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Another list includes Dutchess, Putnam counties The U.S. government's list of "sanctuary jurisdictions" that includes hundreds of communities, both red and blue, is confounding critics. They have noticed the list - which includes Beacon, Dutchess County and Putnam County - included misspellings, communities with small immigrant populations and those with strong support for cooperation with federal authorities. Jessica Vaughan is director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors anti-sanctuary policies and started publishing a list of sanctuary jurisdictions 10 years ago. The CIS list is different from the government's but includes Dutchess and Putnam counties. The center says its list, most recently updated on May 30, includes "cities, counties, and states have laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies or other practices that obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] - either by refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, denying ICE access to interview incarcerated aliens, or otherwise impeding communication or information exchanges between their personnel and federal immigration officers." "That's one thing that I feel is missing from the [government's] list is some documentation as to why they're appearing on the list," Vaughan said. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) list is part of the Trump administration's efforts to target communities, states and jurisdictions that it says aren't doing enough to help its immigration enforcement agenda and the promises the president made to deport more than 11 million people living in the U.S. without legal authorization. What are the stakes? The DHS and the U.S. attorney general said they will send official notice to the 500 jurisdictions "regarding its defiance of federal immigration law enforcement and any potential violations of federal criminal law," according to an executive order from President Donald Trump. The list could be updated when the administration receives new information, but those that remain on the list could face serious financial consequences, including suspended or terminated federal grants and contracts by the Office of Management and Budget. It is not clear what legal actions the government will pursue. How was the list made? In response to questions, DHS reiterated that it was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally. The agency noted in an email that the list will be updated regularly. But experts said it was difficult to understand the criteria. "It seems quite arbitrary because not all of these states or specific jurisdictions have a policy that limits cooperation with ICE," said Nithya Nathan-Pineau, an attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. How did communities that support Trump's policies end up on the list? Several communities said they have been outspoken supporters of the president and his stringent immigration policies and do not understand why they have been included. Among them: Shawano County, Wisconsin; Alexandria, Virginia; and Huntington Beach, California. Jim Davel, administrator for Shawano County, thinks the administration may have confused the county's vote in 2021 to become a "Second Amendment Sanctuary County" that prohibits gun control measures with it being a safe haven for immigrants. He said the county has approved no immigration sanctuary policies. What is a sanctuary city? It is generally understood to apply to state and local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. DHS said it considered "factors like complianc...

This newsletter is the second of two delivered this year to all of our Patron and Guardian members as a special benefit for your generous support. Senior Editor Leonard Sparks revisits a special report that he and Michael Turton did in 2023 to provide background on their reporting about the ongoing opioid addiction crisis. The story was a follow-up to a series we published in 2017. The resurgence of opioid overdose deaths in New York state after a downturn in 2019 is not just embodied in statistics, but also in obituaries. Libby Funeral Home in Beacon posted Jonathan Bateman's obituary soon after his death on Oct. 8, 2022. Because he lived in East Fishkill, I did not include his family's tribute in the obits I compile each Friday for our website. But some of the usual "tells" - a young age (30 in this case) and died "suddenly" and "at home" - identified him as a possible overdose victim. A year later, as I searched online for local people who had lost someone to an overdose, an interview that Yvonne Bateman gave to Spectrum News about her son's death appeared. I found two non-working numbers in her name during an online search, then learned on Facebook that she volunteered for Fareground, the Beacon organization that stocks tiny pantries and community refrigerators with free food. Someone from the organization passed along to Yvonne my request for an interview. Within two weeks, I stood in her living room, taking the photo that appeared with our story and scanning a wall filled with pictures from Jonathan's too-short life. Those images - spanning childhood to adulthood - deepened his family's tragedy and the scale of loss that is worsening as fentanyl spreads and new poisons like xylazine emerge. When Yvonne told me about her strolls with Jonathan along the Walkway Over the Hudson, I decided to begin the article with that image. Those moments seemed, for both of them, an island of hope after so much struggle. Jonathan's death months later says a lot about the nature of addiction and the lethality of fentanyl. What is the solution? I prefer "What are the solutions?" Too many people believe that abstinence is the solution, or that addiction medications are the solution. It's OK to have more than one, as well as an open-minded approach to a problem as complicated as the humans it afflicts. Seeking the perspective of someone with years of recovery, I read about the struggles of Terasina Hanna, the program manager at the Walter Hoving Home in Garrison, in her online bio. She agreed to a phone interview, and I drove to Walter Hoving several days later to photograph the California native and tour the program's central building, a Tudor mansion. Many of her full answers from our interview had to be condensed or left out of the article, like when I asked Hanna to describe addiction. "It was a constant of trying to get clean and failing," she said. "And then there's this shame that goes on you because you keep failing and you can't stop." I've interviewed many recovering addicts and alcoholics. I usually ask about the moment that changed their lives - the one where they decided to seek help. Sometimes they credit moments of introspection in jails or prisons, and other times, sudden flashes of reality when it's clear that death is the only outcome and the pain of getting sober is less than the pain of continuing. Hanna, now sober eight years, began her journey after another stint in jail, when she decided to try Walter Hoving's program in Pasadena. "You just have to be sick and tired of being sick and tired," she said. During the tour, I followed her up upstairs, where she showed me offices and then a room with rows of computers. Before the screens, women tapped away on keyboards doing their treatment assignments. For them, treatment is not an end in itself but a first stop on a long journey. Staying sober and rebuilding lives depends on the decisions people make when they leave treatment. One of the most important, said Hanna, is d...

County executives dispute federal designation Officials from Dutchess and Putnam counties say they should not be listed with New York State and other localities, including Beacon, on a roster of jurisdictions the Department of Homeland Security accuses of "obstructing" the Trump administration's effort to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. The list, released on Thursday (May 29) to comply with a presidential order, includes more than 500 jurisdictions, including New York state, 15 of its counties and 12 of its cities, identifying them as "sanctuaries" for immigrants who live in the country without authorization. [Update: the list was removed by DHS as of June 1 but is archived here.] Those states and municipalities, including Orange and Westchester counties and Newburgh and Poughkeepsie, are accused by the DHS of "deliberately and shamefully obstructing" federal immigration enforcement and protecting "dangerous criminal aliens." The agency demands that they "immediately review and revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws," but also cautions that the list is subject to change and "no one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation" of the municipalities. Many municipalities have disputed their inclusion on the list, including Putnam and Dutchess counties. On Friday (May 30), Kevin Byrne, the Putnam executive, said: "Let's set the record straight: Putnam County is not a sanctuary county and never will be on my watch as county executive. We have consistently worked with our partners in law enforcement and encourage the continued collaboration and sharing of information with all federal, state and local law enforcement." Despite Putnam being named by DHS as a sanctuary jurisdiction, Byrne also on Friday posted on Facebook a video in which he accuses "liberal journalists at the Wall Street Journal," which published a story about the agency's announcement, of "inaccurately" adding Putnam to the list "before gathering all the facts." He added that "the bias media is wrong and needs to get the facts straight." In Dutchess, County Executive Sue Serino said on Friday that the county has contacted its federal representatives - Sens. Kirsten Gillebrand and Chuck Schumer and U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan - "for further clarity" and help getting the county removed from the list. "It is unclear how this list was developed, as DHS has not contacted us with any concerns, and the Dutchess County Legislature has never adopted any resolution relating to sanctuary jurisdiction," said Serino. On Monday (June 2), Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou read a statement at the City Council meeting: "It is absolutely not the case that the city is deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws. While the city has yet to receive any formal communication from the federal government, we remain confident the city is abiding by all applicable state and federal laws and judicial orders. Our city and our Police Department remain committed to protecting public safety, and any statements to the contrary are misleading and inaccurate." Neither Dutchess or Putnam has approved policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities, and Dutchess sued New York City in 2023 when it began contracting with hotels in the Hudson Valley to house immigrants. That same year, Byrne and the Putnam Legislature adopted a resolution declaring the county a "rule of law" jurisdiction and pledging cooperation with federal immigration officers to identify "arrested felons and gang-associated" individuals suspected of being in the country illegally. Beacon restricted its role in immigration enforcement during the first Trump administration, when the City Council in April 2017 unanimously passed a resolution declaring the city to be "welcoming, safe and inclusive." Its resolution deliberately avoided the word sanctuary (Trump had threatened to withhold funding from "sanctuary cities") but said that city employees and...

Recovery from crash called 'miracle' Laura Timmons always believed that her teenage daughter would recover from the traumatic brain injury she suffered in the car accident on Route 9 that killed another Haldane High School student in December 2023. During Theresa Timmons' 15-month rehabilitation at Blythedale Children's Hospital in Valhalla, Laura Timmons chronicled each "big thing" in her daughter's recovery: the first time she swallowed drinks and food; the first time she responded to questions with gestures; and progressing to writing and talking. "I knew in my heart we would get there, and I never felt any negative," said Laura Timmons, whose family owns Homestyle Bakery in Nelsonville and Peekskill. Her faith received another reward on Thursday (May 29) when Theresa, wearing a shirt filled with signatures from well-wishers and supported on one side by a cane and the other by Laura's boyfriend, Mike Raguso, walked across Blythdale's lobby on her way home for the first time since the accident. A gauntlet of family, friends and Blythedale staff and patients clapped and cheered as Theresa headed through the front door. Outside, Theresa began crying as staff assembled around her to take pictures and say goodbye. First responders from the Continental Village Fire Department, Cortlandt-Peekskill Paramedics and the state police assembled to escort the ambulance carrying her home to Garrison. "Awesome," said Theresa, now 17, when asked about Thursday's sendoff and returning home. "I felt like someone famous." Katherine Ingrasci and Mary Kate Filos used the word "miracle." Ingrasci, a speech-language pathologist at Blythedale, said that Theresa could not eat or talk, and breathed using a tracheostomy tube inserted in her neck when she arrived at Blythedale. Theresa had "a lot of things to overcome" during the hospitalization and made tremendous progress from initially communicating solely through gestures, said Ingrasci. One day, "I walked in and she looked up at me and said a full, beautiful sentence," said Ingrasci. That progress owed much to Theresa, who Filos described as a "fighter" and hard worker. Filos also credited the family and friends who supported Theresa's recovery by donating money, visiting and sending cards and gifts. "They had somebody at the bedside around the clock; Theresa was never alone," said Filos. "So we bonded not just with mom, not just with dad, but with so many extended family members and friends." Also attending the sendoff were some of the Continental Village firefighters and paramedics who responded to the tragedy: a Dec. 15, 2023, car crash on Route 9 that claimed the life of Vlad Saban, a 17-year-old Haldane High School senior, and left Theresa, then 16 and a junior at the school, in critical condition. Chief Joseph Maffettone said in September 2024 that firefighters responding to the accident found "complete wreckage." Attacking the doors and bottom of the wreck with cutting tools, they found Vlad already deceased and Theresa in the rear - unconscious and laying on her left side, protected in a "cocoon," according to Maffettone. "There was a complete tunnel around her," said Maffettone, whose family has been buying baked goods from Homestyle for years and knew the Timmons family. "How she was positioned, it was amazing." Jennifer Hunt, a paramedic with Cortlandt-Peekskill Paramedics, described Theresa's physical condition as "multi-system" trauma. "She had anything and everything that could possibly be wrong with a patient going on," said Hunt last September. "We had a lot of decisions to make in a very short timeframe." Hunt said that she and a colleague, Richard Blackley, sedated Theresa and inserted an endotracheal tube, which is used when patients cannot breathe unaided. With her breathing stabilized, they decided to drive Theresa to Westchester Medical Center rather than wait for a helicopter that had been standing by. By February 2024, Theresa was responding to commands...

Writer to discuss 'walking memoir' in Beacon Craig Mod's first book tour across America has so far been a resounding success, much to the confusion of bookstore owners. "All the bookstore people have been freaked out," he said a few days after his stop in San Francisco had a line all the way down the street an hour before the event began. "Booking this tour has been difficult, because in their experience, if they don't recognize the name of the author, they're going to get seven people." Mod will finish up his tour promoting Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir at Binnacle Books in Beacon on June 6, in conversation with Beacon resident Sam Anderson, a reporter for The New York Times Magazine. Although this is his first title for a major publisher, Mod has built a following with his lavishly designed, self-published books, online newsletters, photography and travel writing about Japan. "I have absolutely no sense of who's out there reading my stuff since I'm kind of alone and isolated on the other side of the world," he said. "People are shaking as they bring me books to sign. It's bizarre, but everyone has been so sweet." Mod grew up in a Northeast town that was slowly being hollowed out with drugs and violence in the wake of local factories closing. Once he graduated high school, he knew he needed to get as far away as possible. With scholarships, homestays and the exchange rate at the turn of the millennium, Tokyo was the cheapest option at the time. Mod found in Japan what he'd been missing back in America. "There was an overwhelming shock of seeing people being taken care of by a greater whole," he said. After buying a used camera, Mod fell into two of the central tenets of his work: photography and exploring Japan on foot. He began with long, late-night walks throughout Tokyo. "I'd be in this kind of romantic haze of listening to all these lives and these families functioning," he said. "Tokyo is so transparent. If you walk in certain neighborhoods, you just hear everything." He befriended John McBride, an older Westerner with an encyclopedic knowledge of local history. Accompanying McBride on walks led to Mod making longer journeys across the county on his own. Things Become Other Things recounts in words and photographs one walk in 2021, during the pandemic, when he traced the historic 300-mile Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes across the Kii peninsula south of Kyoto, with McBride emailing him historic details along the way. "Most of the inns I stayed at, I was the only one there," Mod recalled. "It felt like the end of the world." The desolate landscape of the Kii peninsula reminded Mod of his hometown, both filled with poverty, loneliness, trash-strewn yards and hostile dogs. But Japan's safety net and tight-knit society means that the people Mod encounters don't fall through the cracks. Central to this is yoyū, which is often translated to mean "breathing room." In Things Become Other Things, Mod defines it as "the excess provided when surrounded by a generous abundance. It can be applied to hearts, wallets, Sunday afternoons and more." Mod said he began to truly understand the term when he started walking with McBride. "It's the space in your heart to be able to accept someone or something else without being stressed out by it," said Mod. "John is a person of essentially infinite yoyū. "As the political climate has changed in America, it feels increasingly like folks are being pressed against the wall," Mod said. "Political decisions are being made from this lack of openness or empathy. It emphasized what it meant to feel yoyū in the Japanese countryside. It's hard for folks who don't live in a place that has that to imagine what it feels like to look around at everyone you pass by, and know that if some medical calamity hits them, they can't fall that far." Binnacle Books is located at 321 Main St. in Beacon. The event begins at 7 p.m.

Clutter moves Five Points from Brooklyn to Beacon After Miranda O'Brien and Josh Kimberg moved to Beacon from Brooklyn in 2011, they opened Clutter Gallery at 163 Main St., named for a glossy magazine O'Brien founded in England 21 years ago that ceased publication in 2017. Clutter is the only gallery in the country dedicated to weird and wonderful designer toys for adults, says Kimberg. Earlier this year, the couple moved from their Main Street space, a popular gathering spot on Second Saturdays, to the KuBe Art Center, where they plan to add an art toy museum operated by a newly created nonprofit, the Designer Toy Foundation. At the same time, the couple is transplanting their annual Five Points Festival of "designer toys, indie art, weird monsters and underground culture" - scheduled for June 7 and 8 - from Greenpoint in Brooklyn to The Yard in Beacon. Jesse DeStasio, a Philipstown resident who hosts his own festival, Toy Pizza Expo, which met at the Happy Valley Arcade Bar in Beacon and merged this year with Five Points, will be there with Knights of the Slice, an action-figure line he created in 2015. Ron English of Beacon, a longtime toy designer and muralist under his Popaganda umbrella, created the event poster. "This town takeover goes against the grain," says Kimberg. "We put together a roster of complete weirdos and fans of the bizarre." Five Points, which began in 2017, attracted 6,000 people in Greenpoint last year. The first Beacon event will include live music, painting, tattooing and promised "oddities." The Beacon Theater will show sci-fi flick Dune (1982), the original Godzilla (1954) and Ghidohra (1964), the "three-headed monster." Inspired in part by Japanese manga and anime, collectible designer items range from $20 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, says Kimberg. Made mainly with resin and soft vinyl, the irreverent totems stem from street and underground art. Though some small runs are handcrafted or 3-D printed in people's basements and garages, most items are imported. Small-batch, handmade toys created by popular artists are obviously more cherished than a run of 500 made in China, says Kimberg: "What's most important is the name value, not a brand or even what the figure depicts. It's like Andy Warhol's silkscreens and Toulouse Lautrec with the printing press, creating multiple copies of works with a mechanical means of production and building a reputation." Some artists in the free-for-all subculture create original designs and others reference pop culture, a la Warhol. Homer Simpson is a popular subject, but almost all designer toy representations of familiar figures distort and take liberties with the original form, signifying that the work is unlicensed. "There is a conversation over whether this is fair use, and thus legal," says Kimberg, who once received a cease-and-desist letter but rebutted it with a 20-page reply. "We outlined the work's transformative nature, and they went away," he said.

