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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New film chronicles longtime celebrity reporter For three decades, George Carroll Whipple III, who lives in a castle atop a hill in Philipstown, has been a beloved staple of 24-hour cable channel NY1. With his trademark eyebrows, the entertainment reporter would snag the attention of passing red-carpet celebrities and was such a fixture he was parodied on Saturday Night Live. And next weekend, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, a documentary about his life, Whipple's World, will premiere. When director Adam Paul Verity proposed the film several years ago, Whipple demurred. "I said, 'That is a very stupid idea because nobody would be interested in my life,' and even though I'm sort of a public person, I'm an extremely private person." Verity persisted, and Whipple participated, but says he doesn't have immediate plans to see the 78-minute film. "I can't watch myself," he says. "But, somehow, Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal took it into the Tribeca Film Festival [which they founded following 9/11], which was extremely gracious and kind of them." How did a prep school (Choate) and Ivy League (Columbia) grad become a paparazzo and entertainment reporter in signature Brooks Brothers suits? Blame Andy Warhol. The two met at Studio 54. "He always had that Minox camera," Whipple says. "He said to me, 'Take pictures of your friends, George. It's very important.' Andy realized it was a gilded youth and a very unusual time. So I started photographing my friends, and I did that for a decade while I was practicing law." After a decade as a photographer for publications like Playboy, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine and Town & Country, Whipple enrolled at New York University's film school. His student film, he says, was terrible. "I decided I'd report on movies instead of making movies," he says. Whipple digitized his 30 years of celebrity interviews for The Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio). He considers them part of the history of New York City. Whipple's World follows him to Putnam County, where his family has farmed for generations. Today, he's on the board of directors and specializes in employment law at Epstein Becker Green. His Whipple Heritage Conservation Foundation preserves endangered North American livestock breeds. "When I grew up here, we used to have to stop on the way home, and the cows would cross the road," he says. "Those days are gone, but I would like to have children in the next generation to at least be able to glimpse farm life." Another family foundation, Preserve Putnam County, protects historic buildings and landscapes. He has been hands-on with one landmark: Castle Rock, where he lives with his daughter, Elizabeth. Whipple purchased the 10,518-square-foot mansion, which had been vacant for 35 years, in 2021 and began restoration work. "My friends who grew up in castles, from old English families, said, 'George, you can never finish a castle. They're always falling down.'" Whipple is a Putnam County booster and is working with former Gov. George Pataki and others for the county's celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence. "But for the chain [across the Hudson], we would be under a British flag," he says. "No question about it. The revolution was won in Putnam County." Whipple's home includes a room where he displays an impressive collection of Putnam County artifacts and memorabilia. He also has a wig and Revolutionary uniform ready for reenactments. Next on his list: rebuild the Ludington Mill that burned in the 1970s. "Washington was there. We fed the troops from that mill, and it should be reconstructed," he says. "As George Pataki says, 'The only problem with George Whipple is he doesn't have any energy.' " Whipple's World will have screenings during the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on June 12, 13 and 14. See dub.sh/whipples-world.

Changes give municipalities more control The state's 2019 climate law wasn't the only environmental legislation to get an overhaul in budget negotiations. It also amended the State Environmental Quality Review Act to exempt much of the new housing construction from the standard environmental review process. Gov. Kathy Hochul argued that SEQRA, enacted 50 years ago, is redundant because development projects undergo local review. The revision had support from some environmental groups, who hoped it would reduce sprawl while making it easier to build affordable housing. "SEQRA has improved a lot of planning in New York, but it still creates these real costs in the development process," said Johnathan Clark of Scenic Hudson. But Scenic Hudson and other environmental groups felt the law had too many loopholes; the final version addressed many, but not all, of their concerns. One requirement Hochul proposed is that projects exempted from the SEQRA process must be on a "disturbed" site rather than on untouched areas. Critics asked if a 50-acre property had a single house, could a buyer argue that the entire 50 acres was "disturbed"? Clark noted that the enacted law lets local planners interpret the rules. "We see that as an improvement," he said. Hochul's previous housing plan, a 2023 proposal to build 800,000 units over 10 years, fell apart after municipalities said that it would compromise their autonomy. "This is more respectful of home rule," said Pete Lopez, a former state legislator and regional EPA director who works for Scenic Hudson. "This is less prescriptive than what created that uproar in the past." The law also clarifies that former industrial sites, or anything adjacent to them, cannot escape SEQRA review. "A lot of contamination can move off of an immediate property line," said Tracy Brown, the president of Riverkeeper. Hochul's original proposal included two sizing requirements for a project to be exempt: one for New York City and one for the rest of the state. Environmental groups argued that there should be more categories; otherwise, a 300-unit development exempted in Yonkers or Buffalo could also be built in Cold Spring. The final law sets three caps: 250 to 500 for New York City, 300 for urbanized areas outside of New York City and 100 for non-urbanized areas. "That's still a lot for Garrison or Cold Spring, but at least it's better than 300," said Brown. The law also clarifies that any project in a municipality without zoning laws — a distinction that applies to about 20 percent of the state — must undergo a SEQRA review for projects over 20 units. "These SEQRA changes might make certain kinds of development easier, but it's still the actual local laws that are saying what can be built and where," Clark said.

Includes rebate checks, retiree changes Teachers in the Beacon, Haldane and Garrison school districts, waiters at Highlands eateries and millions who filed income tax returns in 2024 are among the winners in a newly enacted $269 billion state budget that also seeks to reduce auto insurance rates and utility costs. After several contentious issues delayed passage of the budget for nearly two months past the April 1 start of the fiscal year, Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators finalized a 2026-27 spending plan on May 28. The budget is 10 bills passed by the Senate and Assembly on May 26 and 27 and enacted by the governor. Sen. Rob Rolison, a Republican whose district includes the Highlands, voted yes on all the bills except for one funding public protection and general government. He was the only Republican to vote yes on two bills: one to pay for health and mental hygiene programs, and one for miscellaneous legislation. Assembly Members Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, and Dana Levenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Philipstown, voted yes on all 10 bills. One of the provisions is a round of rebate checks that will be issued this fall in response to rising electricity and gas rates. An estimated 8.2 million residents who filed taxes in 2024 and made up to $300,000 will receive checks ranging from $100 for individuals to $200 for joint filers. Another utility-related initiative in the budget will freeze electricity and gas rates at existing levels if the Public Service Commission denies a utility's request to increase prices. Jacobson, who introduced the proposal in the Assembly, said it amends state law that allowed a utility to automatically receive its full request if the PSC rejects its proposed new rates without proposing an alternative. "For too long, utilities have held customers hostage to their demands," he said. "Now, if the PSC determines that the rate increase should be zero, it will be zero." Waiters, bartenders, food deliverers and other workers who rely on tips will not have to pay income taxes on gratuities up to $25,000, in line with a federal law that expires in 2028. Hochul and state lawmakers also agreed to revise the Tier 6 retirement bracket, which applies to state and local public employees whose service began on or after April 1, 2012. The state budget is a series of bills passed by the Senate and Assembly and enacted by the governor. Here is how Sen. Rob Rolison, a Republican whose district includes the Highlands, and Assembly members Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, and Dana Levenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Philipstown, voted on May 26 and 27. State Operations (S9000D) Senate 43-19: Rolison yes | Assembly 102-40: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes Legislature and Judiciary (S9001A) Senate 45-17: Rolison yes | Assembly 98-44: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes Debt Service Fund (S9002A) Senate 48-10: Rolison yes | Assembly 109-34: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes Aid to Localities (S9003D) Senate 44-18: Rolison yes | Assembly 112-30: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes Capital Projects Budget (S9004D) Senate 45-17: Rolison yes | Assembly 111-31: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes Public Protection and General Government (S9005C) Senate 39-22: Rolison no | Assembly 93-47: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes Education, Labor, Housing, Family Assistance (S9006C) Senate 58-3: Rolison yes | Assembly 119-25: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes Health and Mental Hygiene (S9007C) Senate 42-20: Rolison yes* | Assembly 102-41: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes Transportation, Economic Development, Environmental (S9008C) Senate 53-10: Rolison yes | Assembly 110-33: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes Miscellaneous Legislation (S9009C) Senate 38-24: Rolison yes* | Assembly 91-52: Jacobson yes; Levenberg yes *Rolison was the only Republican to vote yes on this bill. Teachers and teaching assistants in that bracket will be able to retire five years earlier, at 58. The changes also increase the amou...

