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City clerk rescues 19th-century records from dump You never know what you're going to find at the dump. Just ask Amanda Caputo. Last fall, the Beacon city clerk discovered the handwritten articles of incorporation for the Village of Matteawan buried under decades of dirt, dust and who knows what else at the city's Transfer Station. Dated May 28, 1886, and recorded by Fishkill Town Clerk G.W. Bradshaw, the articles are in remarkably good condition. They signify the formation of Matteawan, a manufacturing hub of about 4,400 residents centered around Fishkill Creek. Matteawan was 1½ miles east of Fishkill Landing, the neighboring village with which it would merge in 1913 to create Beacon. A follow-up meeting was held on June 29, 1886, at Fishkill Town Hall, where town officials voted to approve Matteawan's secession. Records show that village leaders expected to spend $2,500 (about $86,500 today) on "ordinary expenses" in the first year. The articles were the most significant find inside seven hardbound books discovered by Caputo. The books, which also contain records from Fishkill Landing, were recovered from Beacon's incinerator building, a brick structure with an adjacent smokestack that's next to the wastewater treatment plant on Dennings Avenue. Once the destination for the city's wastewater sludge and trash, it has been — aside from a first-floor office — largely vacant for years. "No one expected anything useful to be in there," said Caputo. "Why would you keep valuable records at the dump for 30 years?" The best guess is that the books — along with an assortment of urban renewal and community development documents, property assessments and financial and court records — were stashed at the three-story building in the mid-1990s, when the current City Hall was under construction. Some of the documents were transported in filing cabinets. Loose materials, including the seven books, were taken upstairs, where scores of pigeons would later enter through broken windows and take roost. In 2024, city workers replaced the windows, and a private company helped clean out 30 years of bird waste. "Then we were like, 'There's all those records — I wonder what's in there?' " said City Administrator Chris White, who served on the City Council in 1996 and 1997. White said he recalled the building being "in really bad shape" even then. While the structure had been cleaned out, it wasn't spotless when Caputo got to it. The top layer of boxes and loose paper "was just covered in grime," she said. "Once you started moving stuff, the dust started flying. Thankfully, these books were covered by records that were much less remarkable." Although the covers and spines of the books have deteriorated, the inside pages are nearly all intact, still white with numbers printed in blue in the upper corners. Flipping through them, one gets a glimpse into the world 140 years ago. The Aug. 18, 1886, meeting of the Matteawan Board of Trustees was held at 7:15 p.m. in the office of a hat factory, the Matteawan Manufacturing Co. (now The Roundhouse). Its superintendent was Willard H. Mase, the village president, who would later that year be elected to the first of five terms in the state Assembly. In 1887, Mase financed a volunteer fire company that was named for him. One of the first orders of business on Aug. 18 was approving the minutes of the previous meeting. Another was the appointment of Sherwood Phillips as the village clerk. His salary was left "open-carried." In a list of village ordinances, the first prohibited "amusement, such as playing ball, shinny, the discharge of firearms, fireworks," or any other act "by which person or property is endangered." The second notes that the peace and quiet of the village shall not be disturbed on Sunday, under threat of a $10 penalty. The records reflect attention to detail, Caputo noted. A letter from February 1903 advised Miss Van Rensselaer that the Matteawan Board of Trustees had noticed the "flag walk" i...

Suicide barriers planned for Bear Mountain Lorraine Lein once again found herself standing on the Bear Mountain Bridge on June 30. On that day in 2023, she visited the bridge with her son, Jake Simmons. On the same day last year, she carried a picture of the teenager framed in cardboard and a bouquet of flowers that she wired to one of the bridge's rails. On the cardboard, she wrote two dates: May 1, 2006, the day of Jake's birth, and June 30, 2023, the day he jumped from the bridge. By the end of 2028, Lein should have something to celebrate at the bridge: the installation of mesh fencing that advocates believe would have prevented the deaths of Jake and other people who have used the Bear Mountain and Newburgh-Beacon bridges, and three other spans owned by the New York State Bridge Authority, to take their own lives. The fencing is part of a $93.8 million contract NYSBA approved last month for the redecking of the Bear Mountain Bridge. When Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the project on Feb. 25, her press release mentioned the fencing but not the lobbying by Lein and groups like the American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide. Lein brought an urn with Jake's ashes to a NYSBA board meeting in 2024. She also described June 30, 2023: driving Jake, 17 years old and distraught over a girlfriend's infidelity, to Bear Mountain State Park for a mood-elevating hike; Jake fleeing after they arrived; police cars speeding to the Bear Mountain Bridge; begging an officer blocking her path to give her access to where Jake jumped. NYSBA said on Feb. 25 that the fencing "marks an important milestone" in its "longstanding commitment to public safety and mental health awareness." Lein said she is "ecstatic" about the barriers, but "sad that it took so much pressure and so long and so many people to die" before the authority agreed to install fencing. Now the goal, she said, is to get barriers installed at the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and NYSBA's three other Hudson River spans, the Kingston-Rhinecliff, Mid-Hudson and Rip Van Winkle bridges. "It will stop people from dying," said Lein. On the day Jake jumped, NYSBA's bridges were outfitted with emergency phones, security cameras that were monitored at an around-the-clock command center and security guards. The agency also required that bridge workers be trained in preventing suicides. Despite those measures, people continue to jump. Alongside Jake's image, Lein wrote "24 more deaths, 6/23-6/25" in reference to the number of suicides on NYSBA bridges since Jake's. Sean Gerow, who chairs the Hudson Valley/Westchester County chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and is associate executive director for the Mental Health Association in Orange County, said he has trained "probably 90 percent" of NYSBA's bridge workers in suicide prevention. Those workers have prevented people from jumping, but fencing "is probably the biggest thing that we can do to save lives as well," he said. Clare Redden's master's thesis at Teachers College, Columbia University, argued for barriers on NYSBA bridges, drawing inspiration from an actual incident. While rowing in the Hudson River in 2022, Redden encountered a 19-year-old man who had jumped from the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. As he clung to the tip of her rowboat, said Redden, he kept repeating: "I don't know what happened, I don't know what happened; I think I jumped." Redden, who is AFSP's advocacy chair, cites a study from the 1970s in which a researcher tracked people who had been prevented from jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; he found that only 10 percent went on to kill themselves, belying an argument that people will just find another way if prevented from jumping. "It's a big deal," she said of fencing. "Short of a gun, a bridge is the second-most-lethal means for suicide, and reducing access to the utilization of that means prevents that suicide from occurring." NYSBA operates on tolls collected at its bridges. In Ma...

Effort would cost $10+ billion and require governor's approval Rep. Mike Lawler believes he's found the answer to soaring energy bills. Standing in the cold and drizzle at the shuttered Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan on March 6, the Republican, whose House district includes Philipstown, announced an ambitious plan to rebuild and reopen the plant. "Hudson Valley families are being suffocated with rising energy costs because of Gov. [Kathy] Hochul's failed and disastrous energy policies," he said. "It is time to reverse course." He was flanked by Chris Wright, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, and Kris Singh, the CEO of Holtec International, the company that owns and is in the process of decommissioning the plant. The announcement came as the Trump administration is attempting to have 10 new nuclear reactors under construction by 2030, and three smaller, experimental reactors up and running by July 4 of this year. It also comes as New York grapples with its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming. To reach its ambitious benchmarks, the state may need to modify its 2019 climate law, which requires New York to get 70 percent of its power from renewable energy by 2030 and 100 percent zero-emissions by 2040. Nuclear energy is not renewable, but it is zero-emissions. Wright estimated that Indian Point could be reopened in five years for "a little more than" $10 billion. "The only reason this won't happen is if the politicians don't let it happen," he said. When Indian Point shut down in 2021, a legal agreement went into effect banning future nuclear energy production at the site without the unanimous consent of the Village of Buchanan, the Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York State and the Hendrick Hudson School District. Although both the county and the state recently reaffirmed their commitment to keep the plant closed, Lawler thinks the governor can be convinced. "Kathy Hochul has said a lot of things over the years, including that she wouldn't approve NESE," he said, referring to the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline. "And look what happened, she did. She said she wouldn't do congestion pricing and look at what happened. So, I don't really care what Kathy Hochul has previously said. The question is: Is there the political will to actually do something to drive down energy costs?" Buchanan Mayor Theresa Knickerbocker supports reopening. "It was a mistake to close this," she said. "It was reliable base power. I'm not against renewables. But nuclear is part of the energy equation." Getting the other four stakeholders to agree will be an uphill battle. Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said on March 6 that he hasn't changed his mind. "Let me be clear — because apparently I was not clear enough for Congressman Lawler and the Trump administration — restarting the Indian Point nuclear power plant is not welcome in Westchester County," he said in a statement. "New York State already has access to a range of low-cost, environmentally responsible energy alternatives, including solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower. We do not need — and we do not want — Indian Point back online. The health and safety of millions of residents in the Hudson Valley will always matter more than reopening a nuclear facility." Ken Lovett, a senior communications advisor on energy and the environment for Hochul, said on March 6 that the governor also isn't interested. "The governor has emphatically stated she will not support the reopening of Indian Point and is instead pushing her Ratepayer Protection Plan and a realistic energy strategy designed to keep the lights on and costs down," he said, referring to a suite of policies Hochul announced in January aimed at lowering energy bills, including tying executive pay for utility CEOs to affordability and energy assistance programs. "It's hypocritical that the same Michael Lawler who previously attacked Holtec over its decommissioni...

M&T disputes couple's claims of being conned M&T Bank is opposing an effort by the couple who lived and ran two businesses on Route 9 to regain the property amid claims they were scammed and bullied by an acquaintance now charged with grand larceny and fraud. In documents filed on Feb. 27, Valerie Breen, a senior vice president with M&T, and Seth Hibbert, an attorney for the bank, are challenging claims made by Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur in response to their eviction on Dec. 9 from 3154 Route 9. Kim and Oeur have petitioned Judge Gina Capone to vacate her approval in 2024 of M&T's foreclosure and sale of the property. From 1995 to early 2024, the property was owned by Kim through Mary Dawn Inc. and hosted her business, Nice & Neat Dry Cleaners; a residence she shared with Oeur; and a nail salon. The couple blames the loss of the property on Derek Keith Williams, whom they say convinced Kim that he had paid off a $570,000 loan secured by the property and transferred it to an entity he owned. The couple alleges that Williams hid the foreclosure by demanding that Kim "turn over any mail or paperwork relating to the property, Mary Dawn Inc., any court or any bank," and sign documents and submit filings without explaining what they were, said their attorney, Jacob Chen. Those claims are "entirely irrelevant" to M&T's right to collect on its debt, according to Breen, who said the bank became aware in 2019 that Kim was attempting to transfer the property to Williams. During the bank's "long and tortured history" with the property, it seemed "that Kim and Williams were working in concert to prevent and hinder the bank's recovery and collection efforts," she said. In his statement, Hibbert said "there did not appear to be any animosity between Kim and Williams" when they appeared in Philipstown Court in March 2025 to challenge the eviction. "My impression was the two were working in conjunction with each other, with each operating under their respective free wills," he said. Williams, a self-described "sovereign citizen," had been serving a six-month sentence in the county jail for driving an unregistered vehicle without a license when he was arraigned Feb. 25 on six felony counts: four for grand larceny and two for filing a false instrument with the intent to defraud. He pleaded not guilty before Judge Anthony Mole and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail, $200,000 insured bond or $200,000 partially insured bond. He is scheduled to return to court on April 8. Kim said in court documents that by the time she met Williams in 2019 — through his girlfriend, Mauny Bun, who used to run the nail salon — the loan she used to rebuild the property after a fire in 2005 had been taken over by M&T Bank. Bun "reminded me a lot of my daughter … and I put a lot of trust and faith in her," said Kim. She stopped making payments after deciding to accept Williams' offer to buy the property for $1.2 million and transfer it to an entity called DKW Trust, none of which happened. Although Kim guaranteed the loan, said Breen, she did not have the authority to transfer the property to Williams because Mary Dawn is the owner of record. The bank eventually sued Kim and Mary Dawn for defaulting on the loan and in 2021 won a judgment in Erie County, where the bank is based. M&T filed to foreclose in 2022, and Capone approved the bank's request in February 2024. Four months later, a bank subsidiary, Chesapeake Holdings, paid $620,200 for the property at an auction. Chen alleges that the court "never acquired personal jurisdiction" over Kim during the foreclosure because the process server handed the original documents to a "co-worker." 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. After the bank filed for foreclosure in 2022, said Breen, "it is entirely unreasonable" to believe that Williams confiscated mail sent to Mary Dawn and Kim before Septe...

New program will compost commercial food waste Commercial kitchens in Philipstown can now do what households have been doing for four years — recycle food waste rather than send it to landfills. Jeff Mikkelson, the advocacy chair of the Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Philipstown Climate Smart Task Force, is spearheading a pilot initiative to fund food-scrap recycling for up to six businesses and organizations. Mikkelson said 17 of 50 local kitchens surveyed expressed interest in the pilot. The program, the first of its kind in Putnam County, is being funded by the Williams College Community Climate Fund in conjunction with the Center for EcoTechnology (CET), a nonprofit that works with Rethink Food Waste New York, overseen by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The first four participants are the Garrison Institute (which uses Fresh Company to cater its events), Haldane Central School District, Marble Meat Shop and Cold Spring Farmers' Market, Mikkelson said, with two more spots available for restaurants, caterers, nonprofits and other food services with commercial kitchens. The initial $6,000 grant will support the program for six months, he said. The program will provide collection bins and liners and pay for hauling the waste, which can include vegetables, meats, dairy, cheese, fish, seafood and commercial and biodegradable packaging. The scraps are collected by Sustainable Materials Management in Cortlandt Manor, which was founded by the family that owns CRP Sanitation. Michael Fiumara, the sales manager there, said 100 cubic yards of food waste typically will produce the same volume of compost. Most of the material is purchased in bulk by landscapers, garden centers and municipalities, but retail customers can buy 1-cubic-foot bags. Recycling Food Scraps at Home Philipstown's Climate Smart Task Force initiated Putnam County's first household food scrap recycling program in 2022, establishing a Saturday collection station at the town recycling center on Lane Gate Road. About 100 families joined during the first year, and enrollment has more than tripled since. What began as an eight-month pilot is now funded annually. The Village of Cold Spring joined the program in 2024 and installed a collection station on Kemble Avenue for Tuesday drop-offs. "We consistently fill two 64-gallon totes — about 17 cubic feet of food waste per week," said Village Trustee Laura Bozzi, who serves on the Climate Smart Task Force. She said the village may expand the program by adding more bins or a second drop-off day. Karen Ertl, a volunteer who helped establish the household food-scrap program, said 323 families are enrolled. She said that as many as 1,600 pounds of scraps are collected each week at the two stations and processed into compost at Sustainable Materials Management in Cortlandt Manor. To participate, residents can register at Philipstown Town Hall on weekdays or at the Cold Spring Farmers' Market on Saturdays. An optional $20 starter kit includes a countertop pail, storage/transport bin and compostable bags. Food scraps can be dropped at the Recycling Center on Lane Gate Road between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturdays and at the Kemble Avenue site between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesdays. Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, dairy, bread, rice, pasta, raw and cooked food, bones and seafood shells can be recycled, as can cut flowers, napkins, paper towels, wax paper, pet food, tea bags, coffee grounds, Popsicle sticks and wine corks. In Beacon, residents can drop food waste in containers at the Beacon Recreation Center (23 W. Center St.), Memorial Park or the Churchill Street parking lot near Hudson Valley Brewery. The program does not accept "compostable plastics," such as bin liners, bags, utensils or containers, unless they are made of bamboo. For more information, see dub.sh/beacon-food-scraps. Community Compost Co. offers residential pickup in Beacon starting at $26 per month or $281 per year. The...

Despite legal barriers, persistent talk about restart When the Indian Point nuclear power plant south of Philipstown shut down in 2021, its legal obligations were clear: It could not restart, nor could any new nuclear power be generated there, without the unanimous consent of the Village of Buchanan, the Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York State and the Hendrick Hudson School District. Despite that high bar, the insistence by county and state officials that they will never allow nuclear power to be generated at the site, and the fact that the plant is being dismantled, the possibility of Indian Point reopening continues to surface. The question came up again at the Feb. 19 meeting of the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board (DOB) after a video was posted online of a plant worker saying that the decommissioning of one part of the plant was on hold due to a possible restart. The video was shot by Andrew Walker, aka Radioactive Drew. On his YouTube channel, which has nearly 100,000 subscribers, Walker shares his documentaries about the world's most radioactive places. In a three-part video that premiered last month, Walker was given a tour of Indian Point by two longtime employees. When visiting the turbines at Reactor 3, Walker asks Brent Magurno, a radiation protection supervisor, "With the whole possible restart that's on the table of this place happening, no work has been done to take these out of service, right?" "Initially, yes," said Magurno. "But then we stopped once the question was asked about restarting, and so we're not proceeding until we get the final answer on that on this side of the plant." A few minutes later, decommissioning supervisor Brian Vangor noted that, because of an ongoing legal dispute over whether Holtec can discharge radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River, some equipment the plant could theoretically use if it were to reopen remains in place. "Many more things would be taken apart if the water in some of those pools I told you about was gone," he said. "New York State did us a little bit of a favor. Rare, but they did us a favor." Holtec International, the company responsible for decommissioning, has said it has no plans to reopen Indian Point. When DOB chair Tom Congdon asked Holtec's Matt Johnson at the Feb. 19 meeting if the video meant its plans had changed, he replied that Magurno's comment was "categorically false and incorrect." "We have not started work on the turbines based on our schedule and our resources," Johnson said. "My opinion is that it was somebody who was excited and showing our plant and maybe got a little ahead of himself and used a poor choice of words, so that is not what Holtec intends to put out there." Johnson said that he did not know when the turbines were scheduled for removal, but that it would not be in the next year. "We don't have any plans to restart at this time," he said. "If for some reason that came about, obviously there would be major changes to decommissioning, because we wouldn't be able to do that with funds from the decommissioning trust fund." Dana Levenberg, a state Assembly Member who sits on the board and whose district includes Philipstown, said that "this kind of stuff obviously makes the community trust you less." "You tell us one thing at the DOB meeting, and then we hear something else in a video, and people go crazy," she said. "We don't need that. We need reassurances and assurances and proof on paper, in writing, signed documents that says what your plan is, when you're going to do this, when you're going to do that, and you need to stick to it." In September, Kelly Trice, the president of Holtec International, said that Indian Point could be restarted in four years for $8 billion to $10 billion. At a DOB meeting a few weeks later, Holtec's Patrick O'Brien said that Trice was speaking theoretically because the federal Department of Energy had asked all shuttered nuclear plants for estimates of what it would take ...

