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Nonprofits, weakened by funding cuts, brace for disaster Things were already getting worse, even before the prospect of funds running out on Saturday (Nov. 1) for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because of the ongoing federal government shutdown. At the Philipstown Food Pantry, coordinator Kiko Lattu said the number of visitors during its Saturday morning hours has increased by 30 percent, including people who hadn't visited in years. "They were getting by for a while, but things have become more difficult," she said. In Beacon, Fareground said it has started getting more food requests at the same time it is revamping its community fridge program. Dutchess Outreach in Poughkeepsie, which had been serving around 250 people a month, saw over 2,000 in February. Second Chance Foods, based in Brewster, said more people are requesting their Wednesday distributions. "There's been an increased need, and we're already at capacity for that program," said Martha Elder, the executive director. Unless a resolution is reached soon, the cuts to SNAP - colloquially known as "food stamps" - threaten to transform a slow-moving emergency into a full-scale disaster as nonprofits and communities struggle to fill the gap. And the gap is sizable: In Putnam County, 2,885 people rely on food stamps. In Dutchess, it's 17,152, and across the river, in Orange County, it's 45,530. "Those are not numbers we will be able to support," said Jamie Levato, the executive director of Fareground. Renee Fillette-Miccio, the executive director of Dutchess Outreach, said about $3.4 million flows into the county each month for food benefits. "For every one meal provided by a food pantry, SNAP provides 12," she said. "There's just no way for the charitable food system to be able to keep up." Trickle-down After weeks of speculation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last week that federal food aid could cease on Nov. 1. The Trump administration said it could not legally tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds. Fillette-Miccio of Dutchess Outreach spent Tuesday in Washington, D.C., speaking with lawmakers from both parties, each of whom told her that President Trump could easily restore funding. "They all had the same thing to say, which was that it's just a matter of a phone call," she said. SNAP helps about 1 of every 8 Americans buy groceries, and nearly 80 percent of recipients are older adults, disabled or children, "which means that they don't really have the capacity to work to bring in money for food," said Dr. Hilary Seligman, a professor at the University of California who studies food insecurity and its health implications. A coalition of 25 state attorneys general, including from New York, is suing the federal government to restore SNAP, arguing that the pause is illegal. [Update: On Friday (Oct. 31), a federal judge ruled, in response to a lawsuit, that the suspension of SNAP was illegal and ordered the government to report on Monday its plan to distribute funding.] On Thursday (Oct. 30), Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency, announcing $65 million in emergency food assistance and a website at bit.ly/SNAPaid that lists food banks and other social services. On Friday, Dutchess County announced it would commit $150,000 per week to support local food pantries. It said in a news release that the Legislature plans to hold an emergency meeting to authorize up to $1.5 million in spending. The potential pause comes at a time when many nonprofits have found their federal funding slashed or eliminated with little notice or explanation. Second Chance Foods learned in May, from a one-line email, that $70,000 of a $100,000 grant from the USDA had been terminated. Dutchess Outreach lost $15,000 in funding that it usually gets from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In addition, the Local Food Purchasing Act, which allowed hunger relief groups to buy food directly from farmers, has been eliminated, and the Emergency ...

Two Philipstown residents want to scare you Sam Zimmerman loves Halloween. He really, really loves it. As the senior vice president of programming and acquisitions for Shudder, AMC Networks' streaming service, he has seen any frightening film you can mention - that's his job. It's also now a central part of his life at home. In February, he and his wife and their two young sons moved to Parrott Street in Cold Spring, the heart of the village's annual trick-or-treating ritual. Zimmerman likely didn't realize it, but another fright aficionado, Tore Knos, was already in place in Philipstown. In April, The New York Times called Knos' 2024 film, Snakeeater, one of "five horror films to stream now." Although horror is booming at the box office, and there are seemingly unlimited viewing options online, Zimmerman says he most enjoys introducing viewers to sub-genres like giallo (Italian horror from the 1970s, such as films by Dario Argento) or folk horror, such as The Wicker Man (1973) and Midsommar (2019). When Shudder launched, there weren't many boutique streaming services. As VP of programming, Zimmerman helps create collections so viewers "don't spend all their time browsing; they find things they want to watch and care about and explore within the genre. "You can continuously come up with different nooks and crannies," he says. "It's fun to create pathways, to be able to say, 'Here are five or 10 films within this genre,' with some classics and some undiscovered gems. You'll get a good sense of the hallmarks and tropes." The Washington Post last year called Zimmerman "the man who picks your nightmares." Zimmerman grew up in the Bronx and says he was probably too young when he became a horror fan, "but I couldn't help it." He read the Goosebumps series, as well as books and stories by Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. "I remember my dad showing me An American Werewolf in London and my grandmother buying me Psycho," he says. In 2004, while he was in high school, his mother, stepfather and two sisters moved to Cold Spring. He would visit often, and the family hit Parrott Street at Halloween. At SUNY Purchase, Zimmerman majored in cinema studies and interned in New York City at Fangoria. "I stuck around the office until they hired me," he says. "I started going to film festivals and understood my interest was in programming, development, acquisition and production." In 2014, he became a consultant to the fledgling Shudder, then joined full-time. His focus initially was on building the catalog by licensing classic and cult films. "There were all these films that, at the time, hadn't streamed," he recalls. "I knew this was our opportunity to showcase movies that had a reputation or had been celebrated but that most people hadn't been able to see." One example: Andrzej Zulawski's Possession (1981), which had limited home video distribution. In 2016, Shudder began producing new films. Some highlights: Host, which was made quickly during the pandemic, about teens who conduct a Zoom seance (what could go wrong?), A Violent Nature ("something of an art house reinvention of what a slasher film is") and Oddity, an Irish film about a blind medium. "In some ways, horror is one of the oldest forms of storytelling," Zimmerman says. "There have always been scary stories and cautionary tales, so there's something primal there. Even intellectual horror movies are trading on instinct and provocation. They reflect our anxieties at any given moment. But they're also fun, with that satisfaction of getting a thrill." When Tore Knos needed moody, misty footage for Snakeeater, which is available on Amazon Prime, he didn't have to go far. Much of the film was set in a shadowy New York City. But he realized, during editing, that he needed a "pillow shot" to create atmosphere. "I needed a shot looking up into the fog," he recalls. "One day it was super foggy, so I drove under the Bear Mountain Bridge and got a great shot." While re...

Akropolis will perform at Howland Cultural Center After meeting at the University of Michigan, five classically trained musicians formed an unusual ensemble and called themselves the Akropolis Reed Quintet. They will perform on Sunday (Nov. 2) at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon as part of the Howland Chamber Music Circle series. Founded in 2009, Akropolis is one of the country's first reed quintets. As the group's star began rising, the clarinetist and saxophonist married and it became a nonprofit to apply for grants and expand educational outreach. Earlier this year, Akropolis won a Grammy for best instrumental composition, singling out the song "Strands." Written by pianist and collaborator Pascal La Beouf, the song fuses jazz and classical. Drummer Christian Euman is all smiles in a video made during the recording session. The title is apt because the reed instruments reel off call-and-response passages during the beginning and end, weaving the snippets together. During an interlude, the piano drifts off to dreamland before the players build back into a heavy progressive rock-style tsunami of sound that pulls the plug abruptly. Most wind quintets include flute and French horn, along with oboe, clarinet and bassoon. The repertoire for this grouping stretches to the late 18th century. Akropolis is different because, in addition to two instruments with long jazz pedigrees (sax and clarinet), it includes an oboe, bassoon and bass clarinet, which adds heft at the low end. Clarinet player Kari Landry credits the 40-year-old Calefax Reed Quintet from the Netherlands for creating the format and nurturing it through commissions and rearrangements of existing works. "They're our mentors," says Landry. "We're trying to expand the wind-based color palette and classical music in any way we can." Except for jazzy touches in George Gershwin's symphonic composition "An American in Paris" (arranged by Raaf Hekkema of Calefax), other selections being performed on Sunday will skew toward classical with world influences. "These few specks of time," by Oswald Huynh (born 1997), presents a "flashy opening that then pulls from his Vietnamese heritage, working in a folk song with stunning compositional technique," says Landry. The quintet will also perform "A Soulful Nexus," by Derrick Skye (born 1982), who is "coming up on some fame, uses the Persian classical scale system and adds percussive, fun elements," she says. The group's website is awash in pink, "a visual representation of how we stand out," says Landry. "We use that colorful joy and energy to show that we're not about presenting scary, esoteric or off-putting new music." Akropolis has commissioned more than 200 works. Its members are in their mid-30s, and Landry foresees a bright future for the configuration. "There are now hundreds of us - it's a big network," she says. "Other people are creating more music because it's a niche within chamber music, but we hope that in 100 years this instrumentation becomes commonplace, like the string quartet." The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. The concert begins at 4 p.m. For tickets, which are $35 ($10 for students 25 and younger), see howlandmusic.org/tickets. There is pay-what-you-wish pricing.

Topics range from affordability to bikes and firefighters In a repeat of last year's budget deliberations, Beacon City Council members on Monday (Oct. 27) debated with Mayor Lee Kyriacou and City Administrator Chris White whether the city has done enough to advance affordable housing. Each year, after the mayor introduces his budget proposal in October, department heads present their spending plans. Their proposals typically review accomplishments, notable projects scheduled for the following year and any changes in spending. This week, after presentations on the highway, water and sewer and wastewater departments, the discussion turned to "council priorities." A year ago, council members sparred with Kyriacou and White over affordability before adding $75,000 to the 2025 budget for a communications plan and studies on affordable housing and non-vehicular transportation. The money had not been spent, Finance Director Susan Tucker said on Monday. This year's discussion centered around a proposal to create a director of housing solutions. Kingston and Hudson have hired similar staff, while Beacon officials have suggested that Ben Swanson, who has been Kyriacou's assistant for four years and will become the deputy city administrator in 2026, could work on housing. Kyriacou said on Monday that he believes Swanson, who has a law degree from New York University, has "far better qualifications" than anyone the city could hire. Instead of bringing in someone new, "I'd rather start with expertise," the mayor said. In addition, Beacon's planning consultant, Natalie Quinn, who worked for the Poughkeepsie Planning & Zoning Department from 2018 to 2022, could be a resource, he said. That led Paloma Wake, who, along with Amber Grant, will return to the council next year, to argue that housing has not gotten enough attention. "We've been stuck in the same place" on the city's requirement of 10 percent below-market rate units in new developments of 10 or more for four years, she said. "We've been hearing that the Housing Authority has the potential to build more [subsidized housing] for a while," Wake said. "There is a need to be even more proactive. What I really want to see out of this budget cycle is a clear commitment to resourcing this issue." The city's 10 percent affordable (or "inclusionary zoning") policy is an outlier in the region because it demands something of developers without a giveback, such as added density or reduced application fees, Kyriacou said. The council has been reluctant to consider a giveback for a higher affordable percentage, but "I am more than willing to go there," he said. He noted that Beacon accounts for 20 percent of the affordable housing stock in Dutchess, although the city comprises only 5 percent of the county's population. But with yearslong waiting lists at subsidized complexes in Beacon, we "still need to be doing everything we can to be ambitious enough to meet the need," Wake said. The council agreed to put inclusionary zoning and the effect of short-term rentals on the housing market on a workshop agenda. From there, Molly Rhodes, who is leaving the council to become a Dutchess County legislator, inquired about the cost of conducting a bike study. Earlier this month, members of the Beacon Bicycle Coalition presented the council with a petition signed by 1,000 people requesting a study on bike lanes and other infrastructure. Beacon does not have the resources to do that immediately, said White, but an agreement with the county Transportation Council for an inventory and gap analysis of sidewalks could lead to a report on bikes. Some council members appeared frustrated. "Every time we discuss [priorities]," the administration's response is: 'What do you not want to do? You're asking for too much,' " said Pam Wetherbee. "We know in our own lives that if we do one thing, it precludes us from doing another," said White, who added that the city has received funding commitments to repair sidewalks, ...