A young woman chronicles her battle with anorexia In January 2017, Sandra Slokenbergs wrote in her journal: "I have a sickening feeling my daughter is dying." Her fears were well-founded. A week later, her daughter Lidija, 17, a Haldane junior, was rushed to a hospital, suffering from severe anorexia. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder which, if not treated, can cause serious medical conditions associated with starvation. Anorexia is second only to opioid overdoses in deaths tied to mental illness, including by suicide. Its causes are not fully understood but are thought to involve genetics, psychological and social factors and major life transitions. In a newly published book, Hold My Hand, Sandra and Lidija tell their story in detail from each of their perspectives. By age 16, Lidija had experienced more life changes than most. When she was 6 and about to enter the first grade at Haldane, she and her family moved to Latvia. Both sets of her grandparents had emigrated to the U.S.; her parents were born in New York, but Latvian was spoken in their Cold Spring home. During the 10 years they spent in Latvia, Lidija changed schools five times. Although Latvia became independent from Russia in 1990, many schools still followed the rigid Soviet system, with multiple daily tests, teachers calling out students' grades, waiting for permission to sit and an intense level of competition. "I didn't feel I could keep up," she recalled. "I knew I was smart, but I was made to feel stupid a lot of the time." Lidija loved to dance but was told at age 12 by her ballet instructor that she danced "like a bear." She came home crying, feeling "intimidated, ridiculed and never good enough." There were cultural differences, as well. Although Lidija spoke fluent Latvian, it was with an accent. She was "the American," an outsider. The Slokenbergs returned to Cold Spring each summer. Lidija said that was "paradise": swimming in her grandparents' pool, her July 3 birthday parties, camp and ice cream. Although she loved Latvia and had friends there, returning was always difficult. Sandra remembers the end of the summers as full of "anxiety, sadness and dread" for her daughter. Red flags began to appear by the time Lidija was 14. Once, she stood by her bedroom mirror in Latvia sobbing, unable to decide what to wear to a birthday party. Sandra coaxed her to go, but it was a struggle. For a yoga class where everyone wore a T-shirt and leggings, Lidija agonized, rejecting one combination after another. Sandra noticed her daughter's movements had become less natural. She had begun to dislike aspects of her body. "Clearly, self-esteem was seeping out of her," Sandra said. Lidija developed an uncharacteristic interest in Sandra's treadmill and worked out on it obsessively for several weeks. She later admitted hating every minute of it. Ironically, a permanent return to Cold Spring in 2016 fueled what would soon be diagnosed as anorexia. "I was happy because I'd have two years left at Haldane," Lidija said. But other thoughts were troubling. "I felt I had the chance to reinvent myself, to become someone I liked more, someone who was smarter and prettier," she said. "I had been holding in a lot of stress, a perfect time for anorexia to swoop in." Anorexia, she said, makes many false promises: "You'll be happy if you lose a bit of weight. You'll be happy if you control your food more. You'll be happy if you get to the desired weight." Lidija's 16th birthday included a trip to Dairy Queen and an ice cream cake. It would be the last time Lidija ate without feeling the need to greatly restrict food. After eating leftover cake the next morning, she obsessed over the thought that she had already consumed more calories than she should for an entire day. She vowed to take control, to get skinnier, to be prettier. She thought, "Maybe I'll feel better then." Her mother recalled: "I saw her change into someone I didn't recognize." Lidija became obsessive-compulsive...

Final summer of shows before new theater debuts Beyond the new theater rising on a ridge above the river, things are percolating as the acting company now known as Hudson Valley Shakespeare prepares for its 38th and final season under the tent. After a rebrand, the "festival" suffix moved down the road. "We're more permanent than ever," says Davis McCallum, the artistic director, explaining the change. "Festivals are associated with a defined time period and then they head off, like the circus, but we still want to have that celebratory, freewheeling exuberance." The Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center is part of a $58 million project that includes the ecological restoration of the former golf course that is now the Hudson Valley Shakespeare campus and the addition of actor housing. This season, the company's full-production plays include Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, opening June 6, and The Matchmaker (June 8), by Thornton Wilder, which evolved into the Broadway musical Hello, Dolly! and the 1968 film shot in part at Garrison's Landing. Will and Wilder alternate through Aug. 3. Then Octet, written by Beacon resident Dave Malloy, takes over the tent from Aug. 11 to Sept. 7. McCallum pursued the rights to the Tony-nominated play for five years; Hudson Valley Shakespeare is the first company to mount a full production after the show's Off-Broadway run in 2019. "The original rights-holders planned a commercial Broadway production and a film, but COVID hit, and it's only been shown twice since then in limited productions," says McCallum. Malloy's local ties extend to writing the music for Beowulf - A Thousand Years of Baggage, the greatest hit so far by local house-party hosts Jason Craig and Jessica Jelliffe at Banana, Bag & Bodice productions. The following year, 2011, Malloy collaborated with Craig on Beardo, a rock musical about Rasputin. Hudson Valley Shakespeare recently commissioned a work from Banana, Bag & Bodice that's about halfway completed, says McCallum. Octet is billed as a "chamber choir musical" that references tarot cards and explores internet addiction and human alienation in the digital age through dialogue and an eight-part acapella harmony score. Only three of the troupe's regulars could pull off the singing-and-speaking task, so McCallum imported "ringers," he says. When the tent goes dark for a week to prepare the production, the company will roll out HVS Cabaret, which transforms The Valley restaurant into a 45-seat cabaret (Aug. 6 to 9). Performances include a solo work-in-progress musical, Fathertime: Birth, Death and Songs, the return of former troupe member Bebe Nicole Simpson and a performance by composer Alex Bechtel. In addition, a new production of Julius Caesar plays Sept. 9 and 10 for students and the public, with a stripped-down version moving to Bannerman Castle Trust on the island (Sept. 11 to 13). For the first time, the Shakespeare company will send teaching artists and actors to nearby schools for three weeks in September instead of in the spring. Next year, after the Scripps Theater opens, the company will continue to visit schools and, for the first time, bring students to the grounds. McCallum, who worked on The Matchmaker 30 years ago in London, considers Wilder to be "the best American playwright. He won two Pulitzers for drama and another one for a novel - the only American author who achieved that." For The Matchmaker, wife-and-husband team Nance Williamson and Kurt Rhoads, who live in Philipstown, star as Dolly Levi and Horace Vandergelder. Although overshadowed by the Broadway and movie adaptations, the original play complements The Comedy of Errors, McCallum says. "It's uncanny how much these two farces share structure, energy and momentum," he says. "Our actors are feeding off each other as they go back and forth working on them." Hudson Valley Shakespeare is located at 2015 Route 9 in Philipstown. For a schedule and tickets, which range from $10 to $100, see hvshakespear...

World War II radio operator interred in Wappingers Falls As the World War II bomber Heaven Can Wait was hit by enemy fire off the Pacific island of New Guinea on March 11, 1944, the co-pilot managed a final salute to flyers in an adjacent plane before crashing into the water. All 11 men aboard were killed. Their remains, deep below the vast sea, were designated as non-recoverable. Yet four crew members' remains are beginning to return to their hometowns after a remarkable investigation by family members and a recovery mission involving elite Navy divers who descended 200 feet in a pressurized bell to reach the sea floor. Staff Sgt. Eugene Darrigan, the 26-year-old the radio operator, was buried with military honors and community support on Saturday (May 24) at the Church of St. Mary in his hometown of Wappingers Falls, more than eight decades after leaving behind his wife and baby son. The bombardier, 2nd Lt. Thomas "Toby" Kelly, was buried Monday in Livermore, California, where he grew up in a ranching family. The remains of the pilot, 1st Lt. Herbert Tennyson, and navigator, 2nd Lt. Donald Sheppick, will be interred in the coming months. The ceremonies are happening 12 years after one of Kelly's relatives, Scott Althaus, set out to solve the mystery of where exactly the plane went down. "I'm just so grateful," he said. "It's been an impossible journey - just should never have been able to get to this day. And here we are, 81 years later." March 11, 1944 The Army Air Forces plane nicknamed Heaven Can Wait was a B-24 with a cartoon pin-up angel painted on its nose. It was on a mission to bomb Japanese targets. Other flyers on the mission were not able to spot survivors. Their wives, parents and siblings were of a generation that tended to be tight-lipped in their grief. But the men were sorely missed. Sheppick, 26, and Tennyson, 24, each left behind pregnant wives who would sometimes write them two or three letters a day. Darrigan also was married, and had been able to attend his son's baptism while on leave. A photo shows him in uniform, smiling as he holds the boy. Darrigan's wife, Florence, remarried but quietly held on to photos of her late husband, as well as a telegram informing her of his death. Tennyson's wife, Jean, lived until age 96 and never remarried. "She never stopped believing that he was going to come home," said her grandson, Scott Jefferson. Memorial Day 2013 As Memorial Day approached 12 years ago, Althaus asked his mother for names of relatives who died in World War II. Althaus, a political science and communications professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, became curious while researching World War II casualties for work. His mother gave him the name of her cousin Thomas Kelly, who was 21 when he was reported missing in action. Althaus recalled that as a boy, he visited Kelly's memorial stone, which has a bomber engraved on it. He began reading up on the lost plane. "It was a mystery that I discovered really mattered to my extended family," he said. With help from other relatives, he analyzed historical documents, photos and eyewitness recollections. They weighed sometimes conflicting accounts of where the plane went down. After a four-year investigation, Althaus wrote a report concluding that the bomber likely crashed off Awar Point in what is now Papua New Guinea. The report was shared with Project Recover, a nonprofit committed to finding and repatriating missing American service members and a partner of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). A team from Project Recover, led by researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, located the debris field in 2017 after searching nearly 10 square miles of seafloor. The DPAA launched its deepest-ever underwater recovery mission in 2023. A Navy dive team recovered dog tags, including Darrigan's, partially corroded with the name of his wife, Florence, as an emergency contact. Kelly's ring was recovered. The stone was gone, but...

Take time today to remember those who sacrificed Memorial Day is a U.S. holiday that's supposed to be about mourning the nation's fallen service members, but it's come to anchor the unofficial start of summer and a long weekend of travel and discounts on anything from mattresses to lawn mowers. Iraq War veteran Edmundo Eugenio Martinez Jr. said the day has lost so much meaning that many Americans "conflate and mix up Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, July Fourth." Social media posts pay tribute to "everyone" who has served, when Memorial Day is about those who died. For him, it's about honoring 17 U.S. service members he knew who lost their lives. "I was either there when they died or they were soldiers of mine, buddies of mine," said Martinez, 48, an Army veteran who lives in Katy, Texas, west of Houston. "Some of them lost the battle after the war." Steve Merando, who has marched in Cold Spring's Memorial Day parade since he was 10 years old, agreed. "People forget that Memorial Day is supposed to be a memorial to those who were killed in action while serving their country," said Merando, who served with the U.S. Navy Seabees from 1969 to 1973, including in Vietnam and Thailand. He played Little League baseball with Keith Livermore, one of three Philipstown residents killed in the Vietnam War. In Memoriam: Philipstown and Beacon Here is a look at the holiday and how it has evolved: When is Memorial Day? It falls on the last Monday of May, which this year is May 26. In Cold Spring, a parade will begin at 9 a.m. at Stone and Main streets and progress to Cold Spring Cemetery in Nelsonville for a ceremony. Hot dogs and refreshments will follow at the American Legion. Rain or shine. In Beacon, a ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. at 413 Main St. It will include the dedication of a plaque to mark the 100th anniversary of the Veterans Memorial Building, which was completed in 1925. Why is Memorial Day celebrated? It's a day of reflection and remembrance of those who died while serving in the U.S. military. The holiday is observed in part by the National Moment of Remembrance, which encourages all Americans to pause at 3 p.m. for a moment of silence. What are the origins of Memorial Day? The holiday's origins can be traced to the American Civil War, which killed more than 600,000 service members - both Union and Confederate - between 1861 and 1865. The first national observance of what was then called Decoration Day occurred on May 30, 1868, after an organization of Union veterans called for decorating war graves with flowers, which were in bloom. The practice was already widespread. Waterloo, New York, in Seneca County, began a formal observance on May 5, 1866, and was later proclaimed to be the holiday's birthplace. Yet Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, traced its first observance to October 1864. And women in some Confederate states were decorating graves before the war's end. David Blight, a Yale history professor, points to May 1, 1865, when as many as 10,000 people, many of them Black, held a parade, heard speeches and dedicated the graves of Union dead in Charleston, South Carolina. A total of 267 Union troops had died at a Confederate prison and were buried in a mass grave. After the war, members of Black churches buried them in individual graves. "What happened in Charleston does have the right to claim to be first, if that matters," Blight told the Associated Press in 2011. When did Memorial Day become a source of contention? As early as 1869, The New York Times wrote that the holiday could become "sacrilegious" and no longer "sacred" if it focused more on pomp, dinners and oratory. In an 1871 Decoration Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, abolitionist Frederick Douglass said he feared Americans were forgetting the Civil War's impetus: enslavement. "We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation's destroyers," Douglass said. His concern...

Protestors gather at academy gates, Garrison's Landing President Donald Trump used the first service academy commencement address of his second term on Saturday (May 25) to laud graduating West Point cadets for their accomplishments and career choice while also veering sharply into a campaign-style recitation of political boasts and long-held grievances. "In a few moments, you'll become graduates of the most elite and storied military academy in human history," Trump said at the ceremony at Michie Stadium. "And you will become officers of the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known. And I know, because I rebuilt that army, and I rebuilt the military. And we rebuilt it like nobody has ever rebuilt it before in my first term." Wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, the Republican president told the 1,002 members of the class of 2025 at the U.S. Military Academy that the U.S. is the "hottest country in the world" and underscored an "America First" ethos for the military. "We're getting rid of distractions and we're focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America's adversaries, killing America's enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before," Trump said. He later said that "the job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures," a reference to drag shows on military bases that Democratic President Joe Biden's administration halted after Republican criticism. Trump said the cadets were graduating at a "defining moment" in Army history as he accused political leaders in the past of sending soldiers into "nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us." He said he was clearing the military of transgender ideas, "critical race theory" and types of training he called divisive and political. Past administrations, he said, "subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes while leaving our borders undefended and depleting our arsenals to fight other countries' wars." At times, his remarks were indistinguishable from those heard in a political speech, from his assessment of the country when he left office in January 2021 to his review of November's victory over Democrat Kamala Harris, arguing that voters gave him a "great mandate" and "it gives us the right to do what we want to do." Frequently turning the focus on himself, he reprised some of his campaign rally one-liners, including the claim that he has faced more investigations than mobster Al Capone. At one point the crowd listened as Trump, known for his off-message digressions, referred to "trophy wives" and yachts during an anecdote about the late real estate developer William Levitt, a billionaire friend who Trump said lost momentum. But the president also took time to acknowledge the achievements of individual graduates. He summoned Chris Verdugo to the stage and noted that he completed an 18.5-mile march on a freezing night in January in just two hours and 30 minutes. Trump had the nationally ranked men's lacrosse team, which held the No. 1 spot for a time in the 2024 season, stand and be recognized. Trump also brought Army's star quarterback, Bryson Daily, to the lectern, where the president praised Daily's "steel"-like shoulder. Trump later used Daily as an example to make a case against transgender women participating in women's athletics. In a nod to presidential tradition, Trump also pardoned about half a dozen cadets who had faced disciplinary infractions. He told graduates that "you could have done anything you wanted, you could have gone anywhere." and that "writing your own ticket to top jobs on Wall Street or Silicon Valley wouldn't be bad. But I think what you're doing is better." His advice to them included doing what they love, thinking big, working hard, holding on to their culture, keeping faith in America and taking risks. "This is a time of incredible change and we do not need an officer corps o...

Voters also approve $98,150 annually for Butterfield Library Haldane Voters approved the Haldane Central School District's proposed $30.2 million budget by a vote of 474-125, or 79 percent. Turnout was 13 percent. Voters also approved spending $205,000 on school buses (476-120) and increasing the maximum amount held in the Facilities Improvement Reserve Fund to $3 million and its duration by 10 years (480-117). In addition, the ballot included a proposition to support the Butterfield Library with $98,150 in taxes annually, which was approved, 508-86. Voters approved referendums in 2015 to provide $73,150 annually to the library and in 2006 to provide $276,000 annually. The Haldane spending includes a 2.8 percent tax-levy increase. Using the state's tax-cap formula, the district could have asked for a 3.38 levy increase. Board members debated this spring whether to go "to cap" but opted to forgo about $132,000 in revenue after voters last year approved an increase of 6.95 percent over three years to pay for $28.4 million in capital improvements. State aid for 2025-26 will be $4.55 million, an increase of $73,000 (1.6 percent). The budget includes funding for a science-of-reading curriculum; software to improve student outcomes; a new pre-K program; special education funding for out-of-district placements; increased field trip spending; a softball field dugout; classroom air conditioners to comply with New York state's maximum temperature requirement; auditorium stage and performing arts equipment; and a transportation system analysis. The district estimates taxes on a home valued at $500,000 will rise by $197 annually. Sean McNall and Ezra Clementson ran unopposed to retain their seats on the five-member school board. Clementson will serve his second, 3-year term and McNall his third. Garrison Garrison district voters approved its proposed $14.7 million by a vote of 210-64, or 77 percent. Turnout was 12.5 percent. By a 232-41 vote, district residents also approved a proposition that allows the district to enter into a contract for two to five years to continue sending high school students to Putnam Valley. Garrison includes grades K-8; its older students can attend Putnam Valley, Haldane or O'Neill. There were two open seats on the seven-member board, and two incumbent candidates. Sarah Tormey was elected to her third, 3-year term and Kent Schacht to his second full term after being elected in 2021 to fill a vacancy. The tax-levy increase of 3.58 percent was far below the 5.78 percent allowed for the district under the state's tax-cap formula. To avoid raising the levy further, Garrison administrators proposed paying for two pilot programs - an armed police officer and a lunch program - with $1.4 million in savings. State aid will be $1.23 million, an increase of $51,000 (4.4 percent). With the budget approval, the district will hire a Special Patrol Officer, a retired police officer whose role would be limited to security. (A School Resource Officer, or SRO, which Haldane has, is a sheriff's deputy who also teaches classes on topics such as personal safety, cyberbullying and drug awareness.) Student lunches will be available Monday through Thursday; on Fridays, the school will continue to sell pizza as a fundraiser. The district estimates that a Philipstown home assessed at $300,250 will see its taxes rise by $306 annually. $1.4 million in savings. State aid will be $1.23 million, an increase of $51,000 (4.4 percent). With the budget approval, the district will hire a Special Patrol Officer, a retired police officer whose role would be limited to security. (A School Resource Officer, or SRO, which Haldane has, is a sheriff's deputy who also teaches classes on topics such as personal safety, cyberbullying and drug awareness.) Student lunches would be available Monday through Thursday; on Fridays, the school will continue to sell pizza as a fundraiser. The district estimates that a Philipstown home assessed at $300,250 will s...

