PINE PLAINS — The Town Board took care of numerous municipal matters during its monthly meeting on Thursday, April 19. It had a full agenda that night, and made quick work going through the listed items in a methodical manner. Building department According to town Supervisor Brian Coons, Building Inspector Drew Weaver recently issued an order of remedy to clean up debris behind the Pine Mall, also known as Memorial Hall at one point, where the laundry was located. The garbage was piled behind the building. Coons said the order of remedy was the maximum the town could issue.“If a building is not falling apart and a person is not at risk, then we can’t cite them,” he said at the Town Board meeting, adding he was going to speak with the building’s owner. The following week Coons gave an update.“The owner cleaned it up, which is nice,” he said, adding the problem still exists for the town with other landowners. “Now the property next door to Memorial Hall is what we’re looking at, and we’re beginning to look at other properties in the town too.”Coons said that unfortunately, landowners in Pine Plains have not been taking care of their homesteads.“It’s driving down property values,” he said. “If you lived in a house and worked hard to maintain it you don’t want to see garbage and vermin and animals. It’s also a fire hazard. We’re not talking about paint jobs, but literally piles of trash, debris and brush.“People in Pine Plains know exactly who I’m talking about; it’s something everyone is talking about,” Coons added. “I’m tired of it. Properties should be maintained.” Praise for Hay The next item was actually a letter read into the record commending Highway Superintendent Barry Hay, from resident and local food pantry organizer Patricia Nannetti.“Barry has continually helped me with any concerns I have had, whether it be roadway issues, community outreach or the food pantry, to name a few,” she wrote. “Barry is always willing to help, in his professional capacity as superintendent, or on his own time as a member of this community. I think too often people are quick to complain, but not as quick to commend.”Those present at the Town Board meeting applauded after the letter was read in its entirety. Paying the bills Councilwoman Sandra David raised the issue of how the town approves its expenses.“I have a question regarding something with Durst,” she said, bringing up the large second home community planned for the former Carvel Country Club as an example. “I think the way it works is the Town Board, as a five-member board, needs to approve everything [that gets done for the town]. Even with affordable housing, we need to set up a meeting going over budget stuff and set up a process. I think that was it. That is a concern of mine.“I guess I wanted to raise the issue ... so that every single thing we ask [our consultants] to do they can come and ask us,” she said. “We need to review that [liaison] role, and payment and supervision [issues].” Grant writing The board spoke about appointing Michael Hagerty as the town’s official grant writer, something the town of Amenia did years ago.“I think he’s good and might be useful, but I think we should hire him for specific grants,” David said. During its discussion the board realized Hagerty doesn’t require a retainer for his work, and it can merely hire him to work on specific grants for sidewalks, or recreation, etc.Coons said he would like to hire Hagerty, and added that he wanted the board to vote on the matter.David added that Hagerty is “very reasonable.”“Let him know he’ll be the town grant writer and he can come meet with us,” said Coons.“I think we should come up with some ideas ourselves,” suggested David.“I think we should retain him and I like Sandra’s idea that we should have some ideas to tell him, ‘This is what we’d like,’” said Councilwoman Rosemary Lyons-Chase.The board murmured its consent and voted unanimously. Coons said he would get in touch with Hagerty to set up a meeting. Land-use attorney The board next acted to hire a special land-use attorney to handle the review of the Carvel Property Development, which is in the midst of New Neighborhood Development (NND) review. It’s uncertain whether the Town Board or the Planning Board will take over Lead Agency status for the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process. Before Carvel’s application was disrupted by the creation, review and implementation of new zoning for the town, it was the Planning Board that was lead agency for the that project.Despite the fact that Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky has guided the town throughout the decade-long Carvel application process, the Town Board has recently expressed interest in having “fresh eyes” take a look at the project. It approved hiring land-use attorney George Rodenhausen of the Rhinebeck firm Rapport, Meyers LLP to manage the application moving forward at the April 19 meeting. Replansky remains the town’s attorney. Ethics Board The board was planning to have a discussion about an ethics board, as it was one of the items on that night’s agenda. However, because the rest of that list was so full, the discussions were so lengthy and there were still a couple of presentations left in the meeting, Coons suggested they hold off on talking about the ethics board for another evening.The rest of the board agreed and the discussion was tabled.The town already has an ethics law on its books.
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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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