A searchable database of the most consequential decisions This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for its newsletter here. It's two months late, but it's finally here: New York state's $269 billion budget. The big story of this year's budget was the face-off between Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who made "tax the rich" a rallying cry of his campaign. Even as she stumped for Mamdani last fall, Hochul was adamant that she would not raise taxes on the wealthy. In the end, they split the baby. Mamdani didn't get what he most wanted: a tax hike on New York's top earners. But he did get billions of dollars from the state to plug a hole in the city's budget, new funding for child care, and a tax on luxury second homes in New York City, giving him something to burnish his socialist cred. Hochul and Mamdani also had to contend with major federal cuts and threats from President Donald Trump about more pain to come. The governor and mayor have managed to stay on good terms. As the budget neared completion, Mamdani said in a statement that they had "partnered through every step of the process." The budget contains hundreds of new programs and laws. Some of the most important: limits on police collaboration with ICE, a significant weakening of the state's landmark climate law, and removal of a major barrier to new housing statewide. We've pored over thousands of pages of budget documents to make this guide, which will tell you about several dozen of the most important decisions lawmakers made this budget cycle. In the chart below, you can see where each party stood and what made it into the final deal. Below that, you can find written descriptions using the drop-down menus. Happy reading! Total spend: The total sum the state expects to spend over the next year is $269 billion. That's more than what the governor ($260 billion) and Assembly ($266 billion) proposed spending, and nearly what the Senate proposed ($270 billion). Tax the rich? The budget does not hike personal income taxes or corporate taxes, despite a push by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and both legislative chambers. It does extend a pandemic-era corporate tax hike by three years — maintaining the current 7.25 percent rate through 2029. Rainy day fund: While an exact figure for how much money is in the state's rainy day fund isn't public yet, Budget Division spokesperson Tim Ruffinen said it's about $15 billion, roughly the same as when the budget process started. Public pensions: The state's major public sector unions won significant boosts to their workers' pension plans. Public school teachers will now be able to retire at 58 with full pensions. Many public employees will have their pension payments boosted, and their required contributions to the state pension fund lowered. The Department of Budget has estimated that this change will cost $557 million per year. Most of that cost is expected to fall on local governments and school districts, which generally had opposed the change. Foundation Aid: Lawmakers were successful in their push to revise the state's complicated school funding formula to better address the needs of vulnerable student populations. While Governor Kathy Hochul's executive proposal left the Foundation Aid formula unchanged, the final budget adds a new weight for students who are homeless or in foster care and increases funding for English language learners. Districts will also receive a funding boost of at least 2 percent over last year, bringing the total Foundation Aid allocation to $27.4 billion. CUNY funding: Funding for the City University of New York system will stay roughly the same as last year, at $6.7 billion, including over $650 million to support capital projects and infrastructure improvements. Hochul's budget would have allocated $6.4 billion to the system, while the Senate proposed $8.3 billion and the Assembly $15.1 bill...

Beacon considers five years of capital outlays The Beacon City Council will continue its review on Monday (June 1) of the city's five-year capital plan. Spending for 2027 purchases and projects must be approved before July 31. The city updates its five-year schedule annually; expenditures for the following year are approved, and estimates are calculated for future projects. A public hearing on the 2027 plan will be held on June 15. Next year's plan includes nearly $10 million in capital work and equipment purchases, although not all of it will be the city's responsibility. The most expensive project will be a $3.6 million rehabilitation of Beekman Street funded by grants. The street leading toward the Metro-North station will be repaved; sidewalks will be repaired and installed where there are gaps; and a bike lane will be added on the uphill side of the road. The next-highest expenditure is $1.9 million to construct a water-storage tank at the Mount Beacon Reservoir. The council approved $1.6 million for the project last year; the additional funding for 2027 will complete the work. The city plans to spend $500,000 in each of the next five years to mill and pave streets and install curb ramps to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Similarly, $400,000 is allotted in each of the next three years for improvements to the southwest corner of Memorial Park that tentatively will add pickleball courts, updated lighting and a second public restroom. In 2028, $3.3 million is budgeted for upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant, although Deputy City Administrator Ben Swanson and Finance Director Susan Tucker stressed during the council's May 18 meeting that prices can change. A ladder truck for the Fire Department, authorized as a $1.7 million expenditure in 2025, is now more than $1.9 million, Tucker noted. Two proposed expenditures drew a lot of attention: $5.4 million in 2028 for a 3.3-mile rail trail from the waterfront to the Town of Fishkill and, in 2031, $5.3 million to create a community center. Many residents have advocated for a community center for years, but the idea has never moved from the final year of the rolling five-year plan, a pattern that irked Council Member Lastar Gorton. "Why is that not a priority when this is what the community has been continuously asking for?" Gorton said, calling the rail trail a project for tourists. Mayor Lee Kyriacou disagreed, saying the trail "has nothing to do with tourism" but will be a recreational asset for residents. Gorton argued that "many, many, many, many" community members have called for a community center, including the Beacon Community Collective, a nonprofit that says it is fundraising for such a facility. The organization says its mission is to help establish something in the spirit of the Martin Luther King Cultural Center, which operated on South Avenue from 1969 to 2011, and the Beacon Community Resource Center, which was located for decades in what is now the Recreation Department building on West Center Street. Kyriacou noted that recreation funding has grown from $304,000 in 2014 to $1.15 million this year, allowing the department to run its after-school program, Camp at the Camp and partnerships with Green Teen Beacon, among other initiatives. The programmatic funds, combined with $15 million in capital improvements to public parks over five years, are "far more important than any building," he said. Kyriacou said he is pitching funders on the rail trail and hopes the project "will be largely funded by other people's money." Conversely, funding for a community center would come from borrowing or taxes, he said. The city must "make choices as to what's most important and in what order we should be doing things," he said. "But most important to who?" Gorton asked. Council Member Carolyn Bennett Glauda added, "Seeing the community center all the way at the end really feels like we kicked it down the curb." The $5.3 million estimate for the project is...

Philipstown filmmaker profiles Trump accuser Ivy Meeropol, who lives in Philipstown, directed her first documentary, Heir to an Execution, about her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 as Communist spies. In the 22 years since, Meeropol has made films about Red-baiting lawyer Roy Cohn, the Indian Point nuclear power plant and a surge of seals and great white sharks on Cape Cod. Her latest film, Ask E. Jean, tells the story of E. Jean Carroll, a women's magazine advice columnist, writer and New York City personality who, in 2019, accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her 25 years earlier in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. She appeared that year on the cover of New York magazine in the dress she said she had been wearing. She sued Trump for defamation and battery, and in 2023 was awarded $83.3 million in damages. The following year, after the former president denied the allegations and called Carroll a "wack job" whom he did not know, a jury awarded her another $5 million. Trump has appealed the $5 million judgment to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Wednesday (May 27), CNN reported that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into whether Carroll committed perjury. Meeropol grew up with the legacy of her grandparents, whose federal espionage trials were a defining moment of the Cold War, sparking anti-Communist hysteria and a global debate over civil liberties. The world was similarly divided by competing political visions when Meeropol spent time with Carroll and her lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, during their preparations for the 2023 lawsuit. "I feel that I have been a witness to history — like I had a front row seat to incredible events," Meeropol says. Both her grandparents' and Carroll's stories drew her in "because of who I am, because I grew up with being fully aware and always curious about what was going on behind the news — stories that are not censored but just not fully told. "I always want to humanize the people involved in these epic stories, because they end up being owned by the public or judged in a certain way, and it's limited," she says. "With my grandparents' case, it was that they're totally evil, or they were these pure, perfect martyrs who people revered. There was something else in there that was the truth." She says that Carroll was vilified in the press, "with Trump leading the charge, to make her out to be a Democratic operative, a wack job, a kook, a weirdo who would 'go up in the dressing room with a man.' It was important to me that we get to hear her story and see what she went through. It still amazes me that a lot of people don't even know that he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation by two juries. They just don't know." The problem was, Carroll wasn't interested in participating in a film. But a friend recognized Meeropol's name; Carroll liked her films. Even then, there was reluctance. "Numerous times along the way, she said, 'Oh, people don't need to hear … They won't want to hear this story.' Yeah, they do. They will!" Carroll was crowned Miss Indiana University in 1963 and Miss Cheerleader USA in 1964. "She was the cheerleader, a beauty queen, a sorority sister and then a television talent," Meeropol says. "Her contradictions were so interesting to me. She was telling women, 'You don't need to be married. Go to college!' but at the same time accommodating men's horrible behavior and making excuses for it, and saying that women should be tougher." Meeropol believes that young women, including her 17-year-old daughter, need to learn about E. Jean's life. "For young people, especially young women, to see this and have empathy and understanding for what she went through and then be inspired by where she is now is important." The film made its New York City debut on May 22 at the IFC Center. "For the audience seeing this together in a theater, it is electric," Meeropol says. "Watching it together is important, because t...

Eclectic jazz performer coming to Cold Spring Modest but accomplished actor and musician Nellie McKay is reticent when asked to discuss her work and style. She's more animated on political passions, like feminism and animal rights, and more talkative onstage. McKay (pronounced "McKye"), who will perform a sold-out show on June 6 at the Chapel Restoration in Cold Spring for its Jazz at the Chapel series, is comfortable enough there to reveal many personal details, like the story about why she mispronounced her guitarist's name after a 2011 appearance at NPR's Tiny Desk: "I was stoned when I met him." Three years ago, while a guest on a radio show in North Carolina, her face brightened when she heard that Sierra Nevada sponsored the segment. "Brought to you by a beer? I love that; it's about time." The host replied, "It's that time sometime" — i.e., 5 o'clock somewhere. Responding with a coy smile, she said, "All the time." The show is broadcast from the campus of Isothermal Community College in the state's Appalachian west: "I feel like I'm going to school again; I want to get some supplies," she said, not in reference to textbooks or pens. Then she launched into "The Drinking Song," a melancholy number about drowning sorrows after the death of a loved one, vowing to "drink, drink, drink" and "dream, dream, dream" when sleeping off the binge. McKay's musical knowledge is vast. She's hip to the Hawaiian music craze that brought the ukulele to the mainland in the 1920s and 1930s. As a pianist, she recorded a tribute album to music, movie and television icon Doris Day, who broke out in the mid-1940s and promoted animal rights. When the topic of World War I came up in conversation, McKay immediately referenced Death of the Liberal Class, by Chris Hedges, which focuses on the Committee on Public Information, a federal agency that created and spread propaganda. "That's where the war economy and the misinformation in the mass media started," she says. "I have to be political — we're such pawns." To escape, she tries to avoid the noise. "It's so good to unplug," she says. "Silence is my favorite music, but it can be hard to find." McKay is a seasoned actor and writer of themed musicals that cover obscure historical figures, like Barbara Graham, the third woman in California to die in a gas chamber (at San Quentin). She also encapsulates the life of Billy Tipton (born Dorothy) in a "Girl Named Bill," a play on Johnny Cash's biggest hit, "A Boy Named Sue." Tipton, who kicked off a career as a jazz pianist and bandleader in the 1930s, passed as a man for her entire life. Paramedics who responded to her death in 1989 discovered the truth. McKay lives on the road, with no fixed address. "Sometimes venues put me up, but I just travel," she says. "I'm a trucker." The Chapel Restoration is located at 45 Market St. in Cold Spring. McKay's performance, which begins at 7 p.m., is sold out, but tickets may be available at the door. To download music, see nelliemckay.com.