Voters approve 5.09 percent tax-levy increase Voters on Tuesday (May 20) approved $87.7 million in spending for the Beacon City School District for the 2025-26 academic year by a wide margin. The vote was 805-240, or 77 percent approval. Turnout was about 6 percent. The budget includes a 5.09 percent tax-levy increase, just under the maximum allowed for the district by New York State. The levy will generate more than $50 million in property taxes. At $31.6 million - an increase of $572,000 (1.9 percent) - state aid makes up the bulk of the remaining revenue. The district will spend $2.5 million of its savings in 2025-26, an increase of $500,000 over this year. District officials say the budget will allow them to maintain improvements made in recent years, including smaller elementary class sizes, increased mental health support for students and a full-day pre-K program. For the first time, the district will launch a summer workshop program for incoming high school students and create an in-school mental health clinic at Rombout Middle School. It also will add teachers for elementary students struggling in math and reading and hire a part-time elementary speech instructor. While the proposed levy increase is more than 5 percent, the addition of new households to the tax rolls means homeowners' bills may not go up by the same percentage. The district estimates that the owner of a $420,200 home (the median value) in Beacon will see their taxes increase by $240 annually. In addition, voters returned Meredith Heuer and Semra Ercin to the nine-member board. Heuer will begin her fourth, 3-year term, while Ercin will serve her first full term after being elected in 2023 to complete the final two years of a vacated seat. The seat held by Alena Kush, who did not run for a second term, will be filled by Catherine Buscemi, who also ran unopposed.

Beacon fifth graders help restock trout If you saw 37 fifth graders marching with fish signs down Churchill Street in Beacon on May 16, they were off to release 60 trout friends into Fishkill Creek. The children, who attend South Avenue Elementary, had given the 3-inch brown trout names like Holiday, Jeremy, Jeff, Billy Bigback, Patricia Felicia Petunia, Little Jim Bob and Li'l Shoddy. It was the culmination of an eight-month school project about trout, their habitat and conservation, and the importance of caring about nature. "Why would you care about the environment if you're not connected to it in any way?" asked Aaron Burke, the school librarian who runs the project. "This is a way to help make that connection. Every time they drive over that bridge, they'll think, 'I wonder if Fred is in there.' " Students in 5,000 schools nationwide and more than 350 in New York are conducting similar releases as part of Trout in the Classroom, a program organized each spring for more than 30 years by the conservation group Trout Unlimited. "The big goal of the program is to create this connection with students in their watershed and their drinking water," said Cecily Nordstrom, the nonprofit's stream education manager. Burke has worked with Trout in the Classroom for five years and starts each fall with a small jar of trout eggs hatched in an aquarium in the school library. He gets the eggs from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The DEC uses the same stock in hatcheries that annually produce 2 million trout to stock streams and lakes. The state adds 6,100 brown trout each spring to Fishkill Creek, which starts in Union Vale and flows 33 miles through Dutchess County before passing through Beacon and emptying into the Hudson River. About 90 percent of those trout are 9-inch yearlings. Starting in 2020, about 10 percent of stocked trout were 13-inch two-year-olds, giving anglers "a shot at catching one of those nice larger fish," said Fred Henson, the DEC's cold water fisheries leader. Photos by Ross Corsair Henson explained that Fishkill Creek is a "put-and-take" fishery, which means the fish are put in the stream and quickly taken out by anglers fishing in places like Madam Brett Park off Tioronda Avenue. Stocked trout rarely survive to reproduce. Without stocking in Fishkill Creek, Henson said, "you wouldn't have a fishery." Development along streams like Fishkill Creek undermines the clean, cold water needed for trout to thrive, he said. As with many waterways in developed areas, stormwater runoff pollutes the creek and fewer trees leads to rising water temperatures. Henson said that the state reduced stocking last year in Beacon's section of Fishkill Creek to 400 trout because fewer property owners allow fishing. Until 2023, the state was stocking the section with 1,100 brown trout, he said. "As more and more large properties are subdivided and development increases in the Hudson Valley and in Dutchess County, we're limited by landowners who are unwilling to let the public access trout streams for recreation," said Henson. The South Avenue Elementary release was at a public greenway behind the Hudson Valley Brewery. Burke had a tabletop model of a watershed to show how development impacts a waterway. Teachers led scavenger hunts while children took turns releasing trout. Mark Jones, a board member of the Mid-Hudson chapter of Trout Unlimited, was there to teach fly casting. While most of its members are anglers, Jones emphasized that his chapter's mission is "to show the importance of stream preservation." On Fishkill Creek, he said the chapter has done clean-ups and tree plantings that reduce bank erosion. April Stark, another member of the Mid-Hudson chapter, demonstrated fly tying and explained that a river with healthy bugs produces healthy trout. "Trout only live in good, clean water," she said. "So, when you see trout who are able to thrive wi...

Mase buyer expected to soon sign contract The Beacon City Council has approved the sale of the 114-year-old Mase Hook & Ladder fire station, although city officials said the buyer and price won't be revealed until the contract is finalized. The council voted, 6-0, on Monday (May 19), with Jeff Domanski of Ward 2 abstaining. He said that while City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis had moments earlier provided an "excellent explanation" of the sale process and council members' responsibility to seek the highest return, he felt "that could have been communicated earlier; it might have allayed a lot of concerns." City Administrator Chris White said Wednesday that he was hopeful the sale would be finalized next week. Earlier this month, a real-estate agency hired by the city listed Mase, at 425 Main St., for $1.95 million and the former Beacon Engine Co. firehouse at 57 East Main St. for $1.75 million. Both properties became surplus after a $14.7 million centralized fire station opened near City Hall last fall. On Monday, Ward-Willis explained that state law allows a municipality to withhold details of a sale until a contract has been signed. "Similar to a private deal, you don't negotiate in public, especially on the financial terms," he said. The council's vote authorized White to move forward with the sale and acknowledged that an ownership transfer would not negatively impact the environment. If the new owner, as expected, submits plans to redevelop the three-story brick building, they will be subject to Planning Board review, including for environmental impacts. At the Monday meeting, Beacon resident Theresa Kraft criticized the pending sale, saying a council member voting "yes" could be labeled "a traitor, a crook, a pawn in a larger game." "It's like pawning your grandfather's gold watch to pay a bill," she said. "The bills keep piling up, and once the watch is gone, you lose a cherished family heirloom." She asked the council to call for a public referendum before proceeding with a sale. Ward-Willis responded later, noting that state law permits only certain situations, such as the issuance of bonds or a change to the city charter, to go to voters. As elected representatives, he said, the council must decide most matters. "With the sale of a property or the purchase of a snowplow, you're not allowed to go to the public and do a poll," he said. "You don't have the authority to send it to the public. You've been elected and you need to do your job." Addressing other suggestions made recently, Ward-Willis said the city had considered repurposing the building but a law that requires multiple contractors for public construction projects made conversion impractical. Modern accessibility codes also do not apply to the building as long as it is a fire station, but "when you kick it over to a different use, whether it's a community center, whether it's a city hall, that triggers a whole set of rules which the city has to comply with," he said. The city received multiple offers for the former station, Ward-Willis said. Charlotte Guernsey, the owner of Gate House Compass Realty, the city's broker, recommended the pending offer as "the highest and best," he said. The decommissioned Mase and Beacon Engine stations are both part of Beacon's protected historic district. City officials said both former firehouses would be sold with covenants that restrict renaming the properties or altering or defacing their historical features. Any changes to the exterior of the buildings will require a "certificate of appropriateness" from the Planning Board. While a sale is pending at Mase, Beacon Engine's ownership has been challenged. State Judge Thomas Davis on Tuesday (May 20) recused himself from litigation brought against the city by retired members of the volunteer fire company that used the station as its headquarters for 136 years. Davis, who presided over the lawsuit filed in 2023 by St. Andrew & St. Luke Episcopal Church over a city-owned parkin...

Tony Moore mounts show of works by friends and neighbors After more than a year of curation, Tony Moore is poised to open his remote Philipstown gallery space and its lush grounds to display his work and that of 14 other artists whom he admires and calls friends. The show, Destination Earth, contains over 70 pieces spread across the wooded property and inside the light and roomy interior spaces. The main upstairs gallery seems like an airy treehouse, with vistas complementing the art. Moore and his wife, Cynthia Ligenza, met in New York City nearly 30 years ago at a gathering for people wanting to imbue their lives with health, art and sharing. Two years later, they moved to a 5-acre property on a ridge abutting Fahnestock State Park. The two married that summer under tall oaks, and the expansive surroundings continue to nurture creativity. "We are living in paradise," says Ligenza. Crediting her husband's vision and efforts, she says "every inch of our property is curated, and it brings me to tears to look at it because it's so beautiful." Moore has been producing beauty since childhood, even before his grandfather recognized his interests and gave him woodworking tools. Born in the midlands of England, Moore went to art school in the U.K. and Yale University. After graduating with an MFA, he installed exhibits at the Guggenheim, which would later acquire four of his works. The Brooklyn Museum owns two. Ligenza became a physician, with a practice in Cold Spring, while maintaining a lifelong devotion to music. The Ligenza Moore Gallery has hosted recitals featuring Ligenza on violin and with other musicians. Art beckons as one approaches the show, which explores "where we are, how we got here, what may endure, and what is to come." When coming from the plateau below the buildings, a ceramic platter by Jeff Shapiro sits before ascending stairs. Kurt Steger's wood-and-steel abstraction is adjacent to the gallery sign. More Steger pieces pepper the grounds. "Vipassana," by David Provan "Reverb," by Don Voisine "Summer Walk," by Katherine Bradford Sculptures by Kurt Steger and David Provan "The Thousand-Eyed Present (from Ralph Waldo Emerson)," by Meg Hitchcock Once inside the vestibule, there are graphic etchings and collages by Judy Pfaff, who attended Yale with Moore. Entering the upstairs space, Moore's dark painting on paper features a bright blue hand, echoing the hand imagery in Pfaff's work. On the landing leading to the main gallery, the shapes in each work mimic others in proximity. "The works start talking to each other," Moore says. "As a curator, you try to foster that conversation. I've spent a great deal of time moving things around in the gallery to try to achieve that balance and harmony." Moore's work in the show includes a mysterious painting that suggests a chrysalis or womb; a wall of pictorial ceramics he calls "fire paintings;" wood-fired ceramics with surface and interior interest; an early wood-fired ceramic wall tile; and one bronze and one ceramic-and-steel sculpture placed outside that shift in appearance depending on weather and light. "I'm not a figurative artist," Moore says. But he is also not an abstract artist such as his friend David Provan, who died last year. Instead, evocative imagery and forms with a spiritual component mark his work, which he suggests might be characterized as "symbolic abstraction." The gallery also has three small acrylics by Katherine Bradford, whose swimmers, while figurative, respect formal principles and abstract composition, with faces that are nothing more than slabs of color. Perhaps the most traditional art in the show is by Moore's neighbor, Simeon Lagodich, who is completing a series of Hudson Valley plein air paintings. An iguana poses with an adorned woman painted by Garry Nichols, and around her is a ceramic piece by Moore that might look like a pair of animals - dogs, bunnies? On a lawn behind the gallery and near the sheltered Anagama-Noborigam...

My first experience growing plants in containers was in a rooftop garden in Brooklyn. The previous tenant left behind troughs and pots, and I was delighted to make use of them. I grew sweet corn, 8-foot sunflowers in clay pots and herbs of all flavors. I learned from my farmer uncle that corn had to be planted in two rows, not a single line, because it's wind-pollinated. I staggered a row of five in a curving line. That doesn't yield a lot of corn, but I liked the way it looked, and it felt grounding to have these sturdy, waving stalks among the industrialness of the neighborhood. The sunflowers were cheerful and untouched by the squirrels and chipmunks that keep me from growing them in Philipstown. At the end of the season, I would lop off the heads and give them to my neighbors, who kept chickens in an empty lot on the corner. The herbs were a sensory blast and sometimes used for cooking among the people who shared the space. The setup dictated the growing conditions. The rooftop was accessible after many stairs and walking through the kitchen and a bedroom. Lugging heavy bags of soil or other materials was a drag. I improvised compost and filler with leaves I collected in the street for mulch. There wasn't any shade, and the black tar paper under the containers was blazing hot. Setting the pots on stands helped. Water came from a hose that ran up the fire ladder from the courtyard below and had to be turned on and off at ground level. Getting that parkour workout was a bonus. Now I'm a flatlander, with acres of greenery and containers that form a border to keep people from falling off the patio. It was useful when my daughter was learning to walk. All were inherited from a previous owner or repurposed. I appreciate having herbs like chives and basil nearby for cooking and dill to attract caterpillars that become butterflies. I grow lettuce because it's close to the kitchen and easy to gather for salads. Sun-warmed cherry tomatoes, a summer luxury, are close at hand because everyone likes to grab one for a quick snack. I have two window boxes to plant - a gift handmade and installed by my husband. I considered how nice they would look on the stone wall of our house but realized I don't want to block the view from inside. I'm planning a low-growing mix with creeping thyme and stonecrop plants. A few things to address when planting containers: For vegetables, look for plants labeled "patio," which are bred to grow in small spaces. Watering is the most demanding part of container gardening. Larger pots allow for more soil volume that will dry out less quickly. Metal containers heat up fast and hold heat. Pottery is more stable temperature-wise but porous. Plastic is relatively stable, but it's got all the relative issues of being plastic; it's better to repurpose or acquire used plastic pots. Wood is a fine material. Commit to watering and set up a rain collection system nearby if possible. Monitor the soil daily if it isn't raining. Think about layers and maximize space by using tall, medium and shorter plants to fill out the container. If you enjoy fresh mint, grow it in a container to avoid its inevitable colonization of a flowerbed. The same is true for other vigorous plants. Soil sold in bags labeled as "potting mixes" is blended to maximize nutrients and drainage. Avoid using garden soil or topsoil, which are denser. I've never used mulch in container gardening but in larger troughs or with bare soil it could help with water retention. It's a myth that a layer of rocks at the bottom of a pot will help drainage. It makes it worse. Fill it with soil and make it snug around the plants to avoid air pockets. Mix perennials and annuals to lighten your workload. You don't have to start from scratch every year. Many pollinator-attracting plants will happily grow in pots. A few of my favorites are butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa), foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) and little bluestem, a native grass (Schizachyrium ...

Beacon artist opens studio to beginners Not too long ago, Beacon High School offered woodworking classes in a space now occupied by Rexhill Studio. An old sign outside one of the warren of rooms in the KuBe Art Center reads: "GO4 Wood Shop." Today, students can access a Construction Trade curriculum that includes some woodworking instruction through Dutchess BOCES. Two are enrolled. Exemplifying the decline of practical manual arts education, studio co-owner Justin King attended the Oregon College of Art and Craft, which shuttered in 2019 after 112 years. To fill the instructive void, King launched an eight-week introduction to the basics, Woodshop Beacon, which sold out fast and wrapped up on Wednesday (May 21). "We have fewer places to do this kind of thing," he says. "With YouTube and other videos, you're starting in the middle and backtracking to the beginning, so this helps plug in the knowledge gap." The endgame for the class is a handmade square box, a task that requires several basic skills. A model jewel case that King created is shaped to near perfection, with seamless joints; the top tray nestles inside with zero wiggle room. Press a button in the back and out pops a hidden drawer. "Boxes can be simple, but they require time, dedication and ability," says King. The name Rexhill, incorporating the Latin word for his last name, harks to the family farm in Ohio. After making his way to Portland, he met his wife, Paula, who plays an instrumental role at the studio. The couple drifted east with stopovers because there are lots of woodworkers in the Pacific Northwest and she grew up in New Jersey. In 2006, when they settled in Beacon, "it was pretty rough," she says. "But you could feel a change in the air." Justin King's first love is fine furniture, and he makes tables and credenzas with artistic and technical flair. The studio also devises custom installations in collaboration with architects, homeowners, contractors and interior designers. For the Woodshop Beacon class, students began by "playing around with planing," according to the curriculum. They progressed to joinery and working with machines, taking advantage of hands-on shop time on Saturday mornings. Building the box requires choosing the type of wood and assembling, sanding and completing the project. "Even if a finished piece is functional, it is art because no two designs are alike," says King, who worried about filling up seats and was comforted by the response. Dylan Assael, a friend, jumped at the chance to attend. "I thought, 'How great would it be to acquire this skill and level up my abilities?' " he says. Assael also took a sewing class and creates flags that mesh with the decor at boat and yacht clubs. Though woodworking presents inherent danger, he faced his fears. "Those tools can maim and injure and that scares the shit out of me, so I'm glad to get instruction from a pro and keep my digits intact," he says. "Sifting through videos is frustrating; it's so much easier to talk to a human being and get instant feedback." Rexhill Studio is located at 211 Fishkill Ave., Suite GO1 & 4B, in Beacon. See rexhillstudio.com or call 503-490-7280.