Debt, new construction, inflation figure into calculation The Beacon City School District will be able to increase its property tax levy by as much as 4.47 percent, or $2.24 million, for the 2026-27 academic year under a state-mandated tax cap. District voters last year approved an $87.7 million budget with a $50.1 million levy, a 5.09 percent increase over the year before. There are three main factors that affect the levy, which is the amount the district can raise through property taxes. The first two — "allowable" and "tax-base" growth factors — are outside of the district's control. Since New York State established a tax cap in 2012, the allowable growth factor has permitted public school districts to raise their levies each year by 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. For 2026-27, it's 2 percent. A second factor measures the district's tax base, allowing schools to add revenue for new development. Beacon's tax-base growth factor has been the highest in Dutchess County in recent years and, while, at 1.7 percent, or $841,715, "it's still higher than the other school districts" in the county, "it is a little bit lower than it has been," said Deputy Superintendent Ann Marie Quartironi, who explained the formula to the school board on Feb. 19. The third factor that allows a district to increase its levy is debt on capital projects. This is under the district's control, and in 2026-27 state law will permit Beacon to collect an additional $1.83 million to absorb debt in its spending plan. The district last year applied debt for the first time on a $50 million capital project approved by voters in 2024. "That was the first step," Quartironi said. "The second step is trying to increase the debt every year in your budget," which allows the district to collect more taxes under the state formula to pay it down. The capital project will kick off this summer with the installation of secure entryways at five of six schools (one is already secure) and upgrades of the Beacon High School theater and athletic fields. The debt will be spread over the next three fiscal years, Quartironi said. Last year, the district did not include a proposition on the May ballot for school buses, but this year it will ask voters to approve the purchase (financed over five years) of one diesel bus and four vans, including two accessible for wheelchairs.School board members must approve the budget by the end of April. Administrators plan to share estimated tax bills with the board and community before voters make the final decision on May 19. The district anticipates receiving more than $500,000 in added funding from New York State in 2026-27 through Gov. Kathy Hochul's universal pre-K initiative. Beacon has offered a pre-K program at its four elementary schools since 2023, and this year contributed $450,000 that can now "go to other things in the general fund," Quartironi said. "The financial impact is huge for us." Ten percent of the state funding must be distributed to community partners. The announcement of the increased funding prompted Quartironi to issue a request for proposals last year for agencies within district boundaries to administer the program. The district, which serves about 120 pre-K students, partners with the Rose Hill Manor Day School, which is under Planning Board review to convert its preschool to a hotel, and New Covenant Learning Center. Mirbeau Inn & Spa, scheduled to open this spring, is not expected to receive its final certificate of occupancy from the city before Sunday (March 1), so it will likely remain on the tax rolls for 2025-26. Once up and running, Mirbeau will submit payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, which will be distributed to the school district, the city, the county and the Howland Public Library.

Former tenant accused of grand larceny, fraud A Philipstown man accused of causing the popular owners of a dry cleaner and Cambodian restaurant on Route 9 to lose their property to foreclosure has been indicted in Putnam County on grand larceny and fraud charges. Derek Keith Williams, a self-described "sovereign citizen" who has been serving a six-month sentence in the county jail for driving an unregistered vehicle without a license, was arraigned Wednesday (Feb. 25) on six felony counts: four for grand larceny and two for filing a false instrument with the intent to defraud. Williams pleaded not guilty before Judge Anthony Mole and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail, $200,000 insured bond and $200,000 partially insured bond. He is due back in court on April 8. Before the indictment, Williams had been accused of convincing Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur that he paid off the mortgage on 3154 Route 9, where the couple ran Nice & Neat Dry Cleaners and sold Cambodian food in a landscaped garden along Clove Creek. Kim and Oeur also lived in a residence at the property, rented space to a nail salon and showcased Oeur's artwork in a gallery. A meeting with Williams, whose girlfriend used to run the nail salon, upended that existence, leading to the couple's eviction on Dec. 9. In a lawsuit they filed to reclaim the property, Kim said a personal loan she used to rebuild the property after a fire in 2005 had been taken over by M&T Bank when she met Williams through the girlfriend, Mauny 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, none of which happened. That decision triggered a 17-month foreclosure process that began in August 2022 after Kim stopped making payments on her $570,000 mortgage. Judge Gina Capone ordered the foreclosure in February 2024. Four months later, an M&T subsidiary, Chesapeake Holdings, paid $620,200 for the property at an auction. Williams hid the foreclosure by demanding that Kim "turn over any mail or paperwork" and "treated questions as disobedience … responding with rage, profanity and intimidation," according to court documents. Their loss of the property is a "deeply tragic — and profoundly avoidable — result" of the actions of "an unhinged and dangerous criminal who exercised coercive control over them," said Jacob Chen, their attorney. He is asking Capone to vacate the foreclosure and give Kim and Oeur a chance to regain the property. Williams has described himself as a sovereign citizen, a fringe movement whose members broadly believe they are exempt from laws and reject documents such as Social Security cards and driver's licenses, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that tracks extremists. One standard tactic is "paper terrorism" — bombarding clerks' offices and courts with phony and often indecipherable filings that can exceed 100 pages and are filled with grandiose language, references to treaties and patents and widespread use of capital letters and the copyright and trademark symbols. Williams spent more than $5,000 on nearly 30 filings with the Putnam County Clerk's Office. Many of them were fruitless attempts to prevent M&T Bank from evicting Kim and Oeur from 3154 Route 9, where Williams had taken over the art gallery as a living space.

Roads crews, first responders log long hours after bruising storms After the late January snowstorm dumped up to 18 inches on parts of the Highlands, Highway and Water Department staff in Beacon worked 993 hours of overtime clearing snow from roads, sidewalks and parking lots. That's not 993 for the season — that's 993 hours of overtime for one storm. By the time the snow was (mostly) cleared, the city was on the hook for nearly $70,000 in overtime pay. Superintendent Michael Manzi and the 19-person highway crew worked around the clock, and the Water Department added 10 more bodies. "It's all hands on deck," Manzi said this week. "Whether it's 3 inches or 20 inches, we attack it the same way." No winter around here is normal, he said, and this one has been anything but. The second big storm of 2026 — this one designated a blizzard by meteorologists because of its high winds — brought 10 to 14 more inches from Sunday (Feb. 22) into Monday. Until recently, repeated surges of Arctic air had also prolonged one of the region's deepest freezes in decades. Although less intense than the January snowfall, cleanup for the Sunday-to-Monday storm will push Beacon over the $90,000 it budgets each year for storm-related overtime. The City Council will consider a budget amendment to move funding around. "It's not catastrophic" to absorb, said City Administrator Chris White said, "but we do all hope it will stop snowing at this point." Another issue has been where to put the snow. Beacon workers have established "glaciers" near the wastewater treatment plant on Dennings Avenue and at Memorial Park. More snow is stored at the highway garage on Camp Beacon Road. "We probably moved several hundred truckloads of snow that would still be on Main Street, parking lots or at the end of cul-de-sacs," White said. A few miles down Route 9D, clearing the roads in Philipstown "went pretty smoothly," said Adam Hotaling, the town highway superintendent. Some roads were still "a little narrow" because of snow piled along the sides, but "we're working to widen them," he said. Snow cleared by Philipstown's crews gets piled at the highway department yard on Fishkill Road or the former town landfill on Lane Gate Road. Dutchess and Putnam counties enacted travel bans during both heavy storms. Area first responders reported a handful of issues, none of them serious. "We increased staffing levels for each storm to ensure adequate coverage," said Beacon Fire Chief Tom Lucchesi. "There were no significant snow-related accidents, rescues or incidents requiring unusual or operations." Cold Spring Fire Co. Chief Matt Steltz said the volunteer agency was well prepared for the storm and he was surprised when no calls came in, storm-related or otherwise. As a precaution, CSFC outfitted its all-wheel drive utility vehicle with firefighting capabilities including a water cannon and self-contained breathing apparatus and stationed it at 2nd Lt. Aaron Leonard's home. Capt. Nicholas Falcone of the Philipstown Volunteer Ambulance Corps said attendants for both ambulances were on duty at the Cedar Steet station during the storm and responded to two calls. "Roads were very slippery even for our four-wheel drive vehicle," he said, adding that the Philipstown Highway Department was on call for the duration in case PVAC or the Garrison Volunteer Ambulance Corp needed assistance. Falcone said that at midnight on Tuesday, the PVAC assisted the North Highlands Fire Department in the rescue of a hiker who had been lost for eight hours in deep snow in the woods at Lake Surprise. The hiker was taken to a hospital to be treated for hypothermia. Officer-in-Charge Matt Jackson said the Cold Spring Police Department received few calls during the storm although one resident claimed that a snow removal company had damaged their property. Jackson also reported that on Tuesday morning a resident alerted an officer to an injured woodchuck lying in a snowbank near Lunn Terrace. The officer tra...

Snow and wind expected on Sunday and overnight The National Weather Service is predicting blizzard conditions in the Highlands on Sunday (Feb. 22) and overnight into Monday. A blizzard warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for Putnam County from 1 p.m. Sunday until 6 p.m. Monday and for Dutchess from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. Monday. Forecasters expect winds of up to 45 mph to be accompanied by falling and/or blowing snow, resulting in reduced visibility. The NWS defines a blizzard as a storm that contains large amounts of snow or blowing snow, with winds in excess of 35 mph and visibility of less than a quarter-mile for at least three hours. Putnam is expected to receive 14 to 22 inches of snow, with rates reaching 2 inches per hour. Dutchess is expected to receive 10 to 20 inches. Temperatures will drop to feel as low as 14 degrees. Wind gusts could reach 45 mph, it said, and the wind and the weight of snow may bring down trees and power lines. Dutchess County has issued travel restrictions for all non-essential personnel starting at 9 p.m. Sunday at 9 p.m. through 4 p.m. Monday. County and Beacon city offices will open at 11 a.m. on Monday. Putnam County also restricted all non-essential travel from 9 p.m. Sunday to 10 a.m. Monday. Metro-North will operate on an hourly service schedule on Monday, with weekend schedules in place on the branch lines. The Hudson Rail Link connecting bus will be suspended. On Saturday, Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in 20 counties, including Putnam and Dutchess. Beginning Sunday, 100 members of the New York National Guard with 25 vehicles will be staged across the lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island to assist first responders, and the State Emergency Operations Center activated Sunday morning. The Village of Cold Spring has restricted parking from 5 p.m. Sunday until 7 a.m. Tuesday. Alternative parking is available at the American Legion lot on Cedar Street (south end only; do not use the Ambulance Corps spaces); the Haldane ballfields lot on Route 9D (no permit is required during snow emergencies); the village lots on Kemble Avenue, The Boulevard and New Street; and the Fair Street municipal lot. For updates, call 845-747-7669. [Update: On Tuesday, temporary no parking signs will be placed throughout the village to allow crews to remove snow.] The Village of Nelsonville announced parking restrictions from noon Sunday through 4 p.m. Monday. Parking will be prohibited on village streets, including on Main Street/Route 301. Designated winter parking spots are available on Adams Avenue and the west side of the Secor Street lot. In Beacon, after the accumulation of 2 inches of snow, vehicles cannot be parked on public streets between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Vehicles can be moved to any city public parking lot, but vehicles must be moved from the lots 24 hours after the snow stops falling. See our online calendar for cancelations. For updates, see our Storm Resource Page.

Eleanor Thompson, 79, the first Black member elected to the Beacon City Council, died Jan. 17. She was born April 23, 1946, the daughter of Rosalee Thompson, who in 1962 moved from Charleston, South Carolina, to New York City to provide opportunities for her daughters, Eleanor and Vera. Rosalee died in 2019. Eleanor earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Lehman College and, in 2000, a master's degree in education from Columbia University. She was a schoolteacher in New York City before moving to Beacon. After selling real estate for 18 years, she retired to Texas in 2010. Eleanor was elected as a Democrat in November 2001 to represent Ward 2, when she was 55, defeating Don Gallo, the Republican incumbent, 391-321. It was standing-room-only at her swearing-in, and the other officials sworn in that day, including Member-At-Large (and current mayor) Lee Kyriacou, all used the Thompson family bible. Eleanor was re-elected in 2003, then elected to an at-large seat in 2005 and 2007. She also ran for the state Assembly in 2006 but lost to incumbent Thomas Kirwan. In 2007, as a board member at the Howland Cultural Center, Eleanor envisioned a program that would connect communities through music. "When it comes to cultural diversity, we're all students," she said. Her advocacy led to the creation of the Gospel Cafe, according to HCC. Eleanor began painting, drawing and taking photographs at age 9. In an interview with the Poughkeepsie Journal in 2000, she recalled visiting her aunt and cousin in Newburgh and painting pictures of the Hudson River, of men and boys fishing on the banks and of the ferry. (She described herself as "a water person.") She said she had recently thrown herself into sculpture after taking a class at Columbia. "It was the best thing that happened to me," she said. She focused on female figures. "My whole thing is I want to give my sisters out there some recognition — the brown ones, the black ones, the white ones, the yellow ones — we are fantastic." With the support of longtime HCC director Florence Northcutt, Eleanor expanded the focus of art exhibits to include more women and artists of color. She contributed to shows such as Women Artists of the Hudson Valley in 2000 and A Celebration of Women of Color in the Arts in 2006. In 2019, she returned to Beacon with her grandson, Bobby, for The 25th Anniversary of African-American Artists in the Hudson Valley. In addition to her civic service, Eleanor co-founded the Young Artists' Mentoring Project; served as program director at the Martin Luther King Community Center; established a curriculum for the Partnership with Schools and Businesses; and was a dedicated member of the Beacon Light Tabernacle Seventh-day Adventist Church. Among her awards: the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs' Community Award (2004), the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Award (2005), the Shirley Chisholm Legacy Award (2005) and the inaugural Beacon Community Award presented by Beacon City Concerned Citizens. A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday (March 1) at Beacon Light Tabernacle, 1568 Route 9D, in Wappingers Falls. Memorial donations may be made to the Howland Cultural Center (dub.sh/thompson-hcc).

Editor's note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing. 150 Years Ago (February 1876) Officer Stevenson of Fishkill Landing received a $200 reward [about $6,000 today] for his part in capturing the horse thief Jeremiah Storm. Four empty barges belonging to the Knickerbocker Ice Co. arrived at Dutchess Junction to be loaded with ice cut at LaGrange for shipment to New York City. The Bachelor's Social Club held a Leap Year party on Feb. 29 at Swift's Opera House in Fishkill Landing. After members of the Matteawan school board were criticized by parents for being out of touch, they visited the schoolhouse to see how the students were doing. The Matteawan Seamless Clothing Manufacturing Co. closed suddenly, putting 450 men, women and children out of work. The owner, Mr. Falconer, attributed the closure to $60,000 [$1.8 million] he had spent on a dam, machinery and buildings to produce the new patented Crossley carpets. Falconer also invested in French felt suits for women, which sold poorly, and spent $30,000 [$900,000] on a Methodist meeting ground on Long Island. The firm's chief creditor was Fred Butterfield, Falconer's son-in-law, who toured the shuttered plant and said he and others would continue to back it. James Member of Fishkill Landing planned to open a hotel in Philadelphia for Dutchess County residents visiting the Centennial Exhibition. But after a visit, he abandoned the plan, saying there were already many hotels, and real estate was being sold and rented at exorbitant prices. An arsonist set fire to the stable and wagon house of David Davis, a retired merchant. He lost a carriage and 50 bushels of oats, but his horse was saved. After Mrs. Hamlin refused to pay Dewitt Rogers for installing a pump in her home, he sued for damages. She testified that Rogers had installed three pumps in succession, but none worked, so she had the final one removed. A jury ruled in favor of Rogers, but an appeals court overturned the judgment. In 1867, a wealthy millwright in Boston introduced Milo Sage, president of the Fishkill Landing Machine Co., to Norman Wiard, who said he had invented a boiler attachment that would save fuel and prevent explosions. Sage paid Wiard for the exclusive rights, and Wiard began ordering dozens of "prototypes," for which he eventually owed Sage $15,000 [$450,000]. Sage later learned that Wiard was selling the attachments to the U.S. military. 100 Years Ago (February 1926) Theodore Moith resigned after 44 years with the Beacon Police Department and 13 years as chief. In return, Mayor Ernest Macomber agreed to drop charges that Moith, who also served as a deputy sheriff, had collected questionable fees. Benjamin Roosa, age 67, felt ill while on a walk and stepped into a store on Fishkill Avenue but died before Dr. Julius Hayt could arrive. Roosa had been a railroad station agent and general manager for many years. He was also a former village president. The Beacon High School basketball team lost at Poughkeepsie, 14-11, in a game that included four ejections and a fourth-quarter dustup in which spectators ran onto the court and threw punches. Referee Mike Palen banished two players from each team. In the first quarter, Palisi, the Beacon captain, was forced to the bench for a few minutes after he was kicked in the stomach. At a roast beef dinner, members of the St. Rocco Society made plans to build a two-story clubhouse at the corner of South Chestnut and Dewindt. John Pomarico, described as "a well-known local wrestler," sued the city for $10,000 [$180,000] after he slipped on an icy sidewalk on Beekman Street and broke several ribs. The Denning's Point Brick Co. was installing machinery that its owners said would increase production from 166,000 to 300,000 bricks a day and eliminate the need for manual labor. The Frander Motor Sales Co. planned to open a Studebaker dealership in the former Stafford garage at the intersection of Main and South Chestnut. A snow melter invented b...

