CORNWALL — Four items are on the agenda of a town meeting set for Friday, May 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the Cornwall Consolidated School (CCS) gathering room. First and foremost is to consider a proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The Board of Finance was scheduled to meet the night before, to determine the final number that will be put to a vote. A proposed 1.65 percent increase in the selectmen’s budget and a 0.20 percent decrease in the CCS budget represent a net increase of $21,917.What will drive town finances in the next year is a 13.51 percent, or $184,320 jump, in Cornwall’s share of the Region One School District budgets. Compounding the increase is an anticipated drop in the Grand List of 13.50 following the recent revaluation. The total value of taxable properties dropped by $61 million in the revaluation; its impact will be felt in this coming fiscal year. Finance members will look at various scenarios for covering the added expenses and lowered tax revenues. The current mill rate is 12.50, which was cut nearly in half following the previous revaluation. That was a result mostly of corrections made to recorded information and values for a large number of properties.Town and local school budgets total $$4,162,814. Another $1,547,705 is Cornwall’s share of regional school costs. But that number is likely to change after the defeat of that budget at a May 8 referendum. Also on the May 18 agenda is an appropriation of up to $725,000 from the general fund for the Great Hill Road improvement project. About $525,000 is expected in state and federal grant reimbursements.Voters will be asked to consider changes to fee schedules for applications to the Planning and Zoning Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals and Inland Wetlands Commission, and to amend the ordinance that established the Committee on Aging in 1979.The latter was resurrected in recent months. One of the committee members’ first actions was to propose the name change, which seemed, since everyone is always aging, to be a poor choice of wording. It is proposed to be changed to the Committee for Cornwall Seniors.The Board of Finance will meet to set a new mill rate immediately following the town meeting.
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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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