Says she has been branded 'disloyal' The chair of the Philipstown Republican Committee has resigned from the party's countywide organization, saying it is "in crisis" and has branded her disloyal for supporting a fundraiser for sheriff candidate Larry Burke. Cindy Trimble, in an Oct. 16 letter to Chair Andres Gil, said that the Putnam County Republican Committee is "challenged by internal disagreements and divisions that have affected endorsed candidates, incumbent candidates and dedicated committee members." She and other members of the Philipstown committee have formed a separate organization, the Philipstown Republican Club, she said. One reason for the breakup, said Trimble, is that she has been "targeted for disloyalty" for attending an event for Burke, a Philipstown resident and Cold Spring police officer who is challenging Brian Hess, the acting sheriff and Republican candidate for the position. If he wins, Burke would be the third consecutive sheriff from Philipstown, along with the late Kevin McConville and his predecessor, Robert Langley Jr. Gil said on Tuesday (Oct. 28) that he asked Trimble to resign and that committee leaders are expected to support the candidates endorsed by the county, "regardless of whether or not they actually chose that person." He highlighted Trimble's attendance at the Burke fundraiser and an August post on Burke's Facebook page. Although Burke is a "lifelong Republican," according to Trimble, he is running as an independent because the county committee chose Hess over Burke and others who interviewed to be the party's candidate after McConville abandoned his re-election campaign due to illness. McConville died in September. "My decision to attend [Burke's fundraiser] was based solely on friendship and community support, not politics," said Trimble, adding that she supported Hess's nomination by the county committee and has distributed his campaign signs. According to Trimble, other officials and members of the county Republican Committee "have openly chosen to support non-endorsed candidates over endorsed candidates, support non-incumbent candidates over incumbent Republicans, support write-ins over endorsed candidates, support Democrats over Republicans and support Conservatives over Republicans." In a photo on Burke's Facebook page, Trimble is shown with several Philipstown Democrats at a community meeting she organized. According to Burke's post, "Cindy had invited all concerned residents of Philipstown to come out, meet me and take part in a Q&A." Gil called that "conduct unbecoming of a leader in our party." He said: "We should never be asking a person to vote a certain way. But as a leader of the party, you are supposed to support the endorsed and nominated candidates." Asked about the remaining Philipstown Republican Committee members, Gil said that the county GOP has only received Trimble's resignation but is "looking into the matter, and we'll address the matter appropriately." Burke said on Tuesday that Gil's call for Trimble to resign is "deeply disappointing" and that he was "extremely saddened" that her personal support for him became an issue. Attending a community event or fundraiser is a "fundamental right" that should not be subject to pressure or penalties, he said. "Her resignation is a sad reflection of the state of local politics, where loyalty to individuals too often outweighs loyalty to principle," said Burke. "I hope her situation reminds everyone that integrity and

Second public hearing scheduled on parking changes The Cold Spring Village Board, at its Wednesday (Oct. 22) meeting, tabled recommendations from the Planning Board to approve 32 parking waivers for 1 Depot Square and 37 Main St. Since 2010, the board has granted waivers to businesses for $250 each, as payment in lieu of providing the required number of off-street spaces required by the Village Code when parking spaces are unavailable. On Wednesday, Mayor Kathleen Foley questioned the effectiveness of the waivers. "The physical reality of the village is that the parking waivers don't help us," she said. "It's cash in the door, but it doesn't get us closer to solving the (parking) problem." When waivers were initiated 15 years ago, (the first six were issued to Frozenberry, then at 116 Main St., where Angie's is located now), the village population didn't more than double on peak tourist weekends as it does now, she said. At 1 Depot Square, the code requires 14 off-street spots for a planned addition of a 1,250-square-foot event space at the south end of The Depot Restaurant. Angie's Bakery and Café also plans to move and expand at 37 Main St., which would require 18 off-street spots. Both locales are busy sections of the village. Brian Tormey, the owner of 37 Main St., said that while there is space behind the building, it isn't suitable for customer parking for logistical and safety reasons. Greg Pagones, who owns The Depot, said he's been using space owned by Metro-North adjacent to the restaurant for staff parking since 2007 through an informal agreement with the railroad. Pagones said Metro-North indicated several years ago it intended to formally renew the agreement, but that hasn't happened. Foley expressed concern over the lack of a contract with Metro-North. "If we enter an agreement based on the concept that that space is available to you, and a year from now, MTA says, 'Nope, you're out,' we've made decisions about parking based upon space you don't control," she said to Pagones. There was discussion as to whether Depot Square, often described as a private road, is actually a public street, and whether that status would affect off-street parking. Documents related to the street date to the mid-1800s. "There is a public right-of-way that encompasses essentially all of the roadway and the parking on either side," said the Planning Board attorney, Jonathan DeJoy. "On top of that, the street has been used as a public street for decades." The board tabled a decision on the parking waivers pending consultation with the village counsel. "We want to find middle ground that allows entrepreneurial efforts in the village to flourish," balanced with quality of life for residents, Foley said. In a Friday (Oct. 24) email, she described the situation as a quandary. "The practice of parking waivers has kicked the can for new developments down the road for a decade," she wrote. "Now the board has no option but to deal with the reality on the ground, weigh pros and cons, along with property rights, and make the best decision we can for the widest interests of the village. It is by no means a simple question." In other business … A second public hearing will be held on Nov. 12 at Village Hall on proposed changes to Chapter 126 of the Village Code, dealing with vehicles and traffic. The revisions proposed include limiting free parking on the east side of High Street to the section between Haldane Street and Northern Avenue and extending parking limits on both sides of Fair Street to include the section north of Mayor's Park to the village limits. Twenty-four winter parking permits will be available for the municipal lot on Fair Street. Permits cost $40 and are valid from Nov. 15 to April 15.

250 Years Ago (October 1775) The Committee of Safety for New York ordered repairs to the barracks and hospital at Albany in preparation for the arrival of colonial troops. The royal governor in New York City, William Tryon, took refuge on a British warship, the HMS Duchess of Gordon, in the harbor. Fearing a British attack, the Continental Congress ordered all sulfur and brimstone supplies taken from Manhattan and stored farther up the Hudson River. 150 Years Ago (October 1875) Seward Archer at Breakneck Hollow was closing the woodhouse at the Baxter-Pelton place when he spotted movement in a small upper window. Thinking it was a chicken, he climbed a ladder and groped around the loft until he caught hold of a man's leg. "What are you doing here?" he yelled. Retreating down the ladder, he went to retrieve a gun. The intruder followed and ran off with Archer firing after him. The man shot back with a pistol, but only after he was at a safe distance. A government bond belonging to George Haight that had been stolen from the foundry safe was redeemed with the U.S. Treasury by a bank in London. A large dog belonging to William Birdsall, while inside Boyd's drugstore, mistook the plate glass in the upper part of the door for open air and jumped through it. He was startled but not injured. William Lobdell narrowly missed serious injury when he lost his grip on a butcher knife and the point struck the bone of the nose at the corner of his left eye. An intoxicated miner who loudly claimed at a local barber shop that his pocket had been picked found the money in his other pocket. After several Dutchess County farmers complained about missing sheep, two Germans who owned a slaughterhouse in Poughkeepsie informed police that two young men had been selling them mutton and promised to bring them a fat cow. One suspect gave his name as William Smith, but two men from Cold Spring who visited the jail said that, in fact, his name was Spellman and he was known in the village for his thievery. George Purdy of Cold Spring won top prizes at the annual Newburgh Bay Horticultural Society fair for his Isabella grapes, greengages and quinces. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad banned newsboys from throwing books, newspapers, prize packages or circulars into the laps of passengers. A double-decked canal barge carrying $2,000 worth of coal [about $59,000 today] sank in 100 feet of water near West Point. The crew escaped on smaller boats. Two railroad detectives arrested H. Freeman, a German peddler well-known in Cold Spring, with a huge pack stuffed with ladies' corsets. He said Isaac Levi had paid him $2 [$59] to retrieve the pack after it was thrown from a freight train near Stony Point. After being jailed on $1,000 [$29,000] bond, Freeman retracted his confession, saying he had found the corsets by happenstance. During a search of the Levi home, one of Levi's sons swung a pitcher and hit a detective in the back of the neck. When William Smith caught a thief stuffing cabbages into a bag on the Undercliff estate, the culprit asked for leniency, then stood up, punched Smith in the face and ran. Two preachers from Poughkeepsie spoke from the vacant lot at the corner of Main and Stone streets to what The Cold Spring Recorder called a "small and changing audience" about the need for a national ban on liquor sales. 100 Years Ago (October 1925) James Nastasi covered a home on Pine Street occupied by grocer John Sackal with Elastic Magnesite Stucco, which its manufacturer claimed was weatherproof, fireproof and crackproof. E.L. Post & Son offered home demonstrations of the Hoover vacuum cleaner, available on an installment plan with $6.25 [$115] down. The Playhouse in Nelsonville was screening The Ten Commandments, directed by Cecil DeMille, and Circus Days, starring Jackie Coogan. A Columbus Day celebration at Loretto Hall included performances by soprano Rita Hamun of the Metropolitan Opera House and four rounds of sparring by boxer Joe Col...

Applicant argued project would be 'low intensity' The Fishkill Planning Board earlier this month voted unanimously to deny an application to build a 51,500-square-foot self-storage facility just outside of Beacon, ending more than three years of review. The project sought to construct a two-story building with 333 self-storage units on a partially wooded, 4.7-acre parcel at 1292 Route 9D, between Van Ness Road in Beacon and Interstate 84. It would have required a special-use permit because the site is in Fishkill's restricted business zone, which does not permit self-storage facilities. To receive the permit, the Planning Board had to determine that the use is "substantially similar" to others allowed in the district, such as hotels, restaurants and offices. The board's attorney, Dominic Cordisco, explained during its Oct. 2 meeting that the application failed to meet any of the four criteria required to establish similarity: consistency with the town's comprehensive plan; consistency with the intent of the restricted business zone, which limits uses adjacent to neighborhoods; no adverse impacts to public health and safety; and no greater intensity of traffic, parking, noise and other impacts than allowed uses. Because it failed the substantial similarity test, the application was ineligible for Planning Board review. "It is, in effect, a denial, but it is the process that is laid out in the [town] code," Cordisco said. Cordisco said that the applicant had argued that a self-storage facility would be "low intensity" compared to uses allowed in the zone, "but that's not the test. The test is whether it's substantially similar and compatible with the district." Many residents, including from Beacon, had opposed the project. Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou last year asked the town to investigate alternative entries, saying that southbound drivers on 9D would likely make illegal left turns or U-turns to get into the facility. Kyriacou and others predicted that traffic would increase on nearby residential roads as drivers turned around to get to the site. To allay concerns, project officials said they would post directions online and petition GPS providers to use routes avoiding residential streets. A consultant hired by the town said that self-storage businesses are typically located in commercial or industrial zones. There is a self-storage facility on Route 9D, about a half mile from the proposed site, and another nearby on Route 52. After voting, Planning Board Chair Jonathan Caner noted that 1292 Realty LLC's request for a refund of $30,820 in application fees had been referred to Town Supervisor Ozzy Albra. Albra said on Thursday (Oct. 23) that the request was denied because, according to Cordisco's review, the costs incurred by the town and its consultants were "reasonable and necessary given the procedural and substantive issues and concerns posed by this application," including, in June, the unusual step of the Planning Board authorizing the town planner to finalize an environmental impact statement on the project.

