NORTH EAST — Talks regarding the proposed supermarket slated for the Boulevard District moved from the Planning Board’s domain to the Town Board’s, as the subject of water service was broached last week. The Town Board held a special meeting at Town Hall on Thursday, April 7, to conduct that discussion among supermarket applicant Southern Realty & Development, LLC (represented by John Joseph), project engineer Rich Rennia, project architect Ray Nelson, Town Engineer Ray Jurkowski, Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky and the members of the Town Board. The goal of the meeting, according to town Supervisor Dave Sherman, was to hash out a framework of how to approach the concept of water service for the as-of-yet-unnamed supermarket planned for Route 44 East, near the Connecticut border.First choice, exploring other options While the conversation focused on the 10-acre site owned by Quinmill Properties Inc., which Southern Realty & Development, LLC (SRD) is looking to develop, SRD acknowledged its first choice is still to come to an agreement with C&S Wholesalers, which runs the Grand Union supermarket in Millerton and leases that space from property owner Robert Trotta. That pursuit has thus far been unsuccessful.At last week’s meeting, Rennia gave an overview of the applicant’s second option.“The Quinmill property site, we’ll develop that site and put in an almost 36,000-sqare-foot supermarket and redo the entrance into Ken Thompson’s building, and move that [entrance] farther to the west, and have one joint entrance in,” Rennia said, adding there would be a large loop around the building for truck traffic. The engineer also said there is “plenty of room” to install a septic system.“There is room to install a private well and put together a private water system,” Rennia said, before reviewing the applicant’s water service options. “Seeing that the water district is very close, about 1,200 feet down Route 44, west to the site, [there] is the possibility of connecting to that system. There are two ways: One is an expansion of the district and one is to create, out of the district, a user contract agreement between the developer and the town.”Rennia said either way the same 8-inch water line extension would be used.Who wants in, who wants outJoseph interjected that the adjoining property owners, Ken Thompson (owner of Thompson’s Plaza) and Basil Gabriel (owner of Basil’s Auto Shop) “have no need or desire to connect” to the town’s water district. He added the supermarket would like to be an out-of-district user. It expects to use approximately 2,000 gallons of water a day, which led the developer to describe the market as “not a tremendous water user,” but added it would be willing to cooperate with the municipality as needed.“We would construct [it], and also, if the town felt at a later date it needed to form a district and bring those people in, we would be happy to contribute our share or even pay the district at that time,” he said. “But at this point we would try to keep it as simple as possible.”Rennia sent a letter dated March 3, 2011, to the town supervisor. The matter was put succinctly.“It is anticipated that Southern Realty & Development, LLC would bear the costs to expand the water district including construction, design and permitting,” he stated. “The proposed project will require an estimated 2,000 gallons per day for normal consumption purposes and fire flow needs are 1,000 gallon per minute.”It’s the details that countCouncilman Dave McGhee raised an important point, reminding those present the town’s water district receives its supply from the village.“First of all I think it isn’t going to be up too much to the Town Board — it’s up to the Village Board if they’re going to be able to make another district. They’re the ones that control the water. Secondly, I’m very interested if there’s enough pressure to sustain all that way out there. I hope you do.“I will throw in this comment,” he added. “I know you have different ideas, I’ve lived here all my life, and you should be able to hook onto a line at the state line by Thompson Plaza and Basil’s, because they’re not going to stay there. Once we’re going this far, whether we do [the supermarket] or not, we should be able to hook up. Things are going to change; once somebody offers [those businesses out by the state line money to buy them out] they’re not going to stay there.”Councilman Carl Stahovec then brought up the wetlands issue and the buffer that usually accompanies them.“The last project had a 300-foot buffer,” he said. “You obviously don’t have that here. I’d be interested to see where that’s going. We’ve been getting letters [concerning wetlands]; another issue is the bog turtles. That’s another hurdle that’s there.”The applicant has engaged a biologist to do a bog turtle survey, which will be conducted sometime this month. The developer said in more than two decades doing his work he’s never seen the turtles yet.