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Beacon building draws Planning Board's ire For the second straight month, Beacon Planning Board Chair John Gunn blasted the 364 Main St. development team on Tuesday (July 14) as the board parsed discrepancies between the nearly complete building and plans approved four years earlier. According to a spreadsheet submitted by the Poughkeepsie-based Baxter group, which purchased the property in 2024, at least 21 features on the fenced-off structure deviate from the approved site plan. Some changes were made to architectural drawings that were approved when building permits were issued, project officials said. Others were "field changes" approved, sometimes verbally, by city officials onsite. A final category listed applicant/contractor changes. The changes range from window-sill sizes and detailing and the installation of sidewall vents to more noticeable deviations such as the replacement of fire-rated windows with solid walls in stairwells and in a rooftop lobby. In another instance, standard double windows were installed instead of Juliet balconies. A patio at the front of the building was modified because the floor height and Main Street sidewalk were not accurately represented on drawings. Steps and gates next to the adjacent Masjid Ur Rashid mosque were on the site plan but never constructed. A canopy over the residential entrance was removed, with a recessed entryway constructed in its place. Custom wood windows with decorative trim on the storefront were replaced with aluminum windows with insulated metal panels. At least one change — replacing the approved thin-brick veneer with full-depth bricks — likely enhances structural integrity, though it's unclear whether the city approved it. "I've looked at the timeline," said Jason Anderson, the president of ADG Architects, a firm recently hired by Baxter. "The contractor came in, got the building permit and built what was on the drawings, with the exception of the field changes. We have a finished painting that we're trying now to correct." The inconsistencies infuriated Gunn, who acknowledged he was repeating himself. "Do you understand the position that this applicant put the city in?" he asked, his voice rising. "This is a goddamn mess, and you're asking us to help you fix a giant mistake. This is an ugly building. It's built poorly. It looks horrible." Pointing at diagrams, he shouted: "It's not what we approved!" The issues have also derailed the tenants who expected to occupy the building's 8,800 square feet of commercial space and 20 apartments. The owner of Pure Physique, a gym set to open on the first floor, said in a letter to the board that she has had to provide membership refunds while absorbing the financial impact "of a business that is fully prepared to open but is unable to operate." Most of the apartments had been rented, project attorney Taylor Palmer said, but about 25 percent of the tenants pulled out because the building lacks a certificate of occupancy. After more than an hour of back-and-forth, the developer agreed to confer in a work session with the city's consultants. "We need better ideas," Gunn said. The board could vote as early as next month on a proposal to convert a two-story brick building to a karaoke bar called The Howl. The project has received pushback from nearby residents, but Gunn said Tuesday that a city consultant agreed that the applicant's plans to mitigate noise "appear to be very robust." Eric Weitner, the applicant, said he had scaled back operating hours to 2 to 11 p.m. on Wednesday, 2 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, noon to 1:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 11 p.m. on Sunday. Sundays will no longer revert to Saturday hours on holiday weekends. There will be no parking in the rear of the building, which adjoins the residential neighborhood. Responding to public concerns, Weitner said staff at The Howl will conduct "perimeter checks" five times per eight-hour shift to keep patrons from congregating outside. Security ca...

Ads blame congressman for insurance coverage losses Before Cait Conley won the Democratic primary in June to set up a clash with Rep. Mike Lawler for the U.S. House district that includes Philipstown, a group called Empire State Voices had already been buying ads criticizing the two-term Republican congressman's record on health care. In a February video that ran on YouTube, a woman identified as "Tracey from Pearl River" (Lawler's hometown) recounted draining her 401K after being denied coverage for cancer, and then regaining insurance through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. She was afraid Lawler "wants to take that away." In a YouTube ad that ran from late April to May, "Karen from Peekskill" accuses Lawler of cutting the Medicaid her parents rely on to "give tax breaks to billionaires." Lawler countered this month with an ad on Facebook and Instagram: "When premiums were on the line, Rep. Mike Lawler crossed party lines to extend the enhanced ACA tax credits that keep coverage affordable for NY-17 families." But the extension of those Affordable Care Act credits did not pass Congress. That failure and changes to the Republican-led One Big Beautiful Bill that could cut Medicaid enrollments by millions of people are two of the major themes as Conley, Democrats and advocacy groups target Lawler in November's midterm elections. His seat is considered a toss-up and is one of Democrats' main targets as they seek to regain control of the House, which has 218 Republicans, 212 Democrats, one independent and four vacancies. Their success may depend in part on the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill, which President Donald Trump signed on July 4, 2025. The legislation, which Lawler voted for, extended tax cuts set to expire at the end of last year; temporarily raised to $40,000 (from $10,000) the amount of state and local taxes that can be deducted on federal returns; and allowed workers to temporarily deduct up to $25,000 in tips. But its provisions were also projected to cause 7.8 million people to lose Medicaid coverage by 2034. The bill also affected the health care exchanges New York and other states established when President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. A year after the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill, the effects on health care coverage are starting to emerge. New York said that because of cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill, the state's no-premium, no-deductible Essential Plan for low- and middle-income residents could no longer cover households earning between 200 and 250 percent of the federal poverty level. The estimated 450,000 people who lost coverage include individuals earning $31,920 or less annually and four-person households earning up to $82,500. Most of the affected enrollees — including an estimated 13,987 in District 17 and 15,656 in District 18, which includes Beacon — have until Aug. 30 to find subsidized health insurance on New York State of Health, the state's health exchange. But unlike their Essential Plan coverage, monthly premiums and deductibles will be required. Danielle Holahan, the executive director for the exchange, told New York Focus, a statewide news organization, that 150,000 to 200,000 Essential Plan users will be unable to buy insurance on the exchange or get coverage through their employers. Their dilemma, which took effect July 1, was the subject of a Facebook ad from a group called Families Over Billionaires. It featured state Assembly Member Dana Levenberg, whose district includes Philipstown. Calling the One Big Beautiful Bill the "big ugly bill," Levenberg charged that Lawler "lied to us. Not once, not twice but three times you voted to cut Medicaid, and you don't represent the people, you represent Donald Trump and all his flunkies." Rep. Mike Lawler, whose House district includes Philipstown, said in an interview with News12 on Wednesday (July 15) that he was arrested on St. Patrick's Day in 2012 on suspicion of drunk driving. At ...

Town board also finalizing rental law A survey of Philipstown residents found little support for a tax on home purchases that would fund the purchase of open spaces, wildlife habitats and other natural resources, according to Town Board member Nat Prentice. The Trust for Public Land funded a three-week poll to "test out support" for a Community Preservation Fund, said Prentice at the board's July 9 meeting. "The results, from 307 responses, "suggested that the voters would not support a community preservation fund at this time, citing mostly cost-of-living reasons," he said. "All they heard was tax." Ted Warren, the public policy manager for the Hudson Highlands Land Trust, told the board last year that a tax of up to 2 percent would apply to the portion of a property purchase exceeding the median price for home sales in Putnam County, which was $580,000 in 2025. For example, a house that sold for $700,000 would be taxed on $120,000 of the sale. Philipstown took an initial step to create the fund, which would need voter approval, in August 2023 by adopting a Community Conservation Plan. But Supervisor John Van Tassel said at the time that the idea of a new tax during the pandemic "did not settle well" with the board. In addition, said Warren, another survey of Philipstown residents conducted by the Trust for Public Land showed "a lot of ambivalence" about a fund. Under the Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act, a state law that grants municipalities in Putnam and Westchester counties the authority to establish conservation funds, the money would be administered by a five- or seven-member advisory board composed of volunteer residents. The Town Board on Wednesday (July 15) approved a $95,050 bid by Cemco Water & Wastewater Specialists to buy and install water meters at properties in the Garrison's Landing Water District. The other bids were $276,400 and $320,200. The previous meters failed in 1999 after the district's source "went from a ground/surface-fed system to a well-fed system" and the pressure increased, Van Tassel said. Philipstown officials said the town did not have the funds to buy meters until the board authorized borrowing $500,000 last year to cover capital upgrades. To repay the loan, the town added a $2,500 levy to the tax bills of property owners within the district, including those who are not connected but use wells. Once the meters are installed, the town will calculate a per-gallon usage fee for properties that use the water, Van Tassel said. Philipstown is finalizing regulations governing short-term rentals, such as those offered on Airbnb. The town is expected to introduce a local law at its Aug. 6 meeting and schedule a public hearing. At the suggestion of Board Member Ned Rauch, the board agreed on Wednesday to add language clarifying that the limit of two people per sleeping area includes an exception for parents who want an infant or small child in their room. Prentice suggested the town eliminate an inspection requirement because STRs are "a very market-driven, self-regulating industry where bad operators don't survive." He noted that the owners of about 100 of the roughly 140 STRs in Beacon have not registered, as mandated by the city. "You could get people to attest that they are keeping in line with code and that their insurance covers them," said Prentice. "If you made it easy on them, they'd all sign up." But Van Tassel said he "would never rely on a homeowner" to ensure an STR unit is safe. In the past, he has cited a 2024 fire at an unregistered Airbnb in Salt Point that killed a Cape Cod woman and her 1-year-old daughter. The owners of the unit, which did not have smoke detectors despite an attestation that it did, were charged with manslaughter. "My feeling would be to send a building inspector," said Van Tassel. The Town Board presented a proclamation to Haldane High School student Allegra Clementson, who organized a food-scrap recycling program in the district as part of a pilot pro...

Facilities face pushback nationwide Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order on Tuesday (July 14) imposing the country's first moratorium on data centers, whose hunger for electricity and water has raised fears of higher electricity bills and depleted aquifers. The order prohibits the Department of Environmental Conservation from issuing permits or licenses for pending data center applications for one year. It also tasks the agency and the Department of Public Service with developing standards to assess potential environmental impacts from the facilities. The warehouse-sized centers can house thousands of servers that are the repositories for the documents, images and video stored and shared by Americans through their smartphones and computers. Their construction has accelerated in recent years, driven first by cloud computing and cryptocurrency trading, and now by the processing needs of artificial intelligence (AI). Local officials and residents have expressed concerned that the energy required to run data centers will leave homeowners and small businesses paying higher rates and footing the bill for upgraded power lines. There are also fears that the water used to cool equipment will threaten aquifers and groundwater. New York will establish the "strongest standards in the nation," said Hochul, who opted to issue an executive order rather than sign a one-year moratorium approved by the Legislature. Her order directs Empire State Development to develop guidance for municipalities to obtain benefits from companies that want to build data centers. Earlier this year, Maine seemed poised to establish a similar moratorium. But the measure was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills because it would have blocked a proposed data center in a town that has struggled after a mill closed. Moratoriums have been proposed in at least a dozen states but have not gotten far, though some counties and municipalities have imposed temporary bans. For instance, the East Fishkill Town Board approved a three-year moratorium on June 25 after a nearly two-hour public hearing. The moratorium, which ends on July 1, 2029, prohibits permitting or consideration of any data center "until the completion of federal and state studies" of their power and water usage, noise and heat emissions. It passed amid protests from residents who learned that Treetop Companies had asked the New York Independent System Operator, which operates the state grid, to study the impact of an AI processing and cloud computing center at its property off Donovan Drive. While Treetop's center would connect to Con Edison's grid, NYISO will also study its effect on the Central Hudson's system, which distributes power to residents in Beacon and Philipstown. A proposal to build a 200-megawatt data facility at the shuttered Indian Point is also being studied. Protests also accompanied a vote by the Orangetown Planning Board on July 8 to require DataBank to undergo an environmental impact study of its plan to expand an existing data center. Bloomberg and JPMorgan want to expand data centers in Orangetown, and a developer is proposing to build a facility there. More than 100 communities nationwide have passed moratoriums, and eight municipalities and the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina have approved permanent bans, according to the U.S. Data Center Moratorium Tracker. The Associated Press contributed reporting.

Haldane first-grader pulled from pool The end of the school year is always a big day, but for a 6-year-old Cold Spring boy, it almost marked the end of his life. Haldane kindergarteners and first graders, along with their parents, celebrated the start of summer at a backyard pool party in the village on the afternoon of June 24, the Wednesday of the final week of school. Bethany Califano said that when she picked up her son, Georgie, from his first-grade classroom at Haldane Elementary that day, "he said everyone was talking about the party, and he really wanted to go." By 2 p.m., the party was in full swing; Georgie was standing by the shallow end of the in-ground pool. "He was waving at me, and I took a picture of him," Califano recalled. But things quickly became a blur for the mother of three. Moments later, while tending to her 1-year-old, she heard someone say, "Are you OK?" "I just knew they were talking about Georgie," she remembers thinking. Stephen Selman, one of the fathers at the party, noticed a boy at the bottom of the deep end of the pool. Because his arms were moving, Selman hesitated. Before he could remove his shoes, Stefanie Kean, a mom, dove in and brought Georgie to the surface. Selman helped her pull him out. Georgie was not breathing. His eyes were open, his lips and eyelids were blue, his skin was gray and his tongue was sticking out, Selman said. Selman, who was a lifeguard as a teenager and trained in CPR, gave Georgie rescue breaths. He was joined by two other dads with CPR training, Aaron Ernst and Aaron Bartkiw, and the three worked as a team, doing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth. "I pinched his nose, pulled his head back and blew as hard as I could into him," said Bartkiw, also a former lifeguard. "He threw up all over me." Ernst said Georgie, after vomiting four times, started screaming. "It was the best scream that I've ever heard!" Ernst said. "I was just crying and praying; I've never prayed so hard in my whole life," Bethany Califano said. "I've never been so happy to hear him scream; I held him, and he didn't want to let go." After a call to 911, first responders arrived within minutes, Selman said. At that point, a frightened Georgie was talking coherently. He was taken by the Philipstown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, with his mother, to Mid-Hudson Hospital in Poughkeepsie. "We walked into about 20 doctors and nurses," she said. "It was pretty intense." After doctors examined Georgie, he was transferred to Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Westchester County because of concerns about "secondary" or "delayed" drowning, which can occur up to 24 hours after a near drowning. Fluid builds in irritated and inflamed lungs, potentially causing respiratory failure. After his father, Bobby, and two sisters visited with Georgie, Bethany spent the night with him. He answered all the medical staff's questions quickly and alertly, allaying concerns about possible brain damage due to oxygen deprivation. "They kept giving him random prompts; in the middle of talking to me they'd ask him his favorite color, and he'd answer 'blue' immediately," his mother said. Georgie told his mother that he remembered standing in the shallow end and taking a step "and then it was deep," Bethany said. It isn't clear how long he was underwater. Children typically lose consciousness in 30 to 60 seconds, and brain damage can occur within four to six minutes. "I'm always watching the water, and every time I looked around there were two or three sets of eyes on that pool," Selman said. "There wasn't any neglect, but there is a lesson here about how quickly it can happen." Bethany said hospital staff emphasized that drowning doesn't usually occur as depicted on TV. A victim doesn't scream and splash. "It was so quick, so quiet," she said. "And he's a loud kid." After Georgie spent the night at the hospital, his classmates visited him via Zoom before he was released. Three days later, he spotted a children's inflatable...

Feds lease warehouse in Newburgh Elected officials and Hudson Valley residents are mobilizing against a potential U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Town of Newburgh, four months after the agency reversed plans to buy a warehouse in Chester. A notice published by the federal General Services Administration announced that ICE has signed a 15-year, $35.6 million lease with Houston-based Leverage Enterprises Inc. to rent 42,377 square feet at 800 Corporate Blvd., a warehouse owned by the National Realty & Development Corp. near Stewart Air National Guard Base. Citing concerns about the safety of its officers, ICE refused to confirm the warehouse as its location, and the GSA did not respond to questions about its tenant, according to the Times Union in Albany. But the GSA's solicitation in June 2025 sought space in Newburgh that could accommodate "a dedicated sally port/garage" with "secure access into [the] building for deliveries by government vehicles, including detainee buses and vans." More specific is a spreadsheet listing properties owned and leased by the GSA and posted at data.gov. As of Thursday (July 9), the warehouse at 800 Corporate Blvd. is identified as "New Lease-DHS ICE." The lease, first reported on June 30 by the investigative news site Project Salt Box, has sparked bipartisan opposition. Gil Piaquadio, Newburgh's supervisor and a Republican, said on July 2 that the town "will pursue all available legal options to prevent this facility from being established in our community." U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat whose District 18 includes Newburgh and Beacon, said the same day that he was "urgently seeking answers." "We've made it clear: We strongly reject a mass detention center or any ICE facility in the Hudson Valley," said Ryan, who attended a rally on Tuesday (July 7) at Algonquin Park in the town. "We won't stand idly by while ICE moves into our community, terrorizes our neighbors and makes us all less safe." That same furor greeted ICE's proposal to buy a former Pep Boys distribution facility in Chester to expand detention space as the agency implements President Donald Trump's mass-deportation plan. At least eight people have been shot and killed by immigration agents since Trump returned to office in January 2025, according to The Associated Press. They include a Mexican man killed by an ICE officer in Houston on Tuesday, and at least three U.S. citizens. In addition, over 50 ICE detainees have died, more than the previous five years combined, according to ICE data. Flush with funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE planned to expand its detention capacity by spending $38.3 billion to buy and retrofit warehouses capable of holding 1,000 to 10,000 immigrants. But its "detention reengineering initiative" faced nationwide opposition, including lawsuits. In February, Brian Maher, a Republican whose state Assembly district includes Chester, said ICE had confirmed it would not be purchasing the warehouse there. Opponents of a Newburgh facility are demanding the same decision. "This is about more than one building," said Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose Assembly district includes Newburgh and Beacon, at the Tuesday rally. "It's about deciding what kind of community we want to be." In June, The New York Times reported that ICE planned to sell or give to other federal agencies seven warehouses it bought in other states for $700 million. The agency still held, as of April, an average of 154 people at its detention facility at the Orange County Jail in Goshen, more than double its detainee population in January 2025, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Its largest facility in New York is in Batavia, between Buffalo and Rochester. ICE says it is expanding the 650-bed Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia in response to a recent state law that will bar the agency from detaining people in county jails, according to a report published Thursday by New York F...