Records detail hundreds of accidents Julia Stalder first thought the object emerging from the darkness on April 11, 2024, and hurtling toward the windshield of the Toyota Highlander she steered south on Route 9 looked like a "big black boat." It was, in fact, a Chevrolet SUV being driven north by a Garrison man. As it rolled into Stalder's path, she turned right toward the shoulder to avoid the impact and save two lives: hers and a then-11-year-old daughter riding in the back. With the Highlander shuddering from the sudden braking as it headed off the road, south of Skyline Drive outside the Cold Spring Mobile Home Park, "I thought, 'I am going to die in this moment; this is how it ends,'" said Stalder. Both she and her daughter are survivors, however, of one of the nearly 500 one- and multi-vehicle crashes that occurred from 2020 to May 2025 on the serpentine, 14-mile stretch of Route 9 between South Mountain Pass and Carol Lane, where cars and trucks often exceed the 50 mph speed limit and residents confront tight windows when trying to enter from side roads that bisect at sharp angles. Those accidents, which fell last year after rising in 2022 and 2023, range from minor fender-benders to head-on collisions and rollovers. They are chronicled in traffic reports and data obtained by The Current through a Freedom of Information Law request to the state Department of Transportation (DOT). Some information is missing. For example, the 2025 reports do not include one for the crash near Graymoor that killed a Beacon man, Norton Segarra, on Jan. 17. But the reports and data show that, along with the deaths of Segarra and three other Highlands residents since 2020, nearly 200 people have been injured and businesses and residences lining the route have suffered property damage. More than 25 percent of the mishaps occurred at or near seven intersections: Fishkill, Indian Brook, Old Albany Post North, Snake Hill/Travis Corners and Stone Ridge roads, and Routes 301 and 403. According to reports from the Putnam County Sheriff's Office deputies and state troopers responding to the incidents, most stem from drivers following too closely or driving at unsafe speeds, swerving to avoid deer or other animals, and/or failing to yield. For years, elected officials and residents have cited some of those behaviors in a litany of letters petitioning DOT for remedies. While the agency has refused to lower the 50-mph speed limit, it is installing a long-sought-after light where Snake Hill and Travis Corners meet Route 9, just south of the entrance to the Hudson Valley Shakespeare campus at the former Garrison Golf Course. It was at that intersection that Jacob Rhodus of Beacon collided with a motorist who turned left onto Snake Hill Road just as he passed through the intersection while driving south on Route 9. Less than 3 miles north, a driver who took to a shoulder in July 2023 struck Daniella Benavides as she retrieved trash cans from the end of the driveway of her house along Route 9. She and her husband, whose children are 3 and 6 years old, are selling "because we can't live on this road anymore," said Benavides. "We feel unsafe living on the property." 'I remember seeing the sky' Even before being struck, Benavides had concerns. In the five years that she and her husband have lived on the northbound side of Route 9, just south of the Garrison Volunteer Ambulance Corps, at least two vehicles have crashed into the stone wall at the end of their driveway. They've witnessed three accidents in the past year, she said. On July 14, 2023, as she walked to the end of the driveway to retrieve trash cans, Benavides noticed that traffic had slowed - because of a school bus or car stopped while waiting to turn left into a driveway, she believes. About four cars south, Benavides saw a Toyota turn into the shoulder. As it headed toward her, she realized, in a "weird, slow-motion moment," there was no time to move out of the way. "I remember seeing the sk...

Aspiring Eagle Scout spruces up namesake Daniel O'Sullivan, an aspiring Eagle Scout, is sprucing up a decaying granite eagle. The monument, which sits on a hillside near the entrance to the Haldane campus, was erected in 1899 by Daniel and Julia Butterfield when the property was their estate, known as Cragside. Daniel Butterfield, a Civil War general credited with writing "Taps," commissioned the statue to memorialize Gen. George Washington and his 3rd Regiment, which was posted during the Revolutionary War at Constitution Island. Over the decades, the eagle had become grimy, with moss, mildew and dirt filling every crevice. Parts of the beak and the feathers have broken off. O'Sullivan, a senior at Haldane High School who is a member of Troop 437, based at the Garrison Fish and Game Club, said the idea for the project came from Principal Julia Sniffen. "There have been people in town who wanted to get the eagle restored for quite some time," he said. An Eagle Scout project restoring an eagle sounded "perfect," and he liked the project better than his initial idea to build a Little Free Library box. O'Sullivan's plan is to clean the eagle, build a flower bed around the base and install an informational sign. He considered trying to restore the eagle's broken beak and wings but decided the monument was too fragile. "I don't want to mess it up," he said. To pay for materials, O'Sullivan recruited his mother, Tara, to organize a GoFundMe campaign, which quickly raised $700. On Oct. 11, O'Sullivan led a team of volunteers bearing scrub brushes that included other Scouts, his younger siblings James and Margaret, his parents and his grandparents. They used a cleaner called D/2 Biological Solution that's typically used to clean headstones. O'Sullivan said he expected to finish the project by this week. After his bird work, O'Sullivan will have two merit badges remaining - cooking and communication. Scoutmaster Gary Gunther said Troop 437 has had several Eagle Scouts in recent years, including twins Louis and Patrick Ferreira, who graduated from Haldane in 2024. Louis built standing desks for the high school, while Patrick constructed a gaga ball pit at Tots Park in Cold Spring. O'Sullivan's classmate, Daniel Campanile, who has received his Eagle Scout rank, made improvements at Village Green Park in Nelsonville. O'Sullivan hasn't settled on what he wants to do after graduation next year. He enjoys fixing cars and is studying auto mechanics through Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES. As the drummer for a rock-punk band called Michigan, he is also interested in music production.

TOWN BOARD The five-member Town Board, which includes the supervisor, will have three seats on the ballot on Nov. 4. John Van Tassel is running unopposed for his third term as supervisor on the Democratic and independent Philipstown Focus lines. The other two seats are held by Jason Angell and Megan Cotter, both Democrats, who were elected in 2021 but did not seek second terms. They will be succeeded by Nat Prentice and Ned Rauch, who won a four-way Democratic primary in June. Prentice will appear on the Democratic line, and Rauch on the Democratic and Philipstown Focus lines. The Philipstown Democratic Committee endorsed Rauch and Ben Cheah before the primary and subsequently endorsed Prentice. Cheah would have appeared on the Philipstown Focus line on the November ballot but withdrew. To read responses to questions posed by The Current to Prentice and Rauch before the primary, see highlandscurrent.org/town-board-2025. Because of a new state law that pushes most town and village elections to even-numbered years, Prentice and Rauch will serve three years, rather than four, with their seats on the ballot in 2028. At the same time, the supervisor position, usually a two-year term, will be on the ballot again next year. New York's highest court on Oct. 16 unanimously turned away a challenge to the law, which is designed to put town and village elections on the same ballot as national ones. TOWN JUSTICE The ballot will also include a town justice seat with one candidate, Fred Clarke, whom the Philipstown Democratic Committee nominated. A lawyer in private practice, he has lived in Cold Spring for 25 years and previously worked with the Putnam County Legal Aid Society and in marketing and communications. The seat is open because of the resignation in June of Camille Linson, who was elected to a third, 4-year term last year but moved out of the area. Luke Hilpert was appointed to succeed her until the election and has announced a write-in campaign to keep the position. The other town justice is Angela Thompson-Tinsley, a Democrat elected in 2023. COLD SPRING BOARD Mayor Kathleen Foley is running unopposed for her third, 2-year term. There are also two open trustee seats on the Village Board, which will be filled by John "Tony" Bardes and Anthony Hall, who are running unopposed. They will succeed Eliza Starbuck, who resigned earlier this year, and Aaron Freimark, did not run for a second term. Hall was appointed in July to complete Starbuck's term. COLD SPRING JUSTICE The judge's seat at the Cold Spring Justice Court is up for grabs - the ballot will not list any candidates, meaning the position will be awarded based on write-in votes. Justice Thomas Costello, who has served for 24 years, decided not to seek re-election to a seventh, 4-year term. However, he did so after an April deadline for candidates to file paperwork with the Putnam County Board of Elections to appear on the ballot. There are other ways for candidates to get on the ballot after the April deadline, such as an independent nominating petition or a being nominated following a party caucus, but no candidate took those routes. Under state law, only village residents are eligible to serve, unless the Village Board adopts a local law that expands the residency requirements. The Cold Spring Justice Court has two judges. The second, the associate judge, is appointed by the Village Board. Until June, Linson held the position, but she was replaced by Hilpert, who is campaigning as a write-in candidate for Costello's seat. This week, he received the endorsement of the Cold Spring mayor, Kathleen Foley. PUTNAM LEGISLATURE The Putnam County Legislature has nine members, including Nancy Montgomery, its sole Democrat, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley. She was elected in 2024 to her third, 3-year term; her seat will be on the ballot again in 2027. Each member is limited by county law to four terms. Three seats will be on this year's ballot for voters elsewhe...

Beacon store merges brothers' interests Jonathan Garcia's plan for retirement was to pursue coffee roasting and open a cafe. His older brother Joseph wanted to open a gaming store where people could hang out, play roleplaying games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons or card games like Magic: The Gathering, and make some friends. One day in 2019, as the brothers sat in a business class together at Dutchess Community College, they had a revelation: Why not combine the two ideas? Another revelation quickly followed. "Why wait until we're old?" said Jonathan. Last month, they opened Mana Potion Tabletop in Beacon. Alongside Warhammer figures and Pokémon decks, customers will find bags of freshly roasted beans and blended teas from the brothers' fantasy-themed Mana Potion Coffee line. The decaf, for example, is called Slumbering Dragon; the jasmine green tea is known as The Teamancer. Joseph is a former film teacher drawn to role-playing games because they remind him of making movies, with a mix of storytelling and improv, he says. Jonathan, who is working on his master's degree in business at SUNY New Paltz, has been warned by professors that most businesses fail in their first year because they can't attract enough customers. If his professors had been to the store's opening, they might have given him an A. "That door never stopped swinging," Jonathan says. The foot traffic hasn't slowed much. Even on a late Wednesday afternoon, customers filled a table while playing a battle royale variation of Magic: The Gathering called Commander. Hardcore gamers regularly bump elbows with newbies. Some customers say they haven't played since they were children but want a refresher. The coffee roaster in Connecticut who taught the brothers the trade was inspired to help them because he played Dungeons & Dragons as a kid. "We're meeting people who you wouldn't think would be into these games," says Jonathan. "They're an accountant, or they work for Verizon, but they're also into Warhammer." That's not surprising: RPGs have become a huge industry. Last year, the hosts of a D&D podcast, Dimension 20, sold out Madison Square Garden. Add in the shortage of places in Beacon for teenagers to gather, and it's no wonder Mana Potion has been busy. "Not everyone can go to the bar or out for a $30 hamburger every night," says Jonathan. "You can come here, grab a table and start playing." There have been a few miscalculations. The store stocks Settlers of Catan sets, but the game is so popular that it seems like everyone already owns it. Although gaming events throughout the week - including D&D for children on Saturdays and Warhammer tournaments - draw customers, Catan events have been a bust. "People didn't want to sit down with a bunch of random people and play a five-hour board game," says Jonathan. Because the store has been so busy, Jonathan hasn't had enough time to play many games himself. That part of the business has fallen to Joseph, who said he usually runs a different game every night. When Joseph started a Cyberpunk Red campaign, two players accidentally chose the same name for their characters. They decided their characters were identical twins, and they've since created a comic book together about them. "They took what I made for the game and created something new with it," Joseph says. While Warhammer miniatures and Magic cards are bestsellers, the brothers' extensive knowledge of gaming has led them to stock deep cuts as well. Shadowdark, for example, is an indie variation of classic D&D released in 2024 that's become a cult hit. The game's rulebook is displayed prominently. "People see that and say, 'Oh, you guys get it,' " says Joseph. "They can see right away that we understand this hobby." Mana Potion Tabletop, at 192 Main St. in Beacon, is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For more information, see manapotioncoffee.com.