Roni Horn exhibit elevates her work at Beacon museum Memo to visitors at Dia Beacon's Roni Horn exhibition: Keep your heads up to avoid tripping or stubbing a toe. "Objects of Constancy," which weighs in at 300 pounds and looks like an oversized stick of licorice (or seven strands of intertwined rebar), rests in the middle of a walkway. Other dense works, made of cast lead, are tucked into a nook and also placed on the floor by the artist. "Mass Removal II" and "Mass Removal III," created with hand-hammering and a pneumatic drill, resemble elongated clamshells with scuffed-up interiors. The tops of four rocks-from-another-planet, an excerpt from the eight-piece Space Buttress series, look like petrified wood (one of which conveys the illusion of a knot). In contrast, the sides evoke moss-covered stone. "Things That Happen Again," another floor-based sculpture, consists of two shiny 1,752-pound copper cylinders placed at 90-degree angles. In a separate room, the cast iron pieces that make up "Post Work 3" resemble textured loudspeakers on poles and hint at an Easter Island vibe. "Vertical sculptures generally suggest the human form, just as horizontal works are often associated with landscapes," says curator Donna De Salvo. "Object of Consistency" (1980) "Post Work 3" (1986) "Things That Happen Again" (1986/90) "Space Buttress I" (1984-85) More than a sculptor, Horn installed this long-term exhibit that elevates her work into the pantheon of artists occupying permanent and semi-permanent spaces in the massive museum, like Donald Judd, Richard Serra and Andy Warhol. "Horn was friends with Serra, and Judd arranged for the permanent install of another version of 'Things That Happen Again' at Marfa [his 45,000-acre ranch and gallery in Texas], so she fits right in," says De Salvo. Of the exhibit's 23 works, nine are owned by Dia; the abstract color and texture studies hanging on the walls are on loan from the artist and her gallery. These framed works date to the mid-1980s. Horn deployed similar motifs and techniques in later, larger creations, says De Salvo. Building on a back-mounted sheet of paper, she created a second layer with smaller fragments of thicker, mottled paper arranged in a collage style covered with colorful, slate-like shapes seemingly outlined in black. Three works titled "Brooklyn Red" are accompanied by a couple of Brooklyn whites, Hamilton reds and Brooklyn grays. Some of the shapes seem three-dimensional, especially in "This 1," where the colored blotch looks bent like a butterfly wing. Horn enjoys pairing subjects, like the paper work "Untitled (Hamilton)," which looks like a couple of nuclear reactors. The objects in "Double I I' " and "Double N N' " seem more risque. In 2001 and 2002, as her international renown began to grow, Horn held two solo shows at the Dia Center for the Arts in Manhattan. Now, she's on the same level at Dia Beacon as Robert Ryman, Gerhard Richter and Louise Bourgeois. It's rare for a living artist to achieve such recognition (she is 69). "We've had a real commitment to her for more than 20 years," says De Salvo. "She's one of the major figures of her generation and there's a dialogue with our other artists on view." Dia Beacon, at 3 Beekman St., is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday to Monday. Admission is $20 ($18 seniors, $12 students and disabled visitors, $5 ages 5 to 11, free for members, ages 5 and younger and Beacon and Newburgh residents). See diaart.org.

Proposal also would steer revenue to towns, villages Four Putnam legislators who supported lowering the county's sales tax rate acquiesced on Monday (May 19), endorsing state legislation that will maintain the current 4 percent rate and send some proceeds to Cold Spring, Nelsonville, Philipstown and six other towns and villages. Convening for a special session, the Legislature voted 7-1 to support bills introduced by state Sen. Pete Harckham and Assembly Member Matt Slater, whose districts include eastern Putnam, that would extend the 4 percent sales tax rate for another two years. Without the bill, the rate will return to 3 percent. Consumers pay a total of 8.375 percent on eligible purchases, which includes portions that go the state (4 percent) and Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District (0.375 percent). The state legislation also requires that one-ninth of 1 percent of Putnam's sales tax revenue be shared with the county's nine municipalities. State lawmakers first approved the increase from 3 percent to 4 percent in 2007, at the county's request, and a series of extensions have kept it in place. The most recent extension expires Nov. 30. In April, five county legislators voted to lower Putnam's tax to 3.75 percent as a give-back to taxpayers amid a $90 million surplus in unrestricted reserves. But County Executive Kevin Byrne vetoed the reduction and announced an agreement to share with the towns and villages proceeds from the 1 percent increase if it were extended. Municipalities can spend the money on infrastructure projects, with each receiving an amount tied to its population and each guaranteed at least $50,000. Harckham and Slater endorsed the agreement, which would take effect Dec. 1 and last through Nov. 30, 2027, if their bills pass the Legislature and become law. In addition to enabling what Byrne calls "a first-of-its-kind sales tax-sharing arrangement," the extension will fund a $1 million reduction in the property-tax levy for the 2026 budget that he said would be the largest in county history. "The alternative was allowing the county's sales tax rate to drop, immediately creating a revenue shortfall of tens of millions of dollars, forcing the county to borrow, raise property taxes or both," Byrne said. Facing those same pressures, Putnam's municipalities have for years demanded a share of the sales tax revenue, something that 50 of New York's 62 counties do with their cities, towns and villages, according to the state Comptroller's Office. Dutchess' 2025 budget includes $46 million in sales tax distributions, with an estimated $6.1 million for Beacon. If the proposed revenue-sharing agreement had been in place in 2024, Putnam would have distributed $2.4 million to the towns and three villages on a per capita basis, Byrne said during a news conference last month. "I haven't heard a single constituent ask us to lower the sales tax," said Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley as the Legislature's sole Democrat, on Monday. "What I have heard loud and clear is stop the back and forth, stop the chaos and work together." Legislator Dan Birmingham, who led the effort to lower the sales tax rate, did not participate in the vote because his law firm represents three of the municipalities that would benefit from the revenue-sharing agreement. Another supporter of the cut, Paul Jonke, was the only legislator voting against endorsing Harckham and Slater's legislation, which must pass the state Legislature before its session concludes on June 12. Amid that pressure, legislators who voted for the vetoed sales tax cut last month endorsed maintaining the current rate. But they complained about being sidelined while Byrne and the municipal officials reached a revenue-sharing agreement and secured backing from Harckham and Slater. Legislator Toni Addonizio, who had voted for the cut, was among those who did not agree with how the revenue-sharing agreement was crafted. She had proposed...

Known for its bread, bakery relocates from Peekskill There's something in the air in Garrison - the smell of fresh bread. Signal Fire Bread opened a new, wood-fired bakery on Thursday (May 15) on Route 9D in Garrison just south of the post office. Its co-owners, Erin Detrick and Liz Rauch, are both experienced in the art of baking. Detrick baked professionally in New York City before establishing Signal Fire Bread in 2018. Rauch operated a home-based bakery before joining Detrick at the Sparrowbush Bakery in Hudson. They joined forces in 2019 and two years later moved the bakery to Peekskill. Rauch said their goal in Peekskill was to run a manufacturing plant for bread, but local zoning required them to include a retail component. "We were able to establish a strong business there, but the retail space was makeshift." Detrick said. "We didn't have great visibility, and we couldn't grow it." They were not actively looking for a new home but said they couldn't resist when the Garrison location became available. "The space came to us," Rauch said. "We considered it for a while, and it was like, 'Yes, this is what we imagined we'd like to be.'" They closed the Peekskill facility in late 2024 to focus on the move. Signal Fire's initial retail selection will include 12 to 15 types of bread, from baguettes, spelt, brioche and miche, to East Mountain levain, Ammerland rye and honey whole wheat. There will also be scones, muffins, cookies, biscuits, galettes and rolls. "We'll add pizzas, sandwiches and salads eventually and, hopefully, soups by the fall," Detrick said. "We want to add more breakfast and lunch items as we get our legs and train staff." Coffee + Beer in Ossining will supply coffee. Signal Fire will continue to have a booth on Saturdays at the Cold Spring Farmers' Market, where it has a loyal following. Rauch and Detrick are aware that the building, which began life as a gas station, has seen a succession of short-lived cafes and restaurants. "That was an early concern, but we're already well-known in this community and feeling so much support everywhere we go here," Detrick said. Grain and the flour derived from it are the raw materials that fuel a bakery. Signal Fire works with Farmer Ground Flour, which grows organic grain on five farms in the Finger Lakes region and grinds it into flour using pink granite millstones. That process mills together the grain's three elements - bran, germ and endosperm - to maximize flavor and nutrient value. "It can be sifted if you want a lighter wheat, or left whole," Detrick said. They sometimes source flour from New Jersey and Maine, as well. Rauch said 90 percent of what they bake uses natural wild yeast. "Sourdough is natural wild yeast; it's in the air," she said. They mix flour, water and yeast twice a day. "We've been maintaining that culture since we opened; it's a constant process of keeping it healthy and happy." The name Signal Fire is tied to the region's geography and history. Signal fires were lit on mountaintops in the Highlands as a means of communication, both during the Revolutionary War and probably earlier by Native Americans. "I loved that image of fires burning on the mountaintops," Detrick said. Both bakers admitted to a slight case of the jitters as opening day approached. "We've been prepping for a year," Detrick said. "It's a blend of excitement, nerves and curiosity about what's going to actually happen when people come through the door." Rauch added: "I'm feeling positive and optimistic. I'm also nervous because we've never run an operation like this. We're jumping off the diving board!" Signal Fire Bread, at 1135 Route 9D in Garrison, will be open today (May 16), Saturday and Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Beginning May 22, it will be open daily except Wednesday. See signalfirebread.com.

Says deputies punished for writing too few tickets The union representing Putnam County Sheriff's Office deputies said it has filed a complaint with the state labor board alleging that its members are penalized for failing to meet quotas for writing tickets. The Sheriff's Office PBA announced on May 10 that an action has been filed with the state Public Employees Relations Board (PERB) against Sheriff Kevin McConville, Putnam County and County Executive Kevin Byrne. Neither the union nor the sheriff or county executive's offices responded to emails about the allegation, but a Facebook post by the PBA said Capt. James Schepperly, who heads the Sheriff's Office's patrol division, has used quotas "as a gauge of a deputy's performance," in violation of department policy and state law. The Sheriff's Office only publicizes its use-of-force policy. But state labor law bars police agencies from penalizing officers - including "reassignment, a scheduling change, an adverse evaluation, a constructive dismissal, the denial of a promotion or the denial of overtime" - for failing to meet quotas for writing tickets or arresting or stopping people. Putnam deputies who did not write enough tickets "had their schedules changed and were subjected to a change of duty assignment or location as punishment," according to the PBA. "It's our expectation that once our case is heard by PERB they will side with the PBA and these unlawful, retaliatory actions, that create an increase in tax dollars, will stop." According to data provided by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, Putnam deputies wrote 5,422 tickets in 2024, 20 percent fewer than 2023. Most drivers were cited in Southeast, followed by Philipstown and Putnam Valley. The most common infraction was an expired or missing state safety inspection, followed by driving without a license, lack of registration, speeding and disobeying a traffic device. According to Jackie Fielding, a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice in New York City who co-authored a 2022 report on ticket quotas, they "can incentivize officers to prioritize enforcement activities that can be completed quickly and easily," rather than "investigating more complex or violent crimes that significantly impact public safety." "In the more extreme case, officers can resort to malfeasance to meet their quotas: fabricating a reason for a stop or arrest, assigning tickets to fictitious drivers or even recording tickets for dead people," she said. One case occurred in February 2023, when the Westchester County district attorney charged a state trooper, Edward Longo, with writing at least 32 tickets over 10 years on the Sprain and Taconic parkways for drivers he never stopped, including someone who had died before the ticket was issued. Longo was charged with 32 felony counts. The trooper who filed the paperwork charging Longo said his division "monitors its officers for performance-related goals in the issuance of traffic tickets," according to The Journal News, and may counsel those "who do not meet expectations or whose productivity falls below their peers."

Budget and trustee elections in Philipstown, Beacon Voters in the Highlands will go to the polls on Tuesday (May 20) to consider school district budgets for 2025-26 and elect board members. Here's a rundown. Beacon Beacon's $87.7 million budget proposal includes a 5.09 percent tax-levy increase, just under the maximum allowed for the district by New York State. The levy will generate more than $50 million in property taxes. At $31.6 million - an increase of $572,000 (1.9 percent), state aid makes up the bulk of the remaining revenue. The district expects to spend $2.5 million of its savings in 2025-26, an increase of $500,000 over this year. Most of the discussion in recent board meetings has revolved around the tax levy, which stands to increase because of new development in Beacon - meaning the "pie" is divided into more pieces through the addition of taxpaying households - and debt service on a $50 million capital project approved last year by voters. The capital improvements will begin in 2026 and include secure building entrances, creation of cooling centers in schools, air conditioning in up to 50 percent of elementary classrooms, infrastructure upgrades such as roofing, upgrades to the Beacon High School baseball and softball fields and renovations to the theater at the high school. District officials say that, if approved, the budget will allow them to maintain improvements made in recent years, including smaller elementary class sizes, increased mental health support for students and a full-day pre-K program. For the first time, the district plans to launch a summer workshop program for incoming high school students and create an in-school mental health clinic at Rombout Middle School. It will also add teachers for elementary students struggling in math and reading and hire a part-time elementary speech instructor. While the proposed levy increase is more than 5 percent, the addition of new households to the tax rolls means homeowners' bills may not go up by the same percentage. The district estimates that the owner of a $420,200 home (the median value) in Beacon would see their taxes increase by $240 annually. Meredith Heuer and Semra Ercin are running unopposed for re-election to the nine-member school board. Heuer will return for her fourth, 3-year term; Ercin is running for her first full term after being elected in 2023 to complete the final two years of a vacated seat. Alena Kush did not file for a second term and her seat will be filled by a newcomer, Catherine Buscemi, the owner of Belfry Historic Consultants, who is also running unopposed. The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Beacon residents vote at the high school at 101 Matteawan Road; Fishkill and Wappinger residents vote at Glenham Elementary School, 20 Chase Drive. Haldane Haldane's $30.2 million proposal translates to a 2.8 percent tax-levy increase. Using the state's tax-cap formula, the district could have asked for a 3.38 levy increase. School board members debated this spring whether to go "to cap" but opted to forgo about $132,000 in revenue after voters last year approved an increase of 6.95 percent over three years to pay for $28.4 million in capital improvements. State aid for 2025-26 will be $4.55 million, an increase of $73,000 (1.6 percent). The budget includes funding for a science-of-reading curriculum; software to improve student outcomes; a new pre-K program; special education funding for out-of-district placements; increased field trip spending; a softball field dugout; classroom air conditioners to comply with New York state's maximum temperature requirement; auditorium stage and performing arts equipment; and a transportation system analysis. The district estimates that taxes on a home valued at $500,000 will rise by $197 annually. Board members Sean McNall and Ezra Clementson are running unopposed to retain their seats on the five-member school board. Clementson will seek his second, 3-year term and McNall his third term. ...

Waterway runs near Route 9 projects A mining company's proposal to build a cement plant on Route 9 just north of Philipstown is drawing concerns about risks to Clove Creek and the aquifer beneath it, which supplies drinking water to several municipalities. Ted Warren, public policy manager with the Hudson Highlands Land Trust, joined Philipstown residents in expressing reservations to the Fishkill Planning Board during a May 8 public hearing. Century Aggregate wants to add the 8,050-square-foot plant to its 310-acre property at 107 Route 9, as well as 11 parking spaces, a well to supply 10,000 gallons of water daily and an on-site septic system. The portion of the property was formerly occupied by the Snow Valley Campground. The plant would operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 6 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, the firm said. Vehicles would use an existing bridge over Clove Creek, a protected waterway that snakes through the property. Along with concerns from residents about truck traffic, noise and dust, and endangered and threatened wildlife such as the timber rattlesnake, Warren said newly paved surfaces risk sending contaminated runoff into the creek, to the detriment of water quality and fish. "Given the increase in extreme precipitation events that we are facing these days, and the fact that the proposed plan is located at the base of steep slopes, the potential for storms to overwhelm the proposed containment and drainage systems during heavy precipitation events should be closely examined," he said. Century Aggregate's daily withdrawal of 10,000 gallons of water could also affect the creek and its underlying aquifer, said Warren. The aquifer parallels Route 9 from East Mountain Road South to the town border with Fishkill. Its groundwater feeds private wells that supply residents and businesses along Route 9, the towns of Fishkill and Wappinger, the Village of Fishkill and Beacon. "The dust and the pollution that's going to come from the operating of that plant is going to definitely have an impact on the environment, the creek and the living conditions of businesses and houses," Carlos Salcedo, a Philipstown resident whose property on Old Albany Post Road borders the creek, told the Planning Board. Clove Creek's waters bisect the front and back parts of another property where a proposed project is raising concerns: 3070 Route 9, whose owner is seeking Planning Board approval to convert the former Automar into a gas station with a convenience store and Dunkin'. Clove Creek flows north toward Fishkill about 50 yards from the front of the property. The owner, Misti's Properties 3070, notified the Philipstown Conservation Board in March that it had decided to revise its proposal. An engineer for Misti's told the board that the owner found "substantial environmental impacts - a lot of earthwork" and other conditions that would make it difficult to construct a planned office building and solar farm. Andy Galler, chair of the Conservation Board, said on Tuesday (May 13) that the previous owner used fill and allowed old vehicles and other debris to accumulate within the 100-foot protective buffer required for watercourses and wetlands. The abandoned vehicles have been cleared, he said, but the fill remains, along with a bridge connecting the front and back sections of the property. The bridge is "not ideal" because it constricts the creek's flow, he said, and could spur a blockage from debris carried during heavy rainstorms. "The ideal situation would be, if somebody is going to develop the front part of the property, that hopefully the giveback is that there is some remediation to put back a flood plain area that would be natural and native," said Galler. Despite continued industrial development along Route 9, the creek is "amazingly intact" and rated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation at "just about the highest standard" for water quality and trout habitat, he said. "It runs clear," said Galler.