Beacon cites lack of resources to compel compliance Nearly six years after Beacon legalized short-term rentals, most Airbnb listings are not registered with the city. According to Inside Airbnb, a data collection project based in Newburgh, 133 units in Beacon were listed on the booking site in July 2025. But files obtained by The Current under the Freedom of Information Law show only 33 are registered with the city, as the law requires. STR laws typically allow municipalities to limit the number of housing units being rented to visitors and ensure that rentals have safety features such as smoke detectors and don't disrupt neighborhoods. The 2020 Beacon law allows homeowners and tenants to rent or sublet their homes or apartments for up to 30 days at a time, for a maximum of 100 days per year. Rental spaces must be the host's primary residence, and accessory dwelling units cannot be rented. According to Inside Airbnb, which pulls its data from information posted by the platform, the hosts of 14 Beacon listings live in New York City and six live out of state. The 133 listings are more than triple the number (40) on the site a decade ago, but nearly the same as in June 2020 (126), when the council amended the zoning code. City Administrator Chris White said this week that Beacon does not have the staff to adequately enforce its STR regulations. Since Building Inspector Bryan Murphy was hired in March, the department has prioritized health and safety issues, including overdue fire inspections and enforcing sidewalk snow removal. White said enforcement of STRs has been mostly in response to complaints about noise or parking. New York State authorized Beacon to collect a 2 percent occupancy tax on hotel stays and STR rentals as of Jan. 1, 2025. The Roundhouse, Mirbeau Inn & Spa and other hotels are expected to generate the bulk of the $200,000 in tax revenue in 2026, White said. Airbnb will begin collecting the Beacon tax on its platform starting March 1. The City Council is likely to revisit its STR regulations this year. During a discussion of agenda priorities on Tuesday (Feb. 17), Mayor Lee Kyriacou noted that enforcing limits on short-term rentals could have the quickest impact on the "acute" need for housing. "The fundamental issue is rental costs are really high because there's not enough supply," he said. "Restricting short-term rentals would force them into the long-term rental stock immediately." According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, 41 percent of Beacon households are renter-occupied, and 185 units are listed as vacant, meaning they do not have long-term renters. "If some of those Airbnb units were returned to the market, it would make it easier to find housing," said Murray Cox, who founded the data project. A New York City law adopted in 2023 is stricter than Beacon's: It also requires hosts to register with the city before accepting rentals of 30 days or less. Property owners must reside (and remain) in the unit; bookings are limited to two guests; and booking platforms cannot process transactions for unregistered listings. The law had an immediate effect, with 50,000 listings falling off the services between 2019 and 2023. There are now about 5,000, Cox said. In 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation authorizing counties to establish STR registries. Dutchess County officials have discussed creating a list; there has been no discussion in Putnam, a representative said. In Cold Spring, the Village Board enacted a law in 2021 to regulate STRs but began to review the measure three years later, saying the regulations were too cumbersome to enforce. Mayor Kathleen Foley says updating the STR code is a priority for 2026. The Philipstown Town Board this week discussed revisions to regulations it drafted in October that would require annual permits and inspections and ban parties. Critics say STRs need to be limited because they remove long-term housing from the market, drive up rents and negatively aff...

Programs advocate for long-term-care residents When Janice Munson walks through the entrance of a local nursing home, she has a list of names of the aged and disabled residents who have called for help. After those visits, she'll check in with other residents, sometimes asking if they have a physical therapy plan and if they are being taken for supervised walks to maintain their mobility. The answer is often no. "They'll say, 'I know there aren't enough staff, so I don't want to ask.' " Ensuring that residents obtain services is one of Munson's primary roles as a long-term care ombudsman, a position created by the Older Americans Act of 1965. The legislation requires states to provide independent advocates for residents in nursing homes, adult care homes and assisted living and rehabilitation facilities. Munson is among the eight volunteers who, along with five paid staff members, monitor 120 facilities in Region 4, which covers Putnam, Westchester and Rockland counties. Based in Cold Spring and led by Philipstown resident Judy Farrell, the region is one of 15 in the state. Region 5, based in Fishkill, covers Dutchess and five other counties. Nursing homes are the priority; the state wants them visited weekly and other facilities at least quarterly, said Farrell, who is also a member of the Philipstown Town Board. Although physical abuse draws headlines, complaints range from a staff member giving a resident the wrong medication or failing to follow therapy plans to dirty rooms, substandard food and a lack of recreation. Along with residents, the friends of residents and facility staff can report concerns, said Farrell. During the pandemic, when quarantines prevented families from visiting long-term care facilities, Farrell arranged for "compassionate care" visits. In one case, she helped a man unable to get his dying mother discharged to home hospice care. When she arrived home, he called Farrell, crying and grateful. "You can't replace that feeling," she said. "It's greatly satisfying." Arnold Tanner knows the feeling. A volunteer in Region 4, he visits a facility near his home in Sleepy Hollow twice a week. Carrying an iPad filled with notes, he meets first with people in the long-term-care units before introducing himself to newcomers and checking in at the rehab unit. He sometimes gets "a little better feel for the place" from newcomers and rehab patients, who are less reluctant to speak up, he said. Those in long-term care may fear retribution by staff, which is also a source of complaints. Statewide, the ombudsman program received 18,346 complaints during fiscal 2024, including 1,680 to the Cold Spring office. About a third were care-related, a broad category that includes accidents, falls, general requests for assistance and concerns about medications and physical therapy. Another 15 percent were complaints about staff failing to "honor and promote a resident's right or preferences" about healthcare, privacy, visitors and other areas. Many complaints related to food and admissions, including discharges and evictions. "Sometimes people face discharge for nonpayment when they might be eligible for Medicaid," Farrell explained. Complaints occasionally lead to legal action. In 2024, the state attorney general announced a $45 million settlement with Centers for Care, which owns four facilities, including one in White Plains, for "years of tragic and devastating mistreatment and neglect." According to the attorney general, "call bells regularly went unanswered, residents were forced to sit in their own urine and feces for hours, meals were not provided in a timely manner and personal belongings, including hearing aids, dentures and clothing, were often lost or stolen." After making On the Shoulders of Giants, a film about the orthopedics department at NYU Langone that was a Tribeca Film Festival Special Jury Award finalist in 2024, Cold Spring resident Peter Sanders turned to ombudsman programs. In March 2025, he began ...

Documentary about role-playing Putnam camp to screen at Howland Alex Simmons was deep in the jungles of the Amazon, shooting a documentary for National Geographic about black market gold mines, when his co-director, Carina Mia Wong, turned to him and asked, "What do you know about LARPing?" Simmons didn't know anything about LARPing, or Live Action Role Playing. But when Wong told him about a LARPing summer camp in the Hudson Valley called Wayfinder, in which adolescents and teens spend a week running around in the Putnam County woods, improvising elaborate fantasy tales and whacking each other with foam swords, he agreed they'd found the subject for their next film. "When you're a kid, everything gets delineated," Simmons said. "You're told that you can either be into sports or be a nerd. But when I was a kid, I liked sports and Dungeons & Dragons." After an epic campaign through the festival circuit resulting in a dragon's hoard worth of awards, including a special jury award at the 2024 SXSW Festival in honor of the film's "bravery and empathy," We Can Be Heroes comes to the Howland Cultural Center at 7 p.m. on Thursday (Feb. 26). After the screening, presented by the Beacon Film Society, Judson Packard, the Wayfinder camp director, will answer questions. "What matters is that the campers get to tell their own stories," Packard says in the film. "And for each one of them, they are the main character of that story." Packard found Wayfinder as a wayward and moody teenager 20 years ago. It is a place where neurodivergent, LGTBQ+ and/or teens who don't feel like they fit in can be themselves. As a camper in the film exclaims: "It's all just a bunch of nerds, straight up vibing." Wayfinder was happy to participate with the filmmakers. But logistics were more challenging. "You have 40 kids running through 500 acres of land," said Wong. "How do we film that?" The filmmakers spent a summer figuring out how to film at night in the woods, where to place cameras and when to do tick checks (constantly). They also looked for campers they could follow. "It was a gut feeling," said Wong. "Who has the potential for a transformation? Whose journey are we invested in? Where can things go in a week?" The documentary focuses on kids like Cloud, an 11-year-old, first-time camper from White Plains who puts in two hours of daily lightsaber practice. There's Dexter, a 15-year-old homeschooler from Manhattan who's written two-thirds of a fantasy trilogy but just wants to get his crush's phone number by the end of the week. And there's Abby, a 17-year-old, budding animator who is battling gastroparesis and spinal muscular atrophy and has been given a troubling long-term diagnosis. Nevertheless, arriving at camp, Abby tells the filmmakers, "I'm pumped as hell. … Am I allowed to curse?" The scene gets more deliriously chaotic when the campers begin the "adventure game," an improvised, multi-day storyline. Entitled "The Last Green," the scenario posits that the campers form six tribes of faeries facing a mysterious black void that is closing in around them. The story becomes a film within a film as the tribes figure out whether they can work together to save their world. What happens next is something completely unexpected. Before the game kicks off, some campers say they see the story as a metaphor for climate change. But there's another darkness that the kids have been fighting off: The film was shot in the summer of 2022, as the pandemic began to wane. For many campers, even though they're wearing full-body cardboard armor and giving themselves names like Shard Dorpington and Infernuis Nocturna, this is the most normal thing they've done in years. "During the filming, it hit us how impactful COVID has been on this generation," said Simmons. "They were telling us, 'I didn't get to have my senior prom,' or 'It was supposed to be the most important year of my life, and I missed it.' I still get emotional thinking about it." The Howland Cultural ...

Play recounts detention in German cell In 1933, after the Reichstag parliament burned in Berlin, Hitler took power and imposed martial law. Fear and loathing roiled the Prussian State Library, where a young writer and philosopher, Hannah Arendt, drew the attention of the newly formed Gestapo. In Jenny Lyn Bader's play, Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, based on actual events, Arendt spends eight days in a basement holding cell while being interrogated about her affiliations. To convey the tight confines, The Depot Theater, where the production opens Friday (Feb. 27), is using a singular set, says artistic director Alice Jankell. The premise provides readymade tension. "Some of my favorite plays take place in rooms with no escape," says Jankell, who is directing. "Tight ensemble pieces where we can dig into the characters and let the actors fly make my socks go up and down." The Nazis suspect Arendt and her coterie are sending so-called "horror propaganda" about the mistreatment of Jews to media outlets abroad. In Arendt's words, she collected "antisemitic statements in ordinary circumstances," which made her "very happy. First of all, it seemed a very intelligent thing to me, and second, it gave me the feeling that something could be done after all." She may have sympathized with leftist and Zionist causes but never joined any organization. Even better, Arendt had cover while conducting research at the repository for her biography of Rahel Varnhagen, an influential German Jew with an identity crisis who died in 1833. The drama is driven by the intellectual interplay that animates the interrogation room, where Arendt (Lily Ganser) is interviewed by Karl Frick (Logan Schmucker), 26, a polite policeman promoted to the Gestapo. This is Frick's first interview of a political suspect, and he's required to hit tight deadlines, "follow the rules" and "fill in these boxes." Pivoting from bringing charges against perps to quantifying thought crimes is a perplexing task. The kernel of the story came to Bader when she found a brief mention of the detention in a translation of a three-hour interview Arendt did in 1964 with a German television station. "I made friends with the official who arrested me," said Arendt. "He was a charming fellow" who "had no idea what to do." He kept telling her, "ordinarily, I have someone there in front of me, and I just check the file, and I know what's going on. But what shall I do with you?" In response, "I told him tall tales," Arendt recalled. "Arendt only told that story once in public, and even though it's just a snippet, it's such a surprising description of a Gestapo interview," says Bader. After the play's 2024 premiere, more than 100 versions bounced around Manhattan to Martha's Vineyard and New Jersey. Bader humanizes Frick so well that "people often come up to me and say, 'I loved the Nazi character,'" she says. "I'm always out to defy stereotypes." The Depot Theater is located at 10 Garrison's Landing. Tickets are $35 ($30 students) at depottheater.org. Performances continue weekends through March 15. For more information on Arendt, see the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College (hac.bard.edu).

Cases allege sexual abuse at Philipstown program St. Basil Academy in Philipstown and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America are again asking a judge to dismiss three of the five lawsuits filed by former students alleging they were sexually abused at the school in the 1980s. Lawyers for the archdiocese and St. Basil filed motions in New York County Supreme Court to dismiss lawsuits brought by an Illinois man who claims abuse by a director at the school, a woman who says she endured assaults when staying with two of the host families who boarded students on weekends and holidays, and a Pennsylvania man who alleges abuse by a teacher. A judge denied motions to dismiss the cases in 2022. According to the archdiocese and St. Basil's new motions, the claims should be tossed because the church had a "limited relationship" with the school and no role in hiring or supervising staff. They also said the alleged abuse was not reported to the church or St. Basil, and there is no evidence that staff saw disturbing behavior. Green Chimneys Settles in Abuse Case (2024) Christopher Bowen alleges sexual abuse between 1983 and 1986, when he was 12 to 15 years old, by a teacher and dorm supervisor, Finley Everett Eubanks, who died in 2002. The lawsuit alleges that Eubanks exposed himself to older male students and showed them pornographic films, fondled Bowen and asked for oral sex. Eubanks and his wife also hosted Bowen and other kids at their apartment in New York City. St. Basil and the archdiocese said that, "rather than informing St. Basil or the archdiocese of the alleged abuse, plaintiff instead requested to live with Mr. Eubanks on campus, visited Mr. Eubanks' apartment most weekends, and moved to Georgia to live with Mr. Eubanks after leaving St. Basil Academy." Asked on Wednesday (Feb. 18) for comment, Bowen said: "When you come from a background where abuse is all you ever know, which is where I come from, you don't understand yet that this is not how normal people live." Shame is also a barrier to reporting abuse, he said. "You don't want to go back to your community and say, 'This happened, and this happened, because what will happen when you do that is you will get completely ostracized." The woman says she entered St. Basil in 1983, when she was 10. The school's practice of letting students stay with host families led to her assault by males on Long Island and in Brooklyn, according to her lawsuit. One male raped her in 1985, when she was 12, she alleges, and two assaulted her when she was 14. The man from Illinois alleges that years of sexual abuse by a former St. Basil director began in 1986, when he was 4. He said in court documents that the first assault occurred when he and the Rev. Philip Koutoufas were sitting in a truck in the woods, and the minister pulled down the boy's pants and fondled his genitals. Later abuse took place inside Koutoufas' home, he alleges. In addition to Koutoufas, who became the bishop of Atlanta in 1992 and died in 1995, another high-ranking Greek Orthodox official — Bishop Andonios Paropoulos, who retired in 2019 — has been accused by two former St. Basil's students of abusing them in the In a statement in December to The National Herald, a Long Island newspaper that covers the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, St. Basil said that it could not comment on the lawsuits, but that it "takes all allegations of sexual misconduct with the utmost seriousness, particularly those involving children." The lawsuits involve abuse "alleged to have occurred more than 40 years ago," it said. "We believe we have strong defenses to these allegations, and we will address them respectfully and appropriately through the judicial process." The cases are among nearly 11,000 lawsuits filed under the Child Victims Act. Adopted in 2019, the law gave adults a two-year window to begin civil actions for alleged sex crimes in which the statute of limitations had expired. At least nine cases have been filed against the Roman C...

C.J. Chenier and squeezebox arrive Sunday In one Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson, angels greet newcomers with, "Welcome to heaven — here's your harp." Down below, the devil says, "Welcome to hell — here's your accordion." C.J. Chenier, who plays a bling-encrusted squeezebox, is laughing all the way to the bank. The man works: He has 18 gigs this month, in an arc from Texas to Minnesota to Rhode Island, including a stop at the Towne Crier in Beacon at 6 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 22) with his group, The Red Hot Louisiana Band. Zydeco music from southwest Louisiana is a niche, of course, but within the realm, C.J. is royalty: His father, Clifton J. Chenier, who died in 1987 at age 62, is recognized as the king. C.J. switched from saxophone to accordion and kept the mojo going. On his website, he's described as the Crown Prince of Zydeco. "Other people said that, and it found me," he says. "I never sought it out." Zydeco pioneer Amede Ardoin used a button accordion, which Clifton Chenier dismissed in a documentary as "a small French" model. Still, its booming tone drowned out Dennis McGee's fiddle, which is nearly inaudible on the 22 tracks the two musicians made together from 1929 to 1934. The biracial duo exemplified the exchanges among the French-speaking population in Louisiana, who sharecropped or migrated to Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas, where they were exposed to jazz and blues. "The difference between zydeco and cajun is the same as the blues and country," says C.J. Before establishing his music career, Clifton lived in Texas and began playing the louder, more versatile piano accordion with white and black keys instead of buttons, which filled rooms with sound in the days before amplification. In addition, he helped create the washboard vest, made from corrugated stainless steel. His brother, Cleveland Chenier, scraped out the rhythm with bottle caps, although C.J. says his player uses spoons. The original vest frottoir is in the collection of the National Museum of American History. With accordion and washboard as the base, Clifton began recording in the early 1950s. When electrified instruments revolutionized roots and popular music, Clifton added guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and horns. Unlike Ardoin, an old-timer who played a bit behind the beat, the king stomped out the rhythm. Playing the accordion is like wrestling with an alligator. "It keeps me in shape," says C.J. Pushing the keys with the right hand and keeping the bellows pumping is a challenge, but he pulls the shoulder straps tight to ensure that he can control the 25-pound instrument. The Towne Crier often clears out rows of tables to create space because, as C.J. says, zydeco is "happy-feet music that makes you smile, turns a bad day into a good one. Just joyful sounds from the swamps." The Towne Crier is located at 379 Main St. in Beacon. Tickets are $30 at townecrier.com or $35 at the door.