In Dutchess comptroller race, incumbent faces challenge from legislative chair When Dan Aymar-Blair, the Dutchess County comptroller, first told his mother he was running for the position, she responded: "I'm so proud of you, honey. What is that?" The anecdote got a laugh from a dozen residents gathered at a Hyde Park library town hall last month, but it also captures the central challenge for Aymar-Blair, a Beacon resident and former City Council member, in winning re-election to a full term as comptroller: persuading voters to care about an office so little-understood that even his mother needed an explanation. His Republican opponent, Will Truitt, the 30-year-old chair of the Dutchess County Legislature, faces a different challenge. To win the race, he must mobilize a GOP political machine that has enabled Republicans to control Dutchess - the Legislature, the county executive's seat, the sheriff's office - for nearly all of the past three decades. The vote should be close. Although there are about 20,000 more registered Democrats in the county than Republicans (75,000 to 56,000), another 12,000 voters are enrolled in smaller parties and 60,000 have no declared party affiliation. Control of the office has repeatedly flipped between parties. But Republicans have historically been more effective at turning out voters in off-year elections like this one. In recent presidential years, Democratic turnout in the county is around 70 percent; in recent off-year local elections, that drops to below 45 percent, according to data from the county Board of Elections. "It's a truly purple county," said Michael Dupree, who chairs the Dutchess County Democratic Committee. Aymar-Blair won in November by fewer than 1,000 votes in a special election held during a presidential election year, a contest that occurred because Democrat Robin Lois resigned to become deputy comptroller of local government and school accountability in Albany. Gregg Pulver, a Republican who had chaired the Legislature but lost his seat, was appointed to the role. The narrow margin meant the outcome hinged on absentee ballots. When it comes to the question Aymar-Blair's mother asked, however, the two candidates have very different answers. "This office is an essential part of checks and balances," Aymar-Blair told the group in Hyde Park, part of a series of non-campaign events he has held in libraries to explain what his office does. The comptroller, he told the group, serves as an independent watchdog responsible for scrutinizing budgets, contracts and capital projects. Truitt, who was elected to the Legislature when he was 20, frames the job differently. To him, the comptroller is akin to a chief financial officer, someone who works in step with the county executive and Legislature, keeping the government "one united team." "Anyone here who's ever worked in small business knows if you have a CFO [chief financial officer] - a comptroller - who's working to undermine the rest of the team, you are going to fail," he told supporters at a fundraiser at a donor's home in Fishkill last month. A self-described "Energizer Bunny," Truitt bounded through the crowd of 170 supporters and more than two dozen Republican elected officials, giving hugs, shaking hands and pausing for quick huddles with campaign aides. The event, advertised as offering "$250 hot dogs, $500 burgers and $1,000 steaks," delivered on its promise of red meat on the grill and in speeches. Speakers at the fundraiser railed against the brainwashing of the young in academic institutions and warned of growing Christian religious persecution across the country. The crowd paused for a moment of silence for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, assassinated days earlier, and Truitt vowed to uphold the political firebrand's legacy. Dutchess GOP Vice Chair Doug McCool whipped up the crowd: "Truitt!" he called. "Will do it!" the crowd bellowed back. Truitt hopes these officials, donors and rank-and-file Republicans wi...

Rallies organized in Beacon, Cold Spring Large crowds of protesters marched and rallied in cities across the U.S. Saturday for "No Kings" demonstrations decrying what participants see as the government's swift drift into authoritarianism under President Donald Trump. People carrying signs with slogans such as "Nothing is more patriotic than protesting" or "Resist Fascism" packed into New York City's Times Square and rallied in Beacon and Cold Spring, as well as in parks in Boston, Atlanta and Chicago. Demonstrators marched through Washington, D.C., and downtown Los Angeles and picketed outside capitols in several Republican-led states, a courthouse in Billings, Montana, and at hundreds of smaller public spaces. Trump's Republican Party disparaged the demonstrations as "Hate America" rallies, but in many places, the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, huge banners with the Constitution's "We the People" preamble that people could sign, and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon. It was the third mass mobilization since Trump's return to the White House and came against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services but is testing the core balance of power, as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that protest organizers warn are a slide toward authoritarianism. Trump spent the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. "They say they're referring to me as a king. I'm not a king," the president said in a Fox News interview that aired early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. fundraiser at his club. A Trump campaign social media account mocked the protests by posting a computer-generated video of the president clothed like a monarch, wearing a crown and waving from a balcony. In San Francisco hundreds of people spelled out "No King!" and other phrases with their bodies on Ocean Beach. In Portland, tens of thousands of people gathered in Portland for a peaceful demonstration downtown. Later in the day, tensions grew as a few hundred protesters and counterprotesters showed up at a U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement building, with federal agents at times firing tear gas to disperse the crowd and city police threatening to make arrests if demonstrators blocked streets. The building has been the site of mostly small nightly protests since June - the reason the Trump administration has cited for trying to deploy National Guard troops in Portland, which a federal judge has at least temporarily blocked. About 3,500 people gathered in Salt Lake City outside the Utah State Capitol to share messages of hope and healing after a protester was fatally shot during the city's first "No Kings" march in June. And more than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, evoking the city's history of protests and the critical role it played in the Civil Rights Movement two generations ago. "Big rallies like this give confidence to people who have been sitting on the sidelines but are ready to speak up," said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut. More than 2,600 rallies were planned Saturday, organizers said. The national march against Trump and Musk this spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first No Kings day in June registered 2,100. Republicans sought to portray protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day. From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders called them "communists" and "Marxists." They said Democratic leaders, including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces. "I encourage you to watch - we call it the Hate America rally - that will happen Saturday," said House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. "Let's see...

Quality of life, public safety at stake Before firefighters in Cicero in Onondaga County could battle the blaze that engulfed a residence in August, they first had to overcome a "buildup of everything," according to Chief Jim Perrin. Boxes, papers and "old stuff, new stuff" prevented their attempt to enter through the front door, and they confronted more clutter while fighting their way through the garage, he told The Post-Standard in Syracuse. "There was only a narrow path," said Perrin, whose firefighters found the deceased resident between the kitchen and living room. "Everything else was piled from floor to ceiling." That is the kind of tragedy Dutchess County officials are hoping to prevent with an initiative to help people overcome hoarding problems. Officials with the county's Health and Social Services departments recognized that "there are quite a few people hoarding" in Dutchess and proposed doing something to support them, said Jean-Marie Niebuhr, the county's mental health commissioner. Working with a consultant, a task force that included those two departments and the Office for Aging designed a program that begins with an in-home assessment. Hoarders who want help are paired with an "interventionist" from the Department of Mental Health who seeks to ease their discomfort, or even distress, about discarding stuff. They also help people set interim goals, such as clearing a path to a particular part of the residence. Convincing someone to accept help can be difficult, especially because hoarders can be driven by shame to isolation, but Dutchess has had some successes, said Niebuhr. "It's even prevented homelessness, because sometimes these situations get so bad that an individual could be evicted from their place of residence or the fire inspector might say this place is uninhabitable," she said. Someone driven to that extreme is considered to have a disorder that is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, "the Bible of diagnoses in the world of mental illnesses," said Niebuhr. The problem affects about 2.6 percent of the population, but the rates are higher for people over age 60 and those with mental-health diagnoses such as depression, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Hoarders are not just rabid collectors or poor housekeepers, but people so unable to discard stuff that their living space, and sometimes their porches and lawns, fill up. "It gets to the point where a person's home is so full of stuff that you might not be able to cook on the stove, sleep on the bed or sit on the couch because there's stuff everywhere," Niebuhr said. What people hoard can vary, ranging from newspapers to furniture, cars and animals, and the repercussions extend to family and neighbors living next to junk-filled properties. Firefighters in Beacon have encountered hoarding and are trained in how to adjust to the problems it presents, said Chief Tom Lucchesi. Those problems go beyond restricting access during emergencies, he said. Hoarding "increases the fire load, causing fires to burn hotter and spread more rapidly," said Lucchesi. "In addition, pathways are often blocked, which can complicate both rescue and evacuation efforts, while also increasing the risk of injury or entrapment for responders." Earlier this month, more than 200 animals were found at the home of a wildlife rehabilitator on Long Island, where authorities discovered a 95-year-old woman who they say was essentially trapped in her room due to clutter. Cats, dogs, parrots, roosters, hedgehogs, chinchillas, guinea pigs, voles and flying squirrels were among the 206 animals found Oct. 1 at the home in Suffolk County. The residence was infested with insects and cluttered with debris, garbage and household waste, making certain areas impassable, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said. Dutchess has organized training sessions for staff at community organizations who may encounter people with the problem. Alon...