Putnam Republicans seize party line Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne failed to get the support of the Putnam & Westchester Libertarian Party but succeeded in becoming its candidate. On Tuesday (May 26), Byrne and three other Republican incumbents — Clerk Michael Bartolotti and coroners John Bourges and Michael Nesheiwat — submitted petitions to the county Board of Elections with about 2,500 signatures, 1,000 more than needed to appear as Libertarian candidates on the November ballot. Unless someone successfully challenges the validity of their petitions before today's (May 29) deadline, they will be the first Putnam candidates to carry the Libertarian line since 2020. They will do so over the objections of the party, which said it endorsed Byrne's Democratic opponent, Brett Yarris, and never met with Bartolotti, Bourges or Nesheiwat. For Byrne, the benefit is clear. He earned an endorsement from Putnam's Conservative Party when he first ran for county executive in 2022. But this year, the party nominated its chair, William Spain, leaving Byrne with the prospect of appearing solely on the Republican line. In a triumphant Facebook post on Tuesday, he declared "broad support" from "Libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives and unaffiliated voters all coming together around a positive vision for Putnam County." In 2020, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo enacted a law restricting the ballot to parties whose candidate for president or governor received at least 2 percent (or 130,000, whichever is greater) of votes cast in the preceding election. That change cost the Libertarian and Green parties their guaranteed place on the ballot. Today, only four parties qualify: Conservative, Democratic, Republican and Working Families . Their candidates often file nominating petitions for independent parties, so they will appear on more than one line on the ballot, believing this will win votes from people registered with that minor party or those unhappy with the two major parties. Six years ago, Putnam Judge Anthony Mole, Carmel Justice Daniel Miller and then-Justice Camille Linson of Philipstown were the most recent local candidates to run as Libertarians. That year, the state reported 155 active Libertarian voters in Putnam, the last time it collected registration data for non-major parties. Byrne isn't a Libertarian, the Putnam/Westchester chapter said in a statement on May 18, adding that Bartolotti, Bourges and Nesheiwat had not asked for the party's endorsement. Yarris won the endorsement because "he's way more libertarian, and seems to be a straight shooter," according to the party, but did not file a nominating petition to appear on its ballot line. Instead, he will appear on the Democratic, Working Families and For the People lines. The Libertarian chapter's vice-chair, Bill O'Donnell, called Byrne's petitioning "despicable" in a post at Hudson Valley Digger, a Substack newsletter by David McKay Wilson. "He's trying to imply that he is Libertarian," said O'Donnell, who lives in Philipstown. "He's not at all a Libertarian. He is trying to trade on our name. It's very underhanded." But another Libertarian, Jeffrey Chang of Carmel, said in a letter circulated to news organizations that he backed Byrne. As a party that supports small government, Yarris' "big government ideas turn true Libertarians, such as myself, off," said Chang. "If someone wants the Libertarian Party line on the ballot, and the support of the party, you do the work to earn it. Byrne did it, and his tax-cutting record backs it up." Several other Republicans in Putnam filed petitions to run as Libertarians: Christian Russo, who hopes to replace Bill Gouldman as the District 2 legislator representing most of Putnam Valley; Gouldman, who is seeking the Putnam Valley supervisor seat; and Robert Nachamie, who is running for Putnam Valley town justice. Several Democratic candidates also beat the Tuesday deadline to submit nominating petitions for an independent line. ...

For 11 years, she navigated village forestry Jennifer Zwarich has had a thing for trees for a long time. "I've always been a tree person, although I'm not a tree hugger, exactly," she said. "I was a tree climber as a kid and trees always made me feel small in a good way." On Arbor Day (April 25), Zwarich stepped down as chair of the Cold Spring Tree Advisory Board, a role she took on before the panel was created 11 years ago. In 2012, a handful of volunteers formed the Shady Lane Campaign to tend to village-owned trees. A year later, the Village Board appointed an ad hoc committee to investigate whether a tree board and local tree law were needed. When Zwarich wrote Mary Saari, then the village clerk, to volunteer, Saari replied, "Would you like to chair the committee?" Zwarich soon learned that even tree care can become political. What was supposed to be four quick meetings and a recommendation to the Village Board became much more. A session at Butterfield library drew a passionate crowd. Some vehemently opposed forming a committee. "It was baffling to me," Zwarich recalled. A subsequent meeting at Village Hall also got boisterous. "About 30 people fought for almost an hour over whether to call it a board, a committee or a commission," Zwarich said. (She says now that "board" was the right choice because it carries weight and helped her secure nearly $100,000 in grants.) Looking back, she feels some who opposed the committee felt it would be another layer of government, taking money from the budget. There was also concern that a tree law could infringe on private property rights, although the board only deals with village-owned trees. After the dust settled in 2015, the board added "Chapter 122: Trees" to the Village Code, and a Tree Advisory Board was established, with Zwarich as chair. An initial survey found the village owned about 500 trees, she said. "Our goal was to plant many more trees than we were losing," she said. Since the board was created, volunteers and Highway Department staff have planted about 230 trees, and 592 have been inventoried by species (72) and condition. Zwarich said that while residents seem to love them or hate them, the Main Street tree pits were her favorite project. "They have improved the health of a lot of trees," she said, although some need weeding. She views that as "an invitation for volunteer-minded people and businesses to get involved." Village-Owned Trees Norway maple (50)* Callery pear (48) Black oak (32) Red maple (32) Honey locust (30) Zelkova (22) Cherry (21) Serviceberry (20) Black gum (19) Oak (16) Pin oak (16) Black locust (15)* Sugar maple (15) Plum (14) Gingko (13) Linden (13) Japanese tree (12) Silver maple (11) Sweetgum (11) Eastern red (10) London (10) *New York invasive species Urban forestry can be challenging. "The sidewalk strip is not a place for trees; they're growing in awful conditions most of the time and getting peed on," she said. In addition, many side streets lack tree cover because there's no space to plant on village property. "The oldest trees are all on private property, where they have more rooting space," she said. Zwarich noted that in some places, such as Rhinebeck, the municipality donates and maintains trees near sidewalks that are on private property. "I don't know if it would fly here, but that's the next frontier," she said. She believes most people know trees are good for the environment, giving off oxygen, taking in carbon dioxide and reducing pollution. But she said the economic benefits are overlooked. "Shading your house can reduce your summer electrical bill, and the increase in property values by having trees around your house or in your neighborhood is huge." She said that when the tree committee was created, the village forest lacked diversity, including an overabundance of Norway maples, which grow fast. "They ended up being a real problem," Zwarich said. "They're weak-wooded and brittle and shed branches during storms," creating ...

Latest Beacon venue hosts its first shows Around 25 years ago, as gentrification creeped in, stickers and graffiti emerged in Texas urging people to "Keep Austin Weird." Going for a punk aesthetic, an early version of the poster promoting the triple bill on Saturday (May 30) at The Cafeteria, a new venue in Beacon, shows a singer with a mohawk wearing a Dead Boys shirt. Two slogans adorn the bottom quadrant: "Keep Beacon Weird" echoes the call in Austin and "Hot Lunch Lives" nods to the space's former role as a high school cafeteria. It's now occupied by Clutter Gallery, which manufactures collectible designer toys and recently moved from Main Street. The old high school is home to the KuBe Art Center, and the event is homegrown. Happy Valley Arcade Bar brings food and drink. Gavin Hecker booked the bands under the new Prophecy Lab brand that differentiates his live music arm from Prophecy Hall, the former church on the west side of town. The Cafeteria holds 150 people and will host music shows twice a month, says Clutter co-owner Josh Kimberg. On May 30, alt-rock combo Monski opens for guitarist Jeffrey Lewis, coming from New York City. A veteran of the Austin music scene, he crossed paths with Ed Hamell, who is playing at Lucky Dog in Beacon today (May 29). The troubadours convey clever lyrics with simple but emphatic chords. Lewis also hobnobbed with Daniel Johnston, an influential Austin musician who received a modicum of fame after someone photographed Kurt Cobain wearing a shirt depicting the cover of his 1983 album Hi, How Are You. It featured an abstract drawing of a frog, dubbed Jeremiah the Innocent. Johnston, who died in 2019, was a friend of Ron English, another local designer-toy artist. Kimberg is working with Johnston's estate to create works related to the figure. Also on the Saturday bill is Nick Yulman and the Bricolo Mechanical Band, housed in his basement at the foot of Mount Beacon. Active in the automated music circuit, he's played gigs at the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Composer Angelica Negron has written several pieces that incorporate his contraptions for the Sö Percussion ensemble, which has performed twice for the Howland Chamber Music Circle. Yulman's works are heavy on thuds, chimes and disembodied vocals. Sounds emanating from a modified keyboard — along with an analog vibraphone and percussion instruments — are triggered by a computer program that operates jury-rigged solenoids (valves with plungers). One rig can play every key on his modified reed organ; other controllers manipulate drumsticks and pedals on command. At the show, Yulman will sing and play guitar to accompany the robots. The set-up includes wooden boxes that he hangs around the room, adding an element "that alters the sound depending on where you stand," he says. "You can mix your own experience by moving around." Tracks are layered so thick that he laughs when asked how many a typical composition contains. Onscreen, the MIDI keyboard's programming panel looks like the paper rolls with cutouts from player pianos of the early 1900s. "Mechanical music isn't new," he says. "But triggering weird sounds on my laptop didn't move me. This is a lot more fun." The Cafeteria is located at the Clutter Gallery, 20 Kent St., in Beacon. Tickets for the May 30 show are $20 ($25 door). See dub.sh/cafeteria-5-30.

