Starting Monday, October 5, the Village of Millbrook is replacing the sidewalk on the north side of Franklin Avenue between Front Street and Friendly Lane. The Village alert dated October 1 says to expect limited parking, pedestrian detours and traffic delays for three to four weeks. That puts the finish between October 26 and early November.
The work runs from the post office end of the business district to the Millbrook Library's front door at 3 Friendly Lane. It is the last stretch of a sidewalk program the Village has been working through since 2022. The building at the eastern end is about to start a capital project roughly ten times the cost of this one. Meanwhile, it carries much of the month's public calendar.
Four years of work, finished one side of the street at a time
The program moved in steps, and the dates help explain why this autumn's job looks the way it does.
- November 2022. The Village paid $10,000 to grind down uneven sidewalk slabs, mostly in the business district. It skipped the south side of Franklin between Front and Church Streets because that block was slated for full replacement.
- June 2024. Phases 1 and 2 rebuilt the south side of Franklin, from Front Street to Church Street and then from Church Street to the Stewart's store. Both were finished on June 18, 2024. They cost $240,000, and a $200,000 Community Development Block Grant covered most of it.
- June 2024. A donation from Tribute Garden paid to extend the Franklin Avenue sidewalk along the Thorne Building to the Maple Avenue turnaround.
- June 18, 2026. Bids opened for the north-side work. The Village's June newsletter expected construction to start later in the summer and wrap up by early fall.
- July 8, 2026. The Board of Trustees awarded the base contract to Scape-Tech Landscape Technology, Inc. for $196,000. The apparent low bidder had withdrawn its bid. The Village reported a $125,000 Dutchess County CDBG grant for this phase and authorized up to $250,000 in total financing. That ceiling allows for Village funds and borrowing.
The schedule slipped from the "later this summer" in the June newsletter to an October start. As a result, the north side is being rebuilt during the busiest weeks of the autumn calendar.
The bid notice lists more than new concrete. The base bid covers removing and replacing concrete curbing, concrete sidewalk and asphalt, removing about 373 square feet of brick sidewalk, replacing a curb ramp, installing detectable-warning panels, relocating three signposts, removing one street tree and replacing two, striping about 330 feet of crosswalk, and planting about 360 square feet of grass. The tree and brick work will change the look of the street.
The Village's own pages number the phases inconsistently. One section calls the north side between Church Street and Friendly Lane Phase 3 and the Front-to-Church block Phase 4. The October alert names a single work zone from Front Street to Friendly Lane. The street limits in the alert are the ones to go by.
The businesses along the work zone
The business district stays open during the work. These Franklin Avenue businesses have confirmed addresses:
- Babette's Kitchen, 3293 Franklin Avenue. A gourmet market, café and bakery with store hours Wednesday through Sunday, now owned by Jennifer and Michael Burgen.
- House of Stefas, 3299 Franklin Avenue. Destination Dutchess says it opened in June 2025.
- Reardon Briggs Hardware, 3265 Franklin Avenue.
- Millbrook Diner, 3266 Franklin Avenue.
- Bank of Millbrook, 3263 Franklin Avenue, whose lot hosts the Saturday market.
- Millbrook Post Office, 47 Front Street, at the western end of the work.
The Village's construction notice warns that parking will be limited but does not name alternate parking. Questions about access on a given day go to the Mayor's office at 845-677-3939, option 5. That is the contact listed on the project page.
The final market Saturday falls in week one
The Millbrook Farmers & Makers Market runs Saturdays from May 23 to October 10 this year, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the 3263 Franklin Avenue parking lot. The market calls itself the first farmers market in Dutchess County. Its 2026 closing day is the first Saturday of construction. Its own schedule does not announce a winter or indoor session.
The Village also listed the market as a place to use Farmers Market coupon benefits through October 10. The Dutchess County Office for the Aging is the contact for those programs.
Friendly Lane carries much of the month
After the market closes, the most regular public programming inside the village comes from the Millbrook Library at 3 Friendly Lane, where the work zone ends. Its October calendar lists in-person events throughout the construction window:
- Thursday, October 15, 7 to 8 p.m. The Millbrook Historical Society's talk on the Hudson River School.
- Saturday, October 17, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. The Great Give Back Halloween Costume Swap.
- Friday, October 23. Teen Halloween Movie & Pizza at 3 p.m., then the opening reception for the Patterns of Life exhibit from 6 to 8 p.m.
- Wednesday, October 28. A bat sock-puppet craft at 4 p.m. and family game night from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The Village's own October calendar has no Halloween or trick-or-treat listing for October 31. That leaves the library's costume swap, teen movie and craft afternoon as the only Halloween-season programs in the village center found on the published calendars.
The library is also planning its own construction. A notice it posted in September says the 15,000-square-foot building needs an extensive, simultaneous replacement of the HVAC system and a leaking roof. The estimate is at least $2 million, bids are under review by the Board, and completion is targeted for 2027. According to the library's funding FAQ, the roof work covers part of the roof. About 10 percent of the cost will come from a one-time, court-approved release of private-trust principal, with grants covering the rest. The FAQ also says the operating-funding proposition will not pay for these capital repairs.
Compared with the Franklin Avenue contract, the library project is the bigger undertaking. The sidewalk contract is $196,000. The library's estimate starts at $2 million, more than ten times as much.
The Library Board of Trustees has called a special meeting for Tuesday, October 6, at 7 p.m. The notice does not give a subject. No construction start date or closure plan for the repairs has been published. The October programs listed above are planned as in-person events.
SIDEWALK WORK: Starts Monday, October 5, on Franklin Avenue between Front Street and Friendly Lane. Allow for limited parking, pedestrian reroutes, and traffic delays for 3–4 weeks.
The Village Board of Trustees meets on October 14 at 6 p.m., and the Climate Smart Community committee meets on October 15 at 5:30 p.m. If construction comes up in public, the October 14 meeting is the likely place.
Away from Franklin Avenue
Outside the village center, the rest of October's schedule involves no construction at all.
Innisfree Garden, at 362 Tyrrel Road, is open from mid-April through mid-November and switches to weekends only after mid-October. A curator's tour runs October 10 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The garden opens for the holiday on Monday, October 12, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A forest-bathing session follows on October 24 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The final curator's tour of 2026 is October 31, 1:30 to 3 p.m. Two early-morning walks remain after that: Tom Wessels on the forested landscape on November 1 from 8:30 a.m., and an autumn ecology walk on November 14 from 8 a.m.
Wethersfield Estate & Garden, at 257 Pugsley Hill Road in Amenia, hosts an author conversation and book signing on Edward Steichen and the garden on Sunday, October 11, from 4 to 6 p.m. Millbrook Vineyards & Winery says its food trucks run Fridays through Sundays from May through October. October is the last month of that season.
When the crews leave, sometime between late October and early November, both sides of Franklin Avenue between Front Street and Friendly Lane will have new sidewalk for the first time since the program began. The next large project on the street is the library's HVAC and roof replacement, targeted for completion in 2027.
Infrastructure work like this is one of the details our team tracks when we advise owners on timing in and around the village. If you own property near Franklin Avenue and want to talk through how this autumn's work and the library's 2027 timeline affect your plans, the Hudson Valley Team at Compass is glad to start a confidential consultation.