Beacon actors will 'cold read' work Like thousands of actors before him, from Australia to Zimbabwe, Alexander Florez will rip open a sealed manila envelope tonight (May 16) and cold read a 2010 play, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, in the backyard of his Beacon home. Two other performers will take the plunge in yards on Saturday and Sunday. The premise - some call it a gimmick - is that everyone in a confined space takes an hour-long journey akin to a one-off jazz solo. Though details have leaked, audiences and the theater community (including reporters) have kept the broad outline and most revealing moments under wraps. The playwright, Nassim Soleimanpour, includes a clause in the contract for producers: "This play is not overtly political and should not be portrayed as such. It operates on a deeper, metaphoric level, and very expressly avoids overt political comment. All media and press agents have to keep in mind that the playwright lives in Iran. We therefore ask the press to be judicious in their reportage." Florez is a math teacher who will never pass muster with the grammar police. He avoids capital letters as an act of resistance and his email tag links to "the case for lowercase" style guide on his website, which includes instructions about turning off caps on devices and in programs. "I have a lot of respect and disdain for academia," he says. "I'm impressed with education but also dismayed with the gatekeeping and barriers to entry. One way to oppress is by making complicated grammar and spelling rules the standard for everyone, even though a select few invented them." Pushback against authority is reflected in the play. According to Soleimanpour, he wrote it after he refused to serve in the Iranian military and the regime denied him a visa to leave the country. (He is now thought to live in Berlin.) The production requires props, but the playwright's website touts the lack of sets, directors and rehearsals. Studying for his practical teaching certificate at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, Florez fell in with the acting crowd (he works at the Manitou School in Philipstown). After bouncing around the Hudson Valley, he moved to Beacon in 2022 and got involved with the improv and comedy scene. White Rabbit Red Rabbit had an off-Broadway run in 2016: Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg and Alan Cumming, among others, unsealed the script and got to work - for the first and last time. Playbill called it "the most-talked about (and least-talked about) new show." Beacon resident Jamie Mulligan read the script to prepare the actors, gather props and make staging suggestions. But per the legal agreement, the plot and other elements may not be divulged or discussed by anyone involved. At first, Florez figured he'd reach out to local performance venues, but Mulligan suggested staging the play at an art gallery, coffeehouse or other offbeat space. James Phillips, a theater professor at Mount Saint Mary, will read in his yard on Saturday and Twinkle Burke walks the high wire on Sunday outside the home of Hannah Brooks (with contingency plans for inclement weather). The play stems from experimental theater of the 1960s, Mulligan says, and "requires the audience and actor to encounter these subjects simultaneously, a connection that creates a level of spark that can only happen when everyone learns about this together." Broad outlines address elements of existential oppression and the role of individuals in society. "Someone told me that every play is about hope, so it places the human condition into primal conflicts, like man versus nature or man versus god," says Mulligan. That so many details have remained a secret for 15 years "speaks to the integrity of theater-makers." White Rabbit Red Rabbit will be performed by Florez at 7 p.m. at 119 Howland Ave. in Beacon, at 7 p.m., on Saturday (May 17) at 24 Willow St. by Phillips and at 3 p.m. on Sunday at 99 E. Main St. by Burke. Tickets are $10 to $32.24 at dub.sh/white-rabbit.

Russell St. George, retired welder, plays with fire Any band would relish having a cheerleader like Shirley Maloney. At a recent show by Last Minute Soulmates at the Towne Crier in Beacon, she acted out the words, exhorted the crowd to sing along and pounded on tables during the final song, a funky cover of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." A good portion of the rowdy crowd almost reached Maloney's level of enthusiasm. House staff created an impromptu dance floor by clearing tables near the stage as people swung their partners with elbows locked together during "Maggie's Farm" and danced in circles during a heavy version of "Hound Dog." At one point, two men started screaming, ostensibly out of joy. The group's founder, Russell St. George, moved to town in 1986 and is a dean of Beacon's music scene. He focuses on original songs but likes to mix in atypical versions of covers, including "Your Cheating Heart" as a deliberate shuffle. "I'm not good enough to play them like the record, but I do like to shake things up with the arrangement or approach," he says. "And I still write, including songs about what's going on, like one about gun violence called 'When's it Gonna Stop?' " His originals, some of which feature a reggae tinge, keep things simple and rely on hooky choruses that get people singing. At one point, almost the entire audience, including the waitstaff, belted out the words. Working as a welder in Peekskill, a job he held for 37 years, St. George heard that houses in Beacon could be had on the cheap. His first local band, Daarc Ages (an acronym of members' first names), released a couple of CDs and opened for Dee Snider, Uriah Heap and Blue Oyster Cult at The Chance in Poughkeepsie and other venues. "We'd make a CD and someone would quit, so we had to keep finding musicians and never really got off the ground," he says. "Besides, I was kind of shy." That's odd because he sports flowing hair, a goatee and moustache. His fashion sense includes hats, big round glasses and black, accented with scarves, a look that leans more toward the hippie camp than the blue-collar world. Over the years, he played every local venue and hosted a 17-year monthly jam at Joe's Irish Pub (now MoMo Valley) that he called St. George and Friends. "The whole time, I never missed a date," he says. "But I turned 60, COVID hit and the end arrived." Last Minute Soulmates started as an acoustic duo that grew into an electric project by 2011. Self-effacing, he credits band members for any success. Not shy about his left-leaning political views, he lost some followers over the years. He feels no compulsion to record his new tunes, in part because working in the studio is a drag compared to playing for a responsive audience. "Streams and other delivery systems don't get a lot of traction," he says. "If people want to hear my songs in their best light, come see me live." Last Minute Soulmates, with St. George (vocals, guitar), Carla Springer (vocals), Rik Mercaldi (guitar), Harry Lawrence (bass) and Mitch Florian (drums), will perform at 9 p.m. on May 23 at Gleason's, 23 S. Division St., in Peekskill.

State must approve three-year agreement Central Hudson on Tuesday (May 13) announced a three-year agreement with the state and other parties that would raise electricity and gas delivery rates for most customers. If the plan is approved by the state Public Service Commission, a typical Central Hudson customer will pay $5.43 (5.09 percent) more per month for electricity delivery during the first year, beginning July 1, and $6.25 and $6.62 more for the subsequent two years. Lower-income customers enrolled in an energy-assistance program would see decreases of $3.85 (4.2 percent) per month. The delivery charge for gas would increase by $7.73 (6.6 percent) per month during the first year and $11.27 and $12.37 in subsequent years. After applying $44 million in bill credits, Central Hudson would collect $144 million in new revenue over the three years, according to a summary of the proposal. The company said it would spend that revenue on infrastructure, higher labor costs and bonuses, energy-efficiency and heat-pump programs and a 9.5 percent return on shareholder equity. Central Hudson also agreed to provide customer bills in Spanish, continue outreach to households about energy assistance and award up to $200,000 in grants for workforce training in green-energy fields. Opponents and supporters of the proposal, whose signatories include the state Department of Public Service, have until May 23 to submit statements to the PSC, which scheduled a hearing for June 13. "At Central Hudson, we understand the financial challenges that rising bills place on our customers, and we are committed to easing this burden by implementing a rate plan that balances essential system investments with the need to keep costs as low as possible," said Steph Raymond, the utility's president and CEO. Those costs, however, have been rising for Central Hudson's 315,000 electric and 90,000 gas customers. The most recent rate increase, approved by the PSC in July 2024, was for a one-year hike of $12.65 per month for the average electric bill and $12.25 for gas. The following month, Central Hudson submitted a request for another one-year increase to electric and gas delivery rates of $9 a month. The agreement announced on Tuesday replaces that request. Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, issued his verdict on Wednesday (May 14), urging the PSC to reject the proposed agreement. He said the return on equity is "good for shareholders of Fortis [Central Hudson's parent company] but not for its customers," who include 6,853 households in Beacon, 3,646 in Philipstown, 1,270 in Cold Spring and 326 in Nelsonville.

Marbled Meat to host house concert Strolling down Main Street in Beacon while eating, drinking and making merry on a beautiful weekend day, Aaron Miller outlined his vision for a music series that "builds community," a phrase often bandied about. But he gets things done. His first show with blues guitarist Jon Shain takes place on Sunday (May 18) at an unusual venue: the Marbled Meat Shop on Route 9 in Philipstown. Miller created a logo for what he calls his "butcher block party." "I always wanted to do house concerts and thought it would be a bougie thing with wine and cheese for 20 friends, but my girlfriend figured that we might ruin the carpet," Miller said. The couple decided to hold it outside, but when Lisa Hall of Marbled Meat heard about the plan, she urged caution. "Lisa goes, 'You know, you'll trample the lawn and maybe affect the septic tank, so why not have it here and we can do a pop-up barbecue?' " The BYOB event will raise money and collect non-perishables for the Philipstown Food Pantry. "When I heard about cuts to meals programs, I got fired up and decided that I had to give back," says Miller, who moved to Beacon in January. "On Saturday morning, 63 families signed up to get fed, and that kills me." Hosting the show provides a kid-friendly alternative to live music in a bar, says Hall. After Marbled opened 10 years ago, it presented Tall Country and other groups. "Now the tunes have come back in an organic way," she said. Shain, who lives in North Carolina, attended Duke University in the 1990s. So did Miller, a fan of the guitarist's college band, Flyin' Mice, which broke up long ago. "I guess I was on his short list all these years," says Shain, who will teach and perform at the Acoustic Getaway guitar camp in Stony Point this weekend. Specializing in post-World War I Mississippi Delta blues, Shain plays with bare fingers and often uses a thumb pick to pluck the bottom strings. Strumming is rare. Masters of this mesmerizing form seem to simulate two instruments playing at once. After branching into jazz, ragtime and bluegrass, Shain partnered with a music publisher to release two instructional books, Jon Shain's Fingerstyle Guitar Method and Gettin' Handy With the Blues, a reference to W.C. Handy, author of "St. Louis Blues," one of the genre's oldest and most popular songs. The concert will take place on the covered patio. Inside the shop, shelves showcase goods from local craft creators like LL Pottery and Maria Pierogi, along with Understory Market and Split Rock Books on Main Street in Cold Spring. "We know the experience of running errands down there on the weekends, so we brought some of them up here to support other businesses and help people avoid the crowds," says Hall. Miller is already planning his next butcher block party. "I'm good at stirring up trouble and trying to make a difference," he says. "There's always a sense of community that centers on eating, drinking and music. Marbled Meat was crazy enough to let me do this." Marbled Meat is located at 3091 Route 9 in Philipstown. The concert begins at 3 p.m. on May 18; a $20 donation is requested.

Towne Crier hosts monthly dance night Rhoda Averbach hires a roadie to lug three bulky speakers so she can present Latin Dance Nite at the Towne Crier Cafe every month. But her sparse DJ rig consists of a laptop. "Other DJs use all that stuff to look impressive; that gear really isn't necessary," she says segueing seamlessly between salsa, rumba, merengue, bachata, cha cha, reggaeton "y mas," according to one of her flyers. Beyond the laptop, Latin night unfolds in analog. Dancers peruse notebooks filled with lists of song titles, write down their selections on a slip of paper and hand them to Olive Jones, who sits next to Averbach onstage. The two, who both live in Beacon, also host Funky Dance Night at the Elks Club on the first Saturday of each month, with numbers from the disco era. One slogan is, "If the music is good … dance." Averbach has a fine ear for music and knows how to get the dance floor bumping. A trained composer who melded jazz and classical, she worked with David Liebman and Michael Gerber to record several CDs and tour the country. She became enamored with Latin music after realizing that it "gives people pleasure, and I like to see them happy." Reading the room is an essential skill. "For me, it's about the music. If a song doesn't take off, I'll fade it out within 30 seconds and move on to something else," she says. "You can't go wrong with Marc Anthony." Fast songs featuring hypnotic bass lines populate the floor. Latin dancing is akin to ballroom styles but offers more fluidity and room to improvise. As the repetitive music pulses through the room, bodies spin like tops, feet keep shuffling and hands are clasped over heads and behind backs. When the first notes of the 2004 reggaeton hit "Gasolina," by Daddy Yankee, spilled from the speakers, people popped from their seats. One couple picked a spot in front of the kitchen door and almost caused a collision, but the waitstaff acclimated. The music - and the scene - draws people from all over the Hudson Valley. There are similar events in New Rochelle and Middletown, and many of the dancers knew each other from Nyack. Sitting with a group of friends she met across the river, Joanne Williams, who lives in Poughkeepsie, slipped in and out of her padded high-heel dance shoes, which help keep a dancer's center of gravity leaning forward. "I've met a lot of people through Latin dancing," she says. "It's a nice community." For self-proclaimed salsa addict Lisa Rodriguez, who lives in Bloomingburg, "the music is contagious and there aren't many places to dance in the area." Mastering the steps is all about counting, she says: Salsa is 1-2-3 / 5-6-7 (out of eight) and bachata is straight 1-2-3-4. "I like playing sports, so it's good exercise that gets your dopamine going," Rodriguez says. "I enjoy the challenge of following the cues as the man leads. To do it well, you can't think too much - you have to go with the flow." The Towne Crier is located at 379 Main St. in Beacon. The May 29 dance is sold out, although tickets may be available at the door (call 845-855-1300). The next event is scheduled for June 26; see dub.sh/latin-dance-june. Tickets are $11.

Highlights from the May 14 meeting At the Wednesday (May 14) meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board, Mayor Kathleen Foley reported that, after an attempt to approve a sales-tax-sharing plan failed, Putnam County's town and village leaders worked with the four members of state Legislature to draft a revised home-rule request to get it done. Foley said the county Legislature must vote to accept the request and that a special meeting has been scheduled for Monday. The mayor reported that, following recent heavy rains, Village Hall received numerous calls about water flowing out of an old conduit on Craigside Drive near Haldane. Tests showed the water appears to be from an underground stream that shifted course after the severe storms in July 2023. The village is working with the school district and Central Hudson to resolve the situation. Seastreak has canceled plans for summer cruises to Cold Spring. Instead, it has proposed a cruise for Sept. 6, followed by Saturday and Sunday excursions from Oct. 4 through Nov. 9. Friday dockings are proposed for Nov. 7, 14 and 21. The board approved usage-fee increases for the village sewer and water systems effective July 1. The Cold Spring Fire Co. responded to nine calls in April, including three runs to assist other fire companies, two assists to local emergency medical services, two activated fire alarms and two brush fires. Firefighters spent six hours helping to extinguish a 19-acre blaze in Putnam Valley. Chief Matt Steltz reported that volunteers Philip Kean, Lauren De La Vega and Kimberly Seville recently completed basic exterior firefighting training. The Cold Spring police responded to 115 calls in April, including 27 assists to other agencies, eight traffic stops and four motor vehicle crashes. The Village Board accepted Camille Linson's resignation as associate justice, effective June 5. She is moving out of the area. The Historic District Review Board is considering a policy that would require applicants to create escrow funds for projects that require a public hearing to cover expenses. Trustee Eliza Starbuck said she is exploring options for companies that supply parking payment kiosks linked to the ParkMobile app. The board budgeted for two additional kiosks as part of its 2025-26 budget. The board approved a request from the sloop Clearwater to dock at Cold Spring from July 19 to 27.

'Essentially zero risk to workers,' says company Holtec is still trying to determine how soil at the Indian Point nuclear power plant near Philipstown became contaminated with radioactive material. Although the radiation levels are not considered dangerous - a Holtec official said at a May 1 meeting of the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board that a person would have to "ingest many pounds" of the dirt to reach even 1/10th of the allowable federal limits - the contamination is a concern because it was discovered far from where any of the three reactors were located or where nuclear waste is stored. Holtec, which began decommissioning the closed plant in 2021, reported the contamination at the December meeting of the Decommissioning Oversight Board. It was detected when Holtec was investigating building a data center and conducted surface soil sampling around a training center on the southern end of the site. The tests detected elevated levels of cesium-137, a byproduct of nuclear fission. "The levels are low, but it still needs to be remediated," said Frank Spagnuolo of Holtec. Don Mayer, who worked at Indian Point for more than 30 years, beginning in 1981, and now is part of the decommissioning team, said the radiation was low enough to be "essentially zero risk to workers." Nevertheless, the contamination is being treated as radioactive waste and is being excavated and shipped via rail to nuclear storage facilities out of state. Holtec has said it has purchased equipment to conduct more extensive surveys to search for similar contamination elsewhere. "We don't want to be surprised anymore," said Spagnuolo. It's not clear how cesium-137 ended up so far from the reactors and fuel storage. Holtec also tested the area for other common byproducts of fission, such as strontium-90 and nickel-63, but found nothing. Mayer said he doesn't think the contamination happened during the three decades he worked at the plant. He suggested it may have occurred in the 1970s, during the construction of two of Indian Point's three reactors. The first reactor, which went offline in 1974 because of a lack of an emergency cooling system, had a leak at some point that contaminated the soil. Mayer said that some of that soil may have been excavated to where the training center was later built to make room for the second and third reactors and that the plant's monitoring equipment at the time wasn't advanced enough to detect it. Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years; if the contamination did occur in the 1970s, the material would be less than half as potent, which may explain the low level of radiation. "By the next meeting we'll have some good information," said Spagnuolo. Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit filed by Holtec against New York State over a newly enacted law that prohibits the company from discharging radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River continues. The state Department of Environmental Conservation said at the May 1 meeting that it is pausing the renewal of Holtec's "pollutant discharge elimination system" permit in the meantime. Last year, the state attorney general accused Holtec of discharging radioactive water into the Hudson despite the law. Holtec countered that the discharges weren't waste from the spent fuel pools but groundwater and stormwater, a process that has been going on for 15 years. When asked at the meeting about the discharges, Spagnuolo said he could not respond because of the ongoing litigation. He referred board members to the 2024 Annual Radioactive Effluent Release Report, released April 30. It notes that the discharges are happening but that the "offsite dose associated with the groundwater pathway remains extremely small," contributing less than 1 percent of the annual limit.

Philipstown, Dutchess County affected An appeals court on Wednesday (May 7) upheld a law that will shift many county and town elections in New York to even-numbered years, including in Putnam and Dutchess - a change meant to align local elections with statewide and federal races. Democrats argue that the law, which was approved two years ago, will increase turnout in local races. Republicans sued to block it, saying it violates the state constitution and could give Democrats a partisan advantage in higher-turnout election years. State Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat from Orange County who sponsored the legislation, said that town and county elections in odd years typically see 20 percent to 30 percent turnout, while those during presidential years can top 70 percent. The appeals court ruled that the law can take effect immediately. The decision overruled a lower court that struck down the law, enacted in December 2023. The Republican-led Dutchess Legislature voted last year to spend $100,000 to join the legal challenge to the legislation. Under the law, anyone in office before 2025 will complete his or her term, but subsequent terms will be shortened. Here's what that means locally: Two of the four Philipstown Town Board seats, which have four-year terms, will be on the ballot in 2027 for three-year terms. They will be on the ballot again in 2030 for four-year terms. The other two seats, which will be on the ballot in November, will be for three-year terms that end in 2028. The Philipstown highway commissioner and town clerk seats, which have four-year terms, will be on the 2027 ballot for three-year terms, then return to the ballot in 2030 for four-year terms. The town supervisor, who serves a two-year term, will be elected in November to a one-year term and the seat will appear on the ballot again in 2026 for a two-year term. The Dutchess County Legislature seats, which will all be on the ballot in November, will be for one-year terms, rather than two, and return to the ballot in 2026. The election for county executive, a four-year position, will occur as scheduled in 2027, but the winner will serve only three years, until 2030. The law exempts villages, such as Cold Spring and Nelsonville. In cities, such as Beacon, elections can only be changed through a constitutional amendment. The law also exempts county races for sheriff, district attorney, clerk and judges. The law does not affect the Putnam County executive, whose four-year term is on the ballot in even-numbered years and next up in 2026, or Putnam legislators, who serve three-year terms. The Associated Press contributed reporting.