Changes cover debris, snow removal, vegetation The Nelsonville Board of Trustees, which is rewriting the Village Code, on May 20 reviewed rules governing how residents must maintain their properties. At the monthly meeting, Trustees Alan Potts and Maria Zhynovitch summarized proposed revisions that combine sections on exterior maintenance; litter, snow and ice removal; and vegetation upkeep into a single chapter. "That was part of the goal — to put them all in one area you could easily find and reference," said Potts. The height of grass, brush and weeds would still be limited to 10 inches, but the draft code exempts crops, flowers, native plantings, ornamental grasses, pollinator gardens and other "lawfully cultivated" gardens. In those cases, residents will be prohibited from allowing vegetation to spread to public rights-of-way or neighboring properties, or obstruct the view for motorists and pedestrians, especially at intersections. Snow and ice removal from gutters and sidewalks, which is currently required in a "reasonable time" after a storm, would have to take place within 24 hours under the new regulations. The revised code also mandates that property owners create sidewalk paths that are at least 36 inches wide without discarding snow onto sidewalks and streets or blocking drains and fire hydrants. Properties must be free of "litter, debris, garbage, refuse, rubbish, combustible materials or other waste materials," but compost, mulch, manure and materials used for agriculture, gardening and landscaping are exempted. "We're trying to bring a lot of clarity and avoid situations where, let's say, someone has a bunch of lumber in front of their yard because they're doing an addition," said Zhynovitch. "It's not going to be done in a day, but if it's there for a couple of months, they're technically in violation." Mayor Chris Winward recommended that fines be capped at $250. As drafted, a property owner could be penalized up to $250 for a first offense, up to $500 for a second offense within a year and up to $1,000 for a third violation within a year. "They're a little high," said Winward. "In addition to the fine, depending on whether the village had to act and remedy the situation ourselves, there's also a reimbursement for that remedy." Zhynovitch said she will review Cold Spring and Philipstown's rules for boat and vehicle storage before crafting similar guidelines for the property-maintenance code, and look into adding a section on the removal of garbage cans from sidewalks after trash pickup. The code rewrite began with revised guidelines for animals, including bees and chickens. All the changes will remain in draft form until they are voted on, which Winward said she hopes will happen in December. The board voted to renew a contract with its village attorney, Keane & Beane. The contract runs from June 1 through May 31, 2027, and will pay the firm $230 per hour for general services such as preparing resolutions, providing legal opinions and advising the trustees and the planning and zoning boards. A separate contract approved May 20 retains Kevin Irwin as the village prosecutor for violations and misdemeanors under state vehicle and traffic laws. Irwin's contract pays him $150 an hour and continues through May 15, 2027.

1866 painting depicts forging of Parrott rifle In 1866, John Ferguson Weir painted "The Gun Foundry," depicting workers pouring molten iron into a casting pit at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring to create a Parrott gun. The painting, which lives at the Putnam History Museum, was last cleaned 50 years ago. Kara Mattsen, the director of curation, said the staff noticed "it had gotten a little foggy." It was "dirty, very dirty," said conservator Nadia Ghannam, who on Friday (May 29) will reveal the results of her thorough cleaning, funded by state grants. Ghannam has worked in the conservation departments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Guggenheim, among other museums. At Dia Beacon, she worked on the 102-piece Andy Warhol collection. As you might expect, refreshing a 160-year-old oil on canvas entails far more than a toothbrush and a bottle of Mr. Clean. "In 1973, it underwent a very aggressive treatment," Ghannam said, including a coating of acrylic varnish. "I did tests to see what I could do to improve that synthetic coating, because it was a little thick and gray-looking. It's a small window to find the right combination of materials so you can safely remove a discolored coating without removing paint." She concluded the 1973 layer wasn't discolored enough to take the risk. Ghannam noted that Weir painted "The Gun Foundry" during the Industrial Revolution, a period when artists started using mass-produced materials. "They were using a lot of crazy stuff in the paint," she said. "Some of it's difficult to take off now. For this surface cleaning, I used water with diammonium citrate, a mild chelating agent [which is gentler than acids]. Then I used a mild solvent to deal with the acrylic layer." She laughed while explaining that organic chemistry "nearly killed" her while earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Cornell University and a master's degree in art restoration at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. "You have to understand paint chemistry and have a knowledge of artist materials and art history," she said. "My specialty became 19th- and early 20th-century American paintings." She noted that her work on "The Gun Foundry" was not a restoration, which involves repainting, a practice that conservators don't tend to use. "My approach is more minimal," she said. "I did some retouching, but only where there's something missing." On Weir's painting, the damage was limited to the bottom edge and perimeter. There, she used a watercolor formulated for conservators that mimics oil paint. Ghannam also refurbished the wood frame, which she described as "original and beautiful. It has interesting techniques like burnished gold, then matte gold, then textured gold leaf, which was popular in the 19th century." She found no major problems, such as a tear. "It's in good condition, a pretty solid painting — a sign of the painter's good technique," she said. Her work enabled details in Weir's painting to re-emerge. Before the cleaning, even Ghannam didn't notice a dog in the lower part of the painting. Weir's art bucked a 19th-century trend, Mattsen noted. "Much the art at that time reflected the Hudson River School approach of sweeping landscapes and beautiful scenery," she said. "Weir departs from that, focusing on this industrial scene with everyday workers at the forefront." Weir (1841-1926) grew up at West Point, where his father was a professor of drawing and provided much of his formal training. He had 15 siblings. He was fond of visiting the gun factory in Cold Spring, referring to it in his journal as "the dear old foundry." Mattsen said the painting also portrays a who's who of the foundry elite, including founder Gouverneur Kemble and Robert Parker Parrott, a West Point grad who designed a rifled cannon that was mass produced during the Civil War. (A replica is displayed on the Cold Spring waterfront.) Weir started sketching inside the foundry in 1864 and some of his early drawi...

County called on to spend more of savings Putnam County has a good problem: how to best return $6.5 million from a swollen surplus to residents. Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, and other legislators weighed legality and logistics at the May 12 meeting of the Rules Committee as they volleyed ideas. Among the proposals: $200 rebate checks to homeowners; replicate a state program in which homeowners receive a property-tax credit or check; send funds to residents burdened by the cost of energy, childcare or other necessities. The debate is the progeny of a pandemic-era explosion in sales-tax revenue and federal and state aid. Incoming funds more than doubled the size of Putnam's "unassigned fund balance," an unrestricted pool that County Executive Kevin Byrne and legislators can choose how to spend. Forecasting is never precise, but between 2020 and 2024, sales-tax revenues exceeded estimates by $47.5 million. State and federal legislators also plied municipalities with pandemic aid. Over those four years, the unrestricted surplus ballooned from $29.9 million at the end of 2019 to $78.3 million by 2024. (The 2025 figures are being finalized.) That bounty sparked a clash between Byrne and some legislators and municipal officials who believe more of it needs to be spent. Some funds have been dedicated to capital projects to avoid "saddling taxpayers with unnecessary long-term debt and interest costs," said Byrne. "Putnam County's strong financial position is not money sitting idle." But Montgomery and other legislators say the county should use some funds on direct aid to residents. They voted last year to set aside $6.5 million for tax relief or another giveback. The debate over how to do that continues, but people "need relief now," said Montgomery. "A strong fund balance is good fiscal management, but ours is more than a rainy-day fund," she said. "We're holding public money while our residents are struggling. We should invest in housing, mental health services, childcare and transportation." While state law prohibits school districts from holding surpluses that exceed 4 percent of their budgets, municipalities (cities, counties, towns and villages) and fire districts are allowed to carry over a "reasonable" amount" each year. Putnam's surplus in 2024 represented 38 percent of its $205 million budget for 2025. By comparison, Dutchess County ended 2024 with $104.3 million in its unassigned fund, or 17 percent of its $630 million spending plan for 2025. One reason for Putnam's surplus is unexpected sales-tax growth. Putnam, Dutchess and other counties anticipated a financial hit when New York State ordered non-essential businesses to close in March 2020 due to COVID-19. But Putnam was too conservative: Its revenues in 2020 exceeded its projection by $5.7 million. As the state's economy recovered, Putnam's sales-tax revenues exceeded projections by $18.9 million in 2021, $17.4 million in 2022, $13.6 million in 2023 and $8.6 million in 2024. Nearly $28 million of the surplus has been spent since 2021. Byrne and the Legislature spent $13.2 million in the 2025 budget, including the $6.5 million sought by legislators for tax relief and $150,000 for food programs. This year is also the first in which Putnam is sharing sales-tax revenue with its towns and villages. Philipstown will receive $169,000, and Cold Spring and Nelsonville the minimum $50,000 each, from $2.3 million. The money, which is allocated based on population, is restricted to infrastructure projects. "This is funding that otherwise would have remained in the county's general fund," said Byrne, who also wants to use $2 million for mental-health services. "It is now helping our local partners invest in infrastructure, public works and taxpayer relief in their own communities." Former Legislator Paul Jonke, who proposed the homeowner rebate program before he left office in 2025, said during the Rules Committee meeting that the $6.5 ...