Actor performs 10 characters in play Duane Boutte says his solo show, Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker, is the most physically challenging role he has tackled. He sought help from a chiropractor and burrows so deep into the script that, during performances on Bannerman Island, he remained impervious to howling winds and plummeting temperatures. "I don't notice it at all," he says. Boutte's outdoor run, where the house behind the stage doubled as a convincing castle, ended earlier this month, but he will reprise the drama at St. Rita's Music Room from Oct. 24 to 26. Jim Helsinger's adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel premiered in 1995. It requires Boutte to portray 10 characters, including three women, and develop distinctive vocal timbres for each. It helps that he's a voice and text coach for The Acting Company's national tours of Great Expectations and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Beginning in 2018, the Bannerman Castle Trust produced a version of the story by Crane Johnson designed for a small cast. Then it imported a troupe from Kingston to perform the 1927 script that wowed Broadway and informed the 1931 film with Bela Lugosi. This year, Kelly Ellenwood and Neil Caplan at the trust decided to produce Helsinger's take and reached out to Sean McNall at Hudson Valley Shakespeare to find a director and actor. In 2023, Boutte had appeared in HVS's productions of Henry V and Love's Labor's Lost. Hired by the trust to direct, he lobbied to act instead and recruited Christian Conn, an actor living in Fishkill, to replace him offstage. Based on the template created by the 1927 play and subsequent movie, many tales in the vast canon of vampire stories omit Stoker's first act, when Harker, an English lawyer seeking to finalize the contract on a country estate south of London, travels to Transylvania to meet the mysterious buyer. Like Stoker's 1897 novel, the exploits unfurl through letters, diary entries and a newspaper clipping. The first act, which features Harker and Dracula (along with a Romanian woman and three vampirettes), discloses a chunk of backstory. Other characters like Dr. Von Helsing, who reveals a font of facts about the count, appear after Harker returns to England. The stark stage setting on Bannerman Island included a desk, a side table, two trunks, three chairs and a chaise lounge. Dry ice effects simulated smoke wafting from Dracula's coffin. Through body language, facial expressions, eye movement and vocal inflections, Boutte conveys the terror of hanging from a 1,000-foot precipice and the cat-and-mouse chase pursuing Dracula through the streets of London, evoking visceral and emotional reactions like the old radio dramas. His portrayal of Renfield, a psychiatric patient who eats insects, included bulging eyes, nervous tics and manic expressions. Boutte also elicited a few laughs with Quincy Morris's Texas accent and the deadpan salutation, "Your Friend, Dracula." At the island's closing show, Boutte received a standing ovation and the crowd buzzed over how he remembered so many words. "I played the Archbishop of Canterbury in Henry V, who reeled off long lists of names, which I had a hard time with because it's not tied to anything that is going on," he says. "But [in Dracula], the action is so clear that even though there are a lot of lines, the story stimulates the memory." St. Rita's Music Room is located at 85 Eliza St. in Beacon. Tickets are $35 at dub.sh/dracula-st-ritas, or $40 at the door.

Beacon orders removal from two locations The City of Beacon and an anti-hunger organization headquartered in Fishkill are at odds after the city removed the nonprofit agency's two community refrigerators. Fareground, which was founded in Beacon in 2012, collaborated with Binnacle Books and Beacon 4 Black Lives in 2020 to place a refrigerator at 321 Main St. Stocked four times weekly, the self-serve fridge was accessible 24/7 with the understanding that users "take what you need and leave what you can." A second refrigerator, managed by Mutual Aid Beacon but routinely stocked by Fareground volunteers, was placed at the city's Recreation Center, at 23 West Center St., a year later. Food for the fridges was donated by the Regional Food Bank Hudson Valley, Beacon Natural Market, the Wappingers Falls Hannaford grocery, local farms and other sources. Fareground also hosts 15 Tiny Food Pantries with dry goods in Beacon, Wappingers, Newburgh and other municipalities. Free marketplaces are held throughout the region, including at 9:30 a.m. on the last Friday of the month at Memorial Park in Beacon (except for November and December). A weekly Friday dinner program was launched at the First Presbyterian Church (50 Liberty St.) in January. The community fridge program landed on the city's radar in June, when building maintenance forced Fareground to move the Main Street fridge. The organization asked to move the unit to Polhill Park but City Administrator Chris White and Nick Ward-Willis, the city attorney, said an unmonitored food source on municipal property could lead to liability issues. Fareground temporarily moved the fridge to private property at 23 Cliff St. There, White said this week, neighbors complained, which led Building Inspector Bryan Murphy to investigate. Murphy found that the fridge violated two city laws - one prohibiting the storage of numerous items, including appliances, auto body parts, animal shelters, trampolines and swing sets, in the front or side yard of a lot or on an open front porch; and another meant to protect children from abandoned refrigerators or other appliances with tight-fitting doors. After Murphy's review, White asked Fareground to remove the Recreation Center fridge by the end of October, but when the administrator visited the site on Sept. 24, he said during Monday's (Oct. 6) City Council meeting, he found "squalid conditions" and had the appliance removed immediately. White showed council members photos of dirt and mold, rotten and expired food, including a tray of pasta with an Aug. 1 date written on the lid. He also shared pictures Recreation Department staff said had been taken over the last 18 months of a tattoo machine with ink and needles, bags of prescription medication, a bedside urinal and an open box of female condoms that had been left at the site. "You're allowing anybody, at any time, to put anything in this fridge," White said. "There wasn't a bit of food in there that was suitable for human consumption." He said the city is willing to discuss partnering with Fareground on an alternative food distribution model that is "cognizant and respects food safety," but unregulated community refrigerators are too risky. Several community members criticized White on Monday for taking what they said was unnecessarily aggressive action. "I don't care why it was removed," said KK Naimool. "I care about how it was removed, and we need something to fill that gap." Kara Dean-Assael, a co-founder of Fareground, emailed White, Mayor Lee Kyriacou and council members Monday night to dispute the city administrator's report. She argued that White had removed the refrigerator without warning and "weaponized" photos that city staff had hoarded of unclean conditions. She asked the council to reconsider the city code, which "is really about people leaving things that look 'junky' on front and side yards. This is not what community fridges are. They are community anti-hunger resources that are regularl...

Council also approves police contract Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou on Monday (Oct. 6) introduced a $37.5 million budget proposal for 2026 while the City Council approved a three-year contract with police officers and a request to have the city assume ownership of the University Settlement property. The budget includes $27.8 million in general fund spending, a 5.9 percent increase, which covers the day-to-day operations of Beacon's government. Expenditures for the sewer fund ($5.4 million) and the water fund ($4.3 million) are virtually flat. The tax rate on residential properties would decrease by 3.7 percent, to $5.49 per $1,000 of assessed value - the lowest rate in 16 years. The proposal increases the commercial tax rate by 2.7 percent, to $8.71 per $1,000 of assessed value. Despite the increase, the commercial rate would still be significantly lower than 10 years ago, when it was $13.23. As in recent years, Beacon assessments have increased (to $1.8 billion for residential properties and $446 million for commercial), so individual property owners' bills could go up. For a $532,500 house, the city estimates that its tax bill will increase by about $74, or 2.6 percent. A $500,000 commercial property is expected to see a $151, or 2.7 percent, jump. The budget proposes to increase the property tax levy by $633,187, which is $100,716 below the cap allowed by New York State. Tax increases were mitigated by the addition to the tax rolls of $225 million in new construction or improvements since 2021, including $47 million last year, Kyriacou said. City Administrator Chris White noted that new development helped the city pay for improvements this year at South Avenue Park and the municipal skateboard park. More work is planned next year at Memorial Park. "I know that people don't like all the development," he said, "but we're trying to tie a lot of this growth to reinvestment in the community." The city anticipates the largest spending increases in 2026 to be health and dental insurance ($484,000), police salaries ($176,000), firefighter salaries ($156,000), retirement contributions ($278,000) and property and casualty insurance ($47,000). Revenue from sales taxes is projected to increase from $6.1 million to $6.5 million - the result of a tax-sharing agreement Kyriacou negotiated with Dutchess County in 2022. The budget also anticipates $200,000 in hotel taxes, including $140,000 when the Mirbeau Inn & Spa opens next year. For the first time, Beacon's proposed budget includes the appointment of a deputy city administrator. Ben Swanson, who has been Kyriacou's assistant since 2021, will transition into the deputy role. Council members and Beacon residents have asked the city to hire a director of housing solutions, a position created in recent years in Kingston and Hudson. That conversation will continue during the council's Oct. 14 workshop, but White said that Swanson, who has a degree from the New York University School of Law, could take on some of those duties. Police contract The council unanimously approved a three-year agreement, running from Jan. 1, 2026, through 2028, with the union that represents Beacon police officers. The contract gives officers 4.5 percent salary increases each year of the agreement. An additional premium encourages officers to work toward higher-ranking promotions, while a stipend rewards those who serve in field training roles. In September 2024 Beacon police received a 5 percent raise, a move made to bring the department's salaries more in line with neighboring jurisdictions. The new contract addresses inflation and "puts us back in a competitive position to retain the staff that we have, to try to attract new transfers and other recruits, to fill the three open positions that we currently have," White said. Fishkill Avenue Temporary crosswalk striping was applied on Fishkill Avenue at its intersections with Wilkes Street and Blackburn Avenue on Tuesday (Oct. 7). Several residents asked the counci...

Beacon brothers cut their first album The wait is over. Zohar Cabo graduated from high school in June, and now he and his older brother, Adam, are embarking on a music career, with help from influential friends. Under the no-nonsense moniker Zohar & Adam, they recorded their first album, Osmosis, at The Loft Recording Studios in Bronxville, owned by Philipstown resident Al Hemberger, who has worked with Rihanna, Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson. "He gave us the keys to the place and a room to figure it out," says Adam, 21. "We learned how to engineer, produce and mix. Two-and-a-half years later, it's ready." Another advisor is bass player Christian McBride, who appears on the album and met the brothers at his Jazz House Kids educational ensembles in Montclair, New Jersey, and Trinity Church in Manhattan. As they hang around Beacon and take on a long-term view, the duo's management team (which discovered Rihanna) and record label (Mack Avenue Music Group) are strategizing the act's trajectory. Osmosis is scheduled for release in March, and a tour is likely to follow. For now, they're hosting an improvised Everything Jam at Beacon's Savage Wonder twice a month, beginning Sunday (Oct. 19). The disc's title is apt because the brothers have played together since grade school. Marketing copy describes their interplay as "telepathic synchronicity." Improvisation and free-form exploration fuel their genre-busting, unbound sound, which is rooted in jazz but meanders. On keyboards, Zohar, 18, drives the bus as Adam lays down the percolating percussion. "A lot of people are skeptical that we can be sonically interesting with two instruments, but so far, so good," says Adam. "If anything, we call it 'post-jazz.' " Zohar plays bass parts with his left hand and coaxes ethereal sounds from his electronic keyboard. Sometimes he twiddles the dials more than he presses the keys. There is some singing on the new album, but their bread and butter consists of experimental instrumental compositions that stretch boundaries while remaining accessible. One signature approach is to accentuate the ebb and flow between spacey interludes and parts with a solid groove where Adam hits hard. Segues are seamless as they shift the dynamics and tempos - often several times per tune. "The fat part means so much more when we do that tension and release," says Adam. In the video of "Drones in the Sky/Dying Hands," an audition tape for National Public Radio's Tiny Desk series filmed at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, "we keep pulling back and letting go; it's not completely settled, yet it keeps people listening because they have no idea what's going to happen next." After being offered a scholarship to study acting at SUNY Purchase, Adam decided to take the drumming tack, which follows the family pattern: Father Richard led a Latin jazz band, mother Dassi Rosenkrantz plays bass (and will perform Oct. 11 at Beacon Flow) and sister Noga, 23, is a singer-songwriter. Growing up, the siblings played covers and originals all over town and recorded with Hemberger. While waiting for their future, Zohar & Adam can pop up on the streets of Beacon anytime and anywhere, including a recent impromptu jam behind the Mobil gas station on Main Street. The Everything Jam traces to last summer, when the brothers winged it for hours busking in the former open space at the corner of Main and Cross streets. "Everyone from babies to elderly people would turn their heads," says Adam. "Not to be too ambitious, but we're trying to foster a newfound appreciation for instrumental music." They hosted the free-form jam at Lyonshare and, one night, 85 people showed up. "Despite all the crazy changes in our songs, part of our approach is to provide an entry point to make improvisational instrumental music that anyone can enjoy and create a sound that is universally understood," he says. Savage Wonder is located at 139 Main St. in Beacon. For more on Zohar & Adam, including digital d...

