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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Sharing her gift
IN THIS ISSUE
Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Crossword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Maybrook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Obituaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Service Directory. . . . . . . . . . . 30
Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Walden.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Walker Valley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
PUBLIC AGENDA
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9
Town of Crawford Planning Board, 7 p.m.
Town Hall, 121 Route 302, Pine Bush
MONDAY, JANUARY 14
Town of Montgomery Industrial
Development Agency. 5:30 p.m. Town Hall,
110 Bracken Road, Montgomery.
Maybrook Village Board. 7 p.m. Village
Government Center, Schipps Lane.
Town of Montgomery Planning Board,
7:30 p.m. Town Hall, 110 Bracken Road,
Montgomery.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15
Walden Village Board of Trustees, 6:30
p.m. Village Hall, 1 Municipal Square.
Gardiner Planning Board. 7 p.m. Town
Hall, Route 44-55, Gardiner.
Montgomery Village Board, 7:30 p.m.
Village Hall, 133 Clinton Street.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16
Shawangunk Zoning Board of Appeals, 7
p.m. Town Hall, 14 Central Ave., Wallkill.
Village of Walden Planning Board, 7:30
p.m. Village Hall, 1 Municipal Square.
HOW TO REACH US
OFFICE:
300 Stony Brook Court
Newburgh, NY 12550
PHONE: 845-561-0170, FAX: 845-561-3967
Emails may be directed to the following :
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[email protected]
CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS
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TO REACH THE EDITOR
[email protected]
FOR THE SPORTS DEPARTMENT
[email protected]
PUBLIC NOTICES
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WEBSITE
www.timescommunitypapers.com
The Wallkill Valley Times, (USPS 699-490) is a weekly
newspaper published every Wednesday at Newburgh,
NY 12550, with offices at 300 Stony Brook Court,
Newburgh, NY. Single copy: $1 at newsstand. By mail
in Orange, Ulster or Sullivan Counties: $40 annually,
$44 out of county. Periodicals permit at Newburgh, NY.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wallkill Valley
Times, 300 Stony Brook Court, Newburgh, NY 12550.
Pianist Michelle Gately is a fixture at 88 Charles Street
By LAURA FITZGERALD
[email protected]
E
legant piano music drifts over the
dining room of 88 Charles St. Café
in Montgomery on a Saturday night.
The pianist plays at a piano next to the
bar, fingers flitting over the keys, while
diners chatted over candles and white
tablecloths.
Pianist Michelle Gately has been a
fixture of the café on Friday and Saturday
nights for 10 years, but her music career
started much earlier.
Gately first learned to play the piano
at the age of three, learning to play by
ear instead of reading music. To this day,
she doesn’t use sheet music, changing
effortlessly from song to song without the
need to shuffle pages.
“I guess I’m more of a rebel player. I
don’t want anybody to put music in front
of me,” Gately said. “I just want to play it
the way I perceive it.”
After high school, Gately attended
Ithaca College and the Julliard School
of Music, including taking courses in
piano pedagogy, music improvisation,
orchestration and drums while studying
under John Mehegan.
She has perfect pitch and can play any
song in any key after hearing it played
once. Sometimes, she’ll add her own
personal flare to a song, such as changing
keys in the middle of a tune.
“It’s a radio in my head; I hear the
song and it just comes out of my fingers,”
Gately said.
With more than 40 years of experience,
Gately also built a career in nursing, so
her music career was confined to nights
Gately plays every Friday and Saturday
night at 88 Charles St. Café in Montgomery.
and weekends. Still, her reputation as a
musician did not escape her professional
career.
“My nurses called me the musical
nurse,” Gately said, chuckling.
Gately lived in Florida for 15 years,
where she played piano at Sophie Kay’s
Top of Daytona Restaurant and played
gigs on the Dixie Queen Riverboat. She
also had her own band called Angels
South.
Gately eventually moved back to
the Hudson Valley, where she grew up.
Gately’s daughter saw an advertisement
in a newspaper asking for a pianist at 88
Charles St Café. After one audition, the
manager told her she was hired.
She said the key to playing in public is
to play songs your audience would like to
hear. She takes requests, and most people
will play the song from their phone when
she doesn’t recognize it.
Gately’s music brings joy to herself
and others, a talent she loves to share.
“I really believe that whatever God
gives you is a present from God, and
whatever you give back to people, you’re
giving a present back to God . . . So, I
like making other people happy with it,”
Gately said.
She also plays at Glen Arden, Inc.—a
retirement community in Goshen—every
Monday. While she said many residents
with dementia may not remember her
name, they always remember her music.
“They’re very happy,” Gately said.
One of the other highlights of her
career: playing with her daughter, a bass
player who lives in Massachusetts.
It’s hard for Gately to pick out other
specific moments as highlights because
every moment spent at the piano is a
happy one.
“Every day is a highlight,” Gately said.
Gately plays every Friday and
Saturday night at 88 Charles St. Café in
Montgomery from 7 to 10 p.m. Gately is
also available for hire for private events,
including parties, weddings, fundraisers
and more. She plays a versatile
performance in a mix of genres, from Big
Band to Beethoven and jazz and blues.
To learn more or request her services,
visit msmichellesmusic.com or call 820-
2251.
Village of Montgomery requests
Continued from page 1
the letter to Church. “Thereafter, our
Village Engineers, your department
and, of course, the NYS DOT [New York
State Department of Transportation] can
review and evaluate the KSH study for
accuracy in traffic volume, peak hours,
levels of service, etc.”
The village has a large mixed-use project
approved at Chandler Lane intersection
(Devitt Project) and another warehouse/
senior project beginning across from the
Devitt project (KSH Project).
“Add to this, the huge warehouse project
in the Town of Montgomery (Medline
Industries) and we have concerns about
traffic congestion in the village,” Brescia
states.
Medline Industries, Inc., has proposed
a 1.3-million-square-foot distribution
center on the east side of NYS Route 416
and north of Interstate I-84, just outside
village limits. The company plans to move
320 workers to the site from its warehouse
in Wawayanda and hire 200 more within
the next five years.
The Environmental Assessment Form
(EAF) for Medline projects it will generate
approximately 360 truck/tractor trailer
trips per day. Stacy Rubenstein, Medline
public relations manager, said these
trucks will be routed through Neelytown
Road onto I-84.
Brescia and Scheels stated they are
not as concerned about truck traffic