CORNWALL — The annual town budget meeting, scheduled for May 20, promises to be about much more than the budget. There are four additional spending proposals that could ultimately add to costs for the town in the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.A vote on the combined town and school budgets is at the top of the agenda. That number will be somewhere around $4.1 million. Still up for debate is whether or not Town Hall employees will get raises and, if so, how much. The issue has been debated in meetings and around town for weeks. The Board of Finance heard more on the topic at the April 29 budget public hearing. The finance board members planned to consider that additional input at the board’s regular meeting May 19 (after The Lakeville Journal went to press), where they would approve a final budget proposal to send to town meeting.At the meeting, voters can change the proposed bottom line — but from that point on it can only be decreased, not increased. Also on the agenda is a request for approval from voters to transfer an insurance payment of $48,564.80. The money is being paid to the town for a 50-year-old steel equipment shed that was destroyed over the winter when heavy snow and ice caused the roof trusses to twist. The insurance money has arrived, and now the board has recommended it be moved to the capital line account so it can be used to pay for a new shed at the town garage. The plan is to build a similar 40-by-70-foot building with some improvements over the old one. The estimated cost is $60,000.A new Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grant has been approved for Cornwall by the state Department of Economic and Community Development. Voters will be asked to approve a $150,000 appropriation from the municipal reserve fund. Expended funds will be reimbursed from the grant. As a similar grant was used recently, most of the funding will go toward facade improvements to businesses. Efforts at slowing traffic through town centers are slated for the remainder. A final appropriation would be $275,000 from municipal reserves for the reimbursable portion of phase two of the Great Hollow and Great Hill roads improvement project. The town will be reimbursed for 80 percent of the project.This is a change to what was originally posted as the meeting agenda. First Selectman Gordon Ridgway said this week the matter will likely be tabled until town officials are sure they have the proper numbers from the state. This is an extension of the same project, which includes repaving and guardrails, that began in 2009 with a $150,000 appropriation. Funding is through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus funding. The town was offered additional funds that were unused elsewhere. The second project is officially the Great Hill Road Pavement Preservation Project. The roads qualified because they are feeder roads, in this case, leading from Cornwall to Milton, a section of Litchfield that was once the county seat.Last on the agenda: The Board of Selectmen and town treasurer will offer a report on the Gates Bequest. More than $251,000 was left by Judy Gates, who died in 2009, to be used for the benefit of the town, at its discretion. Her husband, Larry, died in 1996.She was an English teacher at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. He was an actor, best known for his Emmy-winning role on “The Guiding Light.” Their dedication to the town included founding the Park and Recreation Commission. As was discussed a year ago at the town budget meeting, the principal will be invested, and the earnings, last estimated at about $10,000 per year, will be spent annually. Suggestions entertained at that meeting centered on scholarship programs. There was also talk of building a Babe Ruth League ballfield and buying radar signs to slow traffic through town centers.The town meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. in the Cornwall Consolidated School Gathering Room.
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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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