Program will fund filters for PFAS contamination Property owners in Dutchess and Putnam counties will soon be able to be reimbursed for testing their wells and installing filters if they exceed limits for a family of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. Both counties have been selected for a state pilot program to address private wells contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Known as "forever chemicals" because of their persistence in the environment and the human body, PFAS have been used for decades in nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing and other consumer products, as well as firefighting foams. Researchers have linked them to various health problems, including cancer, low birthweights and high cholesterol. Health concerns have led officials to close contaminated water sources serving the City of Newburgh and other municipalities, and supply filters to well owners in Dutchess and Putnam, including Mahopac and Putnam Valley. According to a groundwater study completed nearly 20 years ago, half of Philipstown's 9,400 residents at the time relied on well water. While Dutchess has yet to finalize details, Rian Rodriguez, Putnam's public health director, told the Legislature's Health Committee on Feb. 11 that the state chose for the pilot six counties "at higher risk" of PFAS contamination. "The goal is to reduce exposure to PFAS from private wells in communities more likely to be impacted, and assess the feasibility for a more comprehensive, statewide program," he said. Homeowners and business owners in Philipstown and other parts of Putnam should be able to begin applying for the county's $1.5 million allocation by June, said Brian Stevens, an associate public health sanitarian with the Health Department. If testing, which can cost hundreds of dollars, confirms levels exceeding the state guideline of 10 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS (the two most common versions of the chemicals), homes and businesses can be reimbursed up to $5,000 for installing "point-of-entry" filtration systems on their main water lines. The state will also subsidize up to $1,000 for "point-of-use" filters installed on faucets or other outlets where water is dispensed, up to $10,000 to connect a property to a public water system and up to $1,500 for ongoing testing and maintenance. New York and the federal Environmental Protection Agency regulate limits on PFAS in public drinking water supplies, such as the reservoirs that serve residents of Beacon and Cold Spring. But the estimated 1 million homes and businesses in New York state that rely on wells must test on their own unless they are part of a larger investigation tied to a verified source of major pollution. Dozens of properties near the Mahopac Business District received point-of-entry filters from the state after testing showed more than 100 private wells in the area had PFAS levels above state limits. The state began testing after discovering chemicals in monitoring wells installed during the district's cleanup of volatile organic compounds and other toxic substances linked to the use of dry-cleaning chemicals. New York has also allocated funds to the Town of Kent, the Birch Hill Acres and Starr Ridge Manor communities in Brewster, and Floradan Estates in Putnam Valley to address PFAS contamination through filtration systems. One such system is filtering water used by students and staff at Putnam Valley Elementary School, whose well once showed levels of 38.3 parts per trillion for PFOS and 23.3 ppt for PFOA. The district blames the problem on the Putnam Valley Fire Department's use of PFAS foams at its firehouses. State funding is also being used by the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority to connect two water systems with PFAS-tainted wells to Hyde Park, which draws water from the Hudson River. The federal government estimates that as many as 50 percent of U.S. households have some level of PFAS in their water — whether from a wel...

Former Dutchess executive leaves FTA job after six months Marc Molinaro, the former Dutchess County executive and U.S. congressman, will resign as administrator of the Federal Transit Administration on Friday (Feb. 20) to return to New York. He held the job for six months. According to Politico and the Times Union, each citing an anonymous source, Molinaro plans to campaign for a state Assembly seat being vacated by Chris Tague, who is running for the state Senate. The seat represents District 102, which covers Greene and Schoharie counties in the Catskills. In a post on X, Molinaro wrote, "I'm coming home to be closer to my family and get back into the fight." Before becoming Dutchess County executive in 2011, Molinaro served five years as a county legislator and two terms in the state Assembly. He was also the Republican candidate for governor in 2018. He was elected to the House in 2023 but lost his bid for re-election to Josh Riley. Before joining the FTA, Molinaro had been a senior advisor to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

Agency buying facilities across U.S. to house detainees A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the Times Union on Thursday (Feb. 12) that the agency has purchased a warehouse in the Hudson Valley to house detainees. The warehouse, located in Chester, is a former PepBoys auto parts distribution center. "These will be very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards," the ICE spokesperson told the paper. "Sites will undergo community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase." ICE said the facility and its construction will create 1,246 jobs and contribute $153.4 million, plus $37.2 million in tax revenue but did not explain how the figures were calculated. At the same time, the Orange County clerk and the county attorney told the Times Union that no new deeds have been recorded or filed. The last sale on record was in 2021, when an LLC owned by former Trump adviser Carl Icahn bought the property. State Sen. Michelle Hinchey, a Democrat whose district includes northern Dutchess County, said in a statement that she would support the town and village boards as they use "every legal, zoning, and environmental tool available" to block the facility. On Friday, a document released by federal immigration officials said that ICE to spend $38.3 billion to expand its detention capacity to 92,600 beds by purchasing warehouses. ICE has bought at least seven warehouses in the past few weeks in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas. Six other purchases were scuttled when buyers decided not to sell under pressure from activists. The Department of Homeland Security in January posted a notice announcing its intention to purchase the Chester warehouse for ICE operations. The agency said it would add a small guard building and an outdoor recreation area. The notice was required because the facility is in a 100-year floodplain. Legislation has been introduced in at least five states to ban state and local government contracts for ICE detention facilities. In New York, one proposal would prohibit governmental entities from entering into immigrant detention agreements (Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, and Dana Levenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Philipstown, are co-sponsors), while another would prohibit the use of public funds or resources for new immigrant detention facilities without state legislative approval. ICE Detention Facilities There are 225 ICE detention facilities in the U.S., including eight in New York (below). Texas has the most facilities (28), followed by Florida (18). Allegany County Jail (Belmont) 5 females, non-criminal Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center 25 males, criminal; 86 males, non-criminal Broome County Jail (Binghamton) 3 males, criminal; 44 males, non-criminal Buffalo Service Processing Center (Batavia) 128 males, criminal; 610 males, non-criminal Clinton County Jail (Plattsburgh) 2 males, non-criminal; 2 females, non-criminal Nassau County Correctional Center (Long Island) 1 female, criminal; 11 females, non-criminal Niagara County Jail (Lockport) 12 females, non-criminal Orange County Jail (Goshen) 85 males, criminal; 81 males, non-criminal; 1 female, criminal Source: U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement In a little over a year, the number of detention facilities used by ICE has more than doubled, to 225 sites spread across 48 states and territories. Most of that growth came through existing contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service or deals to use empty beds at county jails. More than 75,000 immigrants were being detained nationwide by ICE as of mid-January, up from 40,000 when President Donald Trump took office a year ago, according to federal data. Just north of Richmond, Virginia, hundreds of people turned out in January for a tense public hearing before the Hanover County Board of Supervisors. "Yo...

Public input on Marathon development "A More Walkable Cold Spring" will be the focus of a public presentation to the Cold Spring board on March 10 to launch a planning process for the 12-acre Marathon property on Kemble Avenue, the village's largest undeveloped tract. The Kearney Group, which owns the property, has hired Jeff Speck, co-founder of Speck Dempsey, a Brookline, Massachusetts-based urban planning firm, to explain the fundamentals of pedestrian-oriented neighborhood design. "We don't have a lot of young people without children, and there aren't really affordable, entry-level houses in the village," Mayor Kathleen Foley noted at the Wednesday (Feb. 11) meeting of the Village Board. The Marathon parcel, formerly the site of a battery plant, is zoned for a mixed-use planned unit development. Foley said a series of charrettes will be held in April and June. The developer will then create an application for the Planning Board. Sidewalk grants Foley updated the board on the status of federal Transportation Alternatives Program grants to add sidewalks along the north end of Fair Street from Mayor's Park to Route 9D and along Morris Avenue/Route 9D at the northern border of the village. The sidewalks were extended on Fair Street from the municipal parking lot to Mayor's Park as part of the recently completed stormwater drainage repairs. Cold Spring owns a short stretch of Fair Street north of Mayor's Park to the village boundary. Putnam County owns Fair Street from there to Route 9D. The cost of the new Fair Street sidewalks is estimated at $2 million. The grant would pay 80 percent of the cost, with the remaining 20 percent paid by Cold Spring, which must show it has the capacity to fund the entire project, a requirement she described as "kind of bananas." Foley said Putnam County is willing to front the 80 percent and the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail announced this week it would contribute the 20 percent local share. "We have had less luck on Route 9D," Foley said. State parks, HHFT, the state Department of Transportation and Putnam County have declined to cover 80 percent of the estimated $3 million cost. "We have a few Hail Mary asks out to some private organizations to see if they would loan the town the funds," Foley said. In other business … Village accountant Michelle Ascolillo reported that the cost of snow removal after the January storm was $68,000. In his monthly report, Robert Downey, the Highway Department crew chief, thanked Marc's Landscaping, Sal Pidala and Sons Excavating, Allen's Dumpster Service, Minardi's Excavation, Harold Lyons and Sons, Putnam County, Philipstown, the state Department of Transportation and state parks for their assistance in the aftermath. Matt Jackson, the officer-in-charge of the Cold Spring Police Department, reported that officers responded to 87 calls in January. The most frequent were alarms (12), assisting fire departments (8) and assisting local emergency medical services (8). There were also single calls for a domestic incident, a dispute, disorderly conduct and a person in crisis. Saturdays produced the most calls (22), followed by Fridays (18) and Wednesdays (15). He said Tuesdays produced the fewest calls (5). The Cold Spring Fire Co. answered 16 calls in January, including seven fire alarms, two assists to local EMS, two incidents of propane odor and single calls for a transformer fire, motor vehicle accident with injuries, mutual aid to North Highlands Fire Co., smoke in a structure and a pump out. Stephen Etta answered the most calls (14) with 20 volunteers responding to at least one call. The village said it will forward 16 cases of delinquent taxes, totaling $37,688, to Putnam County for collection.

250 Years Ago (February 1776) Maj. Gen. Charles Lee and a contingent of the Continental Army arrived in New York City from Boston to defend the city against British attack. Col. William Alexander, with 1,000 men, came from New Jersey to serve under Lee. Andrew Allen and Thomas Lynch, delegates from the Continental Congress, met in New York City with Lord Drummond, representing the king, to see if some "accommodation" could be reached. Gen. George Washington wrote to the Committee of Safety of New York, asking it to send any weapons it could spare to his camp outside Boston. Eager to join the fight against the British, the carpenters building military frigates in New York City left their posts to volunteer. Congress reassured them that the boats were equally important to the cause. James Duane, a delegate from New York, noted that Congress was debating the Continental Army's pay, enlistment lengths and whether one colony could use another colony's troops for defense. 150 Years Ago (February 1876) James Nelson of the South Highlands, who had an impressive numismatic collection, showed off a bronze medallion he had acquired that depicted Gouverneur Kemble (1786-1875), a co-founder of the West Point Foundry. It was dated 1837, when Kemble was seated for the first of two terms in Congress. The medal was 3 inches wide with a relief of Kemble in profile; the reverse had his name and birthdate. Benjamin Ireland, who suspected his nephews, Jake and Al Ireland, and a neighbor named Williams had stolen a "skip" of honey he valued at $50 [about $1,500 today], persuaded the constable to obtain a search warrant. No trace of the stolen sweets was found, but one nephew was angry enough at the intrusion that he assaulted Ben near Patterson's store in Mollyville [Nelsonville]. Ben then obtained a "peace" warrant that demanded the constable jail the nephew to keep the peace. A gust of wind blew down C. Manning's chimney, which damaged his roof. Granville Roberts had left his 3-year-old grandson, Willie, in the kitchen for a few minutes to go upstairs when the boy began to cry and climb the steps. Roberts hurried down and found the tablecloth on fire. Asa Truesdell, who had run his meat market for 30 years, died at his Fair Street home at age 73. He had advertised the market for sale, saying it was the oldest business in Cold Spring and generated $30,000 [$900,000] in annual sales. Elias Post sued Ichabod Hunt for cutting wood on his land. After hearing testimony for nearly the entire day, a jury awarded him $4 [$121] in damages. A son of Mr. Hayden of Garrison was brought to Cold Spring on a railroad handcar after he accidentally cut off some of his toes with an ax. James Schegel asked Officer Delaney on a weekend to detain Isaac Levy and his son for assaulting him with a club and threatening him with a revolver. Delaney suggested he wait until Monday to obtain an arrest warrant, but by then, Schegel had decided not to press charges. Mrs. Freley was hanging clothes on a line at West Point when the wind swept her off her feet and down a slope, where she fractured her skull on a rock. About 30 ferry passengers were stuck at Garrison for half a day because the river was choked with floating ice. 1st Lt. Robert Warren, 29, a Cold Spring native, died at Camp Douglas in the Utah territory of apoplexy [stroke]. He had joined the Union Army in 1862 and fought during several major battles in Virginia. The Cold Spring Recorder shared the story of a 7-year-old named Dusty who was running with friends on the cakes of ice in the river when he fell in. Rather than return home wet and face punishment, he removed his clothes, put them on a pile of bricks and waited, naked, until they dried. A high tide overflowed onto the lower end of Main Street, leaving behind blocks of ice that froze fast to the ground. The water pump at the corner of Parsonage and Bank streets was out of order. The Rock Street building used by the street commissioners as a tool house w...

Useful for plans and lessons, local educators say When Ryan McConville wanted a fun project for his ninth grade Global History class at Haldane High School, he turned to Gemini, Google's artificial intelligence tool. "I used it as a thought partner," said McConville, a 2003 Haldane graduate who has taught in the district since 2012. "I needed some fresh ideas." He said he asked Gemini for five ideas for how his students could explore Diocletian's decision in 286 C.E. to divide the Roman Empire. One idea was to have students write a newspaper-style investigation of the emperor. "I had them pretend to expose the crisis of the third century and choose whether Diocletian was a hero or a traitor for splitting up ancient Rome," he said. McConville is one of many teachers in the Highlands using artificial intelligence, or AI, for a wide range of tasks, including generating lesson ideas, reducing busywork, creating student worksheets and customizing teaching materials. That reflects a national trend: Last year, 60 percent of 2,232 public school teachers surveyed for a Gallup Poll reported using AI, with a third using it at least once a week. The most frequent AI users estimated that the technology saved them nearly six hours a week. At the Garrison School, math teacher Michael Roman uses the tools in an online service called Goblins, which markets itself as a "math teacher cloning device." His middle school students log into the software on their school-issued Chromebooks, and a virtual teacher provides problems like: "Zoe ran 28 miles this week. Next week, she plans to run 15 percent more miles. If she does, how many miles will she run in total over the two weeks?" When a reporter tried to answer, the virtual teacher said, "I see a 5 on the board. Where did that come from?" The virtual teacher then taught a brief lesson on percentages. Roman, whose said his class sizes range from nine to 17 students, said he likes Goblins because it provides "real-time adaptive feedback" to each student. He reserves the tool for the end of class, after he's explained the lesson, demonstrated practice problems and done small-group work. "It's like an exit ticket: They open up their laptops and try a few problems before they go," said Roman, who has been using the program for two years and will often use it to assign extra study. He said the students like the AI teacher that speaks in Gen Z lingo. "They either think it's fun or cringy," he said. "Either way, they're engaged." At Haldane, Ashley Linda uses AI with students who want additional academic support. She said that she can feed a reading assignment into an AI assistant such as Brisk, a tool designed for teachers, and ask it to modify the text to match a student's reading level. She said that when she is helping a student with a subject outside her expertise, she sometimes relies on AI to get up to speed. But Linda is wary about using AI for her 10th- and 12th-grade English students. "I'm not going to use it to generate a lesson plan or to grade student work," she said. "I don't think AI can make a better lesson than I can." She said she is also wary of relying on a tool she wants her students to avoid. "If I want my students to answer questions, think critically and learn how to write an essay without using AI, I'm also not going to use it," said Linda, who worries about allowing young people to become even more hooked on technology. "A generation of young people has been negatively impacted by screens," she said. Those concerns prompted at least one state lawmaker to propose regulations. Assembly Member Robert Carroll, a Democrat from Brooklyn who chairs the Committee on Libraries and Education Technology, introduced legislation in November to ban the use of AI in elementary and middle schools except for diagnostic purposes, instructional interventions for students with disabilities and administrative and planning purposes. In Rockland County, the Suffern school district requires teachers ...

Rotating group performs monthly at Savage Wonder Scroll down the page of gig posters at the Jazzwomen! website and you'll notice Kim Peralta appears in each one. As the ensemble's founder and drummer, she's guaranteed a gig. "I formed the group so I could play with high-caliber musicians, which helps improve my playing," she says. "I book the dates and provide enough rhythmic reinforcement that they show up." Peralta has established a third Thursday residency at Savage Wonder in Beacon (the next one is Feb. 19) and will perform at Estilo Y Vino in May. The members are booked up for Women's History Month, so they're skipping the March date at Savage Wonder and will return on April 16. Peralta assembled a roster of 14 musicians, some of whom have played with Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis. Saxophonist Kate Anderson toured with The Temptations and The Four Tops and bass player Jennifer Vincent has performed with k.d. lang and Patti LaBelle. In addition to playing jazz piano, Heather Bennett is the organist and music director at a New Jersey church. Ellie Lee describes herself as a "bold, fiery artist" who "composes in a variety of styles, including jazz, classical, pop and gospel." Peralta began recruiting pianists, saxophonists and bass players in 2023. Sax whiz Jenny Hill adds flute to her arsenal, and Rachel Therrien, who has worked with Arturo O'Farrill, is the sole trumpeter. Peralta selects the lineups for each gig like a baseball manager. The basic combo is a piano trio (with bass and drums), though adding a saxophone expands the sonic palette; Therrien once rounded out a quintet. The players are so accomplished that Peralta needs only to compile a set list and, if necessary, provide lead sheets. As the exclamation point indicates, Jazzwomen! wants to make a statement. In addition to originals, the group performs compositions by Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby. "Melba Liston played trombone with the best of them, and Mary Lou Williams wrote 500 songs," says Peralta, who referenced as inspiration the National Public Radio show, "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz," which the English-born musician and educator hosted from 1978 to 2011. Now known as "Piano Jazz" (McPartland died in 2013), it is NPR's longest-running cultural program. The gig posters online also include likenesses of Mike Aiese, who does not match the profile. But Peralta notes that there is a general shortage of bass players, so he sat in at Savage Wonder last month and will do so again next week. At the January show, sax player Maria Lazzaro emitted a furious flurry of notes during "In a Mellow Tone," before displaying her tonal command with bluesy slurs that lifted the classic "On Green Dolphin Street." Pianist Janice Friedman played trills like a heavy metal guitarist. Performing together for the first time, the two musicians engaged in a gentle cutting contest. Often at jazz concerts, the bass player gets a break or two, but Aiese took flight on all but one tune. Peralta kept it simple on her compact kit. Even though Aiese walked, vamped and played solid solos, Peralto says she is always on the lookout to replace him, which he understands. "It's magical to perform with all women," she says. "It's hard to describe, but it's special." Savage Wonder is located at 139 Main St. in Beacon. The Feb. 19 performance, which begins at 8 p.m., is free, but tickets are required. See dub.sh/jazzwomen-2-19.