Legislators will appoint most members The Putnam Legislature on Tuesday (July 7) approved a law giving it the power to appoint the majority of the Board of Ethics. At the same time, it dissolved the current five-member panel, which had three vacancies. The 5-3 vote (with one legislator absent) could be vetoed by County Executive Kevin Byrne. The executive currently nominates all five volunteer members, who then must be confirmed by the Legislature. The revision reduces the executive's nominations to two and gives one to the Legislature's chair, one to its minority leader and the fifth to a majority of the Legislature. In 2025, according to its annual report, the Board of Ethics investigated three complaints of potential conflicts of interest and received one request for an advisory opinion. It also reviewed 193 financial disclosure forms. It lost three members in 2025: Roderick Cassidy resigned, Joseph DeMarzo decided not to seek another term and John Sweeny died. The board has a budget of about $31,000 for 2026, including $25,000 to hire outside counsel for ongoing litigation. Under the current system, "the Legislature's only role was to vote 'yes' or 'no' " on the county executive's nominees, said Legislator Jake D'Angelo, whose district includes parts of Carmel and Kent. "The public never knew how the candidates were identified, what their qualifications were or who else may have even been considered." As the Legislature's sole Democrat and minority leader, Nancy Montgomery would nominate one member for the panel. A proposal by Legislator Erin Crowley, who represents parts of Carmel, to eliminate the minority-leader nomination failed to gain enough support. "There was a lot of political grandstanding" about the minority nomination, said Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and Putnam Valley. "It's not about giving the minority control; it's about independence and public confidence." The measure shortens board members' terms from three years to two and retains language banning appointees who are lobbyists or officeholders in a political party. It also drops a requirement that at least one member of the board be a county officer, employee or elected official and instead bars anyone in those positions from serving. In addition, if the Legislature's nine members are from the same party, the county chair of the "non-controlling party" gets to choose the minority-party nominee. Putnam's code requires that Byrne hold a public hearing no later than 20 days after receiving the legislation and approve or veto it within 25 days. The Legislature can override a veto with six votes. The current board has two members: Barbara Scuccimarra, a former Republican legislator who was defeated by Montgomery in 2018 and 2021, and Paul Eldridge, Putnam's personnel officer. Despite the three vacancies, legislators decided in June against confirming two Byrne appointees because of the Legislature's plans to change the appointment process and dissolve the current board. A third Byrne appointee, John Molloy, dropped out amid concerns that his position on the Putnam County Republican Committee violated the ban on appointing members who hold office in a political party. Byrne accused legislators of trying to "hijack" the board and "block the board from doing its job." He also said that Molloy "had already taken steps to resign from the GOP committee upon his appointment." The Legislature formally reallocated $2.1 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding initially earmarked for a mental health crisis center to paving projects. People USA had planned to lease space for the 24-hour "stabilization" center above a childcare center in Brewster, but that sparked outrage from residents and led the Town of Southeast to impose a moratorium on permits for medical and mental health clinics. The nonprofit then tried to open a center in an office building in Carmel. That provoked similar opposition, and the town's Planning Board rejected the applicatio...

Newburgh dock withdraws as starting point The Annual Great Newburgh to Beacon River Swim, in which more than 200 swimmers accompanied by dozens of kayaks and other support boats traverse a mile-wide section of the Hudson River, has been canceled for this summer. Scheduled for Aug. 1, the fundraiser for the Beacon River Pool was called off after the Riverfront Marina of Newburgh withdrew as the starting point, said Karen Frillman, president of the River Pool board. The group has held the swim annually since 2004, except for one year during the pandemic. Frillman said the Riverfront Marina told her that its insurance company will not allow swimming from its docks, although River Pool has event insurance and participants sign liability waivers. Marina representatives declined comment. The swim is the primary fundraiser for the River Pool, which opened last week for its 18th season at Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park in Beacon. The event raises about $50,000 annually to pay for lifeguards and other operating costs. In addition to a $75 entry fee, swimmers raise money through sponsors. The pier at the Riverfront Marina was an ideal place to start because it projects into the river, allowing swimmers to jump safely without wading over rocks and other obstacles, Frillman said. "We do four groups of 50 swimmers, and they jump in. It's deep enough. You go down, but you don't touch the bottom. And you take off." Frillman said the marina has been the starting point for most of the event's history. In the early years, swimmers left from a dock by Torches restaurant, now Blu Pointe. Frillman said that no one has ever been seriously injured jumping off the docks. "People may have gotten a scratch, but we've never had any kind of an insurance issue, never had any kind of a problem," she said. She said River Pool has been unable to find another safe starting point that allows a direct swim to Beacon. The group will refund 2026 entry fees and look for a solution for 2027. Frillman acknowledged that the swim across the Hudson is risky, which is why the event has at least one kayak minder for every three swimmers. "Getting 200 people across this tidal river is tricky," she said. "You get pushed down by the ebb tide. Then there's slack tide. And then the flood tide kicks in." The River Pool itself takes precautions against risks of swimming in the river. The pool is designed with a walkway that allows swimmers to cross tricky rocks to reach it, and it is 17 feet wide and 30 inches deep, with a net bottom. It's attached to the riverbed with cables, allowing the pool to move with the tide. The pool was modeled after the floating swimming cribs anchored in the East River off Manhattan in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Scenic Hudson prohibits swimming in all of its two dozen waterfront parks, in part because of liability, said Seth McKee, executive director of its Land Trust & Land Programs. Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston, which the nonprofit created with New York State, will soon offer supervised swimming.

Beacon developer ordered to make project right The developer of a Main Street building in Beacon must return to the Planning Board on Tuesday (July 14) with a "full, complete and comprehensive" list of how the nearly complete structure at 364 Main deviated from a site plan approved four years ago. The property owner, Eric Baxter, and other project officials came to the board in May seeking approval of an amended site plan after acknowledging that nearly two dozen features on the building — material selections, window and facade details, the replacement of Juliet balconies and others — had been changed during construction. With Chair John Gunn absent, board members rebuked Baxter but took no action. Last month, Gunn took the project team to task. Applications for prominent sites such as 364 "establish our Main Street," Gunn said on June 9. "Our Main Street," he repeated, with emphasis. "The Main Street we all have to look at, experience and live with, and this applicant ignored all of the time that we put in to that review." His voice raised sharply, Gunn said he was "beyond angry at the waste of our time, including this time" spent reviewing the plan again. "I want it known by every applicant that we don't sit here just for our health, or for the fun of it. This is a waste of our time, and I'm tired of it. I want that clear," he said. Gunn said he expected the applicant to return this month with a list of "every single item" that deviates from the plan approved in April 2022. "And I'm not going to talk any more about this until next month when we have that list, and we're going to go line by line, is that clear?" he said. "It's very clear," said Taylor Palmer, the developer's attorney. The project team is taking the matter "very seriously," he said, and intends to "make this project better overall, not just return to center." A public hearing will be required before the board can approve changes, but Gunn said it is too early to schedule one. Once complete, the three-story building will have commercial space on the first floor and 20 apartments on the second and third. A public hearing will continue Tuesday on a proposal to convert an art gallery at 1154 North Ave. (Route 9D) to a karaoke bar. The project was introduced in May and drew immediate pushback from neighbors, who said that people congregating at the venue late at night would disrupt nearby residences. In response, the project team submitted a five-page management plan last month that it said could allay some concerns. It states that the venue will operate primarily via online reservations, though walk-ins may be accommodated if capacity allows. Walk-ins who cannot be accommodated will either wait at the bar or leave and receive a text notification when space is available. Staff will be trained to address capacity-related issues. Patrons will not be permitted to congregate on sidewalks, at the rear of the building or near emergency exits, the plan says. A rear exit will be used for emergencies only. Smoking will be permitted in a designated outdoor area on the southwest corner of the building, but the space will not be used as "an outdoor gathering area." The venue is proposed to be closed on Monday and Tuesday, and open from 2 p.m. to midnight on Wednesday and Thursday, noon to 1:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon to 11 p.m. on Sunday. On holiday weekends, Sundays would revert to Saturday hours. "That means a Sunday goes to 1:30 a.m. on a holiday? I don't know about that," Gunn said during a June 9 meeting. The applicant, Eric Weitner, said he had based the hours on comparable businesses, including the Vinyl Room and Piggy Bank (both open until 2 a.m. on weekends) and the Happy Valley Arcade Bar (open until 1:30 a.m. on weekends). But if the Sunday schedule is a problem, "we're amenable to bringing that back," he said. Patrons would be encouraged to use public transportation or park on-street or in one of the nearby municipal lots. Noise has been the gre...

Also, updates on creekside zoning, cable franchises Ben Swanson was sworn in on Monday (July 6) by Mayor Lee Kyriacou as Beacon's city administrator, completing a seven-month ascension that included a few unexpected steps along the way. After being named the city's first deputy administrator in December, Swanson, 32, learned three months later he would become interim administrator following the retirement of Chris White, planned for June. Three weeks later, on April 6, the council voted to name Swanson the administrator (removing the interim designation) when White retired. White took a leave of absence in mid-April and did not return, speeding up the transition. Monday's swearing-in finally made everything official. Swanson was hired in 2021 as assistant to the mayor. As city administrator, he will manage Beacon's day-to-day operations and oversee a workforce of about 130 employees. The city intends to hire a deputy to assist Swanson and has received 85 applications. The council was briefed Monday on a proposal to develop 555 South Ave., an 11-acre former industrial site on the banks of Fishkill Creek. The property was the home of the Tioronda Hat Works Factory from 1878 to 1919. According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, "hat works-related activities" continued until at least 1946, after which the Atlas Fiber Co., Chemical Rubber Products Inc. and BASF Colors and Chemicals occupied the eight-building site. It has been vacant since 1995 and was sold in 2016 to Rodney Weber, a developer who owns the Edgewater complex and several properties on Creek Drive, among others in Beacon. The Hat Factory property was contaminated by at least a dozen chemicals "of concern" but has been remediated through the DEC's Brownfield Cleanup Program. The agency said the site is suitable for "restricted-residential" uses such as multi-family housing, condominiums and apartment buildings, but not single-family homes. On Monday, City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis told the council that Weber intends to submit an application to construct a hotel on the property. Hotels are not allowed in the Fishkill Creek Development District, although bed-and-breakfasts and inns (defined by the city as a hotel with 10 or fewer guest rooms) are permitted. The council could amend the code to allow a hotel, a move Kyriacou said could have positive ripple effects. "We're at the stage now where we want" hotels, he said, noting that changes to creekside zoning regulations would give him "more comfort in saying, 'Let's look at our short-term rentals and start to reduce them.'" If there are alternatives, "we want those short-term rentals to go to long-term apartments," he said. Council Member Paloma Wake said she believes the city should be "looking at this holistically," because hotels are often used as backup sites for emergency housing, which Beacon lacks. The council held a public hearing on Monday on Verizon New York's application for a franchise agreement to provide TV service through its fiber-optic network. The company already provides internet service in the city. The council approved a 10-year renewal of a similar, non-exclusive agreement with Optimum, aka Cablevision of Wappingers Falls, in December. If the Verizon pact is approved, there would be competing cable providers in Beacon for the first time in 40 years, said Pamela Goldstein, a company representative. The agreement would encompass all of Beacon, although Verizon's network only covers about 55 percent of the city. There are no plans to expand, Goldstein said. Federal law allows the city to collect 5 percent of franchisees' gross revenues. In 2024, Optimum paid the city $172,393. One person spoke during the hearing but did not express an opinion on the franchise agreement. The council approved three resolutions Monday regarding the city's historic district. The first added two properties whose owners agreed to the designation: 22 South Ave. and the Elks Lodge at 900 Wolcott Ave. Th...

Silent Book Club meets monthly in Beacon When it came time for chatting to cease, participants in the Beacon chapter of the Silent Book Club pulled out earplugs and headphones to block out background noise. Then the action began: Everyone started to read. Typically held monthly, this meetup took place at Hudson Valley Brewing, but the group bounces around town and sometimes meets at Long Dock Park. "It's happy hour for introverts," says organizer Christina Hellman, who was reading The Night Guest, by Hildur Knutsdottir. Created in San Francisco 14 years ago by two friends, the concept now has some 2,000 chapters worldwide. Unlike book groups that read the same title, "we have no rules," says Hellman. "You just show up and dive in, maybe buy some drinks. It's a BYO book club where you come and go as you like." Like Write Today Beacon, a writing club in which co-organizer Lily Friedrich sets a timer for 20 minutes and everyone hunkers down, 20- and 30-somethings have found ways to socialize around the solitary. The book club premise provides an informal, no-pressure atmosphere for word nerds. Hellman reads the room and goes with the flow as the group seesaws between reading and schmoozing. Once in a while, the format changes. At Yappy Hours, there is no break to read, though people can of course pull out a book and find a corner at any time. On July 1, Hellman hosted the latest in a series of Listen & Craft sessions at the Salvation Army on Main Street, i.e., "listen to your audiobook while you puzzle, draw, knit, etc." The club's catchphrase is "What are You Reading?" At Hudson Valley Brewery, Kelsey Butkiewicz dug into Kin by Tayari Jones on a tablet. Andrea Knox (Shadows in Flight, by Orson Scott Card) had moved to Beacon three weeks before the meeting, and Britt Rivera pored over Homer's The Odyssey. Participants also goofed around on the balcony, gushing over passions like comics, VHS tapes, pinball machines and vintage computer games. Dave Taetsel (Truth of the Divine, by Lindsay Ellis) and Travis Bederka (Closing Time, by Joseph Heller) geeked out over the "janky curves" of analog televisions. "I have many interests," says Bederka in a deep, dramatic voice, including polar exploration, the Roman Empire, European history from 1500 to 1800, 19th-century Germany and World War II. Hellman, who was born and raised in Germany by parents from the Philippines, met and married an American serviceman and lives in Newburgh. The couple plans to relocate at some point, but "there have been many offers to host, so I'm sure the club will live on after I'm gone." She first attended a club meeting in May 2024, a few months after Jessenya Alicea and DJ McErlean started it, and helped out with social media and logo design. "I've made friends with people I never would have met otherwise," Hellman says. "One member says that everyone she knows in Beacon is from the club." The Silent Book Club meets at 6 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at Savage Wonder, 139 Main St., in Beacon. Its next meetings are July 15 and Aug. 19. It will also meet at 10 a.m. on July 31 at Bank Square Coffeehouse, 129 Main St. See facebook.com/groups/silentbookclubbeacon or instagram.com/silentbookclubbeacon.

Statue, Declaration display damaged Police are investigating political messages scrawled on a replica of the Declaration of Independence displayed at Putnam County's Historic Courthouse and damage to a newly restored statue of Sybil Ludington, a Revolutionary War hero. County Executive Kevin Byrne said on Tuesday (July 7) that a large reproduction of the Declaration hung on the face of the courthouse in Carmel for residents to sign on the Fourth of July had been removed the same day after being "defaced with political graffiti." On Wednesday, the Sheriff's Office announced an investigation into damage to the base of the Ludington statue, five days after police officers and firefighters escorted the figure back to the shore of Lake Gleneida in Carmel following a $100,000 restoration. Photos provided by the county showed some of the messages on the Declaration. Amid the signatures of residents were scribbles, some with misspellings, such as "5000 children in consencration camps god is telling you – stop being cruel usa 2026," "500 years genocide," "Free Palestine," "Stop ICE" and "Abolish Millionaires." The Town of Carmel Police Department said it received a call about the graffiti on the afternoon of July 4. Because the incident occurred on county property, it handed the investigation over to the Sheriff's Office. Security videos "are being reviewed to help verify the identities of those responsible" for the writings, said Byrne. He also said a replacement replica will be displayed for people to sign during the Putnam Lake Rev 250 Parade on July 11 and the county fair on July 25 and 26. The Declaration of Independence "deserves to be treated with dignity and respect," said Byrne. "Every American enjoys the constitutional right to free speech, but intentionally defacing a public display created for families to celebrate our history and heritage is not an act of civic engagement; it is an act of gross disrespect." Putnam first displayed the reproduction during its Putnam County Heroes Battle the Redcoats reenactment on June 6, and Byrne said he was among hundreds of people who signed the document. It was also displayed on July 3, when the county reinstalled the restored bronze statue of Ludington, a 16-year-old from Kent credited with riding 40 miles on horseback in 1777 to warn her father's militia about a British raid on Danbury, Connecticut. Since being installed at Lake Gleneida in 1961, the 4,000-pound statue has been the target of vandalism and graffiti, necessitating frequent cleaning, according to the Historian's Office. It returned to Lake Gleneida with its surface polished and its base rebuilt to fortify it against water damage. Someone reported damage to the base around 11:40 a.m. on Wednesday, according to the Sheriff's Office, which said its Bureau of Criminal Investigations responded, along with Putnam employees involved in the restoration. Investigators have not determined if the two incidents are related, but "will pursue all available investigative leads," said the Sheriff's Office.