Report details utility charges for clean-energy programs Under the state's landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, residents and businesses, through bill surcharges, share the costs of clean-energy programs implemented by utility providers. Passed in 2019, the law set goals for reducing the greenhouse gases that fuel climate change by transitioning the state's electricity grid to at least 70 percent renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2040. About 8 percent of monthly electricity charges billed in 2024 to a typical Central Hudson residential customer went toward those goals, according to data from the state Department of Public Service. From 10 percent to 13 percent of electric bills incurred by commercial and industrial customers subsidized clean energy. Central Hudson's gas customers also share in the costs of the energy transition. Last year, they were billed from 91 cents per month for a typical residential bill to $378.35 for the largest industrial users, according to state data. Just over $60 million of the $80 million in electricity revenue collected by Central Hudson was spent on commercial renewable projects and solar power. Central Hudson also collected $15.8 million for heat-pump installations and other programs and $3.1 million in compensation for energy generated by renewable projects.

Would require permits, ban parties Philipstown's Town Board received draft regulations on Thursday (Oct. 2) for short-term rentals such as Airbnb and Vrbo that require annual permits, along with a ban on parties, limits on stays and requirements for off-site parking. Judy Farrell, a member of the Town Board and of the Short-Term Rental Committee it created to come up with a code governing STRs, said during the board's meeting that the group reviewed guidelines from Cold Spring and other towns but crafted regulations "specific to Philipstown." Their goals, according to the draft of a local law amending the town code, included ensuring that STRs meet fire and safety standards and avoid harming neighbors with nuisances such as noise and trash, while allowing property owners to earn income from their rentals. "It does ensure that there are safe places for people, for tourists, to stay," said Farrell who, along with the rest of the board, scheduled a workshop for Oct. 29. As drafted, the rules establish five categories of STRs, whose owners must apply annually for permits: (1) rentals in which the owner remains on the property, (2) unhosted rentals, (3) one-time rentals for up to 14 consecutive nights once a year, (4) second homes and (5) tourist homes owned by corporations. Those STRs would be confined to three zoning districts: R-1 and I-1, where owners must provide on-site parking or a designated parking area, and the B-1 district. Except for one-time lodgings, stays would be set at between two and 29 consecutive nights. Unhosted lodgings would be limited to 90 nights a year and prohibit parties and "other gatherings or events." Owners with buildings having more than one residence could only rent one as an STR but would be allowed to rent accessory buildings. They would also have to carry at least $500,000 in liability insurance and pass an annual code-enforcement inspection. Fines for violating the regulations would be $1,000 for the first offense; $2,000 for the second, with forfeiture of the permit for the remainder of the year; and $3,000 for the third, with a four-year ban on an STR permit. In other business… The board voted to extend for another six months a moratorium on the approval of oil tanks holding more than 10,000 gallons. Town attorney Stephen Gaba said newly drafted regulations governing tanks should be ready for review next month. With Gaba retiring at the end of the year, the board approved a resolution to solicit bids for the town and the Planning Board, which he also advises. The town hoped to find a replacement from Gaba's firm, Drake Loeb, "but that is not working out," said Van Tassel. Retaining the firm for the Planning Board means "moving their meeting to a different night," he said. "I have spoken with [Planning Board Chair] Neil Zuckerman about it. He's polling his board to make sure that they're OK with it." The board approved an agreement to provide ice and snow removal to Nelsonville for the upcoming winter. Van Tassel said the village received bids for road maintenance whose prices "they could not cover." The board approved a permit for a film company called Doc in a Box Corp. to shoot at the Manitou School on Route 9D. Filming will take place on Oct. 10 for a project titled Best Medicine. According to IMDB, there is an upcoming Netflix series by that name in which "a brilliant surgeon leaves Boston to become a small-town doctor where he spent childhood summers. Despite his medical skills, his rude manner alienates locals as he battles hidden phobias and struggles with personal connections."

Continues through Oct. 15 The state Department of Environmental Conservation implemented a statewide burn ban on Thursday (Oct. 2) because of dry conditions that increase the risk of wildfires. It will continue at least through Oct. 15. The ban prohibits outdoor fires to burn brush and debris, as well as all uncontained fires, including campfires, and open fires used for cooking. Backyard fire pits and contained campfires less than 3 feet in height and 4 feet in length, width or diameter are allowed, along with small, contained cooking fires. Burning garbage or leaves is prohibited year-round in New York State.

Arrested with women charged with defacing NYT building A Cold Spring photographer who has documented protests against the Gaza war was arrested on Sept. 28 on charges of threatening an editor at The New York Times over its coverage of the conflict. Alexa Wilkinson, 38, was detained after officers from the New York Police Department, with assistance from the state and Cold Spring police, executed a search warrant at a residence in the village. Investigators were on the scene for several hours. That same day, police arrested Sarah Schaff, 30, on charges that she vandalized The Times building on Eighth Avenue with red paint at 4 a.m. on July 30 and Anna Owens, 24, for being "a lookout." Cleaning up and repairing the damage cost $108,000, according to investigators. The two women were protesting The Times' coverage, which they consider biased against Palestinians, according to prosecutors. All three were arraigned Monday (Sept. 29) on single felony charges - Wilkinson for second-degree aggravated harassment as a hate crime and Owens and Schaff for second-degree criminal mischief. Wilkinson returns to court on Nov. 17. Wilkinson "is a respected photojournalist with no criminal record," The Legal Aid Society told The New York Times. Wilkinson "did not participate in or encourage any unlawful activity," it said, and the charge is "wholly unfounded." According to the criminal complaint, the charge against Wilkinson stems not from the vandalism but from a post that appeared on Instagram that targeted Joseph Kahn, executive editor of The Times, who is Jewish. In a complaint obtained from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, a detective with the NYPD's Bias Incident Investigations Unit said a person identified as Wilkinson shared a post that read: "They hanged newspaper editors at Nuremberg," the German city where the Allies tried Nazi officials following World War II. Police said the post was captioned: "Looking at you [Kahn]." A month after the damage to the Times building, someone using red paint vandalized the apartment building where Kahn lives. The investigation into that incident is ongoing, according to the complaint. Last November, a New York City videographer was indicted on felony hate crime charges after he recorded protestors hurling red paint at the homes of the director and president of the Brooklyn Museum. According to a criminal complaint, Samuel Seligson, 31, traveled with the group as it spray-painted doors and sidewalks with messages that accused the two leaders of supporting genocide. Seligson's attorney, Leena Widdi, said her client was acting in his capacity as a credentialed member of the media, describing the hate crime charges as an "appalling" overreach by police and prosecutors. A law enforcement official at the time described Seligson as a participant who was not directly involved in the property damage. Seligson returns to court on Oct. 15 and, according to court records, is considering a plea offer. The Associated Press contributed reporting.

No candidates on ballot for Cold Spring justice The judge's seat at the Cold Spring Justice Court is up for grabs in the Nov. 4 election - but the ballot will not list any candidates. The unusual circumstance arose after Justice Thomas Costello, who has served for 24 years, decided not to seek reelection to a seventh, 4-year term. However, he did so only after an April deadline for candidates to file paperwork with the Putnam County Board of Elections to appear on the ballot, and no candidate filed an independent nominating petition by a May 27 deadline or was nominated after a party caucus by a July 24 deadline. As a result, the new justice will be elected by write-in votes. (Costello's wife, Cathy, who has been the court clerk for 15 years, announced recently she will retire on Dec. 1.) Under state law, only village residents are eligible to serve, unless the Village Board adopts a local law that expands the residency requirements. The Cold Spring Justice Court has two judges. The second, the associate judge, is appointed by the Village Board. Until June, it was Camille Linson, but she moved out of the area and was replaced by Luke Hilpert, who has said he is considering a write-in campaign to succeed Costello. Philipstown also has two justices; both are elected. One was Linson, who had been elected in November to her third, 4-year term. When she resigned, the Town Board appointed Hilpert to succeed her until the election. Hilpert said he plans to run as a write-in candidate to keep the seat against Fred Clarke, a Cold Spring resident whose name will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot after he was nominated by the Philipstown Democratic Committee. (The other Philipstown justice is Angela Thompson-Tinsley, a Democrat elected in 2023.) Unlike judges at the state, county and city level in New York, town and village justices are not required to be lawyers, although they must undergo training. There are nearly 1,200 town and village courts in New York, which handle nearly 1 million cases annually, including vehicle and traffic violations, small claims, evictions and minor criminal offenses.

In a classic work, a woman suffers in silence Performances featuring a lone actor are a trend, says Caitlin Morley, the artistic director at Wayward Son, a theater company in New York City. A solo adaptation of Dracula at Bannerman Island just closed, and Jim Dale comes to The Depot Theater in Garrison on Oct. 12 for An Actor's Nightmare. Sandwiched in between is Morley and Susannah Millonzi's premiere of The Yellow Wallpaper at the Depot on Oct. 10 and 11. The pair, who are affiliated with the edgy troupe Bedlam, animated a short story written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that hews close to the original. The first-person narrative, thought to be autobiographical, centers on a new mother - identified only as "woman" - who is drugged up by her husband, a doctor named John, who dismisses her ideas in knee-jerk fashion and isolates her in a room with bars on the windows. When she tries to step outside one night, he says, "What is it, little girl? Don't go walking about like that - you'll get cold." In addition to cod-liver oil, he besots her with tonics, ale, wine and rare meat. Although she is a writer, the woman is forbidden to work until she is "well again" and laments that her stifling husband "does not know how much I really suffer." John contends that the woman succumbs to hysteria and "temporary nervous depression"; the woman's brother, also a physician, agrees. She takes "pains to control myself," which exhausts her, but wants to socialize, express herself and be with her child. The character continues to write secretly as a creative outlet and a form of rebellion. She becomes obsessed with the room's wallpaper and descends into a form of madness. Morley, 25, encountered the short story during a gender studies class at Tufts University. "It has a cult following, and people consider it to be either about that crazy lady or a work of horror," she says. "It's often compared to Poe's 'Tell-Tale Heart.' I'm surprised there haven't been more adaptations; it's been marinating inside my head for five years." She directs the production and Millonzi, an actor, dancer and choreographer who lives in Cold Spring, performs. (This year, Millonzi choreographed two plays for Hudson Valley Shakespeare.) Though "The Yellow Wallpaper" is 133 years old, "I felt a connection - it reads like a monologue," says Morley. "Many people have a deep love for it and, given the recent movement to silence women, especially regarding health care, we're driven to do this right now." She cites experiences of "going to the doctor and constantly feeling dismissed and not taken seriously about my own self-knowledge. This play shows the persistence in history of women's voices being minimized. Here, she silences herself; her husband knows better about everything, and he happens to be a doctor." The Depot Theater is located at 10 Garrison's Landing. Tickets are $20 or $35 at depottheater.org. Both performances begin at 7:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump said Friday (Oct. 3) he has personally reversed $187 million in funding cuts made by his administration for New York's law enforcement and counterterrorism operations, following bipartisan outcry from New York officials. In Dutchess, funding would have dropped from $574,000 to $54,000, and in Putnam, from $235,000 to $22,000, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul's office. New York joined 11 other states on Monday in a lawsuit aimed at preventing the cuts. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican whose district includes Philipstown, said the cuts were "unacceptable and posed a direct threat to the safety of New Yorkers." He said he also worked to have the reductions reversed. "New York remains the number one target for terrorism, and we cannot let politics put lives at risk," he said in a statement. The cut would have slashed federal counterterrorism funding for the NYPD from $90 million to nearly $10 million, according to Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who on Wednesday called it "a devastating blow." She called the city "the No. 1 terrorist target in the world." Trump announced the restoration of federal funding on Truth Social. "I am pleased to advise that I reversed the cuts made to Homeland Security and Counterterrorism for New York City and State. It was my Honor to do so," he wrote. "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" The reversal came after Hochul sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday railing against the cuts, saying they represented 86 percent of homeland security funding to the state, impacting the New York City police and fire departments, state police and other law enforcement agencies. On Friday, Hochul credited political pushback from the state for the restoration of funds. "From the moment these devastating cuts were announced, I made it clear that New York would not stand by while our law enforcement and counterterrorism operations were defunded," Hochul said in a statement. "I'm glad President Trump heard our call and reversed course, ensuring our state has the resources necessary to support law enforcement and keep our families safe." Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the only Republican representing New York City in Congress, said she had spoken with Trump about the cuts, which she called a "terrible idea." "New York remains the nation's top terror target, and cutting this funding was never acceptable," she said in a statement. The Associated Press provided reporting.