City Council may add 17 properties Beacon is considering adding 17 properties near Main Street to the city's historic district. There are nearly 300 homes and structures in the district, which prevents them and neighboring buildings from being altered in a way that the city believes will harm their historic value. The district also has its own architectural and design standards — a sticking point for some homeowners who have said during public hearings that the rules are too restrictive, limiting choices on paint colors and other elements. On the flip side, historic structures are eligible to apply for special permits that allow uses associated with history, the arts or culture, such as hotels or other professional uses. Rose Hill Manor Day School, for example, at 1064 Wolcott Ave., is part of the historic district. The Planning Board is reviewing a proposal by the property owner to convert the historic buildings to an inn and restaurant, uses not normally allowed in its otherwise mostly residential zone. Restoration of properties in the historic district may also be eligible for tax exemptions and, in some cases, for historic preservation grants. The district is an overlay, meaning its restrictions can apply to any building. It was created in 1991; before the pandemic shutdown in 2020, the City Council held public hearings on 35 properties recommended for inclusion. In July 2021, council members voted to add six properties on or near Main Street. A month later, nine Main Street buildings were added. Of the 17 sites now being considered, 14 appear to be private homes. The Beacon Hebrew Alliance, at 331 Verplanck Ave., and St. Rocco Society, at 26 South Chestnut, are on the list, along with 17 Church St., which is owned by an LLC. On the List These buildings are being considered for inclusion in Beacon's Historic District. 9 Mattie Cooper Sq. 11 N. Elm St. 4 N. Elm St. 17 Church St. 27 Church St. 159 Fishkill Ave. 189 Fishkill Ave. 194 Fishkill Ave. 331 Verplanck Ave. 11 Digger Phelps Ct. 26 S. Chestnut St. 19 Commerce St. 11 Commerce St. 20 South Ave. 22 South Ave. 26 South Ave. 30 South Ave. The council can designate a site as part of the district because of distinguishing architectural features, cultural or aesthetic value or if it is eligible for the state or national registers of historic places. After a property has been officially nominated, the council must hold a public hearing and vote within 60 days. The owners of nominated buildings can request exclusion, but a supermajority of the council (five of its seven members) can overrule the objection. 248 Tioronda The City Council has begun its review of the amended concept plan for a partially completed development at 248 Tioronda Ave. In November, the City Council gave the developer the go-ahead to draft plans for two new residential buildings with 136 apartments, 27 of which will be offered at below-market rates. That was the trade-off required after Bernard Kohn, the developer, asked the city to allow him to build more apartments (64 have been completed) rather than a commercial building, which had been a condition of approval. If, after a public hearing, the council approves the amended concept plan, the Planning Board will review and vote to amend its approval of the project. Planning Board The Planning Board on Tuesday (Feb. 10) approved Stanza Books' application to construct a partially enclosed patio behind 425 Main St., the former Mase Hook & Ladder firehouse. There was no vote on the proposal to construct an addition onto the Telephone Building at 291 Main St.; the project attorney requested an adjournment because only five of seven board members were present. The board will hold a public hearing next month on an application to construct a 49-space parking lot and add five parking spaces to the employee lot east of Dia Beacon. The museum would also like to construct a 60-foot-by-70-foot storage building at the south end of the employee lot. Public hearings Th...

Residents seek update to town policy in response to ICE Some residents have asked the Town Board to update a 2017 policy that limits Philipstown's cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The board approved the policy by a 3-2 vote during President Donald Trump's first administration. Two current members of the board, Supervisor John Van Tassel and Robert Flaherty, accounted for the "no" votes. The resolution ensures "equal protection" for all residents, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and/or immigration status, and forbids town employees, unless required by state or federal law, from assisting in investigations of immigration or citizenship status or participating in arrests or detentions by federal immigration officers. Employees are also prohibited from requesting, maintaining or disclosing details of immigration status. At a Town Board meeting on Feb. 5, Board Member Judy Farrell proposed amending the policy to specify that employees cannot "voluntarily disclose" identifying information about a resident without a judicial warrant or court order, and that Philipstown would notify anyone whose information is disclosed. Another amendment would prohibit immigration officers from entering "non-public court spaces" or obtaining court calendars and records without a judicial warrant or court order. Farrell said the new language was designed to protect personal data, not immigration status, which the town does not collect. "It's about requiring judicial process, which residents are entitled to under the Constitution, and to make sure our town staff aren't sharing residents' information," she said. In January 2025, the state attorney general, Letitia James, issued guidance that noted federal law does not require a local government to communicate with immigration authorities, but that a federal statute says municipalities cannot prevent employees "from sending to, or receiving from" them information regarding someone's citizenship or immigration status. Nothing prevents governments from withholding other information, said James. Van Tassel said he opposed the suggested changes. Without a police department and without jurisdiction over Philipstown's court, the measure "is not the town's responsibility" and "jeopardizes the stability and rights" of the town and its employees, he said. "We have to follow the law; we can't follow sentiment or symbolism," said Van Tassel. He noted the 2017 policy has never had to be enforced. One resident who spoke at the meeting, Dan Nobel, said: "What you're saying is, 'I can't foresee an issue where it's going to come up.' Great. You never have to deal with it," he said. "My point is, you don't know what's going to come up. These guys are nuts." Water district levy Philipstown is facing criticism from residents of the Garrison Landing Water District after it imposed a $2,500 levy on each of 20 parcels. At the Town Board's Feb. 5 meeting, property owners questioned whether they had received proper notice about the levy and if it was applied fairly. The town is collecting the annual tax to repay $500,000 it borrowed to cover district-related expenses. Those expenses included buying water when the district's well failed, fixing leaks and drilling and connecting a new well. The town plans to install water meters, which were last used there in the early 2000s, said Van Tassel. Of the six parcels owned by Garrison Station Plaza, three do not have water service, and one is "mostly submerged" in the Hudson River, said Del Karlen, the organization's president. "It's time to go back to the drawing board — do it right, do it fairly," he said. A state audit released in May 2025 calculated that Philipstown spent $2.4 million between 2018 and 2023 on the water district, shrinking the town's general-fund balance from $1 million to $53,137. Annual expenses for the district rose from $85,000 to $975,000 during the same period. Philipstown also discovered that it had mist...

Funds would cover local portion of state grant Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail Inc. said on Monday (Feb. 9) that it has pledged $450,000 to extend the sidewalks on Fair Street from Mayor's Park in Cold Spring to Route 9D and Little Stony Point. The village and Philipstown are applying for a grant from the state Department of Transportation that would reimburse 80 percent of the project costs. The $450,000 from HHFT will cover the 20 percent required from the village and town. The project is expected to cost about $2 million. "We've been talking with the village and the town about sidewalks a lot," said Peter Mullan, the HHFT president. "How do we do something quick to address the situation in the village," to provide a safe pedestrian route from Main Street to Little Stony Point and the Washburn Trail. The Fjord Trail, a proposed 7.5-mile linear park connecting Cold Spring and Beacon, is designed to alleviate overcrowding in the village and along Route 9D. Many visitors are hikers who walk from the train station down Fair Street, which has no sidewalks, to reach Little Stony Point, Bull Hill and points beyond. Although Fair Street is not part of the proposed trail, HHFT Executive Director Amy Kacala said it has always been on the designers' minds. "In the master plan, we call Fair Street a 'meander' to acknowledge that people are walking on that route," she said. "It won't be a multimodal route in the same way as our trail, but more ways for people to get out of the village is important to reduce congestion. "While the connection we'll make to Dockside Park will be part of the trail, this is an alternate route people are already used to taking," she said. "We want to make sure that they're walking safely, and we know that the municipalities share that concern." The sidewalks on Fair Street will also be needed because the trail itself won't be coming to Cold Spring anytime soon: HHFT announced on Monday that it is delaying construction on the trail between Breakneck Ridge and Cold Spring for at least two years while it collects more ecological data. HHFT plans to build a boardwalk that extends into the river as part of the southern trail. Many residents, as well as the environmental group Riverkeeper, have expressed concern about the impact of construction on the river. Mullan said he hopes that because the matching funds for the sidewalks are coming from a local nonprofit, rather than the municipalities, it will make for a "stronger application" for the state grant. He said he also hopes the donation will give the project's detractors — of which there have been many in Philipstown — some pause. "I hope that the people of Cold Spring see this as a measure of our commitment to the community," he said. In a joint statement on Wednesday, Cold Spring Mayor Kathleen Foley, Nelsonville Mayor Chris Winward and Philipstown Supervisor John Van Tassel said they were grateful for the $450,000 pledge but that the municipalities still must find money to construct sidewalks along Route 9D toward Breakneck. "HHFT was not willing to contribute to funding for 9D, estimated at $3 million, for which we are pursuing a TAP [Transportation Alternatives Program] grant," they said. "In order to qualify for the reimbursable 80 percent from TAP, local governments have to demonstrate in their applications that the full amount for the projects can be fronted. We are actively working to secure front-end funding for both projects, and the situation is fluid."

Breakneck Ridge to Cold Spring delayed at least two years Don't expect the Fjord Trail to reach Cold Spring anytime soon. In addition to announcing a $450,000 grant to the village and Philipstown for the building of sidewalks on Fair Street, Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail Inc. said on Monday (Feb. 9) that it will "prioritize" the northern section of the trail from Breakneck Ridge to Long Dock Park in Beacon. The state's recently released environmental impact statement included a timeline stating that construction on the northern and southern sections (Breakneck to Cold Spring) would begin this year. But HHFT Executive Director Amy Kacala and President Peter Mullan said on Tuesday that construction will begin on the northern section this year, and work on the southern portion will be pushed back at least two years. They said a major factor in the delay is that HHFT and the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will be gathering more data on the stretch of the Hudson River where an elevated boardwalk would be built. Despite overall improvements in the river's health since the 1970s, many fish species have been declining. The DEC and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are also in the midst of a yearslong project to determine the extent of PCB contamination in the lower Hudson River caused by industrial dumping by General Electric. In its public comment on the impact statement, the environmental group Riverkeeper raised concerns that the endangered shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon species would be harmed by construction in the stretch of river that runs through the Highlands. "We're committed to being sensitive to the ecology of the river," said Mullan. "We want to use this time to make sure that we are developing the design as sensitively as possible and look for ways to repair the ecology of the shallow water river habitat, because we're seeing the ecosystem function of that habitat actually going down." Kacala said that the data collection will take at least two years. "We want to do this right, and sometimes that takes time," she said. In the meantime, HHFT will push forward with the northern section, much to the delight of Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou, who has long advocated for the project. "I'm very excited about this, and I think that most people in Beacon are, too," he said on Tuesday. Kacala said that construction along the northern part of the trail would begin on state-owned land. "There are still some conversations we need to have with private landowners," she said. The first phase will include the Wade's Hill lot and trail, followed by a trail north of the Breakneck Connector to an overlook of Bannerman's Island. Many residents who live near Breakneck have had problems with hikers trespassing in their yards to get a better view of the ruined castle in the river. "We're hoping to help them out by alleviating that pressure and putting that part forward first," said Kacala. "Then people have a safe and predictable way where they know they can get to that view." Beacon Rail Trail Update While the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail is being constructed, Mayor Lee Kyriacou said Beacon will be pushing forward with the segment of a larger trail that would connect the Metro-North station to Hopewell Junction along an abandoned rail line. "The pricing for the whole line is fairly expensive, but the Beacon section is fairly doable and doable quickly," he said on Tuesday (Feb. 9), referring to the section that would begin at the train station and stop at the city line near Route 52. "We're hoping to get bids done this year and construction next year." The Beacon trail, which will be paved and mostly flat, will give residents who commute a safe way to reach the train station without a car, said Kyriacou, noting that the city plans on installing more bike lockers. The trail would cross the Fjord Trail near Dennings Point. "This is going to be transformational to Beacon's quality of life," said Kyriacou. "It...

Received campaign money from firm tied to ICE Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, said on Feb. 4 that he will donate campaign funds he received from employees of a company that supplies software for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Days earlier, For the Many, a Kingston nonprofit, called on Ryan to donate the funds to immigrant advocacy groups. They had come from employees of Palantir Technologies, a firm co-founded by conservative billionaire Peter Thiel, who also co-founded PayPal. Federal immigration officials contracted with Palantir to create software that uses artificial intelligence and data mining to identify, track and deport non-citizens. Palantir was scheduled to deliver a prototype of its ImmigrationOS platform to the agency by September 2025 as part of a two-year contract worth $30 million. Jonathan Bix, the executive director of For the Many, told the Daily Freeman that the organization had been alerted to the campaign funding via the website purgepalantir.com. He said the group was surprised to see Ryan listed, among all Democratic federal lawmakers, as receiving the most support from Palantir. According to the site, Ryan has received $134,600 from Palantir employees, including its top executives, since being elected in 2021. But a search of campaign finance disclosures at the Federal Election Commission shows a total of $93,300 in contributions from 17 individuals who said they were employed at Palantir in that period. Ryan received $36,500 from 11 Palantir employees in 2025, according to the FEC. As of Dec. 31, he had about $2.5 million on hand for his campaign. Rep. Josh Riley, a Democrat whose district includes northern Dutchess County, has received $76,601 from nine Palantir employees since 2021, when he first ran for Congress. He received $15,000 from five Palantir executives in 2025. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican whose district includes Philipstown, received $9,900 from two Palantir employees in 2024, according to FEC records. Purge Palantir said that the Denver-based company appears to be "cultivating relationships with promising, younger tech- and defense-friendly Democrats." Ryan serves on the House Armed Services Committee, and Riley is a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Although For the Many posted online that it had "successfully pressured Pat Ryan to refuse future contributions from ICE contractors and to donate past ones to local immigrant defense," Ryan said his decision was not in response to pressure from the activist group. "This was something I've been thinking about for a while, even before these last two horrific instances, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, which were straight up murder and in Alex's case … an execution," he told the Daily Freeman. "I've been thinking and working to find all the points of leverage and ways to push back and make clear where I stand, which is strongly against this abuse of power and dangerous and unconstitutional behavior." He said he did not believe that ICE should be abolished. "To me, the choice can't be between no border security and Trump's ICE murdering people in the street," he said. "That is not a choice any of my constituents want."

Matcha Thomas and Nansense close Two restaurants in Beacon announced they are closing this month. Matcha Thomas, a teahouse that opened in May 2021 said that it will close its storefront at 179 Main St. on Feb. 15. Its owners, the Thomas family, said they plan to "transition into a fully mobile teahouse through our matcha cart." On Thursday (Feb. 5), Mohib Rahmati, the owner of Nansense Afghan Burgers and Bowls at 2 Eliza St. said it was his restaurant's last day in business. It opened in August 2024. Rahmati said he and his wife are starting a "new chapter" that requires relocation. Matcha Thomas was the distillation of years of activism and public speaking for Haile Thomas, then 20, her experience founding and running a nonprofit organization and the recipes from her cookbook Living Lively, published in 2019 by William Morrow. She was assisted by her mother, Charmaine, and sister, Nia. In 2020, the family, who lives in Chester, was picking up food from Isamu in Beacon and noticed a for-rent sign across the street and decided it was time to share what they've learned about the health benefits of matcha. "With our entire hearts, we thank you for all of your love, support and enjoyment of what we built in Beacon," the family wrote online. Nansense began as a food truck in New York City. In 2024, Rahmati and his wife, Komel, moved to Newburgh and began looking for a location for a storefront. "Thank you for the love, the loyalty, the conversations, the regular orders and for truly making this place feel like home," the couple wrote on Instagram. "As hard as this decision has been, it's the right one for our family. Beacon, you supported us from Day One, and we'll forever be grateful for that."