Olana (Hudson) Olana is less than 50 miles north on Route 9 or the Taconic Parkway. Now is the perfect time to visit the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Hudson River School of Art painter, Frederic Edwin Church, in the home he designed with architect Calvert Vaux and on the grounds that were his visual embodiment of a bucolic landscape. The current exhibit, Global Artist, which runs through Oct. 25, portrays the multitude of landscape paintings from distant lands. The exhibit is on the second floor of Church's home, which was inspired by his trips to Persia in the 19th century. You will see works on loan from many museums and private collections that depict the Parthenon, an iceberg off Newfoundland, Petra in Jordan, the Andes in South America, and yes, the sunsets over the Hudson River. Church's own iconic paintings adorn every part of his living space, with European masters in the dining room. There is also fascinating ephemera throughout his sitting rooms, library and studio. Large windows highlight the landscape. The home is surrounded by 250 acres, now a state park, that was thoughtfully planned by Church. Apparently, he was fond of collecting seeds during his travels. As you stand on the grounds, you may feel like part of one of his paintings. Within 10 minutes is Hudson, another gem of a bygone era, where whaling vessels had safe harbor. Hudson is home to upscale boutiques of house furnishings and clothing by makers and designers, food markets and antique stores. For simple, affordable fare, try Baba Louie. Another local stronghold on Warren Street is Red Dot. Or pack a picnic basket, weather permitting, and dine at Olana. Olana, at 5720 Route 9G in Hudson, is open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset. Home tours take place daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. except Monday and start at $20 (children ages 16 and younger are free). You can explore the house on your own on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for $25. Picnics and dogs on leashes are allowed on the grounds. See olana.org. Campus Art Tour Two college campuses within an hour of the Highlands have well-kept secrets. The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, at SUNY-New Paltz, is housed in a nondescript building that is also home to the Parker Theater. There are three areas in the main exhibit area to explore, which is across from a studio that features local artists (e.g., the annual Hudson Valley Artists Show) and contemporary themes (e.g., language, society and power). In the Main Hall, A Living Collection highlights the museum's assortment of permanent acquisitions or commissions. The art includes paintings by American masters (e.g., Milton Avery, George Inness, Joel Meyerowitz) and contemporary sculpture and collectible objects of great distinction. One featured exhibit and program hang from four to six months and is frequently curated by a member of the art faculty. Recent exhibits highlighted the artistic heritage of New Paltz faculty and global connections amongst international artists that had all crossed paths with a teacher in New York. There is also a dedicated space to sit for a while where creative experimentation is encouraged with art materials provided in a hands-on activity room. It is a chance to ponder the impact of what was viewed during the walk through the gallery. Conversation with museum staff — university students who share artistic interests — is welcomed. Overall, the hallmark of the visit is having a self-paced tour, without rush or crowds. The low-key art adventure continues by traveling across the Mid-Hudson Bridge to Vassar. Take a lunch break at Meyer's Olde Dutch on Collegeview Avenue in Poughkeepsie, a recent expansion from Beacon. After lunch, a walk across the campus, which is an arboretum, takes you to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center near the South Gate. The Loeb is double the size and packs more into its galleries than the Dorsky. It will take twice the amount of time to wander and absorb the art treasures. Starting with the Founding G...

Editor's note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing. Divers hired by an insurance company searched the river just south of Newburgh for a canal boat that sank with a cargo of marble valued at $8,000 [about $250,000 today]. According to The Cold Spring Recorder, "some fiend in human shape" broke into the Newburgh Telegraph and stole several cases of type. The First National Bank of Fishkill Landing installed a chronometer [timer] lock on its safe. John Hannon, a switchman at Dutchess Junction, mangled his hand while coupling cars. The Hudson River Railroad Co. began construction on a brick-and-iron depot at Fishkill Landing that measured 28 feet wide by 85 feet long. William Thompson of Matteawan invented a rubber saddle pad. John Schlosser, principal of the Fishkill Landing school, was admitted to the bar. Several gentlemen, "highly distinguished in their professions in New York," according to a news account, offered to give an entertainment at Fishkill Landing to benefit the Howland library. Seventeen cows on their way to Orange County via the Newburgh ferry plunged into the river at Long Dock, but all were rescued. According to the Newburgh Telegraph, William Daly, while drifting for shad, caught a sturgeon weighing 310 pounds. Sixty-four iron columns arrived for the first story of a weaving mill at Glenham to support an iron girder running the length of the building. A young man named Timothy Ryan fell from the Glenham bridge while drunk and was not expected to live. In its annual report, Highland Hospital in Matteawan said that it had treated 15 boys and men for a total of 671 days. Two remained in the hospital. No one had died. Its receipts were $4,400 [$137,000], of which $555 [$17,000] was collected by 20 churches on Hospital Sunday. Each patient cost $1.26 [$39] per day, including food and medicine. Burglars broke into Mrs. Newlin's house on the road to Poughkeepsie, about 1½ miles from Fishkill Landing, but found nothing to steal. H.N. Barton, who owned a gun shop at the rear of Raizell's market, was showing a customer a pistol with a safety cap on the nipple when he pulled the trigger, unaware it was loaded with shot and slugs. The charge passed through the shop door into the market, hitting James Phillips in the arm and Charles Livington in the chest, mortally wounding him. J.W. Spaight, editor of The Fishkill Standard, purchased a photograph gallery at Fishkill Landing. William Holton announced he would operate a 6:30 a.m. coach from Fishkill that stopped at two hotels on its way to the Fishkill Landing depot. After a state court released a list of 42 people seeking U.S. citizenship, Mayor Ernest Macomber objected to the petitions of Stanley and John Kishkiel, owners of the New Haven House, because they had been accused of disorderly conduct. Their bar had been raided by federal liquor authorities, and the brothers, immigrants from Russia/Poland, and a patron resisted. After being arrested, the men put the bar up for sale and returned to their previous trades as a shoemaker and a paper hanger. Frederick Futterer, the director of physical education and athletic coach for the Beacon public schools, was hired as director of recreation for the City of Albany. While driving four members of his family to a Baptist church conference in Washington, D.C., Robert Doughty slid off the road in Port Jervis and hit a telephone pole. His wife and sister-in-law were hospitalized. Sherwood Robinson of the Mahwenawasigh Tribe in Beacon was elected deputy grand sachem of the 11th district of the Hudson Valley region of the Improved Order of the Red Men, a fraternal organization. Robert Jones, a one-armed laborer at the Nicholson brickyard in Dutchess Junction, attacked Thomas Powers with an ax during a craps game, cutting him a dozen times. Dr. Charles Keating said Powers was expected to recover unless the wounds became infected. Frank Knapp purchased the Melzingah Hotel and the Beacon Stadium, which was...

Speaks in Rockland County to boost Rep. Lawler President Donald Trump, while visiting Rockland County on Friday (May 22) to appear with Rep. Mike Lawler, began testing his midterm message that was ostensibly on the economy. Lawler's district, which includes Philipstown, will be one of the most closely watched House races this November. The event at Rockland Community College in Suffern was meant to promote the tax law Trump signed last year, particularly the quadrupling of the deduction for state and local taxes, which is critical in a high-tax state like New York. Trump called Lawler "fantastic" and mused about how the congressman was a "pain in the ass" as he badgered the administration on expanding the deduction. He pulled Lawler onstage during the event, and the congressman thanked the president "for working with me to deliver a big win" for the people in his district. He said that more than 90 percent of the people in District 17 were able to fully deduct their state and local taxes. During his remarks, the president veered away from the economy from the start, going off on tangents about voter identification, crime in cities, transgender women in sports and "Dumocrats," his new chosen moniker for the opposition party. He complained that toiletries are locked up in pharmacies, making them harder to buy, and polled the audience on what he should call his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. Eventually, he landed on the topic of the speech, telling the crowd that he and his party worked to slash taxes and increase take-home pay, while Democrats opposed the effort at every turn. "I cut your taxes, cut the taxes on workers, families, small business, who are the soul of this state," Trump said. Listing off the provisions of the tax law, the president said: "These are all Republican tax cuts. The Democrats voted against every one of these tax cuts." Also appearing with the president at the event Friday was Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-backed Republican candidate for governor. Trump said, "Guys like Mike Lawler, guys like Bruce Blakeman, you put them in, they'll turn it around." The White House has been looking for more opportunities to highlight Trump's economic accomplishments as his approval rating on the economy has slumped. About one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the economy, according to a new AP-NORC poll, down slightly from 40 percent at the start of his second term. Trump had promised to bring prices down, but gas prices have surged this year due to the war in Iran. Lawler is just one of three House Republicans who represent a district won by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in 2024. Unlike the other two — retiring Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon and Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who's been a critic of Trump policies — Lawler has chosen to embrace the polarizing president in hopes of not alienating Republican voters who support the party's leader. "Look, the people who hate the president — and that's their sole basis for their vote — are likely never voting for me, and you know, obviously, you need to turn out your base, and you need people energized," Lawler told The Associated Press in an interview on the sidelines of the White House congressional picnic earlier this week. "Moreover, I have a record in my district that is one I'm very proud of, and a record that appeals to a broad middle." Lawler, wearing a red ball cap emblazoned with "Mr. SALT," the acronym for the state and local tax deduction he fought to include in the bill, added, "I am confident that I will be reelected on my own merits and my own record." Trump established a SALT cap in 2017 through his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Last year's law expanded the SALT deduction to $40,000 from $10,000 after arduous negotiations with Republicans, including Lawler, whose district has high local taxes. The law also raised the average tax refund for New Yorkers to more than $3,800, according to data provi...