Fishkill Avenue Dunkin' in limbo after 6-1 vote It is unclear what's next for a Dunkin' coffeehouse planned for Fishkill Avenue in Beacon after the City Council on Monday (May 5) banned drive-thrus citywide. The proposal - to build a Dunkin' with a drive-thru and three apartments at the former Healey Brothers Ford site at 420 Fishkill Ave. - was approved by the Planning Board in March. But while the Planning Board reviewed the application, the council began weighing zoning amendments that would ban drive-thrus and self-storage facilities. Council members decided during their April 28 workshop to split the two. They will continue discussing the self-storage measure, but the law prohibiting drive-thrus went to a vote Monday and was adopted, 6-1, with Mayor Lee Kyriacou voting "no." The ban originated in the city's ongoing study of the Fishkill Avenue corridor, where a citizen committee recommended last year that, to encourage more pedestrian-friendly growth, the council prohibit new self-storage facilities, drive-thrus, gas stations, car washes, auto lots and repair shops. Existing businesses would remain. On Monday, Kyriacou called a walkable, more residential Fishkill Avenue "a laudable goal," but said "it's a long, long way off." He cautioned that zoning today for the council's vision for the corridor could backfire. "My concern is that if we don't permit some transitional uses - and I do think a drive-thru would be a transitional use - we will end up with many more years of car dealerships, probably used-car dealerships, instead of seeing the change that we want," Kyriacou said. The rest of the council disagreed. Pam Wetherbee, who represents Ward 3, which includes the Fishkill Avenue corridor, said that prohibiting drive-thrus would allow the area to evolve quickly. Nobody could have predicted Beacon's rapid growth, she said, "and I think it's going to happen just as quick" on Fishkill Avenue. George Mansfield said that "we have to zone for what we want ultimately to see." Drive-thrus "go up fast" and "one follows the other," he said. Paloma Wake said that "in motion" changes in the corridor, such as sidewalk improvements, will increase accessibility and make restricting drive-thrus "the best long-term decision for Beacon." It remains to be seen where the move leaves the approved Dunkin' application. City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis told the council in January that the project would be regulated by whatever zoning is in place when a foundation is poured and "something substantial has come out of the ground." Taylor Palmer, the attorney for Jay Healey, the developer (who is a member of the committee studying Fishkill Avenue), told the council last month that the project would not be viable without the drive-thru. Healey could ask the Zoning Board of Appeals for a use variance allowing it to proceed; Palmer said Wednesday that no decision had been made. When asked in March for their opinions, Planning Board members expressed concern in a memo with the "categorical prohibition" of drive-thrus. Instead, they suggested a district-by-district approach or identifying areas within zoning districts where the use should be prohibited. In other business… The council on Monday approved an extension of the contract for garbage and recycling collection with Royal Carting. The city will pay $60,177 monthly for garbage and $19,369 for recycling, or 1 percent increases, in 2026. The company had not increased its fees since 2019, said City Administrator Chris White. Bulk trash drop-off at the Transfer Station on Dennings Avenue opens for the season on May 17 and runs through Sept. 20. Residents current on their taxes may bring up to 250 pounds of construction or household waste. The Transfer Station is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Checking in with CEO of Pattern for Progress Pattern for Progress, a nonprofit think tank based in Newburgh, is celebrating its 60th year. We spoke with Adam Bosch, its president and CEO. How did the organization begin? When we were founded in 1965, the Hudson Valley was going through a lot: urban renewal in city centers, people moving from New York City to suburban areas, the beginning of the environmental movement and the seeds of innovation at places like IBM in Poughkeepsie. In addition, the U.S. Army was getting ready to sell Stewart Airbase into private hands. There was a need for an objective, independent research and planning organization. Today, we're again in a period of rapid change. We have a housing crisis in affordability and availability. We have a new wave of technology in the form of AI and remote work, and we have generational investments being made in our downtowns, bringing small cities back to life. And the pandemic drove tens of thousands of residents into the region. Our job is to look at those things, measure them and try to explain their effects on our communities and regionwide. What are you working on in 2025? We're creating community-driven plans for the reuse of buildings or parcels that have been abandoned for decades. We can set up tax credits on parcels that make them more feasible to be redeveloped as housing, mixed-use or as new manufacturing centers. The idea is to create development in our downtowns that provides progress without displacement. With housing, there's an indication that corporate actors are moving into the region. There's not a lot of data, but I'll give you my anecdotal evidence. At my house in Ulster County, I am getting two flyers per month from corporations offering to buy my house - all cash, sight unseen. We're going to trace these LLPs and LLCs to their common corporate owners and be able to quantify the extent of corporate homeownership and how it's changed over the past decade. The governor has proposed that if a company owns 10 or more properties or has $50 million or more in assets, it shouldn't be allowed to bid on a home for the first 72 hours it's on the market. In places like Arizona, Nevada, or down to the Carolinas, there are entire neighborhoods owned by a single corporation that rents homes back to people. We want to understand the effect it has on access and the cost of homeownership. What do you see as the most important issues facing the region? Housing is No. 1. There's not even a close second. We do not have enough homes to sustain the population we have, and the cost of both homeownership and rent have outpaced our growth and wages by a lot. That means housing is gobbling up more and more take-home pay. No. 2 would be workforce. We have awesome training facilities at Dutchess Community College, Orange Community College, Marist and SUNY New Paltz, but the data show our labor pool is getting ready to shrink by about 120,000 people in the next 15 years. It's the size of the workforce that's a concern in the near- and medium-term, along with what I call the "youth crunch." We have seen births - not birth rates - decline over the past two decades by about 25 percent to 35 percent in each of our counties. Dutchess is down by 25 percent. Putnam is down the most of any county. If you look at the population of infants, children and teens now and compare it to a decade ago, we have 40,000 fewer kids in the region. After that, I would say community development in terms of: Are we able to attract and retain jobs to the region? Do they pay a living wage? The other two to mention are childcare businesses shrinking by 40 percent in 15 years and outdated water and sewer infrastructure. The redevelopment of the former Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill and a transit-oriented development at the Beacon train station could add 1,600 housing units in and around Beacon. What does the community need to see from the developers? When we did a report on the adaptiv...

Customers again will be returned to Central Hudson Philipstown residents and businesses receiving fixed-rate electricity through Hudson Valley Community Power will be transferred back to Central Hudson because the program administrator ran out of time to extend the contract. In what is known as a community choice aggregation (CCA) program, municipalities contract with a third-party supplier to offer residents and businesses a fixed rate for electricity, although Central Hudson continues to provide delivery and billing. Cold Spring, Nelsonville, Philipstown and nine other municipalities (not including Beacon) agreed to participate. Residents and businesses are added to the program automatically but can opt out. Hudson Valley Community Power was negotiating to extend a contract that ends June 30. Mike Gordon, founder and chief strategy officer for the program administrator, Joule Assets, said in a letter to municipalities that "times are deeply uncertain at the moment and electricity prices rose quickly in response." Nelsonville Mayor Chris Winward read the letter at the April 21 Village Board meeting. Although prices have fallen more recently, Gordon said Joule lacked enough time to meet new guidelines created by the state utility regulator, the Public Service Commission, to notify and educate customers about new pricing before June 30. Because the "political and economic environment is so volatile," Joule does expect "opportunities to lock in some advantageous pricing" over the next two to three months. Joule will spend those months learning "how best to work through" the new PSC regulations, said Jessica Stromback, the company's CEO. "The order is, let everybody go back to the utility and not scramble," she said on Wednesday (May 7). "That process is smooth; the utility understands it. There's no interruption in service." Under the current contract, residents and businesses in the CCA pay a default rate of 12.24 cents per kilowatt hour for 100 percent renewable energy in Cold Spring and 11.24 cents per kilowatt-hour for 50 percent renewable energy in Nelsonville and Philipstown. Those customers will be charged Central Hudson's variable rate starting July 1. As of April 10, Central Hudson's standard supply rate was 10.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. Last year's summer rates, when electricity demand is higher, averaged 9.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. (Central Hudson charges a separate rate for delivery.) "[The CCA] pricing was high, but it was locked in and we knew what it would be," Winward said at last month's meeting. "We don't know what the volatility of Central Hudson's rates are going to bring us." The July 1 transition will mark the second time residents and businesses enrolled in Hudson Valley Community Power have been sent back to Central Hudson. A former supplier, Columbia Utilities, defaulted on a contract to provide renewable energy at 6.6 cents per kilowatt-hour for residences and 7.1 cents for small businesses, including those in Beacon, Cold Spring and Philipstown. In April 2022, Columbia notified the PSC that it intended to return customers to Central Hudson. A state judge on Dec. 5 approved a $1.5 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by the municipalities against Columbia Utilities. The company admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to a $1 million payment into a settlement fund and $50,000 monthly payments by June 1, 2025, to cover the balance. The Ulster County judge overseeing the case also approved $286,585 in attorney fees and up to $56,500 in administrative costs. Eligible customers began receiving checks for about $50 last month.

Residents question decision-making process After hearing parents criticize its decision-making process, the Haldane school board voted unanimously on Tuesday (May 6) to reinstate the district's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy. It had suspended the policy on April 22, fearful of losing $450,000 in federal funding threatened by the Trump administration's opposition to DEI programs. The board said it reversed course after federal judges in three jurisdictions on April 24 temporarily blocked the administration from cutting funding to schools that have what the White House characterizes as "illegal" practices. Six residents who spoke at the meeting expressed gratitude for the board's decision to reinstate the policy but also voiced frustration with how the initial decision was made. "I don't think the board is doing a good job of making those decision-making processes transparent to our community," said Paul Cummins, who has two children at Haldane. After the meeting, Peggy Clements, president of the five-member board, said the decision to suspend the policy happened "at a really fast and furious pace and certainly didn't allow for the careful consideration and outreach that we would ordinarily engage in." "This was nothing that any of us wanted to do," Clements said. "It did make us deeply uncomfortable. But we felt like the district was truly at risk of losing $450,000." During the meeting, Board Member Michelle Kupper said she regretted "not communicating more about the future of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy months before the vote. A lot of us in the school community knew that the current presidential administration takes issue with diversity, equity and inclusion, and we should have been talking about how to handle it." Carl Albano, the interim superintendent, said the decision to suspend the policy on April 22 was rushed because of an April 24 deadline set by the Trump administration. In early April, the U.S. Department of Education ordered states to gather signatures from local districts certifying their compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as rejection of what the Trump administration calls "illegal DEI practices." The directive did not carry the force of law but threatened to use civil rights enforcement to rid schools of DEI practices. Schools were warned that continuing such practices "in violation of federal law" could lead to Justice Department litigation and the termination of federal grants and contracts. New York State responded that it would not comply. Despite that, Albano said that on April 11 the district's law firm, Shaw, Perelson, May & Lambert, recommended that the board certify compliance with Title VI. Many other districts did the same. At the time "we didn't see an issue certifying, because, again, we believe we are in compliance," Albano said. "None of that raised concern for me or the board." However, on April 18, "our attorney, after reviewing the DEI policy, had concerns about the diversity hiring provision," Albano said. That provision states: "The district will strive to create a workforce that is not only diverse and inclusive, but one that recognizes and values the differences among people. As part of this effort, the district will seek to (a) recruit and retain a diverse workforce in all areas and at all levels [and] (b) provide staff with opportunities for professional development on cultural responsiveness." Albano said that on April 22, just hours before the board was scheduled to meet, he gave members the attorney's recommended resolution to suspend the DEI policy because it "may, in part, be inconsistent" with the Department of Education's interpretation of Title VI. After suspending the DEI policy, the board certified compliance with Title VI. The Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery district, which includes O'Neill High School, which Garrison district students can attend, also voted last month to suspend its DEI policy. Halfway into its April 10 ...

Philipstown artist mounts first solo show When Lisa Diebboll needs inspiration for her landscape paintings, she walks next door from her Philipstown home to a town park that has a meadow and pond. "It's like a laboratory" for creativity, she says. The artist's first solo show, Between Observation and Abstraction, continues through May 31 at the Buster Levi Gallery in Cold Spring. The Rhode Island School of Design graduate says the abstract and formal work together to make a landscape come alive - "all of sudden everything makes sense when you look at it." But, she says, she has little interest in abstraction alone. "I need reality." "I'm looking for certain juxtapositions of shapes and colors, and I use them as my jumping off point," adds Diebboll, who co-owns The Highland Studio, a fine art printmaking business off Route 9 that she established 28 years ago with her husband, Joe. She studied painting and printmaking at RISD (where she met Joe, also a graduate of the school). "I love printmaking and the process," she says. "I love that way of thinking about images and imagery." The business "turned into a way for us to stay in the art world and have a career that could support a family." Lately, Diebboll has taken a step back from the printing business. "In the past five years I've been working to get back to my first love, which is painting, and it's where I'm happiest," she says. To reach that goal, Diebboll reclaimed a home bedroom as a studio. The Buster Levi show includes 15 oil paintings, as well as prints and sketches. A few paintings are framed conventionally, but Diebboll otherwise used a light aluminum support onto which she affixes her works on linen. The aluminum is attached to wood that can be suspended from the gallery's hooks. The result: a strong, light panel that is easier to store than the usual stretched canvas and can be displayed with or without a frame. "Chartreuse and Ultramarine Violet Receding" (2025) "Quarry - Fractured, Askew" (2024) "Squirrel Island Assemblage" (2025) "Tree Figures" (2025) In the works, Diebboll's greens and blues are in dialogue with salmons and pinks; some are energized by yellow and orange. In one small piece, a modest house peeks through trees; hills inject diagonal verve into others. Diebboll says it gives her satisfaction to explore the interplays. Growing up, her family leaned into science more than art, but her father was an accomplished painter in pastels. She remembers being transfixed by her parents' oversized art books, which she would spread open on the floor to gaze at the images. "I always wanted to put marks on paper and draw or paint what I saw," she recalls. Spying her young daughter's interest, Diebboll's mother enrolled her in oil painting lessons; she continued with the same teacher through high school. Diebboll's own two daughters studied art but did not pursue artistic careers. One works in biological and environmental science and the other in the food industry. The opening of her show on May 3 was "a perfectly lovely evening," Diebboll says. She sold several paintings. "My biggest goal now is not to lose the thread and to keep going with the path that I've established." The Buster Levi Gallery, at 121 Main St. in Cold Spring, is open from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, or by appointment. See busterlevigallery.com.