Butterfield could lose $20K in annual revenue The federal government has notified many public libraries that double as Passport Acceptance Facilities that they can no longer offer the service. Librarians at the Butterfield Memorial Library in Cold Spring are trained to accept passport applications, which are sent to the U.S. Department of State for processing. It charges a $35 fee for each application, which brings in $20,000 to $30,000 annually. The change affects only privately chartered "association" libraries such as Butterfield and the Desmond-Fish Public Library in Garrison, which does not offer passport services. The Howland Public Library in Beacon is not an association library and will continue to operate as a Passport Acceptance Facility, said director Gillian Murphy. In its notification, the State Department said association libraries must end passport services by Thursday (Feb. 12). Although such libraries have acted as Passport Acceptance Facilities for years, the State Department said that the Passport Act of 1920 "does not explicitly allow for public libraries, which are organized as nonprofit, charitable organizations, to collect and retain execution fees for processing passport applications." Butterfield Director Johanna Reinhardt said she received notification from the State Department about six weeks ago and learned that Feb. 12 was the end date 10 days ago. "Any loss for us is a big loss in terms of revenue, because we are a small library that continues to grow," she said. "We get the people who come from other neighboring communities [for passport services], who haven't been here, and they end up coming back for programs we offer. The biggest loss is just the ability to provide a much-needed service that people appreciate." Libraries that operate as Passport Acceptance Facilities process applications for people who have never had a passport or whose passport was lost or stolen. They also accept applications from patrons whose last passport was issued when they were younger than 16 or more than 15 years ago or whose name has changed. They do not process adult passport renewals. Librarians undergo a background check before being trained to complete the forms and check proof of citizenship and identity. Murphy noted that participating libraries are audited annually to demonstrate "that we've accounted for each one, followed up, tracked it, filed it away and done it right." A bill introduced Jan. 9 in the U.S. House would amend the Passport Act of 1920 "to authorize certain public libraries to collect and retain a fee for the execution of a passport application." Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican whose district includes Philipstown, and Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, are co-sponsors. Where to Go Outside of the Howland Public Library, the closest Passport Acceptance Facilities are the West Point Post Office (dub.sh/westpoint-passport), the Putnam County Clerk's office in Carmel (dub.sh/putnam-passport) and the Dutchess County Clerk's office in Poughkeepsie (dub.sh/dutchess-passport). On Tuesday (Feb. 3), Murphy was in Albany, along with thousands of other librarians, to lobby state lawmakers. She said that during a meeting with state Sen. Rob Rolison, whose district includes the Highlands, she made the point to inform him about the new State Department policy. "It's a horrible cut," said Murphy. "I don't see any reason for it."

Guy Davis to perform at Towne Crier in Beacon Guy Davis knows how to have fun. One of his favorite jokes as he tunes his guitar is, "Sorry, I'm having trouble with my G string." But once he sinks into a song, the room is transported. "Playing is a personal thing that hits my soul," he says. "The music takes me on a trip to the country, where there's rivers, grass, rocks, trees; come with me, and I'm a happier camper." Davis also travels back in time to a specific place, evoking the 1920s and 1930s Mississippi Delta blues and ragtime era, when guitarists mimicked the piano by playing multiple parts at a time using a thumb pick to drive the rhythm and either bare fingers or metal banjo picks to pluck the chords and melodic lines. "People watched Blind Blake play and asked him, 'Where's the other guy hiding?'" Davis says. The son of prominent actors and activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee — who befriended Pete Seeger during the Civil Rights era — Davis will bring a Towne Crier audience into the wilderness and back to the past on Feb. 15. Davis has done plenty of acting, including in the 1984 hip-hop film Beat Street, and in 2023 produced incidental music for the Broadway revival of his father's play Purlie Victorious, which received six Tony Award nominations. After hearing a didgeridoo in Australia, "I fell in love immediately," he says, and learned the circular breathing technique required to maintain the wind instrument's drone; the sound is like Tuvan throat singing. "It helps with my harmonica playing," says Davis, who squeezes out exquisite notes on the harp. Routinely covered by guitar media outlets, he also has two Grammy Award nominations. Although Davis gravitated toward acoustic blues and began recording regularly in 1993, he still tours while juggling acting gigs and other projects. Playing harmonica, putting a metallic slide on the ring finger of his left hand and using a 12-string guitar expand his sonic palette. The repertoire mixes originals and covers of the old-timers. His own work, delivered in a raspy voice, fits the period's vibe. Davis crossed paths with Pete Seeger as a kid at Camp Killooleep in Vermont, a magnet for the folk music community, and learned banjo from one of Seeger's brothers, John. "We lived in Mount Vernon and, one day, Pete was hanging out in our living room," he says. "When we moved to New Rochelle, there he was again." Davis often tagged along when his parents visited Beacon, picking out Leadbelly tunes and listening to recorded relics, some of which seeped into his playing style. "It was low-key; we weren't trying to accomplish anything," he says. "He influenced all the songs on my 1978 Folkways album Dreams About Life" and sang backup on one track. Davis sailed on the Clearwater, Woody Guthrie and Sojourner Truth many times. In the 1970s, he participated in fundraisers to finish the boats and often opened for the folk bard. "Once, in Poughkeepsie, we got there early and we were hanging out at a fountain," he says. "Soon enough, there's Pete with his pants rolled up, splashing around in the water, pushing the garbage to the side and getting all the kids in the area to take it away." After a 2019 concert in Albany, one newspaper reported that the bluesman had reflected Seeger's "greatest gift," which was not his singing or songwriting but "his ability to turn an audience of strangers into close friends by getting them to sing along. Davis had just accomplished the same thing." The Towne Crier is located at 379 Main St. in Beacon. Tickets for the Feb. 15 show, which begins at 7 p.m., are $25 online or $30 at the door. See dub.sh/TC-guy-davis. To download or order music, see guydavis.com.

Amount is nearly twice 2025-26 cap The Haldane school district can increase its property tax levy by as much as 5.53 percent for 2026-27 while staying within the state's tax cap formula. If the five-member board approves an increase at that level, it would be nearly twice the 2025-26 increase, which was 2.8 percent, well below the state cap for that year of 3.38 percent. The state calculates the cap for each district annually. The primary cause of the jump in the cap is borrowing costs for Haldane's $28.4 million capital plan, according to administrators, who shared the calculation at the Tuesday (Feb. 3) school board meeting. In November 2024, voters approved a plan for the district to borrow money for a series of campus upgrades, including a 17,300-square-foot addition to the high school. The plan also includes changes to the campus traffic flow, new student support offices and security upgrades. The cap formula allows districts to collect higher taxes for debt payments on voter-approved capital improvements. How is Cap Calculated? To calculate how much they can raise taxes, most districts in the state, including Haldane, Garrison and Beacon, each year must use a state-mandated formula with as many as a dozen factors… Read more. The district plans to recommend a budget on March 3. The board will adopt a budget on April 21, and district residents will vote on the spending plan on May 19, along with the board seat held by Peggy Clements. Under state law, if the proposed levy is at or below the cap, the district needs only a majority of voters to approve the budget. If the district proposes a levy that exceeds the cap, the budget must be approved by 60 percent of voters. Under the current proposed state budget, the district said it expects to receive a 1 percent increase in foundation aid, or about $30,000 more than last year, when it received $3 million. Administrators said that most districts are expected to receive the minimum increase, which is designed to ensure equitable education funding regardless of local property wealth. It also will receive $10,000 per student for its pre-K program, or $4,600 more than in 2025-26. The program has a maximum of 18 students, so the district will receive $82,800. New York hopes to have pre-K in every district in the state by 2028-29.

Also updated: pedestrian suit and Beacon foreclosure A state judge has dismissed a Beacon business owner's lawsuit against his former landlord because of a technicality. Milan Nigam, the owner of Tito Santana Taqueria, filed suit in June, seeking at least $400,000 in damages. He alleged that Lindley Todd LLC failed to make required repairs to the restaurant at 142 Main St. before the City of Beacon shut it down in May for code violations. According to the lawsuit, Nigam "repeatedly" notified landlord Joe Donovan between 2022 — after Nigam bought the restaurant — and May 2025 of "sewage flooding the basement, rotten flooring and fire-panel faults." That month, the building department identified seven violations, including floor joists that, when viewed from the basement, showed "evidence of severe deterioration due to wood-boring insects." An engineer's evaluation and a building permit would be required before repairs, the department said. In July, Lindley Todd LLC asked Judge Christi Acker to dismiss the lawsuit. The company said that six of the seven violations cited by the city were due to Nigam's "actions or inactions in violation of the lease." Acker dismissed the suit on Jan. 28, ruling that Lindley Todd was not properly served with the summons and complaint. According to court documents, the papers were served by hand to Sean Noble, a Lindley Todd property manager, on July 7 at 134 Main St. While Lindley Todd owns 134 Main and employs Noble, he is not a member of the LLC and was not authorized to act as a manager within the context of state law, Acker ruled. Pedestrian death Attorneys for the City of Beacon on Jan. 28 filed their opposition to a request for Acker to reconsider her dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the family of a resident who died after being struck in a Main Street crosswalk. The family of Carla Giuffrida, who was hit in December 2021 at the intersection with Teller Avenue, filed a lawsuit in 2023 against the driver, Jacqueline Milohnic, and her husband (who owned the car), the city and Kearns Electric, the company that services Beacon's pedestrian signals. On Dec. 10, Acker dismissed the suit against the city and Kearns. Giuffrida's adult children, Lindsay and Mauro, asked Acker to "renew" her decision, citing the city's installation of a leading pedestrian interval at the intersection as evidence that Beacon officials knew the roadway was dangerous. They also said city attorneys had not disclosed the installation of an LPI before Acker's ruling. In materials submitted in January, Beacon's attorneys called the Giuffridas' request "a legal, factual, procedural and logical impossibility" since the family did not present any new facts challenging Acker's decision to grant summary judgment. Instead, the only "new fact" involves the use of the LPI, which city attorneys said Acker found to be irrelevant because its absence was not the primary cause of the accident. If installation of an LPI four years after the accident proves responsibility, "no defendant would make any changes to a site after an accident if such measures would result in liability," the attorneys said. An expert who submitted testimony for the Giuffrida family failed to explain how installation of an LPI "would have prevented an accident in which a driver was blinded by sun glare and a pedestrian crossed with a red pedestrian signal," they argued. Mews foreclosure The Mews at Beacon, a partially constructed condominium complex at 53 Eliza St., will be auctioned on Feb. 13 at the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie. A state judge granted Insula Capital Group's request for summary judgment in August and appointed an attorney to determine the amount due and whether the property could be sold. The attorney filed a report in October stating that the developer, Qele "Charlie" Qelaj, owes Insula $5.97 million plus costs and interest.

Spazio Aperto will host films, talks, relaxation Voices carry in the two main spaces of the Robert Olnick Pavilion at Magazzino Italian Art, especially in Gallery 2, a 1,000-square-foot cube where sound bounces around until it hits the 31-foot ceiling. Entering the newly opened Spazio Aperto (Community Room) on the lower level, however, visitors experience quietude because of a sound treatment that dampens the decibels. Despite the subterranean location, one wall is a window that opens to a courtyard and lets in a surprising amount of light. "It's an adjunct to the store in the cafe upstairs [on the second floor], but there are more books and magazines downstairs, where people can enjoy a moment of relaxation after their visit," says Luciana Fabbri, the museum's communications coordinator. "It's a place to sit, reflect and decompress." Taking advantage of the space, the museum is ramping up its educational outreach and public events. Nicola Lucchi directs the programming, which kicked off in November with a symposium exploring the career of Japanese glass artist Yoichi Ohira, who moved to the island of Murano near Venice and created stunning designs executed by Italian artisans. The current series is Cinema e Cioccolata: movies and hot chocolate. In part, the festival fills a void left by shuttered local movie theaters, particularly in Fishkill, says Andrea Connor, the visitor services coordinator, although the local fare skews toward niche works such as La Chimera, shown last month, a drama about tomb raiders in central Italy during the 1980s. On Feb. 13, Magazzino will screen Habeus Papam (We Have a Pope), a 2011 film about an identity crisis suffered by the Catholic Church's leader that finds him roaming the streets of Rome in disguise. The romantic Hollywood comedy Moonstruck will play on Feb. 27. "It's a fun romantic film that also explores how post-war Italian cultural identity was reshaped through migration to the United States and represented through cinema," says Fabbri. The final showing, on March 13, is Fire of Love, an Academy Award-nominated documentary about scientists who study active volcanoes up close and personal, including Sicily's Mount Etna and the island of Stromboli. A small army of employees deploys chairs for events at Spazio Aperto, but the spot is usually occupied by a sleek bookshelf, a white rectangular table with eight padded chairs, places to repose that resemble small haystacks and an electric-green modular couch whose components can be manipulated into multiple positions, including flat as a bed. The books on the shelves include Italian and American Art: An Interaction 1930-1980s and Italian Futurism: 1909-1944. The museum also sponsors a robust publishing program distinguished by its brown paper dust jackets. Many of its 18 titles accompanied exhibitions and feature artists and topics relevant to its post-World War II focus. Limited-edition prints by prominent Italian artists line the walls and, in a corner, five panels by students from La Scuola d'Italia in Manhattan emulate the style of Piero Manzoni's Achrome series, six of which hang in the gallery above in an exhibit that ends April 13. To enter Spazio Aperto, which is open during museum hours and for events, visitors pass an exhibition featuring Ohira's exceptional glassworks. For anyone interested in the glass-blower's art, this must-see show runs through May 4. Magazzino Italian Art, at 2700 Route 9 in Philipstown, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday to Monday. Admission is $20 ($10 seniors, students, persons with disabilities, $5 ages 5-10, free for veterans, Philipstown residents and members). See magazzino.art.

Plus, campaign finances and updates in other races One of the seven declared candidates to challenge Rep. Mike Lawler has ended his campaign. John Sullivan, a former FBI official who lives in Rockland County, said on Instagram on Jan. 30 that he is no longer in the race for the Democratic nomination to oppose Lawler, the Republican incumbent who represents District 17, which includes Philipstown. Those still seeking the Democratic nomination are John Cappello, a Rockland native and former defense attaché at the U.S. embassies in Israel and Serbia; Peter Chatzky, a tech company founder and village trustee in Briarcliff Manor; Cait Conley, a West Point graduate from Orange County and former director of counterterrorism for the National Security Council; Beth Davidson, a Rockland County legislator; Effie Phillips-Staley, a Tarrytown trustee who is a nonprofit executive; and Mike Sacks, a lawyer and former TV journalist from Westchester. Jessica Reinmann, who founded the nonprofit 914Cares in Westchester County, dropped out in November. Rep. Pat Ryan, whose district includes Beacon, has endorsed Conley. Among the candidates, Chatzky reported having $5.5 million in campaign funds as of Dec. 31, although he has loaned his committee $5.75 million. Conley had $1.2 million and Davidson $738,000. The other three candidates reported having less than $30,000 each on hand. To appear on the June 23 primary ballot, candidates must submit at least 1,250 signatures of registered voters in the district on a nominating petition by April 6. House District 18 Ryan, a Democrat, has one challenger so far. Sharanjit Thind registered with the Federal Elections Commission last fall to run as a Republican for the District 18 seat. In his most recent campaign finance filing, through Dec. 31, he said he had not raised or spent more than $5,000. Ryan reported having $2.5 million. According to his LinkedIn profile, Thind is the founder and CEO of NuWay Media Group, a Manhattan-based marketing firm, and was a Nassau County human rights commissioner from 2012 to 2018. He grew up in a Sikh family in Kapurthala, Punjab, India, and holds an MBA and a postgraduate diploma in journalism. Putnam County Kevin Byrne, a former state legislator, is completing his first, 4-year term as county executive after running unopposed in 2022. On Jan. 22, Brett Yarris, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully in November for a seat on the county Legislature, filed with the state Board of Elections to challenge Byrne. In a statement, Yarris said that his filing is "simply an exploratory committee and an official decision has not yet been made" about whether he will run. Yarris campaigned last year to represent District 5, which includes the hamlet of Carmel and part of Lake Carmel, but lost to Jake D'Angelo, who won 53 percent of the vote. D'Angelo had earlier defeated incumbent Greg Ellner in the Republican primary with 63 percent of the vote. According to his campaign website for the Legislature seat, Yarris is the founder and CEO of The Behavior Movement, a special-needs fitness company, and Football Behavior, an analytics platform. He also serves as vice chair and treasurer of the Putnam County Soil & Water Conservation District board. Byrne has about $119,000 on hand, according to a campaign finance report filed with the state. State Senate Two Democrats, Lisa Kaul and Evan Menist, have filed to challenge Republican incumbent Rob Rolison, who is seeking a third term in the 39th District, which includes Beacon and Philipstown. If necessary, a primary vote would be held on June 23. Ryan has endorsed Kaul. The challengers each had about $22,000 in campaign funds as of Dec. 31, and Rolison reported $15,000. State Assembly No one has filed with the Board of Elections to challenge Dana Levenberg, whose district includes Philipstown, or Jonathan Jacobson, whose district includes Beacon. Both are Democrats.

New York State has issued an Extreme Cold Watch, in which "feels-like" temperatures may dip as low as -35 degrees, from 6 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 7) to 1 p.m. Sunday, for an area that includes Dutchess and Putnam counties. Officials recommend residents adjust their plans to avoid being outside during the coldest part of the day, which will be Sunday morning.

