Little Seed founders named Farmer of the Year

The 2025 Annual Harvest Dinner, sponsored by the Chatham Agricultural Partnership (CAP), took place last Friday at the Malden Bridge Community Center.  

The program included the public recognition of Claudia Kenny and Will Denner of Little Seed Farms, who were awarded the “Farmer of the Year” designation for 2025. They are shown here receiving the award from Donna Staron, who was previously recognized with this annual award by the Chatham Agricultural Partnership (CAP).

The CAP established the Farmer of the Year award in 2023 to honor outstanding local farmers. Kenny and Denner founded the 100-acre Little Seed Farm in 1995 within Town boundaries. The resolution granting this award cites them as “pioneers in organic and regenerative farming practices,” who established the first local Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) program, and who provided education, technical assistance to farmers, and established a healthy local food system.

So much going on this Saturday at Winterfest!

    Click HERE for more details and events for all ages, like this~

Free Screening of

THE POLAR EXPRESS

1:00-2:40pm

At the Crandell Theatre

Sponsored by Chatham Area Business and Arts

INDIVISIBLE COLUMBIA NY: COMMUNITY CONVERSATION ON IMMIGRATION

Thursday, January 11th, 2026

3:00 to 4:15 PM

St Peter’s Church, 5219 County Route 7, Spencertown

RSVP at indivisiblecolumbiany@gmail.com

ICNY invites you to a Community Conversation on Immigration, January 11th, 2026, at St Peter’s Church in Spencertown from 3:00-4:15 pm. Presenters will include an immigration attorney, immigration services providers and active volunteers who will present their experiences and ideas for helping to protect and support our most vulnerable neighbors in this most challenging time.

There will be ample time for engagement with the attendees. We urge you to join us and learn more about what is happening in our community and how you can be part of the work to secure and protect our neighbors. Join us and become part of the conversation. 

Are you interested in learning more about our Town government?

Get a first hand look – Attend Chatham Town Board Meetings regularly, in person or online.

If you are a regular reader of this newsletter, you know that we feature accounts of Town Board meetings twice monthly.  Chatham, like all of the towns in Columbia County, is governed by an elected Town Board, consisting of five board members (sometimes referred to as council members), one of whom is the Town Supervisor. The board represents the legislative and executive branch of the government management of the town. In Columbia County, the Supervisor also sits on the County Board of Supervisors (BOS) which governs the entire county with population weighted voting.

Chatham Town Board meetings typically include two public comment segments, the first prior to any Board vote on resolutions that have been referenced in the meeting. This is your opportunity to give your opinion to the Board members on board decisions; and to weigh in on any concerns or questions you may have related to Town services, fiscal management, safety issues, and local development issues. 

You can attend meetings in person or online, using the Google Meet link on the date of any meeting listed on the Town Calendar. Agendas for the meetings are posted on the calendar as well.

Upcoming meetings are listed here:

• Regular Town Board Meeting December 18, 2025  6:30 pm

• 2026 Organizational Board Meeting January 2, 2026       5:00 pm

Dates for future meetings in 2026 will be provided in our next newsletter, later in December.

Town Board looks to 2026 Organizational Meeting

With 2026 fast approaching, only one more meeting of the current Board is scheduled for 2025. Newly elected Town Board Member Lisa Simonetti and re-elected Town Board Member Rick Werwaiss will be sworn in on January 1, 2026, time to be determined. Highway Superintendent James Fetzer and Town Justice Michael Rosen, who were both re-elected in November, will also be sworn in on that date. The Organizational Meeting of the new board will take place the following day, on January 2, at 5 PM.

The December 4 Town Board meeting had a short agenda and included some lively commentary from the public, specifically about a suggestion that a Town Newsletter be resurrected. 

Prior to that, in Old Business, Town Board Member and Communications Committee Chair Wapner asked for discussion of the Communication Committee’s proposed procedure for introducing resolutions for consideration by the Board if they are not included in the posted agenda. The committee’s proposal is available here in the Agenda Packet. The question of how to address this issue had been controversial at a prior Board meeting.

Board discussion revealed general support for the necessity for public comment any time the board considers a resolution that is not included on the agenda to ensure that the public be heard on the matter. Other comments by the Board included several suggestions that an “emergency” resolution be more broadly characterized as “urgent” or “time sensitive”; and that there be some consideration of the content of the resolution relative to local and county matters versus other / potentially “political” matters that are not necessarily the focus of Town government. The Town Board will be addressing the procedure at the upcoming Organizational Meeting in January.