Wants Nelsonville station named for McConville Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne proposed on Wednesday (Oct. 1) a $222 million budget for 2026 with a tax cut he calls the largest in the county's history and a fund to be shared with its six towns and villages, including Cold Spring, Nelsonville and Philipstown. Byrne also plans to ask the Legislature to approve naming the Sheriff's Office substation on Main Street in Nelsonville in honor of the late Sheriff Kevin McConville, a Cold Spring resident who died in August. "He was not only a trusted law enforcement officer but also a mentor, a colleague and a friend to many," Byrne said. Byrne's proposed budget would raise spending by $18 million (8.9 percent) offset by $45.2 million in property taxes and $83.5 million in sales-tax revenue, he said during a presentation at the Historic Courthouse in Carmel. The $1 million reduction in the property tax levy equates to a 2 percent cut, he said. His budget (online at dub.sh/putnam-budget-2026) also sets aside $2.3 million for Putnam's inaugural sales-tax-sharing agreement with Nelsonville, Cold Spring, Philipstown and five other towns and the Village of Brewster. Each municipality will receive a share based on population to be used on infrastructure projects, with a minimum award of $50,000. The agreement was tied to a two-year extension of a 1 percent increase in its sales tax - from 3 percent to 4 percent - first approved in 2007 and set to expire in November. A majority of the Legislature initially voted against the extension but relented amid pressure from Byrne, the municipalities and Putnam's state representatives. "Had we not reached a consensus and acted as we did, Putnam County would have turned away over $21 million in sales tax revenue, which would have forced us to raise property taxes, cut services and excessively rely on our fund balance," said Byrne. "We avoided this crisis scenario." The budget allocates about $6.6 million in general fund reserves and proposes new positions, including a counsel for the majority-Republican Legislature and a part-time counsel for its minority member, Nancy Montgomery, a Democrat who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley. Byrne is also requesting two specialists for the Department of Social Services, a prosecutor who will specialize in financial crimes for the District Attorney's Office, a personnel specialist, an accountant for the Finance Department and a veterans service officer. Based on recommendations from a consultant, the public health nurse positions in the Department of Health would be reclassified to a higher pay grade to improve recruitment and retention. Byrne's proposal also contains raises for management employees, ranging from prosecutors and deputy county attorneys to coroners and elections commissioners. Byrne is proposing a reduction, from 30 percent to 17 percent, in the share of health insurance premiums that newer employees are required to pay. Four of the county's unions have agreed to the reduction, but the change needs the Legislature's approval, he said. Other initiatives include a one-year extension of the sales tax exemption on clothing and shoes costing less than $110; changing the criteria for farms applying to Putnam's Agricultural District; and piloting a program in which paramedics would provide public health, primary care and preventive services in homes.

Over 920K in the Hudson Valley are eligible More than 8 million New York state residents and 924,000 in the Hudson Valley will begin receiving "inflation refund" checks ranging from $150 to $400, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Friday (Sept. 25). Automatic payments have started going out to people who filed taxes as a New York resident for 2023 and were not claimed by someone else as a dependent, said Hochul, with payouts continuing through November. "This is your money and we're putting it back in your pockets," she said. The amount a person receives depends on filing status and income. Joint filers with incomes up to $150,000 will receive $400. Joint filers with incomes between $150,001 and $300,000 are eligible for $300 checks. Single filers with incomes up to $75,000 will receive $200. Single filers with incomes over $75,000 are eligible for $150. Visit tax.ny.gov/pit/inflation-refund-checks.htm for more information.

Holtec says no wastewater releases imminent A federal judge ruled on Wednesday (Sept. 24) that the state overstepped its authority when it passed a law to prevent the company decommissioning Indian Point from discharging radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River. The Save the Hudson act was passed in August 2023 to prevent Holtec International from discharging water containing tritium as it decommissions the shuttered nuclear power plant near Peekskill. Holtec sued in April 2024, arguing that the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 gives the federal government the "exclusive right to regulate the discharge of radioactive materials from nuclear power plants." The company also argued in its lawsuit that the discharges would be far below the federal government's limits for tritium in wastewater, and that Indian Point routinely made similar discharges during the 50 years the plant operated. Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains agreed, ruling Wednesday that Holtec was within its rights and had assured compliance with federal regulations. New York Attorney General Letitia James has not yet announced whether she will appeal the decision. But Holtec officials said Thursday (Sept. 25), during a meeting of the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board (DOB), that the company is not planning any discharges in the near term, and that they would discuss the issue with local stakeholders at a meeting next month. Even if the company decides to release wastewater into the Hudson, it needs to give the state a minimum 30-day notice. "Everyone is still digesting this," said state Sen. Peter Harckham, one of the Save the Hudson act's sponsors. "We don't know what the attorney general will do. I think we all need to wait and let the process play out, however it's going to play out in the courts." Holtec also said on Thursday that it is not considering reopening Indian Point - despite a recent article in Politico in which Kelly Trice, the company's president, said that it would be possible. The company estimates that rebuilding the reactors would cost $8 billion to $10 billion and take four years. Its estimate was prepared because the federal Department of Energy is "asking everyone that has a closed or decommissioned site," said Patrick O'Brien, a Holtec official. "The question we always get asked is, 'Is it possible to potentially rebuild Indian Point?' " he said at the DOB meeting. "Our goal is to answer the question once and for all publicly and just say yes, but if the political will exists." If Holtec did try to reopen Indian Point, it would face numerous hurdles. First, as part of the shutdown agreement, any plans to again create nuclear energy at the site must be unanimously approved by the Village of Buchanan, the Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York State and the Hendrick Hudson School District. At the DOB meeting, Susan Spear, Westchester's commissioner of emergency services, read a statement from County Executive Ken Jenkins in which he declared that the county "will not agree to support and will oppose any application for nuclear reactors at the Indian Point site." According to Jenkins, "We need to just move on." Holtec would also face logistical hurdles. The company's estimate for reopening is based on essentially rebuilding the current plant, despite the fact that the reactors have been shut down and dismantled. "We would use existing equipment and add reconstituted parts," said O'Brien. "There's still good equipment there. For now we're continuing down a path of decommissioning." As the design of Indian Point was found, near the end of its lifecycle, to be in violation of the Clean Water Act, any new nuclear at Indian Point wouldn't be able to draw water from the Hudson. Holtec is in the final stages of attempting to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan, which initially shut down in 2022, by the end of the year. If it succeeds, it will be the first time a shuttered nuclear power plant has been restarted in the Un...

Students adjust to ban with board games, CD players A month into the statewide school cellphone ban, students in Beacon and Philipstown are playing cards during lunch, reading during study hall and showing up on time to class because they can no longer make TikTok videos on campus. Some Beacon High School students recently spent a free period playing tag. "They're being kids again," said Rachel Faiella, a Beacon High School social worker. "It's such a difference." Beginning in September, state law banned students from using their own internet-enabled devices during the school day. Students, teachers and administrators seem to agree that the ban has transformed the culture, particularly at Beacon High School, Rombout Middle School in Beacon and Haldane High School in Cold Spring. Cellphones were already banned in the Beacon and Haldane elementary schools, as well as in Haldane Middle School and the Garrison School, which serves students from pre-K to eighth grade. All local public schools had previously banned the use of cellphones during class. Beacon and Haldane students have mostly been complying, keeping their phones in their backpacks or leaving them at home, according to school officials. On Wednesday (Sept. 24), Julia Sniffen, the principal at Haldane High School, said a handful of students were starting to test the ban. She said she had three confiscated phones in her office. Walking down a hallway during lunch, Sniffen saw several students walking together and said, "I hope I don't see any cellphones." The students smiled and raised their hands to show they were empty. In interviews, students said they like the ban. "It's a lot easier to stay focused and on track, not only academically but also mentally," said Melby Scher, a Beacon senior. She said that, in previous years, the text message "We need to talk" could turn into a daylong distraction. "Before this year, I was on TikTok and Instagram trying to watch everything," said Samiria Ferrer, another Beacon senior. "Now the phone's away, so I can just focus on schoolwork." "In study halls, I'm seeing more actual studying," said Rebecca Masback, a Haldane High School teacher. Students have been innovative in battling boredom, relying on old-school music players that don't violate the ban on internet-enabled devices, said Corey Dwyer, the principal of Beacon High School. "We've seen CD players, Walkmans, MP3 players. We've been joking that the '90s are back." Haldane and Beacon are providing board games like Scrabble, UNO, Connect 4, Twister and Cornhole. "I'm great at Jenga," said Khiana Nicholson, a Beacon senior, who was playing with friends during lunch. Some students noted loopholes. For instance, they have discovered they can still stream shows and movies on Hulu and BritBox through their school-issued Chromebooks. Prince Jones, a Beacon senior, said he thought the ban shouldn't apply to study halls, especially early in the year, when there isn't much homework. During a study hall during the first week of school, "I would just stare at the walls for a little bit and sleep," he said. "It's a hard adjustment for a lot of us, because, you know, we're all addicted to our cellphones," said Nadine Alayon, a Haldane junior, who was playing an oversized game of Connect 4 in front of the school. "It's been hard not going on TikTok during lunch. But it's fun to see everybody talk and socialize in the hallways." "I like it a lot," said David Powlis, another junior at Haldane, who was playing Twister in the hall during lunch on Wednesday. He said in previous years, before the ban, "I would be sitting with my nose in my phone, wasting my lunch period."