Reservoir affected by recent storms At the beginning of the Wednesday (July 8) meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board, Mayor Kathleen Foley clarified why a Stage 2 Water Emergency had been declared earlier in the day. [Update: The water emergency was rescinded on July 10.] "We are not in a water shortage," she said. Instead, recent storms had overwhelmed the water treatment process with suspended solids, causing drinking water to become turbid or cloudy. In response, the village is trucking water to holding tanks at the Fishkill Road plant. During the emergency, water system users are required to identify and stop all leaks; cease washing vehicles, building exteriors or outside areas; refrain from watering lawns, ornamental shrubs, plants, trees or gardens; irrigate vegetables or fruits for human consumption from hand-held containers only; and refrain from filling and/or maintaining levels in swimming pools, hot tubs and similar recreational pools. Bars, bed & breakfasts, coffee shops, hotels and restaurants should provide drinking water only upon request, and hotels, bed & breakfasts and short-term rentals should wash guest linens only upon request. The water superintendent, code enforcement officer and Cold Spring Police Department will enforce the order, the village said. Foley said that, before the July 5 storm, debris had been cleared from Back Brook in anticipation of heavy flows. The large number of private drains that flow into the brook needs to be factored into the watershed assessment, she said. Fuss and O'Neill Engineering is conducting a Flood Resilience Study focusing on the Back Brook watershed, a 160-acre drainage area that carries stormwater from as far upstream as Bull Hill to culverts beneath Fair Street, which empty into the Hudson River. The firm will host a public workshop later this year. Before its meeting, the board held back-to-back executive sessions that lasted nearly three hours. The first dealt with litigation and the proposed acquisition of real estate, while the second dealt with personnel issues. The board accepted a low bid of $16,800 from WBE Fence Co. for chain-link fence replacement at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. It will be funded with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) money received after the severe storms in 2023. The Cold Spring Fire Co. responded to 21 calls in June, including eight activated fire and CO2 alarms, six assists to emergency medical services, four structure fires and downed wires, two gas odor or smoke investigations and a residential dumpster fire. The Cold Spring Police Department responded to 154 calls in June, including 21 medical assists and six fire assists. Officers made a dozen traffic stops, issuing eight warnings and four tickets. Todd Seekircher resigned from the Historic District Review Board. The village will advertise to fill the vacancy.

Environmental group says advocacy led to dismissal A highlight of America's bicentennial in 1976 was Operation Sail, a parade of tall ships around New York City that featured the sloop Clearwater, representing the environmental organization of the same name created by folk icons Pete and Toshi Seeger of Beacon. The parade returned to New York City on July 4, this time as Sail4th 250 in honor of the nation's 250th birthday. But it sailed with one notable absence. Around 11 a.m., shortly after the parade began, the Clearwater was approached on both sides by U.S. Coast Guard boats and told to exit immediately. The sloop had been scheduled to escort the NRP Sagres, a Portuguese Navy ship. Instead, it was escorted from the parade route by the Coast Guard, Navy and New York Police Department, and had to wait until the parade was over to return to its current port at the Atlantic Basin in Red Hook, Brooklyn. "I was shouting at them [from the deck of the ship], 'Folks, we're part of this parade!'" said David Toman, the executive director of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, which is based in Beacon. "We're part of this all!" Toman said crew members were not immediately told why the sloop was being removed from the parade, and a call to organizers provided little clarity. "They told us they were unaware of this and that the decision was being made above their heads," said Toman. It was later that someone from one of the Coast Guard vessels told Capt. Rory Kane that it was because of the ship's banners, Toman said. One side of the ship's sail carried a banner that read: "Save the Clean Water Act," with a drawing of Pete Seeger's banjo. The other had a banner that read: "Indigenous Rights, Racial Justice, Climate Solutions." A Coast Guard representative told The Current: "As part of the parade of sail, participants agreed to conditions established by Sail4th. One of those conditions was to not display political or politically charged messages/statements. The owner of the sloop Clearwater was contacted and requested to remove the message being displayed or be removed from the parade of sail. They declined to remove it. So, the Coast Guard enforced the agreement on behalf of Sail4th, removing the vessel from the parade." But Jen Benson of Clearwater, who was on the sloop, said there was no communication from either Sail250 or the Coast Guard regarding the banners. "We were not given an option to remove the banners and continue in the parade," she said. Toman said that no such restrictions existed, only that ships were instructed not to carry banners that could be considered "promotional." A copy of Clearwater's contract with Sail4th 250 that was provided to The Current confirms there were no restrictions on political messaging, only that the ship "may not display any flags, signs or distribute any literature that includes sponsorship names and/or logos without providing examples of these items in advance and receiving express written permission." Sail4th 250 did not respond to numerous requests for comment. "We've been part of the coordination of Sail250 from the very beginning," Toman said. "We signed a contract last year, went to every meeting." While he acknowledged that Sail250 did not specifically approve the sloop's banners, he said he saw other ships in the parade also flying banners. "We're known as America's environmental flagship," he said. "We've been known to fly banners from our sails, as they know. And besides, Sail250 did not tell us to leave the parade." In 1986, the Clearwater took part in the Operation Sail tall ship parade in New York Harbor to celebrate the rededication of the Statue of Liberty. During the parade, the sloop flew two banners from its sails. One read: "Peace on Earth, And Sea, and Sky," and another expressed solidarity with the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace ship that had been sunk by France while in a New Zealand harbor, killing a photographer who was on board. By Brian PJ Cronin The "Save the Clean Wat...

East Fishkill approves moratorium When Debra Pagano heard that a developer was proposing a 1-gigawatt AI data center in East Fishkill, she asked her son in Texas what he thought of the controversial facilities. With 466 currently operating or planned data centers, Texas has more than any other state except Virginia, according to the Pew Research Center. "I asked his opinion — if it was to their advantage or not," said Pagano. "He said, 'If you can put the brakes [on] in any way to stop it from coming, especially to this area, do it.'" East Fishkill's Town Board applied those brakes on June 25. After a nearly two-hour public hearing during which Pagano and other residents aired emotions ranging from concern to fear, the board approved a three-year moratorium on data centers, which are facing a nationwide backlash as their construction accelerates to meet the large energy demands of AI. New York's Legislature approved a one-year moratorium that needs Gov. Kathy Hochul's signature to take effect. Several upstate towns have also hit pause on any new projects, and Orangetown officials in Rockland County are weighing a moratorium for their town, which has several existing centers. East Fishkill's moratorium, lasting until July 1, 2029, prohibits permitting or consideration of any data center "until the completion of federal and state studies" of their power and water usage, noise and heat emissions. The town allows an exception for projects "ancillary to an existing or permitted use" and less than 20 megawatts, or ones eligible for an economic-development special permit. It passed amid protests from residents who learned that Treetop Companies had asked the New York Independent System Operator, which operates the state's electric grid, to study the impact of an AI-processing and cloud-computing center at its property off of Donovan Drive. While the center would connect to ConEd's grid, the study will also look at its effect on Central Hudson and NYSEG's systems. Nick D'Alessandro, East Fishkill's supervisor, has emphasized that Treetop does not have a formal application with the town, but he said before the public hearing that "the people speak, the government listens and the government acts responsibly." He also said a "significant use" like a data center requires "impactful thought" by professionals and the public. "A moratorium gives us time," said D'Alessandro. "Time to study the infrastructure impacts and the environmental impacts. Time to hear from the experts." With its timeout, East Fishkill joins a movement that has led to more than 100 active moratoriums nationwide and permanent bans by eight municipalities and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, according to the U.S. Data Center Moratorium Tracker. The warehouse-sized centers house rows of servers that are the repositories and waystations for the documents, images and video stored and shared by Americans through their smartphones and computers. Their construction has accelerated in recent years, driven first by cloud computing and cryptocurrency mining, and now by the processing needs of AI. Behind the backlash are economic and environmental concerns: the effect of the power-hungry facilities on household electricity rates; their thirst for large amounts of water to cool equipment and the impact on wells; and other issues such as noise and traffic. A proposal to build a 200-megawatt data facility at Indian Point is also being studied by NYISO. Tanya Radford, an East Fishkill resident, who gets her electricity through Central Hudson, said any project should be subject to a "robust environmental review" that assesses "air, water, noise and light pollution." She also said that developers should pay for any new energy infrastructure they need. "Ratepayers and communities should not have to pay for new infrastructure that supports new industry," said Radford. "Large commercial industrial users should pay premium prices rather than get sweetheart deals at...

Volunteers open paddling routes The Fishkill Creek runs behind Sergei Krasikov's house and it wasn't long after he moved to Beacon that he began to wonder: How much of this is navigable? A quick scan of Google Maps revealed the numerous dams which make canoeing and kayaking the entire 33.5-mile creek from Pray Pond in Unionvale to Madam Brett Park in Beacon impossible, and by late summer some sections are too shallow to paddle. But a few segments seemed open enough to encourage exploring. "That first year or two we paddled from Long Dock into Madam Brett Park, and from Van Pelt Park upstream to the Walmart in Fishkill," said Krasikov, who was elected to the Beacon City Council last year. Then came the macroburst storm of 2018, and much of the creek became jammed with downed trees. Further paddling was out of the question. Krasikov then learned about a defunct group called the Fishkill Creek Watershed Association, which had done everything from developing a natural resource management plan to dragging discarded Christmas trees to the banks of the creek to slow erosion. In 2023, Krasikov founded a new group called the Fishkill Creek Watershed Alliance to carry on the association's work. "They produced great reports," he said. "We're still using them." Since its inception, the Alliance has regularly tested for water quality in the creek and looked at the effects that industry and invasive species are having on its watershed. Through his work with the Alliance, Krasikov met Russel Faller from the Mid-Hudson chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club and a former member of the Fishkill Creek Watershed Association. Faller mentioned that he used to lead work parties on the creek to keep it clear for paddling, but since the Association's disbanding there was no one to help him. And so last weekend Krasikov, Faller and almost a dozen volunteers in kayaks, surf kayaks, canoes and inflatable standup paddleboards met at Doug Phillips Park in Fishkill. They hailed from all over the Hudson Valley; some were already Alliance members, while others were curious paddlers looking for an excuse to explore someplace new. Armed with hacksaws and ropes, they paddled a little over 2 miles upstream, removing downed trees and logjams, some of which looked like they had been in place since the macroburst. Much of this stretch of the creek is flanked by tall grasses, thickly wooded forests and very few houses. Just a few minutes into the paddle it's easy to get the impression that one is deep in the remote wilderness despite being a few hundred feet away from a bowling alley. One of the only signs of human civilization was a dog chasing a blue heron into the creek. Even litter was sparse, and the one or two beer cans the group did find were, judging from their design, several decades old. Deer and raccoon tracks could be found along the shore. Without chainsaws, much of the work was slow going. Sawing through one particularly large red oak took four people about half an hour. And a logjam just downstream of the junction with Sprout Creek was so dense that it originally looked like Fishkill Creek simply ended there. But after another few hours of sawing and pulling, the water flow was restored and the section was navigable once again. The Fishkill Creek Watershed Alliance's website now has a page dedicated to paddling the creek, with maps to three cleared and navigable sections along with safety tips and other pointers. The most dangerous thing the group encountered last weekend was low-hanging poison ivy, but during a few sections paddlers had to get out and pull their crafts around shallow sections with surprisingly quick rapids. Even the deeper sections are shallow enough that standup paddleboarders should remain seated, bring along a kayak paddle and, if possible, remove the tail fin. It'll take regular maintenance to keep the creek open for paddling, but Krasikov is already thinking ahead. Riverkeeper has had success removing several defunct dams i...

Mandeville hosted a revolution Last month at Mandeville House in Garrison, attendees ate French fromage and drank Perrier and Champagne. Dressed in Revolutionary War garb, Mark Forlow wielded a scabbard to slice open a bottle of Veuve Clicquot with a clean cut through the glass instead of popping the cork. "You have to suspend the neck in ice for an hour or so," he says. "I've seen people do this with a butter knife." The French-themed fete on June 13 paid homage to the Marquis de Lafayette and the pivotal assistance from France during the Revolutionary War. Julien Icher, founder of the Lafayette Trail, a Maryland-based nonprofit, installed a marker a half-mile south from the intersection of Route 9D and Route 403 at the former site of loyalist Beverley Robinson's home. (It burned down in 1892.) George Washington, Lafayette and a who's who of big names stayed and strategized there and at Mandeville House, built in 1737. Gen. Israel Putnam used Mandeville as his headquarters during the entire war, says new steward Sarajane Brittis. People thought that the general's wife, Deborah Lathrop, died in the house after the fall of Forts Clinton and Montgomery in 1777, but she may have been buried alive, says Brittis. Tours are available today and tomorrow (July 4); dates are also planned in October. Owned by the Perry Gething Foundation, Mandeville held regular open houses in the spring and fall, except during the pandemic, says Brittis, who helped the former stewards, Katherine Perry and Robert Perry, her aunt and uncle. They died recently and Brittis took over in 2023. The foundation derives from interior designer Margaret Allan Gething, who worked on Lyndhurst, Constitution Island and the White House. In the 1920s, she reverted Mandeville House to its colonial glory after architect Richard Upjohn bought the place in 1852 and altered the exterior. It remained a private home until Gething died in 1975. She never married and left the house in a charitable trust managed by Robert Perry. Brittis has already reached out to Boscobel, the Putnam History Museum and the Desmond-Fish Library across the road. Beyond providing public access and serving bubbly, Brittis, who dresses in period costume when giving tours, seeks to expand educational programs. In May, she thanked parents for bringing their children along: "It's important to inspire young people and others to keep history alive." Just like 100 years ago, when Gething updated the house, stages of renovations are in store as an architectural firm prepares recommendations incorporating information gleaned by lasers and drones. During a recent tour, Brittis noted that the home reveals layers of history as the structure transformed from a colonial outpost to a modernized building. "The house is a living museum that embodies domestic changes from candles to electricity and pewter to glass," says Brittis. "The community takes a lot of pride in its history, which will continue." The interior confines also reveal the trajectory of human evolution since colonial days. Standing at 6-foot-4, and playing the role of George Washington at a recent event, architectural consultant James Barry continued bumping his head on the staircases. "One time, I bit my gums," he said.

Walking in the Revolution's footsteps One of the first thoughts that occurs to you when reading up on the history of the American Revolution in the Hudson Highlands is that they sure did a lot of walkin'. Many of the routes they took were trails established by the Native Americans and animals of the Hudson Valley. A lot of those paths have since become beloved hiking trails, so there's a good chance that even the simplest of your local hikes will have you walking the same routes soldiers took on their way to light signal fires, watch over the river or perhaps commit a little light treason. So grab ample supplies (water, snacks, bug spray, paper map, musket, tri-corner hat, secret intelligence about West Point stashed in your boot) and let's step back into history. Trailhead: Pocket Road in Beacon (park on East Main) Distance: 4 miles, out and back Elevation gain: 1,125 feet Approximate time: 2 – 3 hours You probably already know that Mount Beacon is named after the signal fires set on its summit during the Revolutionary War. You also probably know about the Beacon Monument built by the Daughters of the American Revolution to honor those signal-keepers back on July 4, 1900. But it remains a seldom-visited spot, probably because it's at the end of an unmarked trail. The good news is that since I last wrote about the monument in 2024, it's become much easier to visit. The easiest way to find the monument is to text Chris Cring at 845-249-5305. He's leading a hike to the monument tomorrow (July 4) on behalf of the Beacon Historical Society. The second easiest way is to head up the white-blazed Pocket Road Trail (technically the first part of the Fishkill Ridge Trail, but no one calls it that). Once you hit the Jeep Road (technically the Mount Beacon Monument Road, but no one calls it that despite it being the easiest way to get there), hang a right and head up to the reservoir. Keep following the road past the reservoir for about half a mile until you pass a wide unblazed path ascending to your right (if you run into the radio towers, turn around because you missed it). Follow this wider path, ignoring the side paths, and you'll soon come into a clearing with the radio towers on your left, a smaller building on your right and low-strung telephone wires in front of you. Hang a right and then walk around the back of the building, keeping the fence on your left. At one point you will pass through a narrow pathway surrounded by barbed wire on both sides. You will wonder if this means that you are trespassing. You're not, keep going. Once you pass this narrow section, the monument will be on your right, almost exactly 2 miles from the start of the Pocket Road Trail. Trailhead: 1 Avery Road, Garrison Distance: 3 miles, out and back Elevation gain: 745 feet Approximate time: 1.5 – 2.5 hours The ruins of redoubts, small open forts made of earth and stones, can be found up and down the Hudson, as they played a vital role in securing control of the river during the war. These two redoubts overlook West Point and were therefore considered of strategic importance by both the Americans and the British (more on that below). This is a popular hike in late fall or early spring, as the views are even better when the leaves are off the trees. But it is not without its summer charms: It's well-shaded, and the ample wineberries along the sides of the trail should make for fine mid-July snacking. Note that these prickly vines are quite thick in a few spots; long sleeves and pants are recommended. You'll find the red-blazed trailhead at the end of the parking lot, leading into the woods. The trail runs parallel to Snake Hill Road and a brook for a while before turning away from the road and ascending. Note that the trail narrows here with a sharp drop-off on one side. This probably shouldn't be your toddler's first hike after they learn to walk. At a half-mile in, the trail splits and a sign points to each redoubt. Head right for the North Redo...