Theater and art gallery opens in Beacon Vet/Rep, the theater company that moved from Cornwall to Beacon last year and is transforming the former bank building at 139 Main St. into a showcase for talented veterans and their family members, has been rechristened Savage Wonder. This weekend (May 9-10) kicks off the institution's inaugural season of productions in The Parlor, a 50-seat room. Most of the staged readings will be presented every Saturday for a month, although exceptions include the sold-out debut tonight (May 9) of The Bald Soprano, by Eugene Ionesco, three future dates and a six-week run of World War II veteran Noel Coward's scandalous 1920s comedy, Fallen Angels. All the performers are members of the Actors' Equity union, which includes Broadway-caliber professional actors and stage managers. On Saturday (May 10), Savage Wonder will unveil Savage Wonderground, a 4,000-square-foot basement art gallery, and The Grape Rebellion, a wine and dessert bar. The first exhibit is Radical Fun, curated by gallery director Jeannie Freilich, who commutes from New York City. It runs through July 6. A 60-seat theater, named The Kristofferson (after Kris, who turned down a position teaching literature at West Point, spurned the Army to write country songs and earned the wrath of his military family) is scheduled to open next year. A second bar and another main stage with 125 seats is planned for 2027. "One reason for the rebranding is that every time I spoke to groups about Vet/Rep, I had to make it clear that we're not providing art therapy - we rarely do war stories and not everyone onstage is a veteran," says Chris Meyer, founder and artistic director. "We're also going beyond theater by adding the art center and wine component." Meyer came up with Savage Wonder during a deployment in New Mexico (he served in the Army for 14 years after 9-11): "It's where the warrior and artist intersect." The revamped logo, which resembles a paint, wine or blood splotch, is a Rorschach test. "Our brand's spirit animal is the octopus, which encapsulates what the Savage Wonder thought experiment is about: intimate, absurd, whimsical and jarring." To expand the talent pool and repertoire, immediate family members of veterans may act onstage, direct a play or contribute a script. The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde (coming in June), makes the cut because the playwright's son served in the British military. Beyond the veteran thread, many of the season's themes convey a farcical sensibility. The absurdist Bald Soprano, from 1950, contains several exchanges with nonsensical dialogue. Nicolay Gogol's Inspector General, scheduled for October, premiered in 1836 and satirizes Russian bureaucracy. The son of actors, Meyers' flair for the dramatic enhances the staged readings. At the launch party on May 3, a hubbub interrupted his presentation and startled the audience. It turned out to be two actors shaking things up with a short performance set in a VA hospital waiting room to nowhere. "We're not sitting around or using music stands, we can stage the hell out of our readings," says Meyer. "We've had five-minute fight scenes; people enter through a window or trip and fall into the wall. Anything can happen." Savage Wonder is located at 139 Main St. in Beacon. The Bald Soprano will be performed at 7 p.m. on May 17, May 24 and May 31; tickets are $25 at savagewonder.org. Radical Fun will open at The Savage Wonderground on Saturday (May 10) from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Inspired by feminist anthem, Beacon Rising marches on Lisa Andretta loves singing in the car but never figured she could be a real vocalist. After joining the Beacon Rising Choir, she found her voice. "When I went to my first rehearsal, I instantly fell in love," she says. "I had no idea something like this existed." The chorus, which started in 2017 with 13 members, now has 70, says founder Gina Samardge. Its next concert is May 18 at Beacon High School. Beacon Rising is a "resistance choir," Samardge says, open to women and nonbinary singers. A feminist anthem from the 2017 women's march in Washington, D.C., "Quiet," by Milck, inspired the choir's formation. The song includes the lyric, "I can't keep quiet for anyone anymore. … Let it out now." Cellphone videos of flash mobs performing to the song went viral and Samardge responded. "I needed to sing it with other women," she says. Her activist roots are reflected in the choir's repertoire, with songs that preach love, acceptance and a fight-the-power attitude such as "The Hymn of Acxiom," by Vienna Teng; "Refugee," by Moira Smiley; "On Children," by Ysaye Barnwell (with lyrics by Khalil Gibran); and "People Have the Power," by Patti Smith. "The 2016 election spawned a lot of choirs," Samardge says. "Singers always tell me that this is a healing force in their lives." A trained music educator and curious musician who lights up when speaking about playing clawhammer banjo, Samardge conducts the choir and arranges some songs. She came to Beacon in 2010 after getting priced out of Brooklyn. "I grew up in a small town in Ohio [Marion] and there is such a stronger community feeling here," she says. Samardge and her husband, musician Andy Reinhardt, who assembles the band that accompanies the choir, are childless by choice. Yet she's touched the lives of many youngsters in Beacon and beyond through Compass Arts, a grassroots organization she founded that runs programs in the schools and from the First Presbyterian Church on Liberty Street. Compass Arts initially rented a 1,000-square-foot space at Beacon Music Factory, then expanded to the church's Fellowship Hall, which features a stage, kitchen and new flooring installed by the nonprofit. In 2023, when the Beacon City School District called with an arts emergency - the middle school drama club had no teacher - she arranged for three visiting artists to structure a 10-week afterschool program teaching dance and choreography, improv and theater games and a glee club-style singing and movement class. "I remember being 18 years old and saying to my mother, 'I only want grandchildren,' and she said, 'Well, that's not how it works,'" Samardge says. "But I was at an event and some teenagers waved to me, and it turned out that they had attended a bunch of [Compass Arts] programs. I realized that somehow, someway, I got my wish. These kids are my temporary grandchildren." Beacon High School is located at 101 Matteawan Road. Tickets to the May 18 concert start at $20 ($10 seniors, teens; $5 ages 6-12; free ages 5 and younger); see compassarts.org/beacon-rising. The doors open at 1 p.m. for a free event with community organizations, a raffle and bake sale, followed by the concert at 2 p.m.

Student short-form festival begins May 16 Of the many grassroots, community-based organizations in Beacon, only one turns the city into a mini-Hollywood for a few months. Next week, 80 two-minute shorts produced by some 200 school-age filmmakers and their assistants will be screened at the high school auditorium and the Beacon Movie Theater on Main Street. Volunteers at the Foundation for Beacon Schools are pulling all-nighters to ensure accuracy and quality control, says Anna Sullivan, the foundation's first president, who stepped down in 2023 but remains active with the organization. "We're taking the extra time to increase production value across the board and edit the program, line up the title cards with accuracy and make sure the students' names correspond with their school," she says. "We want to value and honor these films, which are so creative; people are going to be amazed." Founded in March 2020, the nonprofit launched the festival in 2022 and receives cooperation and participation from students, teachers, administrators and local filmmakers, including Ophir Ariel, Lucas Millard and Rob Featherstone. Beyond stimulating creativity and bringing people together, the festival raises money for teacher grants and other enrichment programs. "We're trying to foster innovation in education and the primary function is to help teachers and administrators get classroom equipment and enhance their skills," says Jean Huang, a board member. "T Rex Vs...," by Enzo "Pizza 2," by Jack "Glasses," by Richie "Attack of the Clones," by Liam "The Grey Disk," by Braden "Best Friend Scare," by Perry and Jourdan "Lego Dimension," by Logan "Talk with a Lost Heart," by Jayson "Coyote Stories," by Zora Since its creation, the foundation has distributed more than $60,000 in grants, supporting the high school's Breaking Beacon newspaper, supplying waders for elementary students to walk in the Hudson River and sending seventh and eighth graders to the Italian and English play Caccia al Tesoro in White Plains. The film festival originated because "we were looking to do one event each year that could bring the community together and we heard about the PS 187 festival [in New York City], went down there and it checked all the boxes," says Sullivan. In addition to promoting the arts, the foundation supports projects like History of the Bell, a short film about the JV Forrestal Elementary school's cherished chime that students ring at graduation, and Lines of Demarcation, an oral history of Black residents' experience in Beacon during the 20th century. The foundation is a descendant of the longstanding Beacon Arts and Education Foundation, which disbanded amicably in 2020. Several of the group's board members helped get the new organization off the ground, which explains their initial focus on the arts. Now, they've branched out to cover the wider curriculum, says Sullivan. Beyond raising money and building community, there is another practical element to the festival. "There's also a vocational component," says Sullivan. "Every industry values people who can communicate ideas visually, so knowledge of editing and telling stories clearly and thoughtfully is another wrench in the toolbox for our students." The fourth annual Beacon Student Film Festival opens at 6:30 p.m. on May 16 at Beacon High School, 101 Matteawan Road, with screenings of films by elementary students. It continues May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Beacon Movie Theater, 445 Main St., with screenings of films by middle and high school students. Tickets are $8 or $4 for students for either screening, or $12 and $6 for both. See forbeaconschools.org/film-festival. The Current is among the sponsors of the event.

College student's 1982 photos revisited by modern pros For his 1982 senior project at SUNY New Paltz, Patrick Prosser toted a camera around the streets of Beacon, his hometown. In May, about the time he received his bachelor of fine arts, Prosser exhibited 20 photos at what is now the Howland Cultural Center. When Prosser, who grew up at 14 Miller St., died from pancreatic cancer in 2023 at age 64, his widow, Kathy, donated the 1982 shots to the Beacon Historical Society. Theresa Kraft, president of the Howland Cultural Center, read about the gift in the society's newsletter and arranged to display excerpts from the collection. A team that included photographers Tony Cenicola, Michael Goldfarb, Pierce Johnston and Willam Loeb winnowed the selections to 38 photos before three of the curators fanned out to revisit some of the locations. The exhibit's title, Work in Decay, borrows from Prosser's 1982 exhibit. His subtitle had been "The City of Beacon, New York"; the new one is "The Renaissance of Beacon - Then and Now." In 1982, Prosser captured mostly decay. Nearly every pane of glass in the abandoned factories and weatherbeaten buildings on and near Main Street is broken or boarded up, including the picture windows at Mozekos Market by the dummy light. In one photo, a crossing guard stands in front of the door. Prosser combed ruins from the inside. In the factory that became the Roundhouse, he was enamored with the bathroom stalls: "The shape of the toilets and the simple arithmetic of the walls give this great feeling for the working man's environment in Beacon," he wrote. He also took interior shots of the abandoned Highland Hospital and a junk-filled apartment. One photo shows Cisco, a white dog sitting in the decrepit doorway of Certified TV Sales & Service. Goldfarb's photo of what is now the Maria Lago Studio captures a life-size sculpture depicting a human figure in anguish. Enticed by structures, Prosser climbed vantage points like the Beacon Theatre and the firehouse that is now home to Hudson Beach Glass. Though he took a well-situated shot of the Mount Beacon Incline Railway gear-house, the photos of people could be Prosser's apex. In "High Noon at Richie's Bar," a grizzled bartender plays cards with a patron wearing a dapper hat. Regulars scratched scrawl onto a 24 beam at the bar's edge, along with the panel below, including the jab, "$100 fine to write here." (Pierce Johnston's modern reply, "A Day at Melzingah Tap House," focuses on a relaxed young bartender polishing a pint glass, flanked by two fancy, backlit cases with high-end hooch. In the background, the shelves are stocked with swag.) One of Prosser's favorite photos captured the owners of Beacon Auto Salvage, which once filled the Churchill Street parking lot with heavy machinery, car parts and mud. The father makes no attempt to smile while the son's half-cocked grin hints at a brighter future, although he may just be resigned to his lot. "The whole history of Beacon can be told by their faces," Prosser wrote. The Howland Cultural Center, at 477 Main St., is open from 1 to 5 p.m. on most Saturdays and Sundays. "Work in Decay" continues through July 21.

Infections nationwide top 1,000; most in Texas The U.S. surpassed 1,000 measles cases on Friday (May 9), including three cases reported this week in Orange County. Texas still accounts for most cases, with 709 confirmed in an outbreak that has spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas. Two unvaccinated elementary school children died in West Texas, along with unvaccinated adult in New Mexico. Other states with outbreaks - which the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as three or more related cases - include Indiana, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. New York has confirmed seven cases, including three in New York City, one on Long Island and the three in Orange County. The state Department of Health said the Orange County cases involve children younger than 5 years old who recently traveled internationally. No exposures outside immediate family members are known, it said. Orange County Deputy Health Commissioner Lisa Lahiff told the Times Union that because the cases were reported to the local health department in close succession, "we believe this is not indicative of local transmission." Officials declined to say whether the children were vaccinated, citing patient privacy. Earlier this year, the state Department of Health reported that Orange County has the lowest first-dose measles vaccination rate among 2-year-olds in the region, at 64.9 percent. A rate of at least 95 percent is needed to provide "herd immunity." The Putnam County rate is 86.6 percent and the Dutchess rate is 83.1 percent. The first of two vaccine shots is recommended between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old. Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that's airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. As the virus takes hold in U.S. communities with low vaccination rates, health experts fear that spread could stretch on for a year. In 2019, the U.S. had 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles. Getting another MMR shot as an adult is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says. People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don't need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective vaccine made from "killed" virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. People who have documentation that they had measles are immune, and those born before 1957 generally don't need the shots because so many children got measles back then that they have "presumptive immunity." Measles infects the respiratory tract, then spreads through the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash. The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees, according to the CDC. Most children will recover, but the infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death. There's no specific treatment, so doctors try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.

Guidelines cover residential, commercial panels The Philipstown Town Board will hold a public hearing June 5 on a proposed law that would establish zoning guidelines for the installation of solar panels and commercial solar farms. A Climate Smart Task Force committee crafted the rules with five goals: (1) to establish a siting process; (2) lessen the cost of electricity; (3) mitigate the impact of solar systems on the environment and wildlife; (4) support the town goal of carbon neutrality; and (5) regulate the decommissioning of commercial solar projects. The conservation and planning boards, the building department and the town engineer and attorney each reviewed the proposal, said Jason Angell, a member of the Town Board and the task force, during a May 1 meeting. "All of that process is probably what took some time but made it a lot stronger." Under the draft guidelines, property owners who want to install roof- or ground-mounted systems for residential use would be allowed to do so in any zoning district. They would follow the same regulatory process required for adding accessory structures, such as garages. Philipstown would limit the height of panels on pitched roofs to 8 inches, flat roofs to 2 feet or the height of parapets and ground-mounted solar systems to 12 feet. Panels must have anti-reflective coating and ground-mounted systems can not be larger than 5,000 square feet and shielded from neighbors. The law would allow solar farms in all zoning districts except for the Ridgeline Protection District and only in the Scenic Overlay District with a special permit. The draft specifies that solar farms, "to the greatest extent possible," be installed on industrial properties; Superfund sites that have undergone environmental cleanup; mining sites; abandoned parcels; landfills; parking lots; and the roofs of commercial buildings. Removing trees larger than 6 inches in diameter "should be minimized," according to the draft law. If more than 10 trees need to be removed for a ground-mounted system, applicants would need to propose mitigation measures such as planting an equal number of trees or replacing invasive plants with native ones. In addition, solar farms capable of generating up to 5 megawatts of electricity would need 7-foot-high fencing with a self-locking gate to secure the mechanical equipment. Systems over 1 megawatt would need a decommissioning plan. Applicants would have to deposit cash or post a bond or security equal to 115 percent of the cost of removal and site restoration. Companies building community solar projects, which allow residents to buy shares of the electricity they generate, would have to target Philipstown residents for subscriptions, particularly low- and moderate-income households. Requests for variances could be made to the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Republican congressman holds event in Somers Voters in Rep. Mike Lawler's suburban New York swing district, which includes Philipstown, unloaded a barrage of criticism on the Republican during a raucous town hall in Somers on Sunday (May 4), peppering him with questions around President Donald Trump's aggressive agenda before devolving into a chaotic chorus of boos as attendees were removed by law enforcement. Lawler has promised to hold town halls in Dutchess and Putnam counties in June. He hosted one in Rockland County on April 27 that was equally raucous. The event in Somers began to teeter off the rails soon after it began. The first crack emerged when Lawler, in his opening remarks, told the packed prep school auditorium: "This is what democracy looks like." Laughter crept through the crowd. A little while later, the congressman's mention of federal health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drew loud jeers. "So you want, for instance, petroleum-based dyes to continue?" Lawler asked in response. Republicans, in some instances, have made themselves scarce in their home districts following Trump's first few months in office, as party leadership expresses wariness of viral blowback against Republicans in vulnerable seats. Lawler, a moderate who last year won a second term and has openly expressed interest in running for governor, has instead put himself in front of voters. On Sunday, Lawler's staff required people to RSVP and set up a series of ground rules, including that attendees live in the district, not record at the event, refrain from shouting or standing, and "be respectful of one another, of staff, and of the congressman," a sign at the door read. At one point, as Lawler was responding to a question about tariffs, security and law enforcement began to surround a woman in the upper stretch of the auditorium. The crowd chanted "let her stay, let her stay" before law enforcement picked her up and carried her out. It was unclear what exactly led to her removal. "Shame! Shame! Shame!," the audience yelled. Lawler tried to get back on track: "Folks, tariffs are way more complicated than you want to make them." The crowd groaned. "Folks, enough!" Lawler said above the din. Soon after, another person was removed. Then another. In the audience, Jeanette Spoor, a 74-year-old retiree, said she wanted to ask Lawler about Social Security and Medicaid but wasn't called on during the nearly two-hour event. "You're not helping your constituents if you're making it hard for them to get help," she said in an interview. "I have no hopes for this guy." Another attendee, Kristi Thompson, 52, said she was bothered by what she said were Lawler's long-winded answers that didn't address the substance of the crowd's questions. "He claims to be available to constituents, but he isn't," she said. The crowd walked out during the final question of the night, which was about protests against Israel. Lawler began to answer but cut himself off as the room emptied out. "I appreciate everybody coming out tonight and taking the time to ask your questions and hear my answers, whether you liked them or not, or agreed with them or not, or whether you really actually wanted to listen to them or not, but I very much appreciate you participating," he said.

A hobby - but also disaster response It wasn't marked by parades, fireworks or an interview on 60 Minutes, but World Amateur Radio Day was April 18. For many, amateur, or "ham" radio, is viewed as a hobby from the past. But it's very much alive and more than a pastime, locally and internationally. The century-old International Amateur Radio Union estimates there are 3 million operators in 160 countries, including 700,000 in the U.S., 540 in the immediate area, 50 in Philipstown and 43 in Beacon. For many, interest in ham radio began early in life. As a 10-year-old, Joe Barbaro of Cold Spring loved listening to English-language, shortwave broadcasts from Germany, Russia and other faraway countries. "Radio Moscow was a favorite," he said. "Even at a young age I knew they were full of it, but it was fun to listen to." He graduated to ham radio at age 14. "England was about the best I could do" for conversations, he said. "I didn't have powerful enough equipment for beyond that," he said. "I was kind of a minor-leaguer." Another Cold Spring resident, Damian McDonald, got started at age 6. "My uncle was a Franciscan priest based in Bolivia, and the only way we communicated was ham radio," he said. "It was kind of magical, even with the static." It motivated him to build his own ham radio from a Heathkit; today he has a mobile ham station in his car. Before he retired from a career in cybersecurity, he enjoyed conversations with other operators during his daily commute to New Jersey. "I could hold a conversation with the same person all the way down," he recalled. McDonald noted that "emergency preparedness is still a core tenant of amateur radio," and Anesta Vannoy of Beacon would agree. She got into ham radio in 2018 as a disaster response chaplain. She wanted to assist at emergencies but, as a senior citizen, thought it could be difficult getting to the scenes of incidents. She belongs to four networks: Westchester Emergency Communications Association, Mount Beacon Amateur Radio Club, Orange County Amateur Radio Club and the Harlem Emergency Network. "I like that I'm preparing myself to help others," she said. She hones her skills at events such as the New York Airshow at Orange County Airport and the St. Patrick's Day parade in Wappingers Falls. She also attends trainings led by "elmers" from her networks - lingo for more experienced operators. Part of her weekly routine is checking her five radios to ensure each is charged and operational. Her son, Raheem, will soon take the entry-level test for licensing by the Federal Communications Commission. Operators must pass tests at progressive levels: Technician, General and Amateur Extra. Raheem is relearning Morse Code, a skill he acquired as a Boy Scout. Although Morse Code is no longer required, "it can still be useful in certain emergency situations," he said. First responders see ham radio as an asset. Ralph Falloon, a Philipstown resident who is deputy commissioner of the Putnam Bureau of Emergency Services, said operators are considered part of the county's emergency preparedness network and provide vital backup in situations such as interruptions to the power grid. "The Putnam Emergency and Amateur Repeater League, or PEARL, has an office in our building," in Carmel, he said. "They have radio equipment here and mobile towers they can set up for mini-networks." Robert Cuomo, Putnam's director of emergency medical services, offered an example: If the grid goes down and a hospital generator fails, ham operators could set up on site and communicate with ambulances. That's what happened in 2005 in New Orleans when the region's infrastructure was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. "In many cases, the only communication in and out was ham radio," he said. PEARL hosts field days for operators. It includes contests to see who can speak to the most people around the world[ but also covers disaster training, Cuomo said. "They can't use commercial power - just a battery or generator....