Corresponded for years with disgraced financier A Beacon resident who is a well-known museum director resigned his position on Tuesday (Feb. 3) at the School of Visual Arts in New York City following the release of his correspondence over many years with Jeffrey Epstein. The emails between David Ross and Epstein, a financier who killed himself in jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges, were among 3 million pages, 180,000 images and 2,000 videos released on Jan. 30 by the U.S. Department of Justice. The emails between the two men were first reported by ARTnews. Ross, who is the spouse of Peggy Ross, a former Beacon City Council member, was named chair of SVA's MFA Art Practice program in 2009. He had previously been director of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Ross has long been active in the Beacon art scene. Five years ago, on an episode of the podcast Beaconites, he discussed the pandemic's effect on the art world and recalled an attempt to turn Beacon's historic brick buildings into art repositories. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to felony charges of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. He served 13 months in jail, with work release. Epstein had many powerful friends, including President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton, who agreed on Monday (Feb. 2) to testify before the House Oversight Committee about their relationship. Elon Musk, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Richard Branson, Steve Bannon, Peter Attia and Steve Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants, also knew Epstein. There is no evidence in the files of criminal wrongdoing by Ross. In a statement to The Current, he wrote: "The fact of the matter is that I continued to believe that his troubles were a function of his friendship with former President Clinton, and foolishly I continued to try to show friendship, until the truth of his crimes became apparent to me." In a longer statement to ARTnews, Ross said he met Epstein in the mid-1990s, when Ross was director of the Whitney. "I knew him as a wealthy patron and a collector, and it was part of my job to befriend people who had the capacity and interest in supporting the museum," Ross said. After Epstein was jailed in 2008, Ross said: "I emailed him to find out what the story was After Epstein was jailed in 2008, Ross said: "I emailed him to find out what the story was because this did not seem like the person I thought I knew. … He told me that he had been the subject of a political frame-up because of his support of former President Clinton. At the time, I believed he was telling me the truth." Ross continued, according to ARTnews: "When, years later, I read that he was being investigated again on the same charges, I reached out to him to show support. That was a terrible mistake of judgment. When the reality of his crimes became clear, I was mortified and remain ashamed that I fell for his lies. "Like many he supported with arts and education patronage, I profoundly regret that I was taken in by his story. I continue to be appalled by his crimes and remain deeply concerned for its many victims." The correspondence between Ross and Epstein was friendly. On July 22, 2009, the day Epstein was released from jail, Ross emailed Epstein "a welcome home! Glad the nightmare is over, Jeffrey. … It was an undeserved punishment foisted upon you by jealous creeps." In another email exchange, from October 2009, Epstein suggested he might fund an exhibit with images of minors; he suggested Statutory as the title. "Girls and boys ages 14-25 … where they look nothing like their true ages. Juvenile mug shots, Photoshop, makeup. Some people go to prison because they can't tell [their] true age. Controversial, fun. Maybe it should be a webpage, with hits tallied," Epstein wrote to Ross. "You are incredible," Ross replied. "This would be a very powerful and freaky book. Do y...

County to appeal case over ethics charges A state judge has ruled that a Putnam legislator accused of an ethics violation by the county attorney can choose her defense attorney instead of using one on the Law Department's list of vendors. Judge Victor Grossman, in a Jan. 22 ruling, sided with Toni Addonizio in the lawsuit she filed in June against County Attorney Compton Spain and Putnam County. Addonizio, who represents Kent in the Legislature, is defending herself against an ethics complaint filed by Spain regarding her son-in-law's attempted purchase of a county-owned property. Grossman found that because Spain filed the complaint, he is "in a patently adversarial posture" to the legislator and cannot "be permitted to designate counsel" for Addonizio's county-funded defense without her permission. He denied Addonizio's request that the county pay her lawsuit's legal costs. He also ordered two exhibits and a paragraph in a third sealed at the Law Department's request but denied its request to seal other documents. On the day of Grossman's ruling, Spain and the county notified the court that they would be appealing the judge's decision and his denial to seal some records. The appeal prolongs the fight over Addonizio's request for a county-funded attorney — based on a state law, adopted by Putnam, that requires it to defend employees in federal and state civil cases for "any alleged act or omission" occurring while they are working. Municipalities are exempt from the requirement if they are the ones bringing the case against an employee. The law also entitles an employee to choose their attorney if the chief legal officer of a municipality, such as a county attorney, or a judge determines that a conflict of interest exists. In response to Addonizio's request, the Law Department said its insurer concluded that she was ineligible for legal assistance but, "after careful review," it selected one of the firms from its list of contractors — Roemer Wallens Gold & Mineaux — to represent her. The department also said that Addonizio could pay out-of-pocket for an attorney who is not on its list. "There could not be a more patent conflict of interest than the complainant in a politicized ethics proceeding selecting the accused's attorney," said Jeffrey Gasbarro, who represented Addonizio in the lawsuit. Spain's 191-page complaint, filed with the Board of Ethics in June 2024 and forwarded to the Attorney General's Office, accuses Addonizio of failing to disclose that her son-in-law, Byron Voutsinas, was the buyer initially agreeing to purchase a county-owned property at 34 Gleneida Ave. in Carmel. According to Spain, Voutsinas sought to use Addonizio's influence with the Legislature to include parking spaces from a nearby county-owned lot in the sale. He claims that the agreed-upon price, $600,000, represented a "veritable windfall" from a recommended listing price of $900,000 and market studies valuing it as high as $1.2 million. Spain's office moved to void the contract, arguing that Voutsinas failed to satisfy conditions for the sale to be finalized, including getting the Legislature's approval. After Voutsinas filed a breach-of-contract claim, Spain successfully petitioned a judge to have the contract canceled. During a May 2024 meeting of the Legislature's Rules Committee, then chaired by Addonizio, legislators accused the Law Department of filing the petition without first getting their approval. Addonizio "spoke frequently and freely on the matter," but should have recused herself, said Spain. The Legislature's then-counsel, Robert Firriolo, defended Addonizio in a response to Spain's complaint sent to the ethics board. He also accused Spain of failing to disclose, when asked on his employment application about criminal convictions, that he was found guilty in 1993 of criminal contempt of court. A judge found Spain guilty under the state Judiciary Law, which does not classify the charge as a misdemeanor. Because the penalty can...

Search continues for attacker who seriously injured woman Beacon Police Chief Tom Figlia on Jan. 30 released a statement updating the community on the investigation of an attack two weeks earlier near the intersection of Wolcott and Tioronda avenues. It is unusual for police to comment publicly on investigations, but the chief said he had been responding to residents' questions individually and decided to issue a statement because of the volume of inquiries. A day after the Jan. 14 assault, Figlia said the suspect was a white male wearing a black jacket or coat (not a puffy coat), a black knit hat and blue pants or jeans. He was described as possibly being in his 30s or 40s, approximately 5-foot-11 with a medium build and a "very close" brown beard. Figlia's 800-word statement said he did not see requests for information about the assault "as unreasonable in any way." He said the department "has been working nonstop to investigate and solve this case. We have spent untold hours poring over evidence because the absolute best thing we can do for this community is to solve it." He said that while investigations in novels and TV shows are solved quickly, in reality, "oftentimes it takes weeks, months or even sometimes years to go through mountains of potential evidence or to get forensic testing back." He cited the conviction last year of a Philadelphia man in a May 2022 murder in Beacon. "As a lifelong Beacon resident and parent of a young woman myself, I understand how upsetting this incident has been to everyone in our community," Figlia wrote. "While I wish that I could share more, I always have to be extremely careful not to contaminate investigations or release information that could be harmful to victims." He described the investigation as "complex" and asked for patience. After the morning attack, the victim was found unconscious, and first responders determined she had been seriously assaulted. Sargent Elementary School, which is nearby, was placed on a lockout until police said they were confident the attacker had left the area. The victim's name has not been released, but police said at the time that she was in stable condition. Police asked residents citywide to check doorbell or security cameras for footage that captured anyone fitting that description. The department has increased patrols since the attack, and Figlia asked residents to be vigilant. In public, it is usually best "to reduce personal distractions and limitations to peripheral vision as much as possible," he wrote. "At home, we always encourage you to double-check that every one of your doors and windows is locked if you want them locked. We find this to be a very common oversight. "Trust your instincts," Figlia wrote. "If something or someplace does not feel right or safe, it is OK to believe yourself." He advised residents to report any suspicious or dangerous activity or individuals. The assault came up during the City Council's Monday (Feb. 2) meeting when Beacon resident Jessica Eriksmoen, who lives near the site of the attack, addressed city leaders' response and what the community "still needs from its elected officials." Calling the attack a "sexual assault," although police have not used that language, Eriksmoen cited a 2024 Tulane University survey of 3,300 adults in which 82 percent of the female respondents said they had experienced harassment (e.g., catcalls, stalking, unwanted touching) or assault in their lifetimes. Thirty-two percent of the women said they had experienced sexual harassment or assault in the past year. The Police Department's statement on the day of the attack was "vague and confusing," Eriksmoen said, and by the time it was released, "residents had already heard detailed, credible reports of the brutal assault." Nineteen days later, there have been no public statements from Mayor Lee Kyriacou or council members and "that silence has had real consequences," she said, including for her teenage daughter, who does not fee...

Carmel residents say they fear crime, drugs A proposal to open a 24-hour drop-in crisis program in an office building off Route 6 drew both love and hate from Town of Carmel residents in public hearings. Everyone seemed to love the idea behind People USA's Stabilization Center, an urgent care for behavioral health where children, teens or adults suffering a mental-health or substance-abuse emergency could be treated and linked with services. But some people hated its location near their businesses and residences. "I have no doubt that it will help those in crisis," said one woman, identifying herself as the person attacked in October by a homeless man on a trail in Carmel. "But adding another facility that serves people in crisis so close to homes, local businesses, senior communities and the rail trail is not appropriate." The Planning Board agreed. On Jan. 28, Carmel became the second Putnam County town after Brewster to reject the Stabilization Center, delivering what may be a fatal blow to an idea championed by County Executive Kevin Byrne. In a statement, Byrne said he would reappropriate $2.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds allocated to the project. "We will continue working with providers, community partners and municipal leaders to increase public safety and expand access to care through evidence-based approaches, including but not limited to mobile crisis response and other prevention efforts," he said. Some of the people attending the Carmel Planning Board meeting applauded as Craig Paeprer, the board's chair, announced the 6-to-0 vote by its members to deny an application by People USA, which operates crisis centers in Dutchess and Ulster counties, to open one in an office building near the Putnam Plaza Shopping Center. People USA said the center would have been staffed with certified counselors, social workers and peer specialists, assisting up to eight people at a time, and would have had security trained in de-escalation techniques on-site from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. A public hearing in November began with a video shot at People USA's Stabilization Center in Poughkeepsie, which opened in 2017 as a collaboration with Dutchess County. The video showed a "hope room" where people are assessed, areas where those waiting to go home or be taken to another program can rest, read books or play games and a room for children and their families. A procession of speakers who followed the video presented different images — homeless people loitering in the nearby 24-hour McDonald's on Route 6, deputies dropping off inmates released from the Putnam County jail, discarded syringes and home invasions. The board's resolution rejecting the project cited multiple reasons, including the center's incompatibility with the area's other businesses and Carmel's "long experience with Arms Acres," a nearby residential substance-abuse treatment facility. Arms Acres and "similar programs" potentially "require a disproportionate commitment of community services, particularly police and emergency services," according to the Planning Board. Residents in Brewster invoked similar concerns as those in Carmel when they rallied in 2023 against People USA's plan to lease space above the Over the Rainbow Learning Center at a shopping center in the village, which is part of the Town of Southeast. The Town Board responded by approving in October 2023 a six-month moratorium on permits for medical and mental-health clinics, including a "mental health crisis or stabilization center." Twelve days later, residents attending a public forum on the center conjured images of intoxicated clients loitering outside, endangering children and littering the ground with drug paraphernalia. Byrne said in a letter to residents the following month that he directed People USA to abandon the Brewster location, setting off the search that led to Carmel. The organization, in its proposal to the Carmel Planning Board, said Southeast had "prejudged the application b...

Extremist views central to Route 9 case Derek Keith Williams began his paper assault on the Putnam County Clerk's Office with 118 pages of mostly indecipherable legalese filed in March 2020. By the time of his last filing this past September — a six-page "notice to vacate unlawful warrant" addressed to the Town of Carmel's police chief — the self-proclaimed "sovereign citizen" had spent more than $5,000 on nearly 30 filings with the clerk. Many of them were fruitless attempts to prevent M&T Bank from evicting Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur from their business and home at 3154 Route 9. The serial filings are a hallmark of sovereign citizens, a fringe movement started by white supremacists but with Black adherents like Williams, who is accused of causing the Cambodian couple to lose the property to foreclosure. Its members broadly believe they are exempt from laws and reject documents such as Social Security cards and driver's licenses, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that tracks extremists. The SPLC documented 93 sovereign citizen groups nationwide in 2024, including three in New York state: the Life Force Network, the National Liberty Alliance based in Hyde Park and Punished for Protecting. "More women, younger people and more economically well-off folks disenchanted with their lives under the U.S. government" are joining, according to the SPLC. This month, SPLC's monthly Intelligence Project Dispatch noted Williams' sentencing in December to six months in the Putnam County jail after being convicted on a misdemeanor charge of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle for driving without plates, insurance, registration or a license. Along with a mention of broadcaster Alex Jones, it was highlighted as an example of "conspiracy propagandists." Court Case to Resume in March Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur's effort to reclaim 3154 Route 9 is scheduled to continue March 18 with an appearance before state Judge Gina Capone, who presided over the foreclosure of the Philipstown property. A hearing set for Jan. 15 was postponed because the court could not find an interpreter for the couple, who are natives of Cambodia. On Jan. 2, Capone temporarily restrained M&T Bank from transferring the deed. Kim and Oeur hope to convince the judge that Derek Keith Williams is responsible for the foreclosure. According to their attorney, Jacob Chen, the loss of the property is a "deeply tragic — and profoundly avoidable — result" of the actions of "an unhinged and dangerous criminal who exercised coercive control over them." A few people who claim to be sovereign citizens have been involved in violent crimes, such as a 2024 shooting in which Corey Cobb-Bey, a "Moorish American National," killed a Dallas police officer. But they are more commonly known for non-violent efforts to evade taxes, squat on properties and carry out "illegal housing-related, money-making schemes," according to the SPLC. One of the standard tactics is "paper terrorism" — bombarding clerks' offices and courts with phony and often indecipherable filings that can exceed 100 pages and are filled with grandiose language, references to treaties and patents and widespread use of capital letters and the copyright and trademark symbols. According to the SPLC, "a simple traffic violation or pet-licensing case can end up provoking dozens of court filings containing hundreds of pages of pseudo-legal sovereign arguments." In January 2025, in Putnam, Williams filed a "notice of unlawful eviction" and "notice of fraudulent deed" claiming that M&T had foreclosed on land that an entity he created, DKW Trust, "secured by a land patent." Documents filed the next month declared Williams "a sovereign citizen of the United States of America" who is protected from "undue government interference" by the Constitution. Putnam County, he claimed, "has no constitutional authority to enter, search or seize" 3154 Route 9, the longtime home of Kim's business, Nice...

Ends 16-year run in Cold Spring The title of the Buster Levi Gallery exhibit that begins Feb. 7, Open Ending, hints at the end of an era in Cold Spring. When the show concludes six weeks later, the art space at 121 Main St. will close its doors after a 16-year run. The last exhibit will include works by artists who have exhibited at Buster Levi in the past, reflecting a broad range of styles and mediums, including ceramics, drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, steel and textiles. Martee Levi became the artistic director even before the gallery was established. In 2010, she helped launch the Marina Gallery at 153 Main St. before it moved in 2014. "We were debating names for the new location," Levi recalled, noting that she was always accompanied by her dog, Buster. "He was sitting there looking out the window when someone said, 'Oh, look at that Buster Levi!'" Before Marina, Levi ran a Beacon gallery at the back of Finders Keepers, a Main Street antique store. The first inkling that she'd be an artist came when she was 3. "I remember sitting in my mother's sewing room, playing with crayons," Levi said. "I just knew that art was what I wanted to do." Her ambitions were fueled by a "fabulous" art teacher at her high school in Rochester. Levi said she had wanted to start a local gallery for years. "There were too many artists in the area whose work was not being seen," she said. Over the years, Buster Levi has had 12 to 14 artist members who share the rent and other expenses. When an artist sells a piece, the gallery receives a 10 percent commission. "When I started this, I never thought about making money," she said. "The artists like to make money, and they've done well, but our main reason for being here is to do art." Levi said the gallery is not closing for financial reasons. "It was just time to think about not having a storefront; we don't really need one," said one member, Grace Kennedy. "And there are a lot of artists who don't necessarily work with walls, and we don't have a lot of space here, none for any kind of sculpture." It can also be a challenge to replace artists who move on, Kennedy said. "We've had some fantastic artists who just can't do it anymore," she said. "We try to replace them with local artists because you have to be local to be able to participate." Kennedy said closing the gallery will free the group to do other things, such as pop-ups that incorporate music, which isn't possible in a building with second-floor apartments. "The amazing part is the way the artists have grown," Levi said. "Every artist has grown by being a part of the gallery, and that's been wonderful to watch." She said she has enjoyed interacting with what some might consider an unlikely demographic, the young hikers who visit Cold Spring. "Everybody hates the hikers," she said. "But they're just great because they're young, sophisticated and no matter what, they come in and are very, very interested. "I'm going to miss all the people, but I think I'm going to have gatherings once in a while to talk about art; we'll still get together," Levi said. The gallery will also continue to maintain its website. "When BLG started, Cold Spring had two other art galleries; both succumbed to rising rental prices," said Grey Zeien, a member whose exhibit, The Last Roundup, ends Sunday (Feb. 1). "BLG has been a haven and showplace for mid-career artists; its passing will leave a hole in the arts culture of the area." The Buster Levi Gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, or by appointment. See busterlevigallery.com.