Panel considers resident parking in lower village Mayor Kathleen Foley, at the Wednesday (June 24) meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board, outlined changes needed in the lower village regarding parking, enforcement and related signage. Foley said that although a resident parking district was created in 2015, signage was never installed. "Our officers cannot ticket non-residents without signs," she said. That can leave residents of the lower village without off-street parking, searching for spots on busy weekends. (A residential parking program in the upper village was established in 2024.) Eleanor Chew, a graduating Haldane High School senior, recently completed a three-week internship at Village Hall, studying the area between the Mero-North tracks and the river and inventorying and mapping parking spaces, signage, residences and businesses. Chew has drafted recommendations for resident parking and signage, along with the removal of unnecessary and outdated signs. "We need about 20 resident on-street parking spots," Foley said. The board supported her suggestion to appoint a five-member ad hoc committee composed of lower-village residents to recommend areas for residents-only parking. The board will discuss Chew's recommendations in detail in July. Foley said a "multitude of signs" also need to be removed from Main Street in the upper village, along with improvements to paid parking signage. The village has received a $6,000 donation to fund wayfinding signs throughout the village. Foley said "decluttering" signage needs to be done before the wayfinding system can be installed. The village will add solar-powered, rapid flashing signs at four pedestrian crossings. The signs, approved by the state Department of Transportation, will be installed at Locust Ridge and Route 301; Fishkill Avenue/Academy Street and Route 301; Craigside Drive and Route 9D; and Route 9D between the tennis courts and Haldane parking lot. Pavement striping at the crossings will also be improved. Foley said the project, to be undertaken this year, will cost $80,000, with Haldane covering up to half. The state will add flashing signs at the Main Street traffic light in 2027. The board approved an agreement with Haldane to add a crossing guard near Mountain Avenue and Craigside Drive. Haldane will pay the $15,000 annual salary. Crossing guards are employees of the village and supervised by the Cold Spring Police Department. Seastreak's request to dock at Cold Spring for fall cruises on Memorial Day weekend and on Oct. 24, the date of the annual Halloween parade, was denied. A decision on a request for 12 other docking dates between Oct. 3 and Nov. 1 is pending a structural assessment of the dock. Optimum internet service at Village Hall will be upgraded to fiber-optic for $280 per month. The Village Hall's basic service will be transferred to Wastewater Treatment Plant on Fair Street. Foley cited problems with Optimum throughout the village in recent months. "It is especially impactful for Village Hall because we provide public services, including the police department, and we cannot be down," she said. She described the negotiations with Optimum as "bruising" because "they have a monopoly. There has to be a way to get competition." The village's franchise agreement with Optimum expires in 2031. The board will revisit the licensing of food trucks. Trustee Tony Bardes found a sample law, which Trustee Andrew Hall revised for the board to consider. A year ago, the board instituted a six-month moratorium on licensing food trucks. At the time, Foley noted that Chapter 71 of the Village Code, which deals with licensing, had last been updated 34 years earlier. On June 10, the board approved Cold Spring Boat Club's request for a food truck to operate on Thursday to Monday between Memorial Day and Nov. 1. The boat club leases the riverfront property from the village. Responding to what she described as "a lot of chatter on social media" and elsewhere, Foley sa...

Retired officer's 'brain health' being evaluated A report by a psychiatric expert hired to evaluate the mental health of Edison Irizarry, the retired Beacon police officer who said he shot his roommate nearly a year ago, is complete. A second, commissioned by prosecutors, is expected next. The findings of the first report have not been released. Once complete, both will be considered as the criminal case against the former 17-year Beacon police officer moves forward. Irizarry, 52 at the time, was arrested July 21, 2025, after Beacon police responded to a 911 call placed by Irizarry, who said he had shot his roommate. Officers found Casey Cuddy, 58, of Beacon, dead inside an apartment at 86 Rombout Ave. The department turned the investigation over to the New York State Police after learning that Irizarry, who retired in 2021, was a former officer. Irizarry is accused of shooting Cuddy, a psychiatric nurse, multiple times with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic Glock pistol. He pleaded not guilty in Beacon City Court on July 22 and was indicted by a Dutchess County grand jury on Aug. 5 on a second-degree murder charge. He is being held at the county jail in Poughkeepsie without bail. In an interview last year with the Times Union, Irizarry said he shot Cuddy in self-defense to prevent "something evil from happening" but would not provide details. On Friday (June 26), Brittney Kessel, the deputy unit chief of the Dutchess County DA's Office, and Alexander Rosen, Irizarry's public defender, replacing Susan Mraz Mungavin, who retired, met for about 10 minutes with Judge Jessica Segal in County Court in Poughkeepsie. Irizarry did not appear. After conferring, Segal announced that the defense's mental health report had been submitted. "That took a very long time to get, but it was helpful," she said. However, there has been "no agreed-upon disposition. That's still being discussed" as professionals assess Irizarry's "brain health," Segal said. She set an Aug. 27 date for attorneys to provide updates. That frustrated Cuddy's sister, Dana Miller, who said Friday that she has tired of the slow pace. "We've been waiting a year for the defense to present a defense," said Miller, who lives in North Texas. "It shouldn't have taken that long."

Allows swimming at Beacon waterfront When folk singer Pete Seeger envisioned The River Pool at the Beacon waterfront more than 25 years ago, he said he wanted to encourage swimming in the Hudson, which he sang about as "My Dirty Stream." "He felt that if people were swimming in the water, they would work to keep it clean," said Karen Frillman, president of the pool's volunteer board. Seeger died in January 2014, after the pool had been open for seven summers. The River Pool is scheduled to open this year on Wednesday (July 1) for its 18th season at Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park. It is waiting for final approvals from the Dutchess County Health Department. Frillman said the department samples the water weekly. "The first year they tested, they said it was [clean enough to be] almost drinkable," she said. "It's a great spot." The health department also inspects the structure to ensure it's safe for the 700 or so children who visit each summer. The pool is 17 feet wide and 30 inches deep, with a net bottom. It's attached to the riverbed with cables, allowing the pool to move with the tide. Seeger modeled the pool after the floating swimming cribs anchored in the East River off Manhattan in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. Volunteers assemble the pool each summer in a cove near the park. It is staffed with a paid lifeguard from noon to 6 p.m. every day except Monday through Labor Day. The group raises about $50,000 a year with The Annual Great Newburgh to Beacon River Swim, scheduled for Aug. 1. Typically, more than 200 swimmers pay $75 to traverse the river escorted by kayaks. The River Pool board would like to see its model replicated, said Ben Weiss, one of its nine trustees. "River Pool at Peekskill, River Pool at Newburgh, River Pool at Albany — that's the big vision." About 10 years ago, the group pitched a larger pool at Scenic Hudson's Long Dock Park in Beacon, measuring 54 feet long by 20 feet wide, with a separate wading pool. "Although this would be an appealing amenity, we were — and still are — concerned about the additional infrastructure, park management demands and liability linked to hosting swimming," said Seth McKee, executive director of The Scenic Hudson Land Trust & Land Programs. For those reasons, McKee said, swimming is not allowed at any of the two dozen waterfront parks and preserves managed by Scenic Hudson, although Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston, which the nonprofit created with New York State, will soon offer swimming overseen by state parks. The River Pool is part of a larger movement toward providing free, supervised swimming holes. By one estimate, there are 10.7 million swimming pools in the U.S., but only about 300,000 are open to the public. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul included funding for new or renovated public pools in her 2024 state budget as part of a program called New York Swims. The state awarded $38 million to municipalities in the Mid-Hudson region, including $8 million to help fund an outdoor aquatic center at Delano-Hitch Recreation Park in Newburgh that opened last summer. In New York City, a nonprofit called Plus Pool has been raising funds since 2015 to build a floating, self-filtering pool in the East River and to deploy river pools across the state, including near the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. It is testing a 2,000-square-foot pilot this summer near Pier 35 in lower Manhattan.

Future use remains uncertain Despite a push from Rep. Mike Lawler and the U.S. Department of Energy, a restart at the Indian Point nuclear power plant seems increasingly unlikely. Doing so would require unanimous approval from five entities, three of which — New York State, Westchester County and the Town of Cortlandt — have repeatedly voiced their opposition to nuclear power being produced there. (The other parties are the Village of Buchanan and the Hendrick Hudson school district.) As a result, five years after the plant powered down, the question of what will be built there — and when — remains unanswered. The question arose again at the June 18 meeting of the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board (DOB) when Matt Johnson of Holtec, the company decommissioning the plant, shared a schedule that listed 2041 as the goal for "partial site release." A full site release will require removing casks of spent nuclear fuel, but the federal government has not built a storage facility for them. Holtec had planned to release the grounds around a former training building, but discovered in 2024 that it was contaminated with cesium-137. Johnson said the company doesn't know when that release will happen. "I would say we're quite a bit away," he said. Legislators Call on Hochul to Sign Funding Bill Dana Levenberg, whose state Assembly district includes Philipstown, and state Sen. Pete Harckham this week called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill that would extend, for another five years, funding for school districts and municipalities that lose tax revenue when a local power plant shuts down. Levenberg and Harckham, whose districts include Indian Point, are members of the Decommissioning Oversight Board. Surrounded by kindergartners at Buchanan-Verplanck Elementary School on Tuesday (June 23), the legislators said that the Electric Generation Facility Cessation Fund had been a lifeline to the Hendrick Hudson school district after the closure of Indian Point. However, the fund is set to expire in 2028. "Closing Indian Point has made our communities safer, but it has also meant a big loss in tax dollars," said Levenberg. Their bill passed in the Senate, 60-1, with support from Rob Rolison, whose district includes Philipstown and Beacon, and in the Assembly, 131-0, with support from Levenberg and Jonathan Jacobson, whose district includes Beacon. At the December 2025 meeting of the Oversight Board, Hendrick Hudson Superintendent Michael Tromblee said that the 2021 shutdown resulted in the loss of nearly a third of the district's operating budget because of the loss of property taxes paid by the plant. He warned that without continued funding, the district would have to consider cuts such as eliminating sports or merging with another district. At the federal level, a bill known as the STRANDED Act (Sensible, Timely Relief for America's Nuclear Districts' Economic Development) would allow municipalities with nuclear plants to tax spent fuel stored on-site. Theresa Knickerbocker, the mayor of Buchanan, said at the June 18 meeting of the Oversight Board that, after years of negotiation, the STRANDED Act appears to be dead, but that Rep. Mike Lawler introduced a similar bill in March, the Economic Recovery for Nuclear-Affected Communities Act. "The communities that are being stranded with this spent fuel should be compensated for the storage of it," said Knickerbocker. "We never agreed to store the spent fuel. The original agreement, when the power plant went in, was not to store it, so this is on the Department of Energy." Emiljuana Ulaj, a Westchester County legislator who is a member of the Decommissioning Oversight Board, said she viewed "full decommissioning" as meaning "people can live here. Someone is able to have a garden. Is that possible?" Tom Congdon, the Oversight Board chair, cited a 2018 study by the Indian Point Closure Task Force (which he also chaired) that advised against building homes at Indian Point. The study also...

Hudson Valley Shakespeare debuts Scripps theater For the debut season of the Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center, named after a newspaper scion who lived in Rhinebeck and worked in the theater world as a lighting designer, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare is presenting a double dose from the Bard and a "special run" of Les Misérables. After previews, opening night for As You Like It was June 20, and King Lear got going on Monday (June 22). The productions run through mid-September, and the schedule begins mixing in Les Miz on Aug. 22. The company has come a long way from its first season at Manitoga when, according to lore, it rained, says artistic director Davis McCallum. They returned the next year at Boscobel under a tent, establishing a tradition that lasted 36 more summers but is now a thing of the past. "We're big on the 'Hudson Valley' part of our name," says McCallum. "Shakespeare's theater was outdoors, and we had to take advantage of the view." That vista inspired the 1809 painting "The Highlands-Hudson River," by James Renwick, one of the founders of the Cold Spring Foundry. The three plays represent "an interesting mix, including two greats from Shakespeare that start in court and unfold in the natural world," says McCallum. "In As You Like It, it's the Forest of Arden, and there's the Heath in King Lear. The river, the mountains and the greenery become part of the story." The Royal Shakespeare Company in London produced the original hit version of Les Misérables, which transferred to Broadway and is a staple of high school stages (Haldane presented it in March; the Beacon players did in 2023). Yet it's been at least a decade since the rightsholder granted a performance license to professional companies, due in part to the successful global tour of the concert version, says McCallum. "I wanted to do this since 2019, and director Jenn Thompson had a great approach," he says. "We petitioned them and, as the first in the cue, we got the go-ahead. It's such an epic canvas; our adaptation is Shakespearean in scale," and features 15 musicians. Despite a 28-year tenure with the troupe, Philipstown local Kurt Rhoads is tackling the intimidating role of King Lear for the first time as a pro at Hudson Valley Shakespeare. "He is the perfect actor on the perfect stage at the perfect time and has been training for a while," says McCallum. "These are banger scenes where actors must convey enormous power and emotional vulnerability," he says. "You have to be funny and terrifying as you're blasting out 40-line speeches at the top of your lungs. Many great classical actors shudder at the part." The work that benefits most from the stunning setting is As You Like It, which features five songs written for the show by Amanda Dehnert. "Some Shakespeare plays had lyrics, but no scores have survived," says McCallum. "We're creating a world inspired by the Gilded Age era and the Hudson River School of painting," he says. After bidding farewell to its seasonal tent, the company will still be exposed to the elements. "You can build an indoor theater anywhere," says McCallum. "Since the beginning, when it rained at Manitoga, being outside and using the setting has been an integral part of our heritage." Hudson Valley Shakespeare is located at 2015 Route 9 in Philipstown. For tickets, which range from $55 to $120, with discounts for seniors, students, children, teens and military, see hvshakespeare.org.

Author, performer will evoke jazz singer If any artist in history could have benefited from better public relations, Billie Holiday fits the bill. Maligned by the press and broadcast media during her lifetime, authors and film producers exploited her legacy after she drank herself to death in 1959 at age 44. To set the record straight about the beloved jazz singer, Paul Alexander, author of Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday's Last Year, will read from his book and interview Mala Waldron, Holiday's goddaughter, at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon on Sunday (June 28). Waldron will also sing while accompanying herself on piano. Local author Eva Salzman produced the event, titled Billie & Banter: Billie Holiday Songs and Stories. Waldron and Alexander teamed up for the first time after she appeared at a symposium in New York City about Holiday's life that Alexander organized in 2024 at Hunter College, where he teaches. "It bothered me that all of the biographies are filled with bogus facts," Alexander says. "She made it hard on historians by making up a lot of things about her past, but there's a larger false narrative out there." The project is part of a growing reclamation effort. Alexander points to a permanent public artwork commissioned by New York City — an "inspirational abstract image" that will be unveiled at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Queens, where Holiday lived for many years. After the singer added controversial material to her repertoire, such as the anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit" in 1939, and got hooked on heroin in the 1940s, local and federal law enforcement hounded her. While Holiday lay in her hospital deathbed, Bureau of Narcotics agents handcuffed her to the rail. Sometimes, tragedy turned into triumph: In 1948, less than two weeks after her early release from a year-and-a-day federal prison sentence, she sold out Carnegie Hall. "The media came after her, and the government came after her, and she lost her cabaret card," says Waldron, the daughter of Holiday's final pianist, Mal Waldron. Until 1967, performers needed a New York City Cabaret Identification Card to play in venues that served alcohol. "Billie got such harsh treatment because she was a Black woman with other stigmas," she says. Surrounded by musicians since her childhood, Waldron has lived the jazz life. She will bring a longtime collaborator, bassist Christopher Dean Sullivan, with her to the Howland. Because she was just a year old when Holiday — born Eleanora Fagan and known as "Lady Day" — died in 1959, Waldron's knowledge is secondhand. "I heard all these stories from my father and people who knew her," she says. Holiday co-wrote several jazz standards, Alexander notes, including "God Bless the Child" (with Arthur Herz), "Lady Sings the Blues" (Herbie Nichols) and "Left Alone" (Mal Waldron). On her own, she penned "Tell Me More and More," three blues songs and "Fine and Mellow," the B-side of "Strange Fruit." "She taught Frank Sinatra how to bend notes, and her voice — there's nothing like it in all of music," Alexander says. "Even Ariana Grande, the best imitator I've ever heard, can't copy her. Holiday introduced a vernacular, conversational style that changed the direction of American music." The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. Tickets for Billie & Banter, which begins at 4 p.m., are $20 at dub.sh/billie-banter, or $25 at the door.

Dutchess, Putnam faced funding shortages More funding is on the way for families who were turned away for childcare assistance when Putnam and Dutchess counties suspended their programs last summer. Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers agreed last month to provide $2.4 billion in the 2026-27 budget for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), a 40 percent increase. It also includes $630 million in supplemental funds for 2025-26. Demand for the program, which covers most of a family's childcare costs, skyrocketed when the state began allowing people with higher incomes to qualify. Income limits now range from $79,215 annually for a two-person family to $153,770 for a six-person household. Most families that qualify will pay no more than $15 per week as their share, according to the state. By September, when Dutchess and Putnam stopped taking applications, there were 1,079 children enrolled in Dutchess, compared to 706 in January 2020, according to the state Office of Children and Family Services. Putnam also experienced a significant increase — from 30 children to 118 — during the period. Dutchess, which received $12.7 million in base funding for CCAP in 2025-26, resumed taking applications on March 1 (see dub.sh/dutchess-child). Putnam, which was sent $1.1 million, still has a notice on the Department of Social Services webpage about the earlier hold on new applications. Hochul and state legislators "appear to have fully funded CCAP," said Himali Pandya, executive director of the Child Care Council of Dutchess and Putnam, but "the jury's still out" on whether $2.4 billion will be enough. Along with more money for CCAP, the budget includes funding for school districts to expand pre-K programs for 4-year-olds and $20 million for a pilot program in Dutchess County to provide childcare for 1,000 infants and children up to age 3. Dutchess, chosen along with Broome and Monroe counties for pilots, is considered a childcare "desert" — meaning it has more than 3 children under 5 years old for each childcare spot. In January, Hochul visited the Day One Early Learning Community in Poughkeepsie to announce that the pilot funding would be in her budget proposal. Founded in 2021, the nonprofit's primary initiative is an 11-week paid program for people who want to work at daycares, open their own or apply their credentials toward associate degrees at Dutchess Community College or Columbia-Greene Community College. Of Day One's 129 graduates, 86 percent are working in childcare, said Madeline Henriquez, its executive director. Day One also operates an 89-seat, five-classroom early-learning center, hosts groups for parents and provides technical assistance to people who want to open childcare centers or home-based programs. It is partnering with Hudson River Housing and Vassar Brothers Medical Center to renovate two houses that will become the county's first 24/7 childcare programs. There is one glaring shortfall in New York's childcare spending: funding to supplement the pay of the educators who are often paid only minimum wage, which is $16 in Dutchess, Putnam and the rest of upstate. The state Senate proposed $500 million in grants to supplement childcare workers' pay, but the proposal failed to make the budget. That leaves the status quo intact for students pursuing degrees in early childhood education at schools like Dutchess Community College, said Pandya. "Kids go through it, and then they go work at Amazon because they can make more money," she said. "Unless we can pay educators what they deserve, we're just not going to be able to retain them."