Public schools face many challenges. In this, the first part of an ongoing series, we examine the effects of declining enrollments. For the last two decades, public schools in the Highlands have been losing enrollment. It's the same story across much of the country, thanks to declining birthrates and the rise of homeschooling and charter schools. In New York, the problem has been exacerbated by people leaving the state. The Beacon district, which includes four elementary schools, a middle school and high school, had 3,600 students in 2004 but fewer than 2,500 today, a drop of 31 percent. Haldane had 846 students and 774 today, a 9 percent drop. Garrison had nearly 300 students; now the K-8 district has fewer than 200, a 34 percent drop. Overall, New York state has lost 17 percent of its student population. At the same time, the cost of educating each student has risen faster than inflation over the past 20 years because of the rising costs of special education, English language learners, health care, energy, school security and social and emotional support staff, according to Brian Fessler, chief advocacy officer of the New York State School Boards Association. In 2004, the cost per pupil in Garrison was the equivalent of $32,000 when adjusted for inflation; today it is about $40,000, an increase of 24 percent. For Haldane, the cost grew from $29,000 to $35,700, or 23 percent. In Beacon, it rose from $22,600 to $32,700, a 45 percent increase. Statewide, the cost per student went from $25,000 to $34,000, or 38 percent. Declining enrollment, rising costs and a tax-levy cap formula that ties rates to inflation or 2 percent, whichever is lower, has created a crisis for some districts. In January, the state comptroller identified 31 of New York's 675 districts — none from the Highlands — in "fiscal stress," up from 22 in 2024. In Yonkers, the public schools face a $100 million deficit for 2026-27 and have discussed major layoffs. In New York City, public schools have been consolidating due to the loss of 100,000 students in the last five years. In the Highlands, the gradual loss of students, rising costs and the rate cap have created staffing and financial challenges. Haldane, Garrison and Beacon each proposed the maximum tax-levy increases allowed for 2026-27, ranging from 2.27 to 5.53 percent, which voters approved on Tuesday (May 19). Beginning in the fall, Haldane will expand its middle school to include fifth grade to avoid layoffs due to declining enrollment, said MaryAnn Seelke, the principal. Seelke projects that enrollment in sixth, seventh and eighth grades will decline over the next four years from 185 to 150, or by 21 percent. The district would normally have four teachers per grade, plus a special educator, depending on need. "As enrollment declines, that's a lot of teaching power for a small number of students," said Seelke. Bringing the fifth grade into middle school will add two teachers, bringing the total to six for the fifth and sixth grades. The district is losing a fifth-grade teacher through retirement, Seelke said. Haldane began planning for declining enrollment three years ago by aligning the elementary and middle school schedules. "This is the last step," Seelke said. "It is designed to better utilize faculty so that we don't have to put people on the furlough list." There are also pedagogical reasons for placing fifth graders in middle school, she said. Other Hudson Valley schools have expanded their middle schools to give 10- and 11-year-olds more support as they mature (see below). Haldane to Shift Fifth Graders When Haldane expands its middle school to include fifth grade in the fall, it won't only be to address declining enrollment. The district will also follow an approach to nurturing adolescents adopted by districts across the country. Fifth graders — typically ages 10 and 11 — are experiencing "exponential growth, physically, socially and emotionally," said MaryAnn Seelke, Haldane's middle scho...

Municipalities, nonprofit, residents challenge review As anticipated by votes earlier this month by the Cold Spring and Philipstown boards, the municipalities on Wednesday (May 20) filed a state lawsuit challenging the conclusions of a mandated environmental review of the proposed 7.5-mile linear park that would connect Beacon to Cold Spring. At the same time, a nonprofit group, Protect the Highlands, filed its own lawsuit. The legal actions name Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail Inc., a subsidiary of Scenic Hudson, and the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Both allege that a recently completed state environmental review fails to adequately assess the project's impact on the village and town. The lawsuits had to be filed before May 20, or 120 days after the end of the environmental review process, to meet a state deadline. The legal actions are Article 78 proceedings, which enable municipalities and others to challenge the actions or inactions of local and state agencies. Protect the Highlands filed its challenge in Albany County, along with four Cold Spring residents — Tom Impellittiere, Stephanie Impellittiere, Stephanie Skiptunis and Rosanne Powell — whom the filing says "will suffer direct environmental, aesthetic and community impacts distinct from those experienced by the public at large." The village and town filed their lawsuit in Putnam County. The municipalities hope to have Putnam County join them, but the Legislature did not vote on the request before the filing deadline. At the Wednesday meeting of the Village Board, Mayor Kathleen Foley said that the lawsuit "does not stop the project, as some have erroneously asserted," but that "we would be delinquent in our duties if we did not challenge the findings." She said that, earlier in the week, the village received an email signed by residents who support the Fjord Trail, requesting a referendum on the project. Foley said a vote "is not a possibility under state law." She added that she could say "with certainty that even if every resident in this village stated their unconditional support for the Fjord Trail project, this board would still be asking fiscal, environmental and quality-of-life questions." The lawsuit also names Putnam County, and Cold Spring resident Laura Bergman, which Foley said was done to give both the opportunity to join as petitioners or respondents. Bergman owns property at the entrance to Dockside Park. Both lawsuits focus on the southern section of the trail, from Cold Spring to Breakneck Ridge. In February, HHFT said it would delay construction on the southern end by at least two years to collect data on a stretch of the Hudson River where an elevated boardwalk is planned. A pedestrian bridge at Breakneck, which underwent a separate environmental review in 2022, is under construction, along with a parking lot on Route 9D across from the former Dutchess Manor, which will be the HHFT headquarters. Protect the Highlands alleges that the state's "findings statement," which cleared the way for HHFT to move forward, was "arbitrary, capricious and irrational on several fronts" and should be annulled. The municipal suit asks that the findings statement be nullified for the southern section, and notes that HHFT must get land-use and Zoning Board approvals from Cold Spring and Philipstown for sections of the trail on private property or within the state park. (The environmental review concluded that HHFT does not need local approval for parts of the trail built on state land.) In addition, the suit says that access to Dockside Park, which is owned by the state and maintained by the village, would only be available through an easement on private land. It asks the court to rule that the easement does not provide the access required to reach the trail. Cold Spring and Philipstown argue that concerns regarding traffic and emergency services "were marginalized, if not completely ignored," and that several findings were "arbitrary a...

Employment program provides work experience Beginning in July, as many as eight Beacon teenagers will have a chance to work at jobs that could pay dividends. The city's youth employment program, managed by the Recreation Department, will hire residents aged 16 to 18 for summer work. In its second year, the project is funded by county grants. Applicants' families must be eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a state program, to qualify. The program was created by Samantha Brittain, a supervisor in the Recreation Department. She was encouraged to apply for funding by Louise McLoughlin, the executive director of the Dutchess Workforce Investment Board, who knew Brittain from her time working for Green Teen Beacon, a program of Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County. "We struggle with getting someone in Beacon to run a youth employment program," McLoughlin said. "I knew that Sam would know what I was talking about, so I called her." Days after receiving the first grant, in May 2025, Brittain hired three teens for the department's after-school program. The idea was to provide participants with work experience while hiring for positions the department has had trouble filling. Last summer, six teens were hired to help the Department of Public Works clean city parks and Main Street. Another group joined the after-school program in the fall. One of those employees is Zion Segarra, 17, a senior at Beacon High School who has been part of the project since its beginning. He hopes to study HVAC at Dutchess Community College, but his 15 hours per week with the after-school program also qualify him for employment at any state-certified childcare facility. At South Avenue Elementary, Segarra and the other teens supervise activities to keep the K-5 students safe. Many are working their first jobs. "They lead by example," said Kyra Cimino, who manages the after-school program. "It's cool to do what the older kids are doing." In addition, "a lot of what they do is one-on-one conversations," Brittain said. "That's where the love grows." Segarra recalled connecting with a student earlier this year who said he felt out of place. "I make sure everybody feels welcome," he said. "If they need to talk to somebody, they don't need to be scared." This year's summer program begins in July and, noting that "it's challenging to encourage 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds to do manual labor in the heat of summer," Brittain plans a more diverse curriculum. The teens will work with the DPW for two hours each day, but they'll also visit city departments to observe how a municipality operates day-to-day. Students will learn financial literacy, resume-writing and interviewing skills. In August, they'll help for two weeks at the Recreation Department's Park Days summer camp at Memorial Park. "The kids start to realize that these are all important skills, even as simple as they are," said Mark Price, the recreation director. "Longer-term, maybe one of them goes, 'I want to be a teacher.' They may be good at it." There's a bonus: Summer employees are eligible to enter New York's State and Local Retirement System. There is no deadline to apply; Beacon teens can email Brittain at sbrittain@beaconny.gov.

Haldane virtuosos team up for concert For the first time, longstanding Haldane pals Sofia Kelly and Delia Starr are performing their greatest hits together at an independent, one-off concert at St. Mary's Church in Cold Spring on May 31. In the fall, Kelly will attend the University of Cincinnati to study classical vocal music. Many selections on the program will highlight her dramatic, operatic style and are works she submitted on audition tapes for college applications and competitions, like attending the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and singing at the International InterHarmony Music Festival in Italy. In a video of the lieder "Die Stille Stadt" by Alma Mahler (wife of Gustav), recorded at St. Mary's and on the program for Sunday, she looks ready to vanquish a village as her booming voice resonates. Starr began plunking the piano at age 5 and is a fourth-generation musician. In addition to composing solo piano works in the classical vein, she wrote a piece at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute for a string quartet and will perform a "Piece for Clarinet and Piano" at the show (Katherine Filatov will accompany). Beyond their passion for European art music, the two share another bond: Their fathers are professional musicians. Composer and jazz pianist Daniel Kelly learned to play classical after Sofia cottoned on to the genre a couple of years ago, and will accompany her on a tune by Randy Newman and one of his originals based on a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke. Eric Starr's father, Nelson, played trumpet in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Eric composes, leads Haldane's jazz performance program and teaches drums and piano at his Cold Spring studio. He also holds annual recitals at the Chapel Restoration, where Delia has played three solo shows. Kelly decided to attend a large school where she could minor or double-major in environmental studies. Starr, a junior, is applying to conservatories as well as universities and will major in composition, perhaps with a minor in piano performance. "It's nice to meet other people with different interests," says Starr. "I love music, but don't want to be trapped in a bubble with the same type of people." She's expanding her writing prowess beyond the piano because "it makes you a better candidate," she says. "I'm gearing up for tours and applications." Pecking out parts on the keyboard, she also plays back MIDI simulations of other instruments in her software program. "That's why piano is so great; all the notes are in front of you, and I use that to my advantage because it's easy to translate lines or chords for other instruments," she says. At the concert, Starr will perform her original music alongside pieces by Chopin and Beethoven. Her compositions hint at Brahms' cinematic style, and she admits an affinity for French impressionists like Fauré and Debussy. "I love film scores, and that may be something I get into," she says. Kelly and Starr crafted a thoughtful program that features guest artists, offers varied musical styles and contrasts vocals with instrumentals. "We've been talking about doing a concert together for so long, and it's now or never in our Haldane lives, so we're ready for a musical goodbye," says Kelly. "Delia and I share a sense of deep camaraderie in the music world, and we'll always be in the same orbit." St. Mary's Church is located at 1 Chestnut St. in Cold Spring. The free concert begins at 4 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.

