Mill rate could go up to 14.27KENT — About 55 taxpayers turned out for the budget public hearing on Friday, May 6. The total proposed budget for education and municipal spending for 2011-12 fiscal year is $10,678,150.Municipal budget up 3.37 %First Selectman Bruce Adams presented the selectmen’s proposed operating budget of $2,734,752, which is a 3.37 percent increase over this year’s budget. The fiscal year begins July 1. Adams pointed out several key changes in the budget, including the 3.5 percent pay increase for all Town Hall employees. He said the employees are being asked to increase their contributions toward their health benefits. Adams also noted that the town expects to have to pay for health insurance for the new land use officer. The former land use officer, Jennifer Calhoun, did not take health insurance.One audience member asked about an increase in the line item for contingencies. It rose from $10,000 to $25,000. Adams explained that the extra money was added to “make possible payroll department adjustments midyear if necessary.” These adjustments would be used to pay employees for any extra time spent on the job.As an example, he explained that Town Treasurer Barbara Herbst is working more hours than she was hired for, due to the elimination of an assistant’s position last year. Herbst is now doing the assistant’s duties.Education spending up 3.48 %Board of Education Chairman Tracy Horosky then presented the proposed education budget of $6,446,941, which includes Kent’s portion of the Region One School District budget. The Kent Center School portion of the budget is $3,876,307, a 3.48 percent increase over this year’s spending plan.Salaries for teachers at the elementary school rose by a total of $81,607. Part of this is due to contractual 2.6-percent raises. Also, a math intervention position that had been cut several years ago was added back in.Horosky also noted that health insurance costs for the teachers will be lower in the coming fiscal year by $11,305, due to a change in insurance provider.The line item for textbooks increased $8,000 to $15,000. This year, grades two through four got new textbooks. Next year the textbooks for grades five and six will be replaced.Fire department fundingAbout 15 members of the Kent Volunteer Fire Department attended the meeting to show their support for the reinstatement of flat funding for the department.The Board of Finance had originally approved a capital plan that flat-funded the fire department at $175,000 per year. This plan was designed to help the department strategically replace its equipment. But when Engine 5-0 was destroyed in a brush fire this spring, the Board of Finance revised the town’s capital plan, removed the flat funding for the fire department and changed the plan for buying new equipment. An aerial truck had been next on the list; it got pushed back and a replacment for Engine 5-0 was made the top priority.Directly after the hearing, the Board of Finance held a special meeting in order to make changes to the budget.Following the public hearing, the board voted to reinstate the flat funding but at $125,000 instead of $175,000.The board also added $1,500 for the Historic District Commission.The final total budget that will be sent to town meeting vote is $10,814,650.To offset these additions, the Board of Finance voted to use $400,000 from the undesignated general fund to help keep the mill rate down. The board had originally planned to use $350,000 from the fund.The board also made an adjustment to the revenues section and increased the amount expected to come from federal, state and local grants. With these changes and a slight shift in funds from the capital fund, it is expected that the mill rate for the coming year will be 14.27. This year the mill rate is 14.02.Taxpayers will be asked to vote on the spending plans at a town meeting on Friday, May 20, at 8 p.m. at Town Hall.What is a mill?The mill rate determines property taxes in Connecticut towns. A mill represents $1 in tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value. A 15-mill tax rate would translate into a tax bill of $1,500 for the owner of a home assessed at $100,000. The grand list is the total assessed value of all taxable property in a town.
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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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