Each month, writers gather for feedback at Script Lab Laurie Slattery, who discovered Savage Wonder's Script Lab online and appreciated the nonprofit's focus on veterans, showed up for the first time at a workshop last month. Her grandfather stormed Iwo Jima with the Marines, and her nephew served in Iraq. "I wrote some poetry and a script that I had to retrieve from an old computer," she says. After moving to Beacon three years ago, "it took me a while to get my nerve up, but I need some enlightenment and to be around creative people." During the three-hour session, Slattery observed as the group read, then mildly critiqued several script excerpts. Suggestions are delivered with a positive spirit; nothing gets carved up. Francis Kielbe, who had made revisions based on feedback from the previous Script Lab meeting, listened to "Version 2.0" of his screenplay about depressed monsters attending an AA-style gathering. Rob Barron, a regular who teaches theater at The City College of New York, suggested that Kielbe consider "character directions. Do you want the vampire to be like Bela Lugosi or some frat boy? What kind of zombie are you looking for?" Topher Kage, an actor, writer, Army veteran and director of experience at Savage Wonder, plays a genial and gentle host who asks writers, "What do you want to get out of this?" Most come to hear the dialogue outside of their heads. Lauren O'Brien, who created the one-woman Lolo's Boyfriend Show, is writing a TV pilot. "Early in the process, it's hard to tell what you have. Does it hit with people? Is it confusing?" she asks. "The lab helps you see what works and what doesn't work. I'm ready to feel it." O'Brien, who lives in Beacon, heard buzz about the gathering and decided to take the plunge. "I'm a sensitive artist, but we always need feedback," she says. As Kage read the opening scene at a frantic pace, O'Brien pressed play on a phone soundtrack as her alter ego darted around Manhattan, chased by a mystery man wearing expensive shoes. As much as the creators enjoy hearing people read their work, several attendees show up to bring the scripts alive. Cold and semi-cold readings notwithstanding, volunteers keep things moving. Animating one of Barron's scenes, Beacon resident Lily Cabe played a waitress with aplomb, supporting O'Brien and Ted Swindley, author of Always … Patsy Cline, who poured on the smarm as a rogue substance abuser with three ex-wives and a prison bid on his resume. Swindley also dug into his role as an air traffic controller in Kage's script, a 10-minute play presented with authentic sound effects. "I like to work the acting muscle," says Swindley, who also provides advice. Time limits for individual works are loose, but everyone gets an equitable shot depending on the work's length and merit. Kielbe's monster mash lasted four pages; others are more elaborate. "We get excellent feedback from skilled people, and I'm honored to get the attention," says O'Brien. "This vortex of creativity and sharing with others is like being close to God. I feel like I'm part of something." Script Lab is held at 6 p.m. for writers ages 21 and older on the first Wednesday of each month at Savage Wonder, 141 Main St., in Beacon. The next sessions are July 1 and Aug. 5. See dub.sh/script-lab.

Will face Lawler, Rolison in November election After a months-long race that initially had eight contenders, Cait Conley won the Democratic nomination for House District 17, which includes Philipstown, with 49 percent of the unofficial vote. The turnout was 22 percent. Conley, who received 53 percent of the vote in Dutchess County and 57 percent in Putnam, now turns to face Mike Lawler, the Republican incumbent seeking his third term. District 17 is considered a toss-up, with either party able to claim the seat. During the campaign, Conley received the most high-profile endorsements (including from the Dutchess and Putnam Democratic Committees) and raised the most campaign funds ($3.3 million). The West Point graduate has master's degrees from Harvard and MIT, and she spent 16 years on active duty in the U.S. Army before directing counterterrorism for the National Security Council and joining the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Her chief challenger, Beth Davidson, a Rockland County legislator, received 31 percent of the vote. Davidson, who also spent two years on the Nyack school board, attacked Conley late in the campaign over security consulting work she has done for companies that Davidson said had ties to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Conley denied having done work to assist ICE. A third candidate, Effie Phillips-Staley, a Tarrytown village trustee, received 15 percent of the vote. Lawler took Phillips-Staley to court in an attempt to bump her from the Democratic primary, which would have prevented her from giving up the Working Families Party line on the November ballot to Conley, which she is expected to do to avoid splitting the progressive vote. John Cappello, an Air Force Academy graduate and retired bomber pilot, and Mike Sacks, a lawyer and journalist, each received 1.6 percent of the vote. Lawler, in a statement posted after the polls closed, said: "I look forward to contrasting my record as one of the most bipartisan and effective lawmakers in all of Congress with Cait's stated belief that Republicans are 'the greatest threat to America and our future' and an enemy from within. Frankly, that is disqualifying rhetoric for someone seeking to represent one of the most politically balanced and competitive districts in the country." He challenged Conley to agree to six televised debates, while echoing Davidson's contention that Conley had been "paid handsomely by AI and big tech companies that do business with ICE." Lawler has a campaign war chest of $4.4 million. Conley charged on Tuesday that Lawler has "voted 100 percent of the time with the MAGA agenda." There were no primaries for House District 18, which includes Beacon. Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat seeking a third 2-year term, is being challenged in the general election by Republican Jackie Auringer. Lisa Kaul, a Dutchess County legislator, easily won the Democratic primary with 62 percent of the vote to challenge Sen. Rob Rolison, a Republican seeking his third term representing District 39. She defeated Evan Menist, a member of the Poughkeepsie Common Council (30 percent) and Gay Lee, a former City of Newburgh council member (7 percent). The turnout was 17 percent. The district includes Philipstown and Beacon. Kaul won 67 percent of the vote in Dutchess County and 55 percent in Putnam. Rolison won the seat in 2022, defeating Julie Shiroishi, a Beacon resident who was then chief of staff to Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, whose district includes Beacon. In 2024, Rolison defeated Dutchess County Legislator Yvette Valdés Smith, whose district includes part of Beacon. She now chairs the Legislature after Democrats flipped the majority in 2025. Kaul had $97,000 in campaign funds as of June 12, while Rolison reported $52,000. There were Republican primaries for two seats on the county Legislature. In District 3, which includes Kent and Patterson, Joseph Cunningham defeated Jorma Tompuri with 61 percent of the vote and will face t...

Editor's note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing. William Coggswell was charged with beating his brother, James, with a club at James' saloon on Main Street in Fishkill Landing. John Oderman, the cornet player for a brass band, badly injured his arm at the fulling mill inside a Glenham factory. Burglars carefully removed a light to reach inside a display at a hotel near the railroad depot and stole $20 [about $625 today] worth of liquor and cigars. John Ackerman, 8, caught a 1-pound catfish at Fishkill Landing with a hook and line. Edwin Jewell, proprietor of the Irving House at Fishkill Landing, announced that his bar would close on Sundays. George Owen, editor of The Fishkill Standard, purchased a building at Fishkill Landing for $10,000 [$310,000] at auction that had contained the dry-goods store of the late Charles Owen and the drugstore of Dr. Wilson. After the Watson Bridge Co. went bankrupt, work stopped on the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad bridge at Glenham. A horse and buggy stolen from a barn on Main Street in Fishkill Landing was found abandoned in Lagrangeville. Lewis Tompkins purchased the Beacon House, just west of the Dutchess Hat Works, to convert into a hotel and for short-term rentals. The Saratoga Express struck a man walking on the tracks near Fishkill Landing. A train employee was sent back to gather the remains and take them to Fishkill. According to the Newburgh Journal, a horse attached to a hay-rake on a farm near Fishkill took fright in the field and ran down the long avenue leading to a gentleman's home. The family, which was on the piazza, watched as the horse tore through two gates, across the railroad tracks and into a barnyard, where it made "a most serious commotion" among the ducks and chickens. The farmer's wife and a man followed in pursuit but only managed to divert its course around a corn crib and toward another farmhouse, where a man inside tried to close the door but was pinned against the wall as the horse charged through the kitchen, circled the stove and returned to the yard, where it was caught. Thomas Nolan, a New York City lawyer, wrote to W.C. Harris in Matteawan, demanding payment of an overdue invoice. Harris responded by asking whose invoice he would be paying, because he did not know Nolan. The lawyer sent a postcard that read: "I want no more requests from you, but if you will not at once pay the note into my office, I will sue." Harris replied with his own postcard that read: "I don't send money to anyone unless I know who they are. I should know, just from the tone of your communication, that you are a pettifogger." Nolan promptly sued Harris for $20,000 [$625,000] for libel, but Harris replied in court that a private postcard was not "publication," as required by the law. The Pilgrim Baptist Church in Matteawan hosted a strawberry festival. A neighbor saw a stranger hitching up a horse outside Mr. Stotesburgh's house in Matteawan on a Saturday night and asked if someone was sick. The man said that was the case, and he was going to find the doctor. The horse and wagon hadn't been seen since. During "Beacon Night" on WKBG, a Poughkeepsie-based radio station, Judge Thomas Hassett discussed the city's manufacturing output, including bricks and hats. In addition, the Beacon Imperial Orchestra performed "The Home Circle" and John Montague, a tenor from Beacon, sang "Dreaming Alone in the Twilight," which prompted hundreds of listeners to call the station requesting an encore. Robert Kent Jr. of Glenham, who had been arrested for driving without a license, claimed in court that Judge Hassett was "making an attempt to frame him through his henchmen in the motor vehicle bureau." About 4,000 delegates of the Archdiocesan Union of Holy Name Societies came to Beacon for its annual meeting. Following a smallpox outbreak in Cold Spring, state health inspectors found no cases in Beacon. One suspicious case was diagnosed as chicken pox. Mr. and Mrs. George...

Blame foreclosure on 'unhinged' acquaintance A Putnam County judge on Wednesday (June 17) denied an attempt by a couple who owned a dry cleaner on Route 9 in Philipstown to regain the property, which they said was lost to fraud. Judge Gina Capone upheld the foreclosure and eviction by MT&T Bank of Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur from 3154 Route 9, which from 1995 to early 2024 had been owned by Kim through Mary Dawn Inc. and was home to Nice & Neat Dry Cleaners, a nail salon and a residence she shared with her husband. Kim and Oeur, immigrants from Cambodia who also operated an outdoor restaurant and art gallery at the location, were evicted on Dec. 9, 2025, ending a foreclosure process that began in August 2022, after Kim stopped making payments on a $570,000 mortgage. Capone, who oversaw the case, ordered the foreclosure in February 2024. A bank subsidiary, Chesapeake Holding, paid $620,200 for the parcel at an auction in May 2024. Capone rejected Kim and Oeur's main contention — that they were victims of Derek Keith Williams, who met the couple when his girlfriend, Mauny Bun, ran the salon. Williams, who is facing fraud and grand larceny charges, convinced Kim that he had paid off the mortgage, according to court documents. Then, for the next few years, he hid the foreclosure by demanding that she "turn over any mail or paperwork relating to the property, Mary Dawn Inc., any court or any bank," said her attorney, Jacob Chen. Chen said the court "never acquired personal jurisdiction" over Kim because the process server identified the person he handed the original foreclosure documents to as a female Asian "coworker" of Kim's, with an estimated age of 45. Chen also said that Oeur should have been included as a party to the foreclosure proceeding because he lived at the property and managed the Khmer Art Gallery. In Capone's 31-page ruling, she said both Kim and Oeur were "wholly aware" of the foreclosure and the sale of the property well before they claimed to have learned of the eviction in November 2025. She cited appearances Kim made with Williams in Erie County Court when M&T sued in 2020 over the delinquent loan. She also said a handwritten complaint Kim filed in January 2025 against M&T with the Federal Reserve used the foreclosure case number. In addition, said Capone, the contention that Williams withheld mail about the foreclosure "is undermined by the fact that, according to Ms. Kim, Mr. Williams was not living at the subject premises, and present there on a day-to-day basis, until September 2023," a year after the bank initiated the proceeding. "One constant, according to the plaintiff, was that Ms. Kim and Mr. Williams acted in concert to prevent, hinder and interfere" with the bank's efforts to gain the property, said Capone. Kim says Williams is solely to blame. In a statement filed with the court, she said a personal loan used to rebuild the property after a fire destroyed it in 2005 had been taken over by M&T Bank when she met Williams through Bun in 2019. Kim said that Bun, whose mother she had known for over 30 years, "reminded me a lot of my daughter … and I put a lot of trust and faith in her." She decided to accept Williams' offer to buy the property for $1.2 million and transfer it to an entity called DKW Trust. "I had worked tirelessly for many, many years at that point," said Kim. "I was excited about the opportunity to take a break from working and to be able to give something to my grandchildren, and so I agreed." Williams requested access to Mary Dawn's bank account, provided Kim with "official-looking documents containing seals and stamps," and said he had paid off the mortgage and would let her live there while he "finalized" the trust, according to court documents. In addition to demanding that any mail related to courts and the bank be turned over to him, he also asked Kim to sign documents and submit filings without explaining what they were, and demanded access to her emails, according to court...

Women describe fear after January attack Police Chief Tom Figlia said this week that investigators have pored over "countless hours" of video as they try to identify the man who attacked a woman in Beacon five months ago. His comments revealed new details about an incident that many girls and women say has them living in fear. Police received a call from Dutchess County 911 on the morning of Jan. 14 to assist fire and emergency medical personnel with a report of an unconscious woman found near the intersection of Wolcott and Tioronda avenues. Figlia said it appeared to officers that the woman had been "seriously assaulted." Nearby Sargent Elementary School was placed on a lockout while officers searched the area. Police later told school officials that they believed the suspect had fled. The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was said at the time to be in stable condition at a local hospital. Police asked residents citywide to check doorbell or security cameras for footage of a white male wearing a black jacket or coat (not a puffy coat), a black knit hat and blue pants or jeans. The suspect was described as being in his 30s or 40s, about 5-foot-11, with a medium build and a "very close" brown beard. Breaking from protocol, Figlia issued updates in the weeks following the crime, explaining nuances of the investigation and addressing criticism that the department had not released enough information. "Crimes that appear to be sexually motivated, occurring in daylight hours, close to a busy street, where the perpetrator does not seem to be known to the victim, are rare to begin with," he said this week, confirming details that had previously been the subject of speculation. "That's one reason why it's rightly garnered so much concern from the public. I can't recall another incident like it in my time in the department," which he joined 20 years ago as a patrol officer. According to the department's 2024 annual report, the most recent available, Beacon police in 2022 responded to 21 reports of aggravated assault, defined as involving serious injury, use of a weapon or multiple perpetrators. Nine arrests were made. In 2023, there were 16 reports and 14 arrests. In 2024, there were 19 reports and 12 arrests. There was a rape reported in 2023, but no arrest was made. Most sexual assault cases are not solved by police, according to a study published in 2024 in the journal Trauma Violence Abuse, which found that only about 25 percent of reported sexual assaults over a 20-year period resulted in an arrest. Figlia said the department is waiting on responses to subpoenas for more video footage. Numerous items also have undergone DNA testing, and the police are working with outside agencies for assistance with digital forensic evidence. Nonetheless, every woman interviewed for this article said they remain fearful. Randi Keim, who travels into New York City several times a week, said she used to walk a 5-mile loop to the Metro-North station that took her near the area of the attack. "I have not done that walk since," she said. "I wouldn't walk it alone, even in daytime, now." Figlia advised that bulky headphones or other apparel that obstructs peripheral vision could make pedestrians vulnerable. "Being clear that you are looking around could be a deterrent," he said. Another resident, who asked not to be identified, said she, too, has changed her routine when taking the train. In the past, she walked home, sometimes late at night. Now, she schedules an Uber anytime her train arrives after sunset. Four other women, all mothers of teen daughters, declined to comment, even anonymously, for fear of saying something that could identify them or their children. Said one: "I don't even feel safe saying I feel unsafe."

Redevelopment of state prisons proves challenging Two years after New York State selected Conifer Realty to construct a mixed-use campus with up to 1,300 apartments at the former Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, the company has yet to submit a proposal to the town's Planning Board. Two and a half miles away, redevelopment plans at another decommissioned state prison, the Beacon Correctional Facility, or Camp Beacon, have also stalled. An update from Empire State Development, New York's economic development agency, provides little clarity. A spokesperson for the agency said on June 5 that "ESD, Conifer and the Town of Fishkill continue to work collaboratively on the redevelopment of the Downstate Correctional Facility" — virtually the same statement it provided a year ago, when it said that "ESD continues to work with Conifer and the Town of Fishkill to finalize a site plan." The state announced in June 2024 that the Rochester-based Conifer would, over the course of a decade, convert the 80-acre former maximum-security prison into a campus with as many as 1,300 housing units. Construction of 375 units, at least 20 percent of them "permanently affordable" for households earning less than 80 percent of the area's annual median income, was expected to begin by January 2026. Fishkill Supervisor Ozzy Albra, who criticized the plans as a "bad deal for the taxpayers," said a year ago that he had negotiated ESD and Conifer down to 1,100 units. He said this week that, while he believes local schools, including Glenham Elementary, which is part of the Beacon City School District, will be able to absorb the students generated by the development, traffic will be a critical issue. That has guided continued negotiations, he said, with his goal to get the unit count "well below 700." Albra said he has made a number of additional requests, including a split between homes for sale and rental units and for the project to include more one-bedroom apartments. The state's announcement, framed as part of Gov. Kathy Hochul's plan to build 15,000 homes and apartments to address a statewide housing crisis, said the site would include two-story duplexes and triplexes, with at least 25 percent of units having three bedrooms. Albra has also asked New York State to commit to connecting the property to the Dutchess Park and Rombout sewer districts and to extend water infrastructure to the surrounding area. Last year, Conifer said it would limit construction to 2½-story buildings because the nearest fire department, in Glenham, does not have a ladder truck. A spokesperson said this week that the company continues to "work collaboratively" with stakeholders, but there are "no major updates to report." The representative did not respond when asked about a timeline for a submission to the Planning Board. Albra said he has no insight into timing, either, but suggested the project has slowed because "we did our homework to protect the residents of Fishkill." Meanwhile, the state has twice asked for proposals — and once awarded development rights — at Camp Beacon, yet the 39-acre property, with 22 buildings hidden beyond Beacon High School and the city's Highway Garage, has remained seemingly untouched since the women's prison closed in 2013. New York State asked for proposals in 2014 but received only one: from the New York City-based Doe Fund, which proposed creating a farming and job-training center to help homeless and low-income people seek employment and self-sufficiency. The nonprofit withdrew its proposal in 2017 after local officials — including Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino, then a state senator — asked then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reject the plan because it was "inconsistent with the site's mixed-use, recreational and destination development potential." After seeking a second round of proposals, in 2019 Empire State Development selected Urban Green Food, also based in New York City. The organization said it planned to build a hotel ...