Purveyor of art toys shuts down Ron English opened Popmart at the corner of Wolcott Avenue (Route 9D) and Beekman Street in 2019, and it thrived. New York City residents trekked north to buy collectible figures made from his designs — otherworldly creations like the three-eyed, three-breasted Bunnny Rabbbit and toys-cum-cultural critiques such as the McDonald's derivative MC Supersized and the General Mills cereal-inspired Franken Fat and Honey Butt: The Obese Bee. "We'd release something new, and they want to be the first to get it," said English, a painter, muralist and sculptor who has been designing toys for two decades. "You could buy as many as you want from us, so they'd buy 10 and sit in the parking lot and list them on eBay." Those memories will survive Popmart, which is being emptied after going supernova on April 25, less than two weeks after an end-of-an-era fire sale on the livestreaming site Whatnot. Clutter Magazine hosted a party afterward at the KuBe Art Center, inside the former Beacon High School. A coming development with 64 apartments and retail space in two 4-story buildings sealed Popmart's fate. The building, which English leased, will be demolished. That is at least a year away, according to English. The business could have remained open longer, but "then came Trump," he said. Before the president imposed across-the-board tariffs last year, Popmart paid $5,000 in shipping costs to import figures from Mindstyle, its manufacturer in China. When the tariffs took effect, the cost ballooned to $25,000, said English. "We don't want to lose money doing this," he said. Two days after the closure, Jennifer Moyer, who organized the Whatnot sale, loaded an SUV with toys to deliver. Meanwhile, the task of emptying the building continued, with help from English's wife, Tarssa Yazdani, and his apprentice, Beacon artist Mike "Skatchface" Long. They were dismantling an idea that emerged from English's partnership with Mindstyle, one of the best-known manufacturers of art toys. Its owner, MD Young, "made all of my toys," said English. After English moved to Beacon 20 years ago, Young encouraged him to find a storefront. "He goes, 'I hear your town's hot,'" said English. Popmart began with a stunt — a "fake store with fake products" — before English began selling his toys, which are made in limited editions of 100. The shop was open four days a week. On other days, people would hang out and drink beer while English signed toys. "These kids would be like, 'It's really you,' " he said. "You wouldn't expect the artist to be there." Part of the building housed a recording studio for a music project called The Rabbbits. English recruited the musicians and wrote the songs. He and Yazdani toured the U.S., China and Asia, selling toys at pop-up events. "We could roll into your town and set up the whole store in two hours," he said. "I sign for two hours, and then we break down and drive to the next town. It was fun." Mindstyle, which paid the rent at Popmart, continued paying even after rising tariffs halted imports, according to English. However, about two months ago, he said, Young withdrew his support. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Trump's tariffs to be illegal, Young doubted that it would ever get better, said English. The final three months drew a stream of visitors, he said. In addition, more than 1,000 toys were sold during the 13-hour Whatnot marathon that began April 12. "We can still do stuff in Asia — we can make it there and sell it there," said English. "We just can't come here anymore."

D.C. trip included Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Day will hold added meaning for 82 members of the Haldane High School junior class following a four-day trip to Washington, D.C. The first three days of the March trip included visits to the U.S. Capitol, the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, the September 11 Memorial and Museum, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Smithsonian Institute. On the final day, the group traveled to Arlington National Cemetery. It is there that Rhys Williams and a few classmates visited the grave of his grandfather, Preston Williams. Preston Williams' military service included two Army tours during the Vietnam War. In May 1967, as commander of Company C, 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, and just short of his 25th birthday, Williams was in combat for nine straight days. During a two-hour firefight, he moved from position to position, directing supportive fire — gallantry that earned him a Silver Star. He was also awarded a Purple Heart, four Bronze Stars and other commendations during his service. Williams died in June 2024 and was buried at Arlington with military honors. Rhys said he remembers his grandfather's funeral vividly, including the 21-gun salute. "I realized the impact he had on others, how he meant a lot to so many people beyond our family," Rhys said. On March 27, he revisited the burial site. "I wanted to see it again," Rhys said. "I felt very proud of my grandfather; you can see all his awards on the gravestone." The trip to Arlington concluded for the juniors with Cooper Corless and Christine Junjulas, accompanied by Jaiden Gunther and Elaina Johanson, placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on behalf of Haldane High School. "Having the opportunity to actually lay the wreath was so powerful; I was really moved," said Corless. Junjulas echoed that sentiment: "It was a really cool way to have our school honor the people who have done so much for our country." Both have family members who served in the military. Teachers Kristen Peparo and Marilyn Granese, co-advisors for the class, planned the Washington trip. "I think the students felt a reverence for our country, its leaders, our history and the sacrifice many made to fight for our democracy," Peparo said. She said that, while visiting Arlington, the Haldane group passed by a military funeral. "Our students were so respectful and considerate of the grieving family," she said. "It was wonderful to see them pay such deep respect for those who made the ultimate sacrifice."

Part of civilian flotilla taking aid to Gaza A former Clearwater captain was among 428 activists detained by Israel while aboard a flotilla attempting to break the naval blockade of Gaza, according to a group called Global Sumud Flotilla. Liam Henrie, who last year served as a captain for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, which is based in Beacon, was on board La Cirena, one of the vessels intercepted by the Israeli Navy on Monday (May 18). He and the other detainees was released as of Thursday and deported to Turkey. Global Sumud Flotilla alleged the detainees were subjected to "extreme violence and sexual humiliation" by Israel Defense Forces. Global Sumud Flotilla said that 31 of about 50 vessels were "boarded, disabled and seized" on May 18 near Cyprus. The flotilla had left from Turkey and was carrying food and medical supplies. By Wednesday, the detainees had been taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The Times of Israel reported that the national security minister, Ben Gvir, posted a video online from a detention center in which he is shown taunting the prisoners, who are kneeling with their hands tied. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an unusual statement criticizing his minister. "Israel has every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza," he said. "However, the way that Minister Ben Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel's values and norms. I have instructed the relevant authorities to deport the provocateurs as soon as possible." Global Sumud Flotilla said that Henrie, who lives in Kingston, also was among 180 people detained on April 29 when their flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces near Greece. The group said the activists were held on a prison ship for 36 hours.

High school teachers organize showcase Surrounded by students' work in the administrative office at The Lofts at Beacon, a funky historic building bathed in natural light, Beacon High School art teachers Mark Lyon and Claudine Farley beamed with pride. The showcase, which closes May 30, features pottery and visual images. Friendship is a recurring theme. Opposite the entrance hang three striking paintings by Luna Ayers-Uekawa, Elena Moleano and Willa Staempfli with bright colors and fantastical beasts. "I gave them the freedom to go on a rollercoaster ride," says Lyon. "No bullseyes, and it had to be an original work that does not copy a picture." Several students won Scholastic Art Awards, and Carlos Lampon received a full scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design. His painting, "Explore Friendship," is a complicated construct: the heads of eight young people rotate around the frame as if everyone is lying in a circle; one cozies up to a glowing orb that resembles the moon. Alina Joseph Caleb Ramirez Carlos Lampon Elena Moleano Luna Ayers-Uekawa Mira Miller Nicholas Perry Nora Marshall Pen Lipari Prince Jones Samantha Garcia Shannon Colandrea Suvi Oshea Taylor Kelliher Willa Staempfli Zenis Haris Lampon renders complex features such as hair, hands and rumpled shirts with skill. In another acrylic, a lady in red lounges on a porch. The long shadow cast by a post crosses her body and pierces the frame. Mira Miller's untitled painting portrays her and some pals working on an Eagle Scout woodworking project. Amidst the chaotic scene, a self-portrait appears in a corner, with Miller holding tools and donning safety googles. A fun-filled painting by Taylor Kelliher features soft lighting and a dog, while her arresting final project from this year shows a girl in a colorful costume strutting her stuff while reflected in a mirror from behind. "Her brush strokes are more confident," says Lyon. "She's come a long way." Some of Farley's pottery students replicated yellow rubber ducks to reflect their personalities. One young artist who values sleep topped the work with an old-fashioned nightcap. More advanced students created personalized paper bags from clay, including "What's Next," which features a sad face. "It laments the situation of seniors, whose world is breaking up as they move on from high school," says Farley. A charcoal drawing by Alina Joseph demonstrates a sophisticated balance between shade and light. Prince Jones created photos with movement; "Heart Eyes" is the result of waving lights around a dark stage. The background and the subject wearing pink glasses are multiplied, manipulated and over-exposed. Caleb Ramirez shot photos at Long Dock Park, Shannon Colandrea shares an image taken in Iceland, and Samantha Garcia zoomed in for a close-up of her dog's nose. A digital artwork by Zenia Haris captivates in part because it's disorienting and challenging — even after digesting it for an extended period. Using an iPad and the program ibisPaint, he wielded a stylus to draw in the digital realm, creating deep shades of blue and purple, as well as bright reds and oranges. His cut-paper collage "Losing Touch" is an allegory about how he's "jealous of my younger self; it was much easier to make friends." No matter what path he takes at SUNY Albany, Haris says he will keep creating. "I've been doing art projects since I was a little kid," he says. "There are always ideas floating around my brain." The Lofts at Beacon Gallery, at 18 Front St., is open Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed for lunch 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.) and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