Also, public hearing on budget scheduled for Tuesday The Beacon school board agreed March 24 to a $60,000 payment to end a lawsuit filed by Daniel Glenn, a former South Avenue Elementary principal who was fired in 2023. Glenn, who is Black, alleged in a federal civil suit filed last year that he had been the victim of "disparate treatment and a hostile work environment due to his race." He asked for damages and to be returned to his job with back pay. After being hired in August 2021, Glenn said he told district officials in 2022 "that his job was permeated with racial discrimination on a continuous basis in the structure of how the school operated." He said he received no notice allowing him to contest allegations against him before being terminated in June 2023. Glenn had been removed from his position five months earlier, replaced by an acting principal, Brian Archer, then the district's director of evaluation and student services. Before coming to Beacon, Glenn taught first and second grade for 19 years in the Newburgh district and was an assistant principal in New Paltz. The district's response to his lawsuit, filed in June 2024, argued that there was insufficient evidence to "plausibly claim" that Glenn's dismissal was racially motivated. The district said the allegation that Superintendent Matt Landahl believed only the accounts of "unidentified teachers and students" whose racial identities were not named was "insufficient to allege discriminatory intent." The settlement agreement, obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request, notes that Glenn's employment record was amended to show he was not dismissed but resigned. The district also agreed to provide a neutral reference that provides only his title and dates of employment. For his part, Glenn agreed not to apply for employment in the district "until the end of time." The settlement was paid by the district's insurance carrier. Second lawsuit A lawsuit against the district that alleged a student was assaulted by a classmate at school and on the bus has been resolved, according to court records. In legal documents, a parent alleged the child had been "sexually abused," "falsely imprisoned" and "psychologically tortured" during the fall of 2022. The state judge held two settlement hearings before closing the case in July. In response to a Freedom of Information Law requested filed by The Current, school officials said the district "is not in possession of any documents" concerning a settlement. Eric Richman, the attorney who represented the parent, said he could not discuss the case because it had been sealed. Budget hearing The Beacon school board will hold a public hearing during its Tuesday (May 6) meeting on the district's $87.7 million budget proposal for 2025-26, the final step before voters are asked to approve the spending plan on May 20. On April 22, the board unanimously approved the $87.7 million plan, which includes a 5.09 percent tax-levy increase. Most of the discussion in recent board meetings has revolved around the levy - or the total amount of property taxes the district can collect - which stands to increase because of new development and debt service on a $50 million capital project approved last year by voters. The proposed revenue for 2025-26 includes $50 million in property taxes, about $32 million in state aid and $2.5 million taken from savings. Administrators said the budget will allow the district to maintain smaller elementary class sizes, increased mental health support for students and a full-day pre-K program. For the first time, the district would launch a summer workshop program for incoming high school students and create an on-site mental health clinic at Rombout Middle School. The district would also hire additional teachers for elementary students struggling in math and reading and a part-time elementary speech instructor.

Towns, villages would split sales-tax revenue Putnam legislators on Monday (April 28) discussed a plan to share sales taxes with the county's municipalities - including Cold Spring, Nelsonville and Philipstown - two weeks after County Executive Kevin Byrne outlined a proposal. Members of the Audit Committee reviewed a proposal to distribute $3 million of $90 million in reserves to aid the county's six towns and three villages. The money, allocated based on population, could be used on infrastructure and capital projects and "essential services," but not payroll. Legislator Toni Addonizio suggested increasing the outlay to $5 million and allotting the same amount in 2026. She referenced a charge by Cold Spring Mayor Kathleen Foley that Putnam was "hoarding" money. "We don't want to hoard money; we want to give it out," said Addonizio. Putnam's surplus, including savings allocated to expenses, hit $134 million this year, a level which Legislator Paul Jonke called "obscene." Michael Lewis, the finance commissioner, said Monday that unspent funds from unfilled positions and inflation-driven increases in sales-tax revenue fueled the surplus. Legislator Greg Ellner said that Putnam's next annual audit, when released, will show another $8 million to $12 million in the surplus. By sending some of that money to municipalities, Putnam would join 50 of the state's 62 counties that share revenue. Dutchess, for instance, distributes 2.35 percent of sales taxes collected to Beacon, 5.41 percent to the City of Poughkeepsie and 9.5 percent to its towns and villages. A proposal unveiled by Byrne on April 15 and endorsed by the municipalities would share one-ninth of the 1 percent of sales-tax intake, which would have amounted to about $2.3 million based on 2024 revenue. It would take effect only if the state passes a pending bill allowing Putnam to continue collecting 4 percent, which it has done since 2007 when the state permitted the county to raise its rate by 1 percent. The 4 percent rate has been repeatedly extended but expires on Nov. 30. State lawmakers must pass another extension before the end of the current session on June 12 or the rate will revert to 3 percent. The total sales tax in Putnam is 8.375 percent, which includes 4 percent for the state and 0.375 percent for the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District. Legislator Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, said she likes Byrne's proposal because it is based on sales-tax revenue. If the county came to a point "where we have no fund balance," the money would not be distributed. Montgomery, who once proposed a plan in which the municipalities would receive 50 percent of sales taxes over the amount budgeted, offered several amendments to the Audit Committee resolution: (1) that Byrne be involved in crafting the agreement, (2) that municipalities be allowed to spend on personnel "tied to short-term and public needs" and (3) that it include reporting and audit requirements. "While I appreciate the efforts in including our municipalities in the resolution that you wrote, I think it requires a lot more," she told her colleagues. "I really wish you would have considered my resolution." Foley, who was at the meeting, also expressed concerns, including that the proposal does not establish a minimum amount that municipalities would receive. Byrne's plan guarantees each town and village at least $50,000, a commitment particularly important for Nelsonville, whose 600 residents make it the county's smallest municipality. Foley called for assurances that revenue-sharing would continue beyond next year, such as the long-term agreements Dutchess and other counties have in place. Because of the surplus, the Legislature voted last month, 5-4, to ask the state to allow the county to lower its sales-tax rate to 3.75 percent, but Byrne vetoed the resolution and proponents did not have the six votes needed to override. The county executive cited the loss of a...

Quinn's in Beacon hosts monthly open mic Aside from local celebrity Mary Poppiins playing the spoons and Beacon High School junior Teo Fairbanks sitting in on drums, the house band and most of the visiting musicians at Quinn's monthly jazz jam in April came from afar. Pianist Elliot Steele, who drove 75 minutes from Catskill, has attended every first Monday session for the past three years. (It happens again at Quinn's on May 5.) Trumpet player Josh Economy trekked across the river from Walden, and drummer Jeremy Holman bopped down from New Paltz to check out the vibe and socialize. "I'm way out of practice," he says. Steve Scholz, a piano player who lives an hour away in Germantown, says it's worth the trip - not so much to jam along on two songs, but because "there's a big sense of community." Horns, guitars and spoons are BYO. Chris Talio (bass) and Matthieu Carvin (electric keyboard) offer their instruments to regulars and strangers alike as host Bryan Kopchak reads the room to assemble compatible combos. Most participants play piano or drums and the house set, a compact vintage Ludwig model, is well-suited for jazz. Because no other bass players showed up at Quinn's on April 7, Talio put in yeoman's work. During his dinner break, Poppiins pulled out the spoons and improvised with Kopchak, who lives in Central Valley. "This is the bestest place to be on a Monday night in Beacon," said Poppiins, who established the rhythm. Kopchak started on brushes, then picked up the sticks and hit the drums' metal rims. Sounding like tap dancers, they created enough variation to keep things interesting. According to Kopchak, the jazz cats began hanging at Quinn's about 10 years ago, took a hiatus during the pandemic and returned in February 2022. The forum gives younger students a chance to mix it up with experienced musicians in a real-world setting. Fairbanks plays trumpet with the high school big band and a smaller group, but he is also adept behind the drums. Anticipating his turn at Quinn's, he took a seat near the stage, bobbing his head, tapping his feet and staring at the kit. After Kopchak counted off "one, two, you know what to do," Fairbanks locked in with Steele on piano as they exchanged improvised call-and-response riffs. When Talio took an experimental flight, Fairbanks kept pace, incorporating the tom-toms into beats that complemented the tune. Fairbanks' parents, professional trombone player Jeff and cellist Choi, instilled a love for the form. His younger brother, Kyle, plays alto sax and would have shown up to the jam but got bogged down with homework. Teo would like to study jazz in college. "There's nothing else like it; you can be creative with the dynamics of the solos and slip in your own material on the fly," he said. "It's where the unexpected happens." Jazz also fosters communication onstage and off. "I can have anxiety speaking with people sometimes, but when I play, it's like me talking and it's not as awkward," Teo says. "I've made a lot of friends through this music." Quinn's is located at 330 Main St. in Beacon. The music begins at 8 p.m. There is also a jazz jam on the third Wednesday of each month at The Falcon in Marlboro.

Jack Rohrs remembers the moment he knew he had to own a BMW motorcycle. It was in the 1960s, and he was riding home from the Laconia racetrack in New Hampshire on his Triumph. "It was vibrating so much, it was taking the screws out of my eyeglasses," said Rohrs, 82, with a laugh. "A guy went by me on a BMW with tooled leather saddle bags; he looked so comfortable he could have been smoking a pipe." He now owns several BMWs. His greatest find was 22 years ago, when a hunter told him about an old bike in a barn not far from Rohrs' home in Putnam Valley. He put a note in the mailbox, but it turned out to be the wrong one. "Several weeks later, a man responded, saying he didn't have a motorcycle. But he said the girl next door used to have an old Honda or something." The bike turned out to be a 1961 BMW R60, in good condition. A Connecticut dealer went over the motor at Rohrs' request and found no problems, other than it hadn't been started in a long time. "The carburetors needed cleaning, the valves needed adjustment and it needed tires," Rohrs said. "But it wasn't beat up, and I was happy with that." He had the bike painted in a fresh coat of BMW's trademark black and added a small rack to the back. "I've worked hard to get it set up right," Rohrs said. "I can pretty much take my hands off and it doesn't veer left or right." Asked what he'd change, he said, "It needs a new seat." He doesn't take the bike much past 60 mph but "they're so smooth," Rohrs said. "Years ago they used to say BMWs don't win the races, but they finish; when they were allowed to use superchargers, they won races for years." The Specs Assembly: Munich Production Years: 1956-69 Total Production: 20,133 Engine: 594 cc, 2-cylinder Boxer OHV Cooling system: Air Horsepower: 28-30 Gear box: Manual 4-speed, foot shifter Carburetors: Twin Bing Starter: Kick Curb weight: 437 pounds Top Speed: 90 mph 0-60 mph: 8.3 seconds Quarter mile: 16.6 seconds Fuel economy: 58 mpg 1961 Price: $1,131 (about $12,000 today) He describes his '61 as a fun ride. He bought the sidecar from a farmer in the Finger Lakes. Like the bike, it had sat in a barn for years. "It's a Globe, a BMW knockoff," he said. "I restored it and made brackets." His wife is a frequent passenger, and it's also ferried a celebrity. Ten years ago, Rohrs was riding near Lake Oscawana and pulled up beside a woman walking along the road. "I said, 'Hop in sweetheart. I'll give you a ride,' " he recalled. "I didn't know her from Adam." The woman liked the sidecar. "She hopped right in," Rohrs said. It was Ruth Westheimer, the sex therapist who died last year at age 96. Though the odometer reads 45,000 miles, the farthest Rohrs has taken the bike is Rhinebeck, including to a BMW rally there that included a sidecar parade. Replacement parts have been easy to find, he said, and being a member emeritus of the Finger Lakes BMW Motorcycle Club provides valuable contacts.

Plans to challenge Putnam incumbent as independent Larry Burke, a former officer-in-charge for the Cold Spring Police Department, has announced a campaign to challenge incumbent Putnam County Sheriff Kevin McConville in the fall election. Both men live in Philipstown. Burke said he plans to collect signatures for a nominating petition by a May 27 deadline to get on the ballot as an independent. McConville is seeking his second, 4-year term on the Republican and Conservative lines. Burke, 59, has worked in law enforcement for 37 years, including 26 years with the New York City Police Department. He joined the Cold Spring department in 2013 and served as officer-in-charge for seven years. He resigned in 2024 but continues as a part-time officer. Burke has also served as a firefighter with North Highlands Fire Co. for 12 years. He spoke with The Current on Thursday (May 1). His responses have been edited for clarity and brevity. What was your role with NYPD? I was a transit police officer for five years, riding and patrolling the subways in all the boroughs, 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. After that, I did regular patrols in the 40th precinct, South Bronx, for two years. I moved to the community policing unit, where you patrol a five- to 10-block area. You get to know people, the residents, store owners and the bad guys. You learn about cultures; that people from Colombia, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic are different culturally in how they bring up their family, how they do certain things. It's how I learned community policing. You get into people's lives, understand them, understand their kids, understand where they're from. They might distrust the police because the military may have run the police department [in their native countries]. It was a learning experience for me, a white police officer in a predominantly minority neighborhood. It was good. It was about gaining friendships and mutual respect. There must have been culture shock coming to Cold Spring. The crime was a lot less than what I dealt with before! One school, one neighborhood, stores on Main Street. You get to know people a lot quicker. I was experienced but still had to start on midnights. I found it a little hard to adjust to seeing three deer in the middle of the street but no people at 2 a.m. When I started day shifts, I got out of the patrol car, started walking, got to know the community. Is being an officer-in-charge enough experience to be sheriff? I had to run a small police department. I knew how to be a patrol officer, but I didn't know about budgets. I didn't know about manpower. I didn't know how to deal with the county, the state. I learned a lot in seven years. I went through seven budget processes, learned what we could and couldn't afford, what to fight for, what to let go until the next cycle. I learned about hiring people and letting people go. As my responsibilities increased, it built my confidence. I did the administrative work and I know I can do that with the county. I will reach out and hire a staff with expertise in the civil unit, the corrections unit, captain of patrol, captain of communications and other positions. I want to surround myself with intelligent people who know the police world. I want mutual support and to do the best job I can. Is running as an independent realistic? It is to me. There should be no politics in policing whatsoever, especially with today's atmosphere. Everyone's fighting at the national, state and county level. I'm a police officer and a volunteer firefighter. We don't look to see who's a Democrat and who's a Republican. We serve. I knew it was going to be hard running as an independent, but I'm not going to push one political party or another. And no one should run unopposed. Why should residents vote for you? I've dealt with Sheriff McConville personally. I've been in meetings with him, along with the chiefs of other police departments in the county, and what I've seen is division. It's his way or the highwa...

Main Street anchor in Beacon opened in 2003 Hudson Beach Glass, a Main Street fixture in Beacon for the past 22 years, has put its building and business at 162 Main St. on the market for $3.75 million. The two couples that own the glassworks hope to retire. Founded in 1987, Hudson Beach Glass opened its Main Street gallery in October 2003, two years after John and Wendy Gilvey and Michael Benzer and Jennifer Smith paid $270,000 to purchase 162 Main from the city. The three-story brick structure, built in 1893 as the Lewis Tompkins Hose Co. firehouse, later was home to the nonprofit Community Action Coalition. When the new owners took over, the structure was "in terrible shape, with plumbing issues and windows falling out," said John Gilvey. But "we knew we were on the precipice of something happening," Smith said - which was the arrival of Dia Beacon, a 240,000-square-foot museum on the waterfront that jumpstarted a cultural renaissance for the city. After buying the building, the couples had $30,000 left. They completed the rehabilitation with a $300,000 federal loan. John Gilvey and Benzer met in 1975, the year Gilvey began making glass. They kept in touch sporadically before running into each other at All Sport Health & Fitness in Fishkill in 1984. "All of the showers were taken, so we're both standing there naked," Benzer recalled. "It was a perfect way to start a business." Gilvey had been taking his creations to trade shows since 1977 and, by 1982, had contracts with major department stores. After graduating from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1982, Benzer began hot-casting glass tiles and custom shapes out of a Maple Street facility that still doubles as his home. Placing an ornamental bowl on a tile-turned-saucer, his work was both decorative and functional, "and it took off - fast," said Gilvey. Benzer and Smith handled manufacturing and shipping while the Gilveys, craft-fair warriors, managed marketing and customer service. In 1999, a college friend called Benzer to alert him that the Dia Art Foundation was negotiating to open its museum in a former Nabisco box factory. "That's when we concentrated all our energy on finding a location" for a glassworks and showroom, Benzer said. They looked on the east end of Main, where Ron Sauers and Doug Berlin were redeveloping brownstones. They considered the building that is now home to Alps Sweet Shop. Eventually they beat out two other bidders for the 6,300-square-foot former firehouse, which had been decommissioned two decades earlier. "It was perfect timing to stop schlepping things around and have people come to us," said Wendy Gilvey. "People came all this way, and when they got up to Main Street, they were happy to find us." On a cold, rainy day in January 2003, Hudson Beach Glass opened its doors for Beacon's first Second Saturday, which was modeled on Philadelphia's First Fridays. Despite having no heat and only a single shelf of glassware, "people actually came and bought stuff," John Gilvey said. "We started bringing in people who wouldn't normally come to a glass studio. That worked for us. When those people needed to buy a wedding gift, they came here." Mayor Lee Kyriacou, who joined the City Council in 1993, said he hopes that similarly creative investors will emerge to purchase the decommissioned Beacon Engine and Mase Hook and Ladder fire stations that the city listed for sale this week. "You're walking up Main Street and it's hard to miss them," he said of Hudson Beach Glass. "You can see how important they are and what a great job they did" rehabbing a high-profile building. Once 162 Main St. is sold, the Gilveys plan to travel with their three children and two grandchildren. One son considered taking over the business but opted instead for Boundless Life, a program that offers a "globally connected education" for families willing to travel. It will take the family this fall to Tuscany for three months, with Japan, Greece and Spain as possible ...