Reliability concerns keep power plant open, for now Danskammer Energy, which runs a gas-fired plant on the Hudson River in the Town of Newburgh that operates only during peak demand, and which the company hoped to convert to full-time operation, filed for bankruptcy on June 10. The Chapter 11 petition, filed in Delaware, says the company owes creditors $13 million, including $11.8 million to the New York Independent System Operator, which manages the state power grid, and $760,000 in property taxes to Orange County. Danskammer did not respond to requests for comment. The filing comes five months after the company requested permission from NYISO to close the plant, which typically operates for only 5 to 10 days a year during heat waves. In response, NYISO said the plant must remain available until at least August and possibly January, in part due to concerns that the state lacks sufficient emissions-free energy sources to replace aging fossil-fuel plants. It also cited "demand forecasts based on expected weather, expected generator availability, transmission limitations and risks associated with the availability of key future planned projects." The latter refers to an executive order, signed by President Donald Trump on the first day of his return to office, that halted the permitting process for offshore wind projects. After a court ruled that the order was illegal, the administration adopted a different strategy. On Wednesday (June 17), Invenergy announced that the administration would pay $765 million for it to abandon four wind projects, including one that would have delivered at least 2 gigawatts to New York and New Jersey. NYISO does have wiggle room. Earlier this week, New York State announced the completion of the 339-mile Champlain-Hudson Power Express, a transmission line between Canada and New York City that passes the Highlands beneath the Hudson River. In addition, the state dropped plans to close two barge-mounted peaker plants that provide up to 608 megawatts to New York City. In 2018, Danskammer said it would renovate the Newburgh plant for continuous operation, but community pushback led to a lengthy legal battle. In 2021, the state denied the plant the clean-air permit it would need to proceed, arguing that upgrading the plant would violate the state's newly enacted Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. It was during this time that Scenic Hudson released its own proposal for large-scale battery storage at the site to bring more renewable energy to the Hudson Valley. "We would love to see the dirty gas power plant get replaced with something that generates jobs and tax revenue for the town without also emitting pollution," said Stephen Ballentine of Scenic Hudson. The bankruptcy filing, as well as the state's recent relaxation of many of its climate targets as part of the 2026-27 budget, could open the door for another company to take over Danskammer and operate year-round. "I would imagine that it's still permissible for courts to reject applications based on CLCPA incompatibility, but we'll have to see how this changes things," said Ballentine. "That's part of the reason we were disappointed to see the rollback to the CLCPA."

Passes Highlands on way to NYC New York State announced on Tuesday (June 16) that a 339-mile transmission line that carries hydroelectricity from Canada to New York City has been completed. The line passes the Highlands under the Hudson River. The state said the 1,250-megawatt Champlain Hudson Power Express will deliver 10.4 terawatt-hours of renewable energy and provide up to 20 percent of New York City's power needs. The $6 billion project will help replace some of the power lost when the Indian Point nuclear plant, on the river near Peekskill, closed in 2021. The shuttered plant overlooks the route of the transmission line, which is buried in the river for 68 miles between Greene and Rockland counties. By 2040, it is expected to reduce the state's carbon emissions by 37 million metric tons. Hydro-Quebec, a Canadian hydropower company, partnered with Transmission Developers Inc., owned by the investment giant Blackstone, to build the line. Under a 25-year contract with the state, Hydro-Quebec will deliver electricity from a substation in Québec to an interconnection point in the Richelieu River at the Canadian border. The U.S. portion of the line begins under Lake Champlain in Clinton County and passes through 15 counties, 60 towns and 60 school districts, including Beacon's. It includes 146 miles of underground cable and 193 miles of underwater cable in Lake Champlain, the Hudson and the Harlem River and connects to New York City's grid in Astoria, Queens. According to Transmission Developers, the cable under the Hudson bypassed a section of river contaminated by General Electric that underwent a clean-up overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency, and a section of Haverstraw Bay that is a fish breeding and spawning habitat. The company said the machine used to carve trenches in the riverbed did not disperse large amounts of sediment. Transmission Developers estimates that the line will save ratepayers $17.3 billion over 30 years and provide $1.4 billion in tax revenue over 25 years. Although some counties provided tax breaks, public opposition in Dutchess prompted Transmission Developers in July 2022 to withdraw its request for $105.5 million in tax breaks over 30 years, plus exemptions for $13.6 million in sales taxes and $1.3 million in mortgage taxes. The company is expected to apply again.

Grigoroff faces third trial for 2008 shooting A Putnam County judge on Tuesday (June 16) granted a request from a former Lake Peekskill man to be released on bail while he prepares for a third trial in the 2008 killing of Philipstown resident John Marcinak. Over the objections of Putnam District Attorney Robert Tendy, Judge Joseph Spofford set bail for Anthony Grigoroff at $300,000 bond. Grigoroff agreed to wear an ankle monitor; only leave the house in Ossining, where he will be staying, for legal and medical appointments; and to call Putnam's Probation Department at least twice a week. With those conditions, Grigoroff will be free for the first time since June 2009, when Putnam County sheriff's deputies arrested and charged him in the shooting death of Marcinak at his Garrison Garage on Route 9 on Dec. 31, 2008. Relying largely on a confession that Grigoroff alleges was made under duress, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder in 2010, and found him guilty again in 2017 after an appeals court overturned the first verdict. In 2025, the same appeals court overturned the second conviction and ordered a new trial. Grigoroff was transferred in January from Sing Sing to the Putnam County jail, where he has been held since Spofford denied his initial bail request. Jury selection for the third retrial is scheduled to begin Oct. 14. "We're very pleased that he's going to be released and can help prepare for the trial," said Bruce Barket, one of Grigoroff's attorneys. "Him getting an acquittal is all we're focused on." Tendy argued against bail, saying that Grigoroff again faces a sentence of 25 years to life if convicted, and "life is an incentive to flee." Tendy also said he intends to seek a DNA sample from Byron Mountain, a friend of Grigoroff's at the time of the killing, so it can be compared to DNA found on Marcinak's clothing. According to Grigoroff's confession, he drove with his brother and Mountain to the garage so they could steal a few hundred dollars to party in Manhattan. He insisted that it was Mountain who shot Marcinak while he waited in the car, and Erick served as a lookout. He also alleges that investigators convinced him to falsely confess during a 12-hour interrogation by promising leniency. Both Erick Gringoroff and Mountain were questioned by investigators but claimed they were elsewhere at the time of the killing. DNA did not factor into the two previous trials, but parts of Marcinak's clothing were tested for genetic material in 2009, said Tendy. While preparing for the new trial, his office "worked with law enforcement and the laboratory to determine whether more testing could be done" and requested additional tests, he said. If Tendy also seeks DNA from Grigoroff, he would "readily consent," said Barket, "because we know it's not his." Another key to the case, said Barket, would be to find cellphone records that were supposed to have been analyzed during the initial investigation but were allegedly never turned over to prosecutors or defense attorneys. If they exist, that could add another twist in the case revived, ironically, on New Year's Eve 2025, when the state Appellate Division overturned Grigoroff's second conviction. The appeals judges found that Edward McLoughlin, a Dutchess judge who had been assigned the case, deprived Grigoroff of a fair trial by limiting testimony from an expert witness who determined that Grigoroff "is more vulnerable than the average person to falsely confessing." That expert wanted to cite research from the Innocence Project, which at the time found that 25 percent of people exonerated through DNA had confessed, along with another study by the University of Michigan Law School on the prevalence of false confessions, particularly by people with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses. But McLoughlin "improperly concluded that those studies were not relevant to the defendant and the interrogation" because Grigoroff's case did not involve DNA and despite Grig...

Philipstown to begin billing for water usage Philipstown moved forward on Wednesday (June 10) with replacing broken meters installed at the homes and businesses supplied by the Garrison Landing Water District. A resolution approved by the board authorizes the town to solicit bids for the purchase and installation of 30 meters. The previous ones failed in 1999 after the source "went from a ground/surface-fed system to a well-fed system" and the pressure increased, according to Supervisor John Van Tassel. Philipstown officials said the town did not have the funds to buy new meters until the board last year authorized borrowing $500,000 to cover capital upgrades. To begin repaying the loan, the town this year added a $2,500 levy to the tax bills of the water district's users. Once the meters are installed, the town will calculate a per-gallon usage fee, Van Tassel said. "We want to fairly charge people for the water that they're using, so you will be metered just like you are in the Village of Cold Spring," he said. A state audit released in May 2025 calculated that Philipstown spent $2.4 million between 2018 and 2023 to truck in water for Garrison Landing's, shrinking its general-fund balance from $1 million to $53,137. Annual expenses for the district rose during the same period from about $85,000 to $975,000, "the most significant factor of the town's financial decline," the audit said. Kiko Lattu, director of the Philipstown Food Pantry at First Presbyterian Church, said the first quarter is normally its slowest period, but from January to March, it saw a 41 percent uptick in visits compared to the same period in 2025. A handful of new people began using the pantry, which distributes food from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturdays, after the Meals on Main mobile food pantry operated by Cornell Cooperative Extension Putnam County shut down, said Lattu. The mobile pantry had delivered free produce weekly to the Chestnut Ridge Apartments and Philipstown Friendship Center in Cold Spring, and the Brookside Senior Citizen Co-op in Philipstown before it ran out of funding. (In May, the Regional Food Bank Hudson Valley added a monthly mobile stop at Brookside.) "Many pantry guests visit frequently, even weekly, indicating ongoing, not temporary, food insecurity," said Lattu. "For food-insecure households, especially seniors and single-family or single-parent families, any disruption can cause a chain reaction." The board approved a resolution to allow a memorial garden with a plaque and benches to be installed in a southwest area of the town park at Glassbury Court by the Nicole Ettere Memorial Gardens Foundation, which supports the families of people who have committed suicide. "It's a beautiful area; it's a beautiful spot," said Van Tassel. Lucille Ettere co-founded the nonprofit with her husband, Roy Ettere, after the death of their daughter, Nicole. During a Town Board meeting in March, she said the gardens they have installed in other municipalities, including the Putnam Trailway in Carmel, are meant to be a "serene space" for families "to visit and honor and remember their loved ones." The board agreed to have the town administer a grant the Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce is pursuing to expand the town's residential food-scrap recycling program to include businesses. Jeff Mikkelson, advocacy chair for the chamber and a member of the town's Climate Smart Task Force, said a $6,000 grant from Williams College enabled a startup commercial program that launched this year with the Cold Spring Farmers' Market, The Garrison on Route 9, the Garrison Institute, the Haldane school district and Marbled Meat. He told the board in April that a larger grant — $10,000 to $30,000 — was available through the office of Assembly Member Dana Levenberg, whose district includes Philipstown. The board also voted to support a grant application by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference to state parks. If successful, the conference will use the grant t...

Voltpost addresses EV charging station safety At the Wednesday (June 10) meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board, James Everley, a representative of Voltpost, the company contracted to install an electric vehicle charging station in the village-owned parking lot on New Street, addressed concerns raised about flooding, electrocution and fires. The Voltpost system includes a dual-charging unit mounted 10 feet off the ground on a wooden pole. When a driver activates the system using a QR code, a 25-foot cable lowers from the unit and retracts when charging is complete. Intense storms have historically caused flooding in the lower village. When Mayor Kathleen Foley pointed out that a number of sources can cause electrification of flood waters when houses are inundated, Everley responded, "Yes but our charger is very unlikely to be one of them." He emphasized that the charging unit will be mounted at a height of 10 feet, well above any flood waters, and that it will be powered by an overhead cable. John Pavlik, a resident of the lower village, asked about potential hazards caused by flood waters reaching as high as the charging port in a vehicle. "Electrocution has always been the main fear when people talk about batteries, so the engineering that has gone into safety is incredibly high," Everley said. "If there were a flood, either the vehicle and/or the charger would turn itself off." He added that Voltpost's unit has been certified by Underwriters Laboratories, which he described as "not an easy feat and a very rigorous process." UL certification is an independent safety verification that ensures products have been rigorously tested and meet national and international safety standards. Everley said that, in his 11 years in the industry, he has never heard of a fire at an EV charging station. He said that while gas-powered vehicles average 1,500 fires per 100,000 vehicles sold, EVs have 25 fires per 100,000 vehicles sold. "The only time you're likely to see a battery fire would be as the result of an accident, the same as a gas car," he said. Paul Thompson, who lives on New Street, said he had no concerns. "I'm just very satisfied as to the safety of this charging supply equipment," he said. The cost of the charging station, including hardware, installation, operations, software, driver support and maintenance, will be covered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Hudson House Inn leases the parking lot from the village for its guests and has agreed to the installation. Although Cold Spring's reservoirs have been providing residents with drinking for nearly 100 years, the village must apply to the state Department of Environmental Conservation for a permit to draw water from them. "We've been drawing water from our reservoirs since 1929 and have never had a permit; we've never been asked to apply for one," Foley said, noting the situation is not a violation and that the village will provide an annual report to the DEC summarizing water usage. Hahn Engineering will assist the village in acquiring the state permit. The situation may have come about because the reservoirs were established decades before the DEC was created in 1970. The board approved a $5,000 payment to LaBella Associates of Glens Falls for grant-writing services to assist the village with its application to the DEC Water Quality Improvement Program, which funds land acquisition for surface water protection. The application is part of multimillion-dollar repairs to the upper reservoir dam in North Highlands. Trustee Laura Bozzi said the grant application is "one of the last pieces of protecting the reservoir," will be in the $1 million range, and is highly technical. Foley pointed out that the state doesn't open Consolidated Funding Applications, including funding for WQIP, until June, with a deadline at the end of July. "We want to make sure that we land this grant," she said. The board also approved paying $11,950 to Tecton...

Gen. George Washington returned to New York City from a visit to Philadelphia to consult with the Continental Congress. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution to Congress: "Resolved, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Concerned about the strength of Loyalist sentiment, the provincial congress in New York advised its delegates in Philadelphia to abstain from voting on the resolution, which was tabled until July 2. On June 28, a five-man drafting committee in Philadelphia asked Thomas Jefferson to present the Declaration of Independence for debate. It was read aloud and tabled. On June 30, British Maj. Gen. William Howe and his 9,000 troops began disembarking on Staten Island. The case against Fanny Hay, 8, accused of stealing a breast pin from Mrs. Butterfass, was dismissed by Justice Coe because he felt the girl did not understand the nature of an oath. The Cold Spring Recorder's editor called it "a sad commentary on our Christian institutions that this child did not know how to read, was ignorant of the sin of and the penalty for lying or stealing; had not been taught that there was any future state, that she had an immortal soul; or that there was a Supreme Ruler, the source of all things and the judge of mankind!" A new street near the depot, Railroad Avenue, was completed; Stone Street was furnished with a paved gutter on its west side; and a "great improvement" was made to Kemble Avenue on the slope south of the Rock Street corner. The Recorder editor noted complaints about a Putnam Valley man who, once or twice a week, left his team of horses in the heat near the post office for hours without food or drink. James Finnin of Garden Street was working in the boiler shop at the West Point Foundry when a piece of steel from his hammer pierced an artery in his left wrist. The bleeding was stopped with difficulty by compression with a handkerchief. Assisted by a comrade, Finnin walked to Dr. Murdock's office on Fair Street. A company of Republicans visited Philipstown on a Saturday night to congratulate Rep. William Wheeler, who had been nominated to be the vice-presidential candidate alongside Rutherford Hayes in the 1876 election. Wheeler was staying with his brother-in-law, Henry Belcher, at Garrison's Landing. About 11 p.m. on a Saturday, an intoxicated laborer, said to be employed at the Garrison quarry, stumbled down Main Street. He was warned that the dock was unlit and dangerous, but several bystanders soon heard the splash. Jerry Delany jumped in after him, and a boat was rowed to the rescue. Because the cadets would be in Philadelphia for the Fourth of July centennial, the West Point fireworks were shot off on a Wednesday night in mid-June. Soon after 1 p.m. on a Monday, four young men marched up Main Street wearing what appeared to be baseball uniforms with knapsacks and tin drinking cups. "No one seemed to know where they came nor what place was their destination," The Recorder observed. Three young men from a New York canoe club drew a crowd when they stopped at the wharf on a Sunday afternoon wearing strange outfits. They left at 7 p.m., saying they planned to travel to Poughkeepsie, about 22 miles. The trip took longer than expected, as the Poughkeepsie News reported the men didn't arrive until Monday night and immediately booked hotel rooms. Workers excavated the rocky ground near the District 3 schoolhouse to install a much-needed outhouse. The flagging stones arrived for an "experimental" sidewalk between Kemble Avenue and Furnace Street. The Recorder said a newly constructed railroad fence that followed the rocks and curves "reminds one of the Great Wall of China." At 10 a.m. on a Friday morning, a crowd on Market Street armed with sticks, stones ...