250 Years Ago (May 1776) Gen. George Washington wrote the Continental Congress, asking that two or three thousand stands of arms [weapons for one soldier] reserved for provincial use be "borrowed" to defend New York City. He enclosed a report from troops in the Highlands, where Col. Ritzema said his regiment had only 97 flintlocks and seven bayonets. The Board of Treasury asked New York and five other colonies to conduct a census of their inhabitants for tax purposes. The carpenters, boatbuilders and painters who had been drafted for military service by Major Gen. Israel Putnam were ordered to gather at sunrise outside his New York City headquarters to receive their orders. A general order was issued in New York City to double the number of night sentries due to fears of a surprise British attack. The Third Provincial Congress, based in New York, declared its independence from British rule. Robert Livingston wrote from Philadelphia to his sister, Catherine, at the family estate in Clermont, on the Hudson River in Columbia County. "We have reason to believe that our enemy will make great efforts this summer," he wrote. "I hope, however, by the blessing of God, to see them repelled & this country, after a glorious struggle, emancipated from the tyranny of an inhuman prince." 150 Years Ago (May 1876) Burglars broke through a rear window of William Rumpf's shop and stole hundreds of his best cigars, along with some chewing tobacco. In an item under the headline "Wonderful," the editor of The Cold Spring Recorder reported that "three wagonloads of dirty and dishonest nomads came down Main Street at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, turned onto Garden Street and pushed for the Fishkill Landing road without stopping!" The new Putnam County sheriff, Charles Brewster, a Cold Spring native, ended the practice of allowing inmates at the Carmel jail to lounge outside. According to The Recorder, two patrons of a Cold Spring saloon measured the distance around its walls and raced around the room until they had walked at least three miles. Mrs. P.K. Paulding of Paulding Avenue reported she had lost an oxidized silver pencil with a chain. The schools "have been nearly depopulated for a fortnight" by the measles, according to The Recorder. "Nearly every house has a case." James Trimble and James Kennedy were convicted of breaking the window of Morrison's boathouse before threatening to burn down the shanty and drown its occupant. Both were sentenced to six months in the penitentiary. From The Recorder: "Lost, between Chestnut Street and the post office, on Thursday afternoon, a black feather." Late on a Friday night, after they heard voices inside the Champlin blacksmith shop in Nelsonville, friends of the proprietor went quietly to a back door. Suddenly, two or three men dashed past them. Inside, the friends found a pile of chisels, saws and hammers, ready to be carried away. It was supposed that the intruders planned to free two prisoners at Town Hall. Roger Maher died suddenly on a Wednesday afternoon at C.M. Brown's tavern. The bartender said he had taken a sip of whiskey when his head dropped. Jacob Southard still had his grandfather's discharge papers from the Revolutionary War signed by George Washington and other top officers. The Recorder suggested paying children 10 cents [about $3 today] per cup of potato bugs they collected and delivered to a kitchen stove. While driving along the Garrison road, William Ladue came across a raccoon that had been treed. After going home to retrieve a rifle, he shot the animal dead, then brought the carcass into Cold Spring to show off his marksmanship. David Robinson informed The Recorder of the need for a fence around the New Burying Ground to prevent grazing cattle from knocking down the headstones. Enoch Lawrence, 84, the oldest resident of Cold Spring, was painting his house on Garden Street. William Purdy was jailed at Town Hall after being accused of assaulting his wife. His brother came from Tarrytown to...

HVS opens theater in Philipstown Standing under the curving wooden proscenium of the just-finished Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center in Philipstown, Davis McCallum recalled the moment last month when he showed the company's actors the building for the first time. Some of them were speechless, said McCallum, the artistic director of Hudson Valley Shakespeare. Some cheered, danced or sang. Some hugged him. But the actors who had been part of the troupe for years, performing under a seasonal tent at Boscobel and then at its current home, the former Garrison Golf Course on Route 9, said it felt like a homecoming. "It's hard to overstate the commitment that a person makes when you decide you want to be a theater actor," said McCallum. "There's not a lot of glory; there's not a lot of remuneration. You do it for the love of the craft and the art of theater. To have a space dedicated to exactly that feels like a real validation for the company." "It's as simple as it needs to be, and it provides everything you could need to do your job very well," added Kendra Ekelund, the managing director. HVS provided the media — reporters from The New York Times, Times Union, Times of London and NY1, among others — with a sneak peek on Thursday (May 14) during the building's ribbon-cutting. The public will be able to visit the 451-seat theater for the first time during an open house with tours and music on Sunday (May 17), 599 days after the 2024 groundbreaking. Once the season opens on June 10 with previews of As You Like It, the HVS grounds will be open to the public from dawn to dusk. "The golf course was a place that people were already very accustomed to walking their dogs and having access to, and we wanted to maintain that and honor the incredible opportunity that receiving this land is by sharing it with our neighbors as a public good," said Ekelund. "And there's great birding here," said architect Jeanne Gang. Gang is a founder of Studio Gang, a past recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant and named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2019. Her work has been hailed for incorporating sustainability in surprising and practical ways. The WMS Boathouse at Clark Park doubles as a stormwater management system for the Chicago River, diverting runoff from the sewers and the river itself. The Gilder Center, which opened in 2023 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, swirls around a towering atrium that lets in enough natural light and air circulation to drastically lower the building's energy demands. Even the roof of Studio Gang's Chicago office has been transformed into an urban prairie, with nearly 100 species of native wildflowers. Before the May 14 ceremony, Gang and Ekelund showed off the features they hope will qualify it to become the country's first purpose-built theater rated LEED Platinum, the highest possible rating offered by the U.S. Green Building Council. Some features, such as solar panels and dots on the soaring windows to prevent bird collisions, are obvious. But tucked behind an elegant green room where actors will relax before performances sits a massive tank that captures rain from the roof to flush the toilets. Photos by Ross Corsair "It was important for us to be water-conscious because the golf course had been such a large user of water," said Studio Gang's Teo Quintana, the project leader. The theater presents a stark contrast from what HVS actors, technicians and audience members experienced for decades under the tent at Boscobel. No longer will crew members have to fight off raccoons determined to chew through lighting cables, or audience members sit behind support poles, or actors use dressing rooms outfitted with folding chairs, card tables and black curtains thrown over pipes. The crew will also no longer have to stay up until 2 a.m. after each performance to shake sand from the costumes and drive for miles to an off-site laundry r...

Plus, other construction updates The Beacon Planning Board held a public hearing on Tuesday (May 12) on a developer's proposal to open a karaoke bar called The Howl just off Main Street. The plan would convert the former art gallery space at 1154 North Ave. (Route 9D), near the west end of Main, to a venue for "immersive live-performance experiences." The site is across from the police station; the next street over, West Church, is residential, while two 4-story buildings with 64 apartments and nearly 14,000 square feet of commercial space have been approved nearby on Beekman Street. The parcel is owned by a group that, through several LLCs, holds more than two dozen properties in Beacon, most of them on and around the west end of Main Street, including the housing development under construction at 2 Cross/172 Main. The applicant, Eric Weitner, told the board on Tuesday that the two-story brick structure will have an 80-person lounge on the first floor. The second floor will have six private karaoke suites and, while designed for 80 people, its expected usage will be "more like 40" patrons, the project architect said. According to project materials, The Howl was conceived as a "value-add to the local community and aligns with Beacon's long-standing tradition of fostering arts, music and creative gathering spaces." Weitner said he is working with an acoustic engineer on noise control and will submit a report with plans for next month's meeting. The intention is to "not disturb any of the neighbors," he said. The venue would be closed Monday and Tuesday and open from 2 p.m. to midnight on Wednesday and Thursday, from noon to 1:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon to 11 p.m. on Sunday. A consultant said the venue will need 38 parking spaces at peak; it would use the public lot at City Hall, the same one that could be utilized by Prophecy Hall and a future hotel at 1064 Wolcott Ave. There should be about 10 spaces left in the lot after accounting for those uses, the consultant said. Several residents submitted emails to the Planning Board supporting or opposing the project, and others attended the Tuesday hearing. "This business is going to be located in my backyard," said Rob VanCott, who lives on West Church. "I'm not a fool; people are going to be hanging out in the back of the property" doing what "comes along with having a good time." Weitner said a rear door would be an emergency exit only and "there won't be an influx of people waiting outside to get in." There will be no outdoor seating, he said. Board members asked him to return with plans showing how customers would be evacuated in an emergency. The public hearing remains open. Planning Board members on Tuesday chastised the owner of 364 Main St., where a three-story building with commercial space and 20 apartments is nearly complete. The project was approved in 2022, but officials returned seeking approval for architectural changes that occurred during construction. The changes do not affect the building footprint but include material selections, facade changes, window detailing and the replacement of Juliet balconies and doors with double windows. There is also a reduction in rooftop area and, after discovering that the first-floor elevation is two feet higher than anticipated, a front patio was modified. Board members were unhappy. "Why these changes were made without communication is a hot potato," said Randall Williams, who acted as chair in John Gunn's absence. Len Warner said that, after dropping approved features, "what we're left with is a really drab building." Karen Quiana added: "The Main Street facade is completely unacceptable in my view. It is awful." In a comment responding to a Facebook post in March, architect Aryeh Siegel wrote: "This isn't the building I designed. It's embarrassing." On Tuesday, an architect from a different firm appeared with Eric Baxter, the owner. Williams asked Baxter to return next month with "substantial suggestions, n...