new round of Connecticut Small Town Economic Assistance Program grants (STEAP).“The state of Connecticut has offered another round of STEAP grants with a total budget of $20 million,” said First Selectman Bruce Adams. “We are going to take advantage of that and are submitting three applications for this money.” Catherine Bachrach, president of the board of Kent Village Housing for the Elderly, which operates Templeton Farms senior housing, said her organization was applying for a STEAP grant for exterior improvements to the barn on the Templeton Farms property. “The barn is used as an office and a common room for the Kent senior center and nutrition program,” she said. “A Masonic lodge rents the second floor of the barn.” Specific improvements would include replacing part of the roof and doing repairs to trim painting on the outside of the building and to the gutters. Additionally, there would be some interior repairs that would increase accessibility. Bachrach said the organization’s grant request would be for less than $100,000. If more money than that is spent, the project would be subject to prevailing wage laws.State statutes say that when projects cost more than a certain amount of money, contractors must pay their workers state-determined wages and benefits. This applies to new construction costs of more than $400,000 and remodeling/repair projects of more than $100,000.In many cases the prevailing wage statutes preclude a town from hiring local contractors who work at lower rates.The town will submit the application for the STEAP grant on behalf of Templeton Farms.Adams said two other STEAP grant applications are likely to be made as well. The first is for funds to pay for repairs to the town garage, including the roof, walls and doors. About $200,000 has already been set aside in the budget for this work. If the STEAP grant is awarded, that money will not have to be spent from the town budget.A third possible grant application for about $50,000 would be submitted on behalf of the Region One School District’s Athletic Facilities Committee, of which Adams is a member. It would be used to upgrade athletic facilities at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.All three applications combined would total $350,000, well under the limit of $500,000 that any one town can request. Applications are due Aug. 1.
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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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