Five Democrats compete to face Lawler A lot has changed since the November 2024 general election, when Republican Mike Lawler defeated Democrat Mondaire Jones to win a second, 2-year term representing U.S. House District 17, which includes Philipstown. The Democratic president, Joe Biden, was unpopular, a regular gallon of gas in New York state averaged $3.09, inflation stood at 2.7 percent and 39,000 people were being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nearly two-thirds of them arrested at the borders with Canada and Mexico. Less than two years later, Republican Donald Trump is the unpopular president, a regular gallon of gas averages $4.38, inflation hit 4.2 percent and 60,000 people were being held by ICE as of April, 85 percent of them arrested at their homes and workplaces, on the street and during routine check-ins with the agency. A Marist poll released in May found that more than half of 1,322 adults surveyed rated their cost of living as "not very affordable" (44 percent) or "not affordable at all" (12 percent); 63 percent did not believe the economy benefited them; and 81 percent felt either a "major" strain on their household budget (33 percent) or a "minor" one (48 percent). Trump's unpopularity, higher gas prices and other costs, and the unpopularity of the conflict with Iran and the president's immigration crackdown are some of the factors bolstering five Democrats competing in a June 23 primary to take on Lawler in November. The district is one of the most scrutinized in the country amid the Democratic Party's efforts to flip the House to its control. The Republicans have a 218-212 majority, with four seats vacant and one independent. Cait Conley has received high-profile endorsements and raised the most campaign funds. A graduate of West Point who earned master's degrees from Harvard and MIT, she spent 16 years on active duty in the U.S. Army before directing counterterrorism for the National Security Council and joining the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Both the Dutchess and Putnam Democratic Committees have endorsed her. Beth Davidson has also received notable endorsements, including from the Rockland Democratic Committee, where she is a county Legislator. Davidson, whose fundraising totals are only bested by Conley's, spent two years on the Nyack school board and has held board seats on local organizations such as Leadership Rockland and the Children's Shakespeare Theatre. A third candidate, Effie Phillips-Staley, is serving her third term as a Tarrytown village trustee. She has also held roles as vice president of strategic advancement at the Hispanic Federation in New York City, where she led a fundraising effort that netted more than $30 million for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria; executive director of the Foundation for the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns; and director of capital and institutional advancement for The Kitchen, an art space in the city. Questions for Candidates Ahead of the Democratic primary on June 23, we gave each candidate 500 words to answer three questions. Their responses are posted at highlandscurrent.org/house-primary-17. John Cappello and Mike Sacks are the final two candidates. Cappello is an Air Force Academy graduate and bomber pilot who retired from the service and is president of the Halyard Mission Foundation, which commemorates the rescue of more than 500 U.S. airmen from Serbia during World War II. Sacks is a lawyer and journalist who covered law and politics for the MeidasTouch media network and Fox 5 in New York City, where he won an Emmy for his coverage of the protests following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. There have been four polls, but each was commissioned by a candidate or supporter, surveyed a relatively small sample and found large swaths of likely voters undecided. VoteVets, a political action committee backing Conley, commissioned a poll of 500 people in May showing he...

Three hopefuls vie for Democratic line Beacon and Philipstown have not been represented by a Democratic state senator since 2015, and the party hopes this year to flip the seat, held by Rob Rolison, a Republican seeking his third 2-year term. First, there will be a primary on June 23 to decide which of three Democratic candidates will challenge him in November: Lisa Kaul, a Dutchess County legislator; Gay Lee, a former City of Newburgh council member; or Evan Menist, a member of the Poughkeepsie Common Council. Sue Serino, now the Dutchess County executive, represented Beacon and Philipstown in the state Senate for three terms. She took office in 2015 after defeating Terry Gipson, a Democrat who served one term. Rolison won the seat in 2022, defeating Julie Shiroishi, a Beacon resident who was then chief of staff to Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, whose district includes Beacon. In 2024, Rolison defeated Dutchess County Legislator Yvette Valdés Smith, whose district includes part of Beacon. She now chairs the Legislature after Democrats flipped the majority in 2025. Kaul is a native of India and Rhodes Scholar who moved to the U.S. in 2004. She spent five years as an administrator at Vassar College and served on the Arlington school board before defeating Republican Marc Pfeifer in 2023 to win a seat in the Legislature representing part of the Town of Poughkeepsie. She ran unopposed in 2025 for her second term and chairs the Environment Committee. Lee served for four years on the Newburgh City Council. She is a longtime clinical social worker and therapist with a private practice whose career includes stints with nonprofits that provide services to people who are homeless and have mental illnesses. She previously ran for the state Senate seat in 2014. Questions for Candidates Ahead of the Democratic primary on June 23, we gave each candidate 500 words to answer three questions. The responses are posted at highlandscurrent.org/senate-primary-39. Menist holds a master's degree in public administration from Marist University, where he played on and coached the men's rugby team. His resume includes working as a planner and researcher for Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, a policy organization based in the City of Newburgh, as a staffer for former state Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick and as assistant deputy county executive for Ulster County. He first won election to the Common Council in 2019 and is now in his fourth 2-year term. He also works as co-executive director of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, which produces fruits and vegetables for purchase and donation and educates farmers. Kaul has earned endorsements from the Dutchess County and Beacon Democratic Committees, and Menist from the Working Families Party. The Putnam Democratic Committee did not endorse a candidate; Jennifer Colamonico, its chair said the representatives from the two towns in District 39, including Philipstown, considered both Kaul and Menist to be "outstanding candidates." As of May 29, Kaul had $227,000 on hand and Menist, $133,000. Lee has not filed campaign finance reports. Rolison reported having $7,000 on hand. As of Wednesday (June 10), Kaul has received $268,479 from the state's Public Campaign Finance Board, which matches small donations, and Menist, $234,017. Rolison has received $160,219.

From the Depression to the iPhone When Mary Williams forgets something important about one of her countless life stories, it isn't a problem: She consults her laptop. Born on May 13, 1926, she's been writing detailed accounts of her life for at least 80 years, from surviving hurricanes and losing her hair on a drill press, to working as an operator for AT&T ("Ma Bell") and traveling the world. She moved to Cold Spring 10 years ago to be closer to her daughter, Galelyn Williams, who lives in the village. She grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, during the Depression and remembers the era vividly. "I was kind of a naughty child," she said, recalling that she started smoking at age 11. "No one had any money, but it was OK because families were more tribal, people were more connected and helped each other out," she recalled. "There wasn't a lot of envy, because no one had anything. Everybody was about the same." Jobs were scarce. Her father worked for the Works Progress Administration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's employment and infrastructure program. Her mother was unable to work but volunteered at Pawtucket City Hall. "We ate hot dogs and whatever we could get ahold of," Williams said, adding that her mom "wasn't much of a cook" but did occasionally prepare a leg of lamb, which at 10 to 15 cents a pound was cheaper than beef or pork. "Everybody was poor — some were dirt poor — but we managed," she said. Their rent was covered by a form of welfare. In 1936, a hurricane devastated the area, killing 600 people, especially close to shore. "It was a bugger; there were no warnings back then," Williams said. "On one little island, the waves wiped all the houses right off the map." She attended a strict Catholic grade school, "an education of thou shall nots." As a teen, she moved to nearby Oakland Beach, where roller skating was the popular entertainment. She and her friends sometimes scraped barnacles off the bottom of rowboats to earn enough to cover the 30-cent entrance fee. "We stayed friends all our lives," she said. Williams remembers skating to her favorite song, the Glenn Miller Orchestra performing "In the Mood." "There was so much good music, couples always had 'their song,' " she said. "It was romantic, gentle music and easy to skate to." She had her first date, at age 15, at the roller rink, with a guy named Louie. "It was the first time a guy kissed me," she said, adding that Louie was quite upset when she told him she didn't like him. She quit school in 10th grade after her father fell ill to work and help her mother raise her younger brother. "My first job was at Sammy Salk's General Store," she said. "I worked six days a week for a total of $15. I could buy enough food with that." She knew many young men who went off to fight in World War II, not all of whom returned. "So many, so many," she recalled. The war meant factory work. "I had a bunch of jobs, including working on a drill press," she said. She once lost half of her hair when it caught in the press. She also worked in a shipyard and took on a second job at a soda fountain. While it was a difficult time to be a teenager, she remembers how the nation unified. "We were together as a country during World War II," she said. "But we've done nothing but fight wars since. That's all we do now, bomb people." Not one to mince words, she said she has "lived through 17 U.S. presidents and one stupid SOB." In 1946, she bought a 1938 Cadillac and a trailer and headed to the West Coast with a friend. "It was a pimp car, and it took us 13 days," she said with a laugh. She kept detailed notes along the 2,448 miles of Route 66 and described California as "America's best kept secret" at the time. Williams was working for AT&T in Rhode Island and transferred to California, staying with the company for 35 years as a telephone operator. She said operators sometimes listened in while couples engaged in phone sex. "We would listen, but if you were caught, the company would fir...

Filmmaker drew inspiration from Philipstown Lily Weisberg, a 26-year-old filmmaker from New York City, has been directing and producing films in Philipstown since she was a student at Yale. Rare Birds, her most recent short film, was inspired by the natural beauty and "inherent intimacy" of rural Putnam County, she says. She spent many summers in Garrison, riding Metro-North from the city to attend camps at The Depot Theater. Her parents moved to Philipstown while she was in college. Weisberg's 10-minute film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 5 and will be shown again today (June 12) and Saturday. "It's a festival I've dreamed about having a movie in as long as I've been making movies," she said. In the film, a serial klutz named Jerry (Tony Macht) risks losing his job at a local antique store. "He's like a bull in a China shop," Weisberg said, with a laugh. "He obviously should not be working in an antique store." Jerry is also a camp counselor, and one of the campers, 12-year-old Candice (Zoe Ziegler), is a frequent visitor. She is determined to get Jerry fired so the friends can spend more time together. Their relationship, says Weisberg, is "the kind that can only really exist in a small town. They're both these oddball characters, but they're united because they are similar and from the same place." The film was shot at Bowen Barn, a shop in Stanfordville, but Weisberg and her team scouted antique stores in and near Philipstown and Beacon. "We used what we saw in our set design," she said. "I liked the idea of creating this sort of cocoon for them —a cozy, dark antique store where everything's fragile, but it's kind of desolate." Weisberg directed two previous short films, Studio 210 (2021) and Working Summer (2024), at her parents' home. Her mother's studio and gardens served as inspiration for the former, in which an aspiring artist spends a summer at his friend's mother's studio. "I wanted to make something that used all of this beauty that she'd created," said Weisberg of her mother, Deborah Needleman, a basketmaker. Achieving small-town authenticity has its challenges. Child labor laws limited how long Ziegler could be on set, and the Bowen Barn contains many fragile items that required caution when moving cameras and lights. On the plus side, "the energy is just so good with a crew that lives and works in the Hudson Valley," said Weisberg. "People are happy because they're surrounded by nature and beauty. "The fact of just loving a place comes through in a movie," she says. "I want to work in places that I love and have a relationship to." Rare Birds will be screened in New York City today (June 12) at 8:30 p.m. at Spring Studios (50 Varick St.) and on Saturday at 2:15 p.m. at AMC 19th St. East 6 (890 Broadway). See tribecafilm.com/films/rare-birds-2026. For Weisberg's earlier films, see dub.sh/weisberg-films.

Conflict TV produced in Philipstown "Conflict is inevitable, but combat is a choice." That's the message the Dispute Resolution Center, which serves four counties, including Putnam, wants to convey to residents of the Highlands through a new, locally produced television series, Conflict TV. The nonprofit provides mediation services, usually at no cost, to help those dealing with strife, from divorce or separation to disputes between landlords and tenants, co-workers, classmates, family members or neighbors. Conflict TV's first two, 28-minute episodes are posted at youtube.com/@ConflictTV and will be shown on cable Channel 22 in Philipstown and Channel 21 in Beacon. Juan Carlos Salcedo, president of the DRC board, is the senior producer. The show is hosted by James Rollins, the founder and senior pastor of The Tabernacle Church in Middletown, who has been a mediator for 16 years. Each episode features guests who share practical mediation techniques and case studies. "We showcase real-life stories, demonstrating how dialogue can lead to meaningful, lasting transformation," said Salcedo. He produces the series in his Philipstown studio, where he also hosts The DNA of the News, which is broadcast to Spanish-speaking countries. "Our target audience is intentionally broad because conflict touches every stage of life, from teenagers to senior citizens," Salcedo said of Conflict TV. Miriam Frankl, the DRC executive director, says that even when parties can't reach an agreement through mediation, "they often report reduced tension and greater understanding of the issues. And judges see less contention in cases that go to trial." Mediators come from a variety of backgrounds, including law, social work, education and human resources. "There are no background or career requirements to be an effective mediator," she said. "One of our mediators is a former postal worker." Last year, the DRC helped 1,700 residents of Putnam, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties mediate conflicts. The nonprofit is funded largely by the New York state court system and is part of a network created in 1981 that covers the entire state. Services are free except for divorce mediation and some large-group facilitations. The DRC that serves Putnam and the three other counties has 35 volunteer mediators who received months of training, Frankl said. The Dispute Resolution Center has an office in Carmel. For more information, see drcservices.org or call 845-372-8771. In Beacon, mediation is provided by the Mediation Center of Dutchess County (dutchessmediation.org).

Duo led by Woody Guthrie's grandson will perform Music is embedded in the DNA of the Little Stony Point Citizens Association. Pete Seeger and pals lit bonfires on the beach and jammed into the night after he discovered the Philipstown riverside spot. In 1984, The New York Times reported that 200 people attended the association's informal kick-off. Several musicians performed, and Alex Clifton and T. Xiques breakdanced to music from a boombox. Locals called the place Sandy Beach. The fledgling association aimed to create "a safer place to picnic, swim, hike or boat." In a letter Seeger sent to Cold Spring resident Bob Connor around 1983, he wrote that volunteers, beyond picking up litter, should ensure that "people are not getting drunk and getting into fights" and that they stop throwing "the trash barrels into the water." They would also "be of assistance in case anybody needs it." The association became the first of some 30 friends' groups to work with state parks. One early achievement was the pedestrian bridge over the tracks, says Brian Grahn, president of the nonprofit's board. Most recently, the group hired Cold Spring resident Bryan Jennings as a community outreach coordinator to organize live music and "authentic programming." On Thursday (June 18), Woody Guthrie's grandson, Cole Quest, will perform in Seeger's backyard. Along with singer and guitarist Christian Apuzzo, their focus will be on songs by country brother duets from the 1930s to 1950s. Billed as Christian and Cole, the duo is an offshoot of Cole Quest and the City Pickers. The performers met at a bluegrass jam in Astoria. "I had just moved into the neighborhood and heard 'Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,' " says Quest, 40. "I was amazed to hear my grandfather's song at warp speed, like folk music on drugs." As a teen, Quest (his middle name) started on electric guitar, emulating Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn, but after stumbling onto the jam, he returned regularly for years, he says. "Rockstar mode was getting stale, and I had to break the mold," he says. "I bought a mandolin and started experimenting with slide guitar [influenced by the electric blues], but notes hit too sharp or too flat, so I placed it in my lap and experimented with open tunings." After hearing a dobro, or resonator guitar, at the Astoria jam, Quest instantly gravitated to the instrument because he liked its bouncy sound. It's also played horizontally in open tuning with a palm-held slide. The strings are located well above the neck, so there are no frets to get in the way. "I didn't know it, but it's exactly what I was looking for," he says. "Someone made a guitar just for me — in the 1920s." As a child, he remembers "driving up the hill to [Seeger's] house" near Beacon. He visits Philipstown often to hike and hang. Quest and Jennings share many friends in the city folk scene. Jennings used to play with The Defibulators (the "Brooklyn hillbilly spelling"), got into booking and moved to Cold Spring in 2020. From the association's inception, Maple Syrup Day in the spring always included a slate of musical performers. Ditto The Hoot, introduced in the fall. Grahn initiated the three-week Global Music Initiative at least a decade ago, he says. Jennings plans to build a weekly Thursday evening concert series and expand the organization's sonic offerings: "Music is at the heart of what we are, and it's time to reconnect with our roots," he says. Little Stony Point is located at 3011 Route 9D in Philipstown. Christian and Cole will perform on June 18 from 7 p.m. to sunset, following a 6:30 p.m. presentation by the Putnam History Museum on the Hudson Valley during the American Revolution. Admission is free. To learn more about the organization, see littlestonypoint.org. To order music, see christianandcole.com.

