LAKEVILLE — A special education teacher at Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) is now a homeowner, thanks to the Salisbury Housing Trust.Lexi Ferraro and a friend were painting Saturday morning, while the dog, Agnes Myrtle, helped. Sort of.Ferraro, who has been teaching for five years and is in her second year at HVRHS, said she has always been a renter.Her previous apartment, in Morris, was about $100 less per month on the rental than her mortgage payment.But living in Morris meant a commute of 40 minutes each way.She said she figured she’d save at least $100 on gasoline, and the idea of a 10-minute drive home was very appealing.Ferraro said she attended an informational meeting with the housing trust and decided to take the plunge.She had a good credit score going in, which helped her get approved by the bank for the mortgage. The housing trust helped with the paperwork.“There is no way I could have afforded this without the Housng Trust,” she said.Inge Dunham of the Housing Trust said Ferraro’s is the 11th home either renovated or built by the organization, whose focus is on providing affordable housing for workers, residents and volunteers through private funding.The trust retains ownership of the land; the buyer pays for the home. The idea is to allow people who could not otherwise afford to buy a home in Salisbury the chance to do so. The hope is that this will allow young families and also volunteers with organizations such as the fire company to stay in town.The first step after applying is the mortgage. Once the applicant is approved, the trust gets busy.The trust did considerable renovation to the modest home (Ferraro asked that the street address be withheld). On the floor was a big pile of tools and materials belonging to Ferraro’s father, who rolled up as the interview ended.The house has a working fireplace and a sunporch, which Ferraro said would be her home office.Ferraro said she was excited. Agnes Myrtle, an amiable German shepherd who initially presented as ferocious but quickly reverted to playful, certainly was.Persons interested in applying for a Housing Trust home may request information by emailing salisburyhousingtrust@gmail.com.
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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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