District adds two zero-emission buses to fleet Students in the Beacon City School District have gotten their first taste of battery-powered transportation this month. Two International electric school buses, their purchase approved by voters in 2024, were added to the district's fleet on Jan. 5. Beacon is the first of the Highlands' three public school districts to purchase zero-emissions vehicles. "We're excited just to get started and get them into action," said Superintendent Matt Landahl. "We're probably ahead of a lot of districts in that regard." A state law adopted in 2022 requires that all school buses purchased after 2027 run on electricity and that all 45,000 gas-powered school buses in New York be replaced by 2035. Lawmakers pledged $500 million to support the transition through the Environmental Bond Act of 2022, then added $100 million more in last year's budget, but it may not be enough. Statewide, only about 180 of 45,000 buses are electric, although more than 450 districts are working on electrification plans, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. At the same time, residents in a handful of districts, including Hyde Park, have voted against purchasing EV buses, despite state grants that would reduce costs. Electric buses, which seat 45 adults or 66 children, aren't cheap. Together, Beacon's 2025 models cost $430,547, or about $215,000 each, including chargers. Voter approval was contingent on the district receiving at least $200,000 in state grants for each, but in the end, the district received $257,000 per bus, bringing the final cost much closer to the $190,000 price of a 72-passenger diesel bus. Infrastructure is also an issue. Located in a far corner lot of Heritage Financial Park, Beacon's bus garage can accommodate the two 208-volt chargers, but "anything more and we'd have to do a pretty major upgrade on electric," said Anthony Vacirca, the district's head mechanic. That type of upgrade would be part of a larger capital project. After voters approved a three-year, $50 million project in 2024 — in addition to the purchase of the electric and new diesel buses — the next proposal is at least two or three years away, Landahl said. As far as performance, "I'm pleasantly surprised," with the EV buses, Vacirca said. "Pickup is fantastic. These have far more power than our other buses, and they handle and drive just like the other ones." Beacon's vehicles are equipped with lithium-iron-phosphate batteries. Older electric models used lithium-ion batteries, but those could overheat. Batteries made with lithium iron phosphate don't have the range of lithium ion, "and that is an issue, especially in the wintertime," Vacirca said. Beacon's buses are expected to get 120 miles on a full charge in warm weather and 80 miles in the winter. On Day 1, in 24-degree weather, one electric bus was driven 40 miles, bringing its battery down to 60 percent. Both are in use most days, and they're plugged in after morning runs and again in the afternoon. It takes 18 hours to get from zero to 100 percent, so even with the overnight charge, the batteries aren't always full in the morning. EV Buses at Haldane and Garrison In Cold Spring, Haldane Superintendent Gail Duffy said the district is pursuing grants to fund electric buses. Considering recent studies showing that the district's buses are underutilized, Haldane's first zero-emissions vehicle will likely be one of its smaller buses, she said. Haldane applied for federal grants last year to offset the cost of four buses before the Environmental Protection Agency ended the program. As of July, the Clean School Bus Program had funded 8,500 buses in 1,200 districts nationally, according to the World Resources Institute's Electric School Bus Initiative. The Garrison School recently approved a contract with INF Associates to conduct a feasibility study on electric buses. The study is being undertaken in case the district seeks a waiver from the ...

Bookstore publishes anthology of Beacon writers Things are humming at Stanza Books in Beacon, which has built a cohesive community of readers and writers since opening in 2023. On a chilly Tuesday evening last month, a dozen people huddled inside the shop to discuss John Irving's latest novel, Queen Esther. At first, co-owners Mark Harris and Andrea Talarico lived above the store. But they cemented their local roots by buying a house. And this spring, they plan to move social and retail operations into the historic firehouse on Main Street, next to the Veterans Memorial Building, tripling their footprint. They always intended to run a publishing arm, and their imprint's first issue is an anthology of writers who circulate within the store's orbit. "We chose contributors based on relationships, which evolved over time," says Harris. "They hold readings and, most importantly, show up for other authors' events. This is a snapshot of literary culture in Beacon for the year, and we're looking to do it again with different writers." Because the retail space cannot accommodate the family and friends of all 18 contributors, as well as everyone else who shows up, the book launch will be held at Madame Brett Social Club, a shared workspace with soft lighting and a full bar, on Saturday (Jan. 31). "It'll be a literary salon, where writers talk shop," Harris says. Stanza's second book, Demon Lover Witch, a dark fantasy set in Beacon and written by Harris, debuts Feb. 13. A children's title is scheduled for later this year. The 337-page 2025 Beacon Literary Scene anthology, published as a paperback, has a William Loeb photo of the dummy light on its cover. It skews toward fiction and poetry, although Adam McKible contributed a scholarly essay and Donna Minkowitz submitted a memoir that borders on confessional. The poets include Ruth Danon, Kristen Holt-Browning, Jim Seegert and Edwin Torres. Arranged alphabetically by last name, the works are easy to digest. The longest entry runs 26 pages; the shortest is two (Torres' "Bannerman Island"). Each contributor shared a statement about the role of writing in their lives, except for Peter Ullian, whose story concerns a Marine born on Mars. Gloria Beth Amodeo, who juggles writing with raising 3-year-old twins, sets a 30-minute timer when hunkering down. She met a couple of peers at a workshop who impose deadlines on each other and "don't judge." Steven Fechter, who switched from plays to fiction, composes in longhand on legal pads. Jackie Corley offers this pro tip: "Kill your darlings and all your backstory." Stanza sells books but is more than a store. "I've become close friends with one of the parents who brought their kids into our storytelling sessions, and I'm going over to his place tonight to play board games," Harris says. "If you're a sci-fi nerd, come to our reading club. Friendships have been made." The book launch is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Madame Brett Social Club, 418 Main St., second floor. Tickets are $10 at dub.sh/beacon-writers-25. The anthology is $20, with proceeds benefiting the Howland Public Library.

Haldane tennis lobbies for better facilities For the Haldane girls' tennis team, which won a league title this past fall, the biggest challenge may not be its competition but its home courts. The Blue Devils are spending the winter lobbying the district to rebuild its two courts and add a third. The hope is that they will no longer have to play most matches away, and players won't have to practice on the soccer field. The courts have cracks and sagging nets. On one, a dip near a baseline pools water and collects muck. While the courts have been resurfaced, they may have to be rebuilt. The Haldane district's master plan, adopted in October 2023, included four courts along Route 9D. But a $28.4 million capital project approved by voters in November 2024 didn't include any money for them. In Beacon, voters in May 2024 approved a $50 million capital improvement project that includes funds to resurface the high school tennis courts this summer. (Unlike Haldane, Beacon has both girls' and boys' tennis teams.) Tom Cunningham, the Haldane athletic director, said the courts are a priority for the upcoming budget; the project could cost $100,000 or more. He said the district is exploring other funding, such as grants from the U.S. Tennis Association. "The courts are unsafe," said Alex Dubroff, whose daughter, Ellie, was the team's co-captain. Dubroff, who played tennis at Stony Brook University, was speaking at the Jan. 6 school board meeting. Ellie and co-captain Ella Sizemore also attended, as did other team parents. While Coach Simon Dudar said he doesn't think the courts are dangerous, he noted that, about 15 years ago, when the surface was even worse, "I did have a girl trip on a crack and break her ankle." The more immediate problem, he said, is that "a lot of schools don't want to come to us" since, with only two courts, there is a chance they won't finish the five matches before dark, and there is no opportunity for exhibition matches for less experienced players. Haldane's home matches don't comply with match-play rules of two out of three sets. To save time, they play abbreviated, eight-game "pro sets," Dudar said. Most matches start at 4:30 p.m., so they can be completed before the sun sets about two hours later. Dudar said he often contacts opposing coaches, offering to play Haldane's home matches at their facilities "because we can get more girls playing." Last fall, the Blue Devils played only three of 13 matches at home. He said three courts would help with practice, so that none of the 17 players are standing around. Nomie Karetny, a freshman, said that she once practiced hitting balls with a teammate on the soccer field while the girls' soccer team practiced nearby. Dudar said that a third court would also allow for better practice for experienced players such as Dubroff, who hopes to play in college. "Ellie is a strong player, and she's not getting a ton of reps in practice," he said. He noted that Dubroff's recruitment efforts helped salvage the team. "We didn't know if we were going to have a team," he said. "She recruited a lot of her friends." Ellie said her longtime tennis buddy, Scout Thakur De Beer, also deserves credit. "I love this team," Dubroff said. "It's helped me in so many ways." Last year, the team raised over $10,000 through bake sales, a pickleball fundraiser and a Snap Raise campaign to help pay for lights installed last summer over one court. Local players can use a QR code on the court's front gate to donate to the Booster Club. In addition, several parents have launched the Philipstown Community Tennis Association (philipstowntennis.org). "This community plays tennis, and there are two courts that are in really dire condition," said Katie MacInnes, a team mom.

Group shares some of its best work One striking element of the new book published by the Beacon Photo Club is that only two pictures focus on local topics. Though the theme leans toward "we capture the world and make experimental exposures" rather than "look what we have here," Brian Gomez snapped a woman sitting on a bench next to the Cold Spring pier and Megan Breukelman captured ghost-like, altered-reality self-portraits at Long Dock Park. She says her shots are motivated by "emotional excavation" and "psychological archaeology." Jennifer Lauren Smith lives in Beacon, but in one black-and-white photo, the locale of her daughters standing in a field and holding horseshoe crab shells over their faces is generic. The 79-page compilation, which celebrates the club's second year, launches Saturday (Jan. 31) at the Super Secret Projects gallery on Main Street. Club founder Emma Diamond invited all shutterbugs, not just club members, to send in up to 10 works for consideration. She winnowed the 70 or so contributors down to 40, and 15 Beacon photographers made the cut. Diamond waived submission fees, which can range from $5 to $60 per piece in the Hudson Valley and help galleries and other art institutions recover some of their costs. "Creators should have the opportunity to show work," she says. "I got this harebrained idea and was blown away by the talent, which made my job as editor or curator easy. I kept thinking, 'Damn, that's going to look good.' " The work's official title is Beacon Photo Club, Volume #1: The Process, a subtitle defined as both "the craft of creating images — gear, rituals, techniques" and "the inner process of using art to cope, reflect and make sense of the world." Diamond mixes media: The book's literary contributors, all of whom live in Beacon, are Alyssa Follansbee, Alice Graff, Cappy Hotchkiss, Mandy Kelso and Chelsea Rae Mize. Hotchkiss, whose mother died suddenly, occupies eight pages with visual work and an essay about how the creative process helped her cope with the loss. After viewing the ethereal images that look like explosions captured at their apex, some people might want to know how a chemigram is made. One of Victoria Manning's works adorns the cover and a three-page interview with the artist provides answers. Photo by Anna Penny Photo by Jennifer-Lauren-Smith Photo by Lauren Puyleart At the accompanying Super Secret exhibit, the first thing most visitors will notice when navigating from Hyperbole boutique's storefront through a narrow dressing room nook into the gallery is five pieces straight ahead on the wall. Two images on the far left are manipulated: one depicts a graffiti-covered boat; the other shows a portion of the same vessel upside down. Shapes and colors in a couple of lumen prints by Susan Marie White are subtle. In the volume, she explains her process in a brief artist statement. The lone representational photo in the quintet is Lauren Puyleart's shot of a dramatic valley with a waterfall in the background. It could have been taken in nearly any mountainous area but definitely not the Highlands. Along with Club Draw, Little Histories and Write Today Beacon, artists create micro-communities like the photo club due to a "loneliness epidemic," says Diamond. "It's nice for creatives to get out of the studio or workspace and sit down face to face. Our meetup is about inspiring each other." Super Secret Projects is located at 484 Main St. in Beacon. The book release party and closing exhibit reception are scheduled for 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday; Beacon Photo Club, Volume #1, will be available for $22.

New traffic routes coming to Haldane campus Buses and cars will be required to use separate routes for entering and leaving the Haldane campus as part of a pilot program being implemented in April. Superintendent Gail Duffy and School Board President Peggy Clements explained the changes to the Cold Spring Village Board at its Wednesday (Jan. 28) meeting. The traffic changes will coincide with a voter-approved, $28 million capital project set to begin this year. A multi-purpose student center, science lab and classrooms will be added to the high school, while improvements at the elementary and middle school will include a student support center and science lab. "While the architects were developing the plans, they noted that Haldane has an unhealthy mix of car, bus and pedestrian traffic," especially during peak drop-off and pickup times, Duffy said. In addition, a transportation audit conducted by the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and recommendations from two consultants pointed to the need to address traffic congestion, she said. Beginning April 13, only buses will be allowed to enter and exit campus via Route 9D, while cars will be required to enter on Cedar Street and exit on upper Craigside Drive, Mountain Avenue and its feeder streets. "We all know that traffic movement at Haldane is tough," said Mayor Kathleen Foley. "Folks have been thinking for a long time about how to try to make that better and safer." As part of the pilot, Haldane officials have asked the village to increase police patrols during drop-off and dismissal and shift the crossing guard stationed on Route 301 to Orchard Street. During the discussion, the Cold Spring Police Department officer-in-charge, Matt Jackson, raised concerns over how the traffic patterns will affect the movement of emergency vehicles, including ambulances stationed on Cedar Street. Village and school officials plan to meet to fine-tune the proposal. In other business … Foley praised Robert Downey Jr., the Highway Department crew chief, for his planning and coordination with Putnam County and local contractors before the Jan. 25 snowstorm. She also thanked village workers for the many hours they spent clearing streets. The board reviewed a proposed letter addressed to the state parks department requesting a public hearing on the the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, which was released Jan. 7. Trustee Andrew Hall suggested language be added and objected to sending the letter as presented because he said he had only seen the draft the day before. Hahn Engineering, which serves as the village engineer, was authorized to request proposals for stormwater drainage repairs at the corner of Fishkill and Mountain avenues, necessitated by damage caused by extreme amounts of rainfall during the July 2023 storm. Foley said the intersection is a key area in dealing with stormwater that comes off Bull Hill and flows through the village to the Hudson River. The work, which will be funded in large part by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, could begin this spring and is expected to take four to six weeks. Hahn Engineering will call for proposals to inspect the village dock. The first phase will assess the size boats the dock can handle while phase two will determine if any short- or long-term repairs are needed. The dock was last inspected 15 years ago. The mayor has asked trustee Tony Bardes to document for budget purposes docking fees charged by other Hudson River municipalities. Seastreak has yet to submit a proposal for its fall cruise schedule, but a request to dock at Cold Spring has been received from a company interested in providing ferry service between Peekskill, Bear Mountain, West Point and the village. Foley said the proposal will be discussed after the dock has been inspected and docking fees considered. The proposed 64-foot ferry is about half the length of Seastreak. The board unanimously approved a reso...

Legislation allowed attorney for Democratic rep A power struggle between Putnam Executive Kevin Byrne and county legislators continued last week when he vetoed a measure granting both political parties in the Legislature the power to hire their own attorneys. Approved 6-0 on Dec. 31, with Legislators Erin Crowley, Bill Gouldman and Laura Russo absent, the charter amendment created the positions of counsel to the majority and counsel to the minority. Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, is the only Democrat on the panel. The amendment superseded language in the code that requires the county attorney to sign off on legal services for the Legislature, allowing the Republicans and Montgomery to hire counsel independent of the Law Department. Although he enacted a 2026 budget that included $96,000 for a majority counsel and $50,000 for a minority attorney, Byrne vetoed the charter change on Jan. 23, eight days after he presided over a public hearing in which Crowley and Russo were among those who denounced it. Byrne said that the Legislature had approved the change "with limited public discussion, limited transparency and noticeably without the participation of several legislators who were either absent or had not yet been sworn into office at the time of the vote." (Jake D'Angelo and Thomas Regan Jr. were seated Jan. 1.) At the public hearing, Montgomery pushed back on claims from Crowley and Russo that the approval had been rushed and that establishing a counsel for the minority party would be costly and partisan. She said the amendment was discussed at six public meetings and "aligned the county charter" with the 2026 budget, which was supported by Crowley and Russo. "There were many written messages about a lot of the resolutions we passed — many comments, many opinions of different line items in the final budget," said Montgomery. "Yet there was no mention, either positive or negative, with respect to the funding for legislative counsel." Byrne and the Legislature spent part of 2024 sparring over an attempt by legislators to give themselves the power to fire the county attorney, with Byrne at one point suing lawmakers. Putnam's charter allows the county executive to fire the county attorney, but only with approval by two-thirds of the Legislature. On the heels of that skirmish, the Law Department terminated the contract of Robert Firriolo, who had advised the Legislature for seven years and been approved for reappointment. Firriolo unsuccessfully sued the county, and the Legislature is now getting advice from an attorney in the Law Department. Jennifer Colamonico, chair of the Putnam Democratic Committee, said Byrne's veto represented a "politically and punitively motivated attack on minority rights," in reference to Montgomery. "Access to legal counsel — especially with respect to limiting the powers and abuses of the executive branch — is essential to the Legislature's ability to execute its chartered duties," she said. Byrne said he supported amending the charter to give legislators "a stronger form of independent counsel through one attorney that it can hire and remove at will," but added that "this same consideration" should be given to his office regarding the county attorney. Byrne said he has requested that the Legislature reconvene Putnam's Charter Review Commission "to address these and other outstanding structural issues in a thoughtful, deliberative manner that respects both branches of government." Montgomery said she is "fully prepared to support and, if necessary, introduce future charter clarifications that restore and reaffirm the county executive's authority over the county attorney."

Forecasters expect another East Coast storm Three brothers who perished in an icy Texas pond were among several dozen deaths in U.S. states gripped by frigid cold as crews scrambled Tuesday (Jan. 27) to repair hundreds of thousands of power outages in the South, and forecasters warned that snow and severe cold could return to the East Coast this weekend. Deep snow — over a foot extending in a 1,300-mile swath from Arkansas to New England — halted traffic, canceled flights and triggered school closures. According to spotters for the National Weather Service, 13 inches had fallen in Nelsonville as of 7 a.m. on Monday and as much as 17 inches in Beacon as of 11 a.m. In the Highlands, crews worked overnight early in the week to plow the snow and then haul it away. Sitting in his Bobcat on Main Street in Cold Spring on Tuesday, Anthony Winters of the village Highway Department said he had gone to work early Sunday morning and returned home Monday afternoon. The arctic misery across the eastern half of the U.S. could return today (Jan. 30) and Saturday. Although, as of Thursday, less than 2 inches of snow was expected in the Highlands, the National Weather Service said a storm may bring record low temperatures as far south as Florida. "This could be the coldest temperature seen in several years for some places and the longest duration of cold in several decades," the agency's Weather Prediction Center warned on Tuesday. The U.S. aviation system was returning to normal after a brutal weekend that saw more than 17,000 flights canceled. There were about 6,300 cancellations on Monday and 2,500 on Tuesday, but fewer than 500 were expected on Wednesday, according to FlightAware. Officials in states afflicted with severe cold reported at least 50 deaths. In New York City, officials said 10 people had been found dead outdoors in the cold. In Fannin County, Texas, three brothers, ages 6, 8 and 9, died Monday after falling through ice on a private pond, the sheriff said. Other deaths included two people hit by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, two teenagers killed while sledding in Arkansas and Texas and a man found in his home in the Indianapolis area with no heat.