Traveling troupe brings romp to Howland The jolly play Death and the Fool presents a musical romp through medieval Europe, when droves of people died from the plague and purveyors of whimsical folly did their best to leaven the mood. The play, which will be performed by the Happenstance Theater on June 20 at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, is promoted as family-friendly, although one of the characters is Death. "Kids have to deal with deep stuff all the time," says Sabrina Mandell, who co-directs the Maryland-based troupe with her husband, Mark Jaster. "This is no worse than church." Mandell, who also performs, is the visionary. "I usually lead the charge and wanted to deal with the more shamanistic roots of theater," she says. "I'm interested in alchemy and art, like [Hieronymus] Bosch. I proposed those things to the ensemble, and they went at it full bore." Death and the Fool, which began touring last year, is a spinoff from the full-scale production Adrift: A Medieval Wayward Folly, which opens a three-week run in Maryland starting next month to celebrate the company's 20th anniversary. The 50-minute, four-page script balances humor and gravitas but omits the music, dancing, puppets, slapstick and manic antics, says Mandell. Costumes make it easier to identify the five actors, including Mandell and Jaster, as they perform multiple roles. The play is loosely based on Tarot cards, but knowledge of that mystical realm is not required, Mandell says. "Few people will get the references, but things center on archetypal characters, like the fool, death, oracles, the magician." The ensemble also introduces obscure medieval instruments and performs period pieces from the Dark Ages, including works by composer Hildegard von Bingen, active in Germany during the 12th century. Jaster brings along a hurdy-gurdy, "which is mistaken for a pump organ or calliope organ grinder," he says. The real deal looks like a neckless violin; a crank at the bottom causes a mechanical bow to "circle underneath the six strings and create a drone, like bagpipes." Jaster also has a flute, a handheld tabor pipe, two portable harps, a chalumeau, — precursor to the clarinet — and a Baroque ukulele shaped like a lute. He enjoys wreaking havoc with the bombard, a double-reeded oboe-style instrument. "It looks innocent, but packs a punch for fanfares and intros," he says. "When we rehearse, the rest of the cast asks me to step into the other room or go outside." Happenstance Theater specializes in historic-oriented work. Another of its productions, Barococo, is set during the Baroque era. "People are nostalgic, and history is big now," says Mandell. "The aesthetics of different periods clash with the modern, but the topics are universal and the settings elevate the work because people seldom see that look in theater, film or TV." Despite the silliness, the heady message about enjoying life in the face of imminent death resonates as it did 900 years ago. "The content is playful and ridiculous," says Mandell. "But it's also quite moving." The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. Tickets for Death and the Fool, which begins at 2 p.m. on June 20, are $10 at dub.sh/death-fool or $15 at the door.

Cold Spring sailor returns after 364 days In the early morning hours on June 1, Aaron Wolfe quietly moored Badger, his 27-foot Vancouver cutter, at the Chelsea Yacht Club just north of Beacon for the first time in 364 days. The 59-year-old Cold Spring resident sailed 14,166 miles, a voyage that included two solo crossings of the Atlantic Ocean. A year earlier, after sailing south to New York City, Wolfe set a course north up the East Coast to the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, then traveled east to Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic, landing at Dingle, Ireland. Among the 18 countries and 82 stops he made were England, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda. The final northern leg followed the East Coast to New York and up the Hudson River. Along the way, Wolfe read 50 books.

Hoving Home will reroute, widen waterway The Philipstown Conservation Board determined on Tuesday (June 10) that there would be no significant environmental impacts if the Hoving Home removes a dam and reroutes a section of Philips Brook that runs through its property in Garrison. The board's vote concluded the environmental review for the $1.8 million project, under which the treatment program for women plans to remove a 10-foot-high dam originally built decades ago to create a swimming pond. It will then move 800 feet of the brook north into a new 30-foot-wide channel that will be 3 to 5 feet deep, enabling it to hold more water. Some sections of the stone wall constraining the brook as it flows west to Constitution Marsh will be removed, as will one of the footbridges and one of three lower dams, or weirs. Dirt excavated for the new channel will be used to fill 300 feet of the brook and the two other weirs. Despite multiple repairs, the dam and the stone walls have sustained extensive damage from flooding and face greater water pressure as storms intensify and become more frequent, according to Inter-Fluve, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, firm overseeing the project. If the dam failed, the rush of water could damage downstream properties, creating a liability risk for the Hoving Home, said Nick Nelson, a fluvial geomorphologist with Inter-Fluve who reviewed the project during a Conservation Board public hearing last month. The project is also expected to improve passage for fish and other aquatic species and reduce flooding along Snake Hill Road. "There's water still flowing through, but what used to be a pond is filled with gravel and cobble," said Nelson. "If that dam were to fail catastrophically during a storm, all of that material would be washed downstream." Hoving Homes submitted an application for a wetlands permit in June 2025. After neighbors raised concerns about potential flooding, the board asked its consultant, SLR Engineering, to review Inter-Fluve's projections. SLR found Inter-Fluve's modeling to be adequate. The Conservation Board, which still must issue a wetlands permit, concluded that the Hoving Home had taken steps to reduce temporary "moderate-to-large impacts" related to drainage, erosion and flooding during construction. Beth Greco, the Hoving Homes president and CEO, said it plans to begin the project in the spring. Under a permit approved by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Hoving will be prohibited from undertaking in-stream work from Oct. 1 to April 30, when trout spawn and incubate. Once finished, the new channel will be wider and shallower than the existing one. Boulders will be placed along its bed to create "step pools" — areas of deeper water to slow the flow and reduce erosion of the banks. The pools also provide "resting stops" for fish and oxygen-rich water during periods of turbulence, according to Inter-Fluve. Native plants will cover the new bank. In addition, according to Inter-Fluve, the reconstruction will avoid two areas of "archeological sensitivity" identified in consultation with the state Historic Preservation Office, which considers the site eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The configuration will send "additional flow" through a culvert that carries the brook under Avery Road, according to project documents. Walter Hoving received a $200,000 grant to replace the town-owned culvert, which is considered undersized. But Greco said last month that the property lines bordering the culvert prevent it from being widened. "It's in good enough shape to keep," she said.

Ambulance corps covers about half of town The Town of Fishkill is exploring a contract with Empress Emergency Medical Services to provide ambulances to residents in Chelsea, Dutchess Junction and Glenham because it will be cheaper than the Beacon Volunteer Ambulance Corps. Brett Lesniak, the deputy chief for BVAC, said it has been covering Chelsea, Dutchess Junction and Glenham without funding from Fishkill and when it has an ambulance available. But rising expenses, unchanged reimbursements from Medicaid, Medicare and other insurers and treating uninsured residents mean "the cost of operations is drastically different" for BVAC, he said. To guarantee dedicated coverage to the three areas — Chelsea is north of Beacon, Dutchess to the south and Glenham, northeast — would cost $1.1 million annually, with $500,000 paid by the town and the rest covered by insurance reimbursements, said Lesniak. Empress Emergency Medical Services, whose ambulances serve Fishkill residents in the Rombout fire district, estimates that it could cover the town for about $100,000 less. During its meeting on June 3, the Town Board agreed to work with Empress on expanding its coverage. Although BVAC's leaders say they "have no intention of not covering" the Beacon fire district, Supervisor Ozzy Albra said the corps told him it would discontinue service at the end of this year without an agreement. "I don't like being threatened that we're going to be abandoned," said Albra. "I'm not going to take public safety into risk, and I'm not going to let somebody have a heart attack or medical issue because an alleged not-for-profit is not going to service our three districts." In December, BVAC announced it had resumed advanced life support, which had been discontinued in 2018. Advanced life support is a higher level of service provided by full-time paid paramedics, compared to basic life support provided by part-time volunteer emergency medical technicians. BVAC officials met with Albra to discuss charging the town for covering Chelsea, Dutchess Junction and Glenham. They also discussed having BVAC cover Rombout, but since Empress provides ambulances there, getting a "certificate of need" from New York State would be difficult for the corps, Lesniak said. Albra said the bottom line is money. "BVAC priced themselves out of this," he said. Empress covers Rombout from a station at Fishkill Town Hall on Route 52. Robert Stuck, the company's executive director, said during the June 3 meeting that its ambulances received 2,325 requests from the district in 2025 and responded to 2,098 of the calls at a cost of about $187,000 to Fishkill. Most of the remaining calls were handled by an ambulance crew funded by Dutchess County as part of an initiative to fill service gaps. The county ambulance is stationed in Wappingers Falls, said Stuck. Empress would need an additional ambulance, costing another $200,000, to expand to Chelsea, Dutchess Junction and Glenham, where BVAC covered 1,327 calls in 2025, he said. Of those calls, 865 ended at a hospital. Billing for those transports is how ambulance providers generate revenue, he said. Both Empress ambulances would be staffed with paramedics skilled in advanced life support, said Stuck. The easiest way to fund the expansion would be to extend the Rombout ambulance district to the entire town, said Stuck. Doing so, said Albra, will require research, and finalizing the expansion may not be possible before the town completes its 2026-27 budget. But Stuck said Empress would be able to step in even if BVAC ended its service immediately. "We will work with you to make sure that if they turn off the spigot tomorrow, you have coverage for those three areas," he said.

Haldane weighs how students are ranked Will future Haldane classes have more than one valedictorian? That's one question raised by a change to the school's grading system, which will be implemented this fall with the incoming ninth-grade class. Haldane, like Beacon and many high schools, gives bonuses when calculating grade-point averages for schedules that include rigorous courses, such as Advanced Placement, honors and college-level classes. At Haldane, AP courses get a 1.1 multiplier, meaning that 100 becomes 110 when calculating a student's four-year GPA. The top grade in an honors course is 105. "We had a few students with over 100 percent GPAs this year," said Julia Sniffen, the Haldane High School principal. At Beacon High School, 15 to 20 seniors crack 100 each year, said Principal Corey Dwyer. Max Sanders, the valedictorian of the 2026 Haldane class, which is scheduled to graduate today (June 12), said he has a GPA of about 101. At Beacon High School, the valedictorian, Oscar McKible, said he finished with around 105 to lead his class, which will graduate on June 24. Starting with Haldane's Class of 2030, Sniffen said the district is going to cap GPAs at 100. Rigorous courses will remain weighted, she said, but "you can't be better than perfect." She said administrators are still discussing how to award valedictorian and salutatorian in 2030 if several students have perfect GPAs. "Does this impact who speaks at graduation?" she said. It's not unheard of to have multiple valedictorians. This year, Jericho High School on Long Island has 21, shattering its previous record of 15. The district does not weight its courses, so any student who receives an A+ in every class over four years is honored. Rather than giving speeches, the valedictorians lead the procession, wear sashes and are featured in a video honoring their accomplishments. The Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington, Virginia, has a variation on the theme. It names any student with an A+ average as valedictorian and often has 100 or more. But only the student with the absolute highest GPA, including weighted classes, speaks at graduation. By contrast, the Cherry Creek School District near Denver, which serves 53,000 students, stopped recognizing valedictorians at its nine high schools this year. The district called naming a valedictorian "outdated" and inconsistent with its "core values of teaching all students, rather than ranking and sorting them." At Haldane, Sniffen said that capping the four-year GPA at 100 encourages a more well-rounded high school experience. "We want to focus on the whole child, a balanced experience through high school," she said. "They should take courses they're interested in and don't look at it like 'I'm being penalized if I want to stay in band for four years.' " Sniffen added that the change won't impact how universities evaluate student transcripts. She said colleges ignore weighting anyway and have their own processes for evaluating academic performance. Amanda Cotchen, a guidance counselor at Haldane, said some students do seem to select classes for the bonus points. "I have been asked, 'What's the weighting on each of these classes?' My reply is usually, 'Are you interested in the course?' " Sanders said he chose his courses not because of weighting but based on rigor. "I just asked, 'What classes do I want to fill my schedule with? For me, it happened to be APs." In retrospect, he wished he'd found time for Discrete Mathematics, an unweighted elective. "I was doing AP Calculus, and that was very involved," he said, so he took a study period instead. McKible said he scheduled difficult classes to keep his GPA at 100 or better. But he doesn't think he missed anything. The only thing he changed was dropping a study period and lunch "to take more heavy classes," he said. The senior successfully lobbied the administration to add weight to a science research class offered through the University at Albany. "I thought that w...

Delivers groceries to Brookside Park Residents of Brookside Senior Citizen Co-op in Philipstown are again receiving free produce and groceries. In March, a Cornell Cooperative Extension program that had three local stops, including Brookside and the Chestnut Ridge Apartments and Philipstown Friendship Center in Cold Spring, ran out of federal funding. On Wednesday (June 3), the Regional Food Bank Hudson Valley, based in Montgomery, made its second monthly visit to provide food assistance at Brookside, a mobile home community on Route 9 for people ages 55 and older. The stop is supported by a grant from the Field Hall Foundation and donations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

State revises landmark climate legislation In 2019, New York State enacted ambitious climate goals: 70 percent of electricity produced by renewable sources by 2030; 100 percent zero-emissions electricity by 2040; and 85 percent less greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 than in 1990. Last week, the ambition was adjusted. Gov. Kathy Hochul argued that the goals had become unrealistic because of the pandemic, the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, supply chain problems and the Trump administration's shutdown of renewable energy projects. As part of budget negotiations with the Legislature for 2026-27, key provisions of the 2019 law were scaled back. The first goal is off the books (the state already estimated it would take at least until 2033), and the 2040 target was changed to 60 percent fewer emissions compared to 1990, if "feasible and cost-effective." Only the 2050 target remains unchanged. Rachel Spector, a lawyer for the environmental group Earthjustice, isn't sure what that means. "We were always going to only be reducing emissions to the extent feasible," she said. Earthjustice and other environmental groups sued New York State last year for failing to follow its own climate law. Hochul said meeting the climate goals would result in "enormous costs to families" in energy bills and that she wanted a "reality check." A memo released by the state in February claimed that some New York households could face $4,000 or more in additional energy costs by 2031 under the climate law, a figure critics called misleading. Legislators said there was no way to get a budget deal done if they didn't agree to change the benchmarks. "We are watching New York become the first state in the country to roll back its climate laws," Assembly Member Anna Kelles, whose district includes Ithaca, told NY Focus. "It's disappointing and embarrassing." The 2019 law gave the state five years to enact specific legislation governing how emissions reductions would happen. It spent several years designing a "cap-and-invest" program, in which large polluters would be fined for excess emissions and the proceeds would be invested in renewable energy, grid upgrades, job creation and consumer rebates, among other benefits. In 2025, a year after the deadline, the state abandoned cap-and-invest. That led to the lawsuit. The state argued in court that economic conditions made enacting cap-and-invest unfeasible — a state judge in Ulster County responded that the law is the law. In October, the judge ruled that the state had to start a cap-and-invest program or change the laws. With the passage of the 2026-27 budget, it did the latter, setting a new deadline of 2028 to pass emissions-reduction laws that could include cap-and-invest. While environmentalists consider the 2028 deadline a minor victory (Hochul had proposed 2030), Spector said the changes seem designed "to allow the state to wiggle out of being held accountable. Whether we're talking about climate or criminal justice, this is how it works. The Legislature makes laws, agencies implement them, and if they don't do it according to the law, people have the right to go to court." Instead, the governor "hijacked the budget process" to avoid accountability, she said. In addition to moving the benchmarks, the new law changes how New York State calculates emissions. In the past, the formula accounted for the potency of each greenhouse gas. For instance, methane, the primary component of natural gas, is far more powerful than carbon dioxide, but its impact fades after about 12 years. Carbon dioxide, by contrast, remains in the atmosphere for centuries. As a result, when the 2019 law was drafted, scientists urged the state to calculate the impact of methane over a 20-year horizon and of carbon dioxide over a 100-year horizon. The state complied. But now, methane has been shifted to a 100-year horizon, which many scientists believe underestimates its impact on global temperatures. In addition, New York will...

Beacon council continues review of capital needs More than 60 percent of the sidewalks and 80 percent of crosswalks in Beacon are in "good" to "very good" condition, meaning they are at least generally accessible to people with disabilities and, for crosswalks, adequately visible with little damage, according to a recent Dutchess County study. Creighton Manning, a Poughkeepsie engineering firm, spent 124 hours in the field, noting 2,400 observation points, from last fall through the spring, to produce a report on the city's pedestrian facilities. A draft of the report, which was funded by the Dutchess Transportation Council, was shared with the City Council on Monday (June 1). The study cataloged Beacon's sidewalks, crosswalks, curb ramps and pedestrian signals, evaluating each on a scale from 1 (worst) to 4 (best). Seventeen percent of the city's 281,000 feet of sidewalks were considered "fair" (2); 19 percent were "poor" (1). There are 274 crosswalks; 11 percent were visible with some damage (2), but just 2 percent were extremely deteriorated (1). The city's 856 curb ramps, the sloped section of sidewalk leading into a curb, were ranked highly, with 82 percent "good" or "very good" (3 or 4), 12 percent "fair" (2) and 6 percent "poor" (1). There are pedestrian signals at about a dozen sites in Beacon, and all were said to function properly. Creighton Manning also created maps showing priority locations for sidewalk and curb ramp improvements, with each ranked for proximity to Main Street, schools and public parks. Needs were spread throughout the city and Mayor Lee Kyriacou said they mostly reflected his own observations. While not part of the report, Transportation Council data collected by volunteers in 2025 showed that Beacon's Main Street had the most pedestrian traffic in the county. The Creighton Manning study found the sidewalk on Main Street to be "very good," the highest of the four grades, although a number of sidewalks in the Main Street-adjacent Transitional Zone were graded "poor." Crosswalks on and around Main Street were largely given a 3 or 4 as "adequate" or "like new." The City Council will hold a public hearing on June 15 on nearly $10 million in spending on equipment and capital projects scheduled for 2027. Each year, the council must approve funding for the following year's capital plan by July 31. Of five funding streams for 2027 projects, the city expects to receive the most ($4.3 million) from state and federal aid, said Finance Director Susan Tucker. Most of that ($3.6 million) will be used to rehabilitate Beekman Street. Tucker said Beacon plans to borrow $3.1 million and allocate $1.9 million of it as additional funding to construct a water-storage tank at the Mount Beacon Reservoir. (The city budgeted $1.6 million on the project in 2026.) About $2.4 million of the city's savings will be used for other projects, the most expensive of which is the first phase of improvements to the southwest corner of Memorial Park ($308,000). The final two funding sources, grants and a recreation trust that developers pay into, will provide $55,000 and $92,000 next year, respectively. Two weeks ago, during the council's initial review of its five-year capital plan, there was some debate about when and how the city should move ahead with plans for a community or enhanced recreation center. On Monday, council members seemed to agree that the next step would be to dedicate funding in the 2027 operating budget for a feasibility report. The council has the option each year to set aside funding for planning studies; the 2026 budget includes $100,000 to be split between a study to create a biking master plan and housing resources. A study in 2027 would likely provide insight into programming needs. Further research would be needed to determine whether improvements to the Recreation Department building at 23 West Center St. could satisfy Beacon residents' desire for a "third space" where the community — particularly chi...