“As long as there’s a habitat there don’t have to be turtles,” Councilman Steven Merwin rebutted.Who is SRD? At that point Sherman asked Joseph what his exact relationship to Southern Realty & Development was.“I’m it,” responded Joseph, later adding he works with another investor. “We are owners, operators, of shopping centers. We acquire land and develop on behalf of tenants and then they become our tenants and they rent from us.”Getting off track and regaining focusTalk quickly reverted to focus on water. Merwin raised concerns about whether the village could handle the load, or if another water tank might be needed. He made reference to the town’s decision in the 1990s to not build another storage tank, which caused a brief skirmish with the town supervisor. The two quickly settled back to the business at hand.“We need to look out for the village on this,” Merwin said.“You’re right,” Replansky said. “The village has to make sure it has the capacity for this. The village can look at the plans for the proposed development on the site and see what the water requirements are, but if they’re talking about a district expansion, they have to look at the other properties then to see if they have the capacity.”“I don’t want the public to pay for anything,” McGhee said, adding an escrow account must be established.Two escrow accounts will actually be created; one escrow account will be for the planning process reviewed by the Planning Board and the other will be for the professional review undertaken by the Town Board. Neither account has been created yet, nor has a dollar amount been set for either of the two accounts, according to the town supervisor.
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Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.
“I was a library kid. I walked to the library after school,” she said.
For Sher, the library is as much about the people as it about the books.
“Part of the job I love so much is that running the library is such a community,” she said.
She treasures the relationships she has built, whether recommending books, celebrating accomplishments or helping patrons through difficult times.
“I am thankful that our community is so supportive of the library, unlike what is happening in some other places where librarians are villainized,” Sher said.
Sher takes pride in the Hunt Library’s reputation for being “open and welcoming to everyone. People come in and see things and get pulled into things they weren’t expecting. Our library is seen as a positive force.”
Sher came to Falls Village after being awarded a fellowship at Adamah Farm, then a program of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. She worked at pickling, in the greenhouse and later in the development office. She also worked as a nanny.
At the same time, “I was in the library all the time,” she recalled. “I’m a voracious reader. The library is where I met a lot of my first friends in Falls Village.”
She became assistant librarian at Hunt and worked in that position for almost a decade before becoming the executive director four years ago.
Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.L. Tomaino
Sher met her husband, Adam, while working at Adamah. They had their wedding there in 2012. He now emcees many events which she co-organizes with the Falls Village Recreation Commission.
Sher and her family live near the library.
“It’s an easy commute,” she said with a smile. “My kids run back and forth. I can go home to walk the dog if I need to.”
“My kids have grown up here.” Her oldest son, Eli, “loves volunteering. He helps with Augustfest and often helps set up chairs for ArtWall gatherings.” Her younger son, Noah, is often at events and was eager to taste cookies at last year’s holiday cookie swap.
When she is not at the library, Sher likes to hike with her family. Bella, their Portuguese water dog, often accompanies them.
Sher enjoys seeking out people to offer events at the library.
“I do a lot of different community programming. It is one of my favorite parts of the job.”
Augustfest, featuring food, music and an auction, is the library’s biggest fundraiser.
“This summer we had a record 152 attendees, which was pretty incredible.”
Yonah Sadeh, a filmmaker from Falls Village, inaugurated the VideoWall this year, Sher explained.
“I’ve known Yonah since he was two. It’s wonderful to work with him as an adult.”
The VideoWall complements the library’s ArtWall, which showcases a new artist each month. Sher praised the ArtWall committee for its work and highlighted December’s popular “12x12 Show,” featuring works by local artists, each measuring 12 by 12 inches and priced at $150.
Sher added that some of the artists who exhibit at the ArtWall offer workshops to students at Kellogg School, next door to the library. In September, artist Danielle Mailer worked with the children. Vincent Inconiglios taught a class last November.
Being next to the school, said Sher, is a great advantage.
“Kids are coming after school, to see friends, work on projects, find a great book. Kids that love the library end up using the library as grownups.”
This past year, in partnership with Adamah, the library and school created a garden, with excess produce made available at The Center on Main.
This year is Sher’s second year participating in the Troutbeck Symposium in Amenia with James King, director of the library at Salisbury School. The Troutbeck Symposium is “a gathering of a year of student historical inquiry across the region” in which students “uncover stories that have been overlooked, forgotten, or never recorded.”
Last year, Sher and King began a project with a group of students researching Irish immigrants in Falls Village, exploring ancestry and creating small magazines about their findings.
They continued this year, visiting St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery on Dublin Road, cleaning seven gravestones and even righting one with the help of stonemason and gravestone restoration expert Karl Munson. Paul Kozeazny, a representative of the Catholic archdiocese, helped secure access to the site.
A film documenting their activities will be shown at the symposium in spring 2027.
A full schedule of programs and events, ranging from tech help to ceramic mug-making, can be found on the library’s website.
Despite spending her days surrounded by books, and a busy schedule of programming, Sher still loves to settle in with a book at home.
For more information on library programs and events, visit huntlibrary.org
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Touré was born in northern Mali in 1981. His father, the renowned guitarist Ali Farka Touré, came from a family of soldiers and wanted his son to join the army. The younger Touré studied drums and the calabash and practiced guitar in secret. He earned his father’s blessing to pursue music shortly before Ali died in 2006, and they played two tracks together on Vieux’s debut album.
Touré is known for his deft, polyrhythmic playing, and his songs grow out of riffs that repeat and layer to hypnotic effect. He draws on rock, blues, Latin music and various African traditions. This distinctive blend builds on his father’s work adapting the sonic traditions of Mali’s arid north to the guitar.
Vieux’s album “Mon Pays” (“My Country,” 2013) honored Mali’s culture after Tuareg separatists and extremist groups seized the north in 2012. “Samba” (2017) was recorded before about 50 listeners in Woodstock, New York. In 2022 came “Les Racines” (“The Roots”), a return to his father’s desert blues, and “Ali,” on which he and the trio Khruangbin reworked eight of the elder Touré’s songs.
Touré leads the Ali Farka Touré Foundation, which focuses on cultural and educational work in Mali. Around the anniversary of Ali’s death, it holds a festival in Bamako, Mali’s capital. Bamako has been under blockade for much of the past year, besieged by JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Against this backdrop, Touré continues to carry the music of Mali to audiences abroad.
At the Nov. 5 concert, Touré’s desert blues will share the bill with Gnawa, the music LanGus plays, which developed in Morocco among West Africans who were brought north across the desert as enslaved people. Gnawa is religious music traditionally performed at all-night healing ceremonies called lila, intended to carry participants into trance.
Samir LanGusProvided
LanGus was born and raised outside Agadir, Morocco, and began learning Gnawa from its masters at age 8. He plays the sintir, a three-stringed bass lute made of wood and camel skin. The player strikes a low string with the thumb to create a deep, resonant pulse. Iron castanets clatter over the sintir’s bass line, and vocalists trade call-and-response refrains.
LanGus infuses the tradition with jazz and improvisation. In New York, he founded the ensemble Innov Gnawa. His first solo album, “Gnawa Love,” came out in February.
Touré and LanGus’s Nov. 5 concert is one of the last public events at Race Brook Lodge, which is for sale and ended full-service operations at the end of 2025. The lodge’s final scheduled event, on Nov. 6, is an evening of Rumi’s poetry with translator and vocalist Haleh Liza Gafori, cellist Isabel Castellvi and ceremonial bard James Bird.
For tickets, visit rblodge.com.
James FitzGerald is a student at Yale Law School, where he focuses on ecological restoration and international environmental cooperation. He splits his time between Lakeville and New Haven.
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