Federal government settles over land claims In a settlement with the federal government, eight Dutchess and Putnam County landowners, including five in Beacon, were awarded $1.06 million in compensation for property taken for a proposed 13-mile rail trail - apparently the first resolution in a slew of similar lawsuits. Metro-North, which acquired the dormant Beacon Line in 1995, is negotiating to relinquish the tracks to the state for a Beacon-to-Hopewell Junction trail. It would wind from Beacon's train station for 4 miles around the city's southern perimeter before running parallel with Tioronda Avenue and the east end of Main Street. The entire Beacon Line is 41 miles long and stretches to the Connecticut border. The eight plaintiffs are represented by Lewis Rice, a law firm in St. Louis that specializes in rail trail "takings" cases. Four own homes on Tioronda Avenue and another is the limited-liability company behind the condos at 1 East Main St. The property under and adjacent to the tracks was seized in February 2024 under the National Trails System Act, which allows abandoned railroad lines to be converted to parks. A feasibility study commissioned by Dutchess County and released in August recommended tearing out the unused tracks between Beacon and Hopewell for $46 million to $56 million rather than installing a path alongside them. Landowners adjoining the corridor can claim swaths of land likely lost in the 19th century, when railroads that needed the corridors purchased or condemned the land or acquired easements, according to Steve Wald of Stewart, Wald & Smith, another St. Louis law firm specializing in rail-trail property cases. The firms argue that modern owners are "predecessors in title" who "have the same rights as the original landowners." The plaintiffs in this case and similar ones elsewhere in the country say that, in the event of a conversion of use to something other than rail access, they should receive "full possession and control" or be compensated. If a court agrees, appraisers determine the amount of land lost, as well as any damages related to loss of privacy and/or security from the trail construction. More than 80 abandoned railroad lines in New York state have been converted to trails, including the 13-mile Dutchess Rail Trail that stretches from Hopewell Junction to the Walkway Over the Hudson and the 12-mile Putnam County Trailway between Baldwin Place and Brewster. More lawsuits are pending. Stewart, Wald & Smith has at least three outstanding cases that name 260 landowners. In Beacon, their clients include the Elks, Lank's Automotive, Lori Joseph Builders, Levi Reavey Sr. and Whitefield Properties. On Aug. 21, Lewis Rice filed a lawsuit on behalf of G.P. Beacon LLC at 578 Main St. and property owners in Fishkill and Pawling. On Sept. 17, Stewart, Wald & Smith filed a claim for owners in Fishkill, Hopewell Junction, Pawling and Poughquag.

Italian artist created wry, but serious, works Piero Manzoni, who became famous in Italy before his death in 1963 at age 29, challenged conceptions of art as Marshall Plan funds flowed in after World War II and his nation shifted from agrarian to industrial. He also lampooned celebrity and consumer culture, worked with non-traditional materials and believed that the creator alone determined what is art. As chronicled in a video on display at a new exhibit, Total Space, at Magazzino Italian Art in Philipstown, Manzoni dipped his thumb in ink, imprinted hard-boiled eggs and placed them in small boxes. He blew up balloons for his Artist's Breath series but really grabbed attention with 90 tins of Artist's Shit. No one knows what's inside the cans; even before Warhol, Manzoni made a bold statement about the art world and its pretenses. "Many a truth is told in jest," says Greg Slick, the museum's chief docent. "He lets us into his art with a smile, but he was dead serious about it." Several examples of Manzoni's iconoclastic approach are on view at Magazzino, which specializes in the Arte Povera movement that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Manzoni exerted a major influence on the loosely affiliated group of artists who expanded his ideas into new frontiers. In a cavernous gallery with booming echo and the statement "Stand Here You Are Art" in bold black on the back wall, Manzoni's "Magical Base" (a wood pedestal) offers visitors the chance to play statue and get a good photo op. Also included are six works from the artist's Achrome series, a word he concocted that translates to "anti-color." All the work is whiteish, but the focus is on texture. They are differentiated by dates. A folded canvas created in 1958-59 looks like undulating water. Another, made in 1958 from plaster and kaolin on canvas, resembles a slab of stone; a 1960 piece frames a stack of eight polystyrene squares. Two significant works on display are the roughly 10-foot cubic spaces commissioned by the artist's family foundation in conjunction with the gallery Hauser & Wirth, based on a concept briefly mentioned in a letter the artist wrote to a friend in 1961. In the Lower Gallery Three decanters visible as visitors descend the stairs into Magazzino's lower gallery provide a harbinger of the heart-stopping works in the exhibition Yoichi Ohira: Japan in Murano. Ohira studied in Venice and designed elaborate vessels after becoming artistic director of de Majo glassworks on the island of Murano in 1987. Drawings outlining his intentions hang on the wall. Italian craftsmen executed the details with precision, and Ohira credited the glassblowers and the carvers, as well. The work, primarily executed by maestro Livio Serena, evokes a wide range of textures, some of which resemble wood or ceramics. Several vessels present optical illusions: In the Pasta vitrea series, some of the shapes appear to rise from the surface. Others are specked with colorful chips that seem to be recessed, but everything is flat. For fans of the glassblower's art, run, don't walk. The museum owns the rooms, designed by architect Stephanie Goto. During a preview opening, RAI, the Italian public broadcast outlet, interviewed curator Nicola Lucchi, who is the museum's director of research and education. The patterns in "Hairy Room," whose interior consists of faux white fur, are almost psychedelic. In the also-trippy "Phosphorescent Room," the light switches on and off every 30 seconds. In one mode, the walls and ceiling are fluorescent neon green; the other flips the tint to beige-yellow as the light emanates from the floor. Manzoni may have equated art with excrement to pull people in but, for better or worse, his provocations helped push the philosophical boundaries of conceptual creativity to its extremes during his lifetime. Magazzino, at 2700 Route 9, is open Friday to Monday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $20 ($10 seniors, students, disabled visitors; $5 ages 5 to 10...

Retired Beacon officer accused of killing roommate The mental health of Edison Irizarry, the retired Beacon police officer accused of murdering the man who shared his apartment, will be evaluated before his next court date in December. Irizarry, 52, was arrested July 21 after Beacon police responded to a 911 call placed by Irizarry, who said he had shot his roommate. Police found Casey Cuddy, 58, of Beacon, dead inside an apartment at 86 Rombout Ave. Irizarry served 17 years with the Beacon police before retiring in 2021. After determining that the caller was a retired officer, Beacon police turned the investigation over to the New York State Police. Irizarry was indicted by a Dutchess County grand jury on Aug. 5 on a second-degree murder charge and is being held at the county jail in Poughkeepsie without bail. The district attorney's office said that Irizarry is accused of shooting Cuddy, a psychiatric mental health nurse, multiple times with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic Glock pistol. Irizarry pleaded not guilty in Beacon City Court on July 22. In an interview last month, Irizarry told the Times Union that he acted in self-defense to prevent "something evil from happening." On Wednesday (Sept. 24), Susan Mraz Mungavin, Irizarry's public defender, and Brittney Kessel, the deputy unit chief of the Dutchess County DA's Office, met privately for about 10 minutes with Judge Jessica Segal. When they emerged, Segal said that Mungavin had hired a psychiatric expert to evaluate her client. She set an Oct. 22 deadline for Mungavin to file motions related to the evaluation. Prosecutors must file their response, if any, by Nov. 12 and Segal set Dec. 10 as the next court date. Irizarry did not appear.

Howland again focuses on photography Strange things are happening at the Howland Cultural Center's photo exhibit Focus on Photographers II. On Sept. 20, a mother and daughter from New Mexico stopped by. They are friends of Wilbur Norman, one of the artists, who lives outside Santa Fe. The following day, a couple from Queens - by way of Nepal - dropped in and named the monks in Norman's photograph, "Puja for the Safe Trek of Our Tour Group," which captures a cavernous temple scene. Curators Larry Kerschberg and Ronnie Sauers live in Cold Spring. He is a retired computer science professor active with the Beacon Photography Group on Facebook. Sauers, an interior designer, moved to Beacon in 1987. The bridge on East Main Street over Fishkill Creek is named after her and her late husband, Ron, who died in 2011. The exhibit's feng shui is apparent in the way she bookended Norman's display with two striking photos taken abroad - "Bat Man" and "Dance Preparations by Hul Wig Man." The wall flanking Ron Hershey's work features two images showcasing radiant blue hues shot in Morocco. Robert Tirrell, who lives in the city, contributed five photos. In his composition "Bird Gang," seven pigeons strike humorous poses while standing on the roof of a car. Hillary Clements, Ross Corsair, Amy Finkel and Hershey are locals. Clements layers multiple exposures inside the camera, an effect that creates captivating images of leaves and plants. Some look like collages, others resemble human creations. The print "Ferns" evokes an X-ray of the bumpy plants. Also employing an unorthodox technique, Ross Corsair's shots come "straight out of the camera, with no post-processing or AI enhancement," he says. Three deftly silhouetted images convey anonymity, such as "Assignation," an urban street scene taken from a bird's-eye view, where a lone figure with a blue and red umbrella punctuates the bland grays and browns. A creator of lush work, Hershey's misty, dreamy photo, "Li River Landscape, China," looks like a painting. Another shot, "Woman in a Narrow Passage, Morocco," appears to be posed, as the subject fits perfectly into the crevasse and wears a blue outfit that complements the background. Finkel points her camera at everyday subjects, like a dog dressed in a peacock costume baring its lower fangs; "Stanley" is adorable, but also a bit menacing. Another pup chomping on a ball in "New Veneers" appears to have a perfect set of teeth, as the toy's design aligns in the pooch's mouth. "Carousel" captures a girl's face in focus while the swirling background fades into a blur. As the exhibit's title suggests, this is the second go-round for Kerschberg and Sauers in the curatorial department. The exhibit's third iteration will return next year. "It takes a lot of time putting this together," he says, "but it's worth it because the work is so good." The Howland Cultural Center, at 477 Main St. in Beacon, is open from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and most Sundays. See howlandculturalcenter.org. "Focus on Photographers II" continues through Nov. 16.

Putnam also considers lower premiums for employees A consultant is recommending salary increases for Putnam County public health nurses and other positions. At the same time, the Legislature took up a proposal to dramatically reduce the amounts employees contribute to their health coverage. Julia Culkin-Jacobia of Catapult Executive Consulting presented to the Legislature's Personnel Committee on Sept. 18 the results of her review of the salaries paid to employees covered by the Civil Service Employees Association, the county's largest union. The committee also reviewed a draft agreement between County Executive Kevin Byrne and labor unions that would cap the employee share of their health insurance premiums at 17 percent, instead of the current maximum of 30 percent. The six nursing jobs in the Department of Health were the original focus of the study, but it expanded to include other positions as Putnam seeks to improve recruitment and retention. For nurses, Culkin-Jacobia suggests that Putnam boost the starting rate from $72,269 to $75,770 by reassigning them to a higher CSEA pay scale, Grade 19 instead of Grade 18. The starting salary would then be closer to the average of $74,153 in seven "peer counties," including Dutchess, Orange, Rockland and Westchester. Kathy Percacciolo, the nursing supervisor for the Health Department, said that many counties and hospitals used pandemic relief funds to raise the salaries of public health nurses, but in Putnam, "the COVID money was not used for that reason, which set us back." Putnam has had a "real struggle" to fill the nursing positions, said Paul Eldridge, the county personnel officer. Five of the six positions are now filled, but three were open as recently as August, he said. To entice new hires, the county is offering starting pay at the higher end of Grade 18, but that leaves little room for raises. Reclassifying the positions to Grade 19 allows the county to offer higher starting pay while retaining the "ability to use the other steps" of the higher grade, he said. Culkin-Jacobia also suggested changes for management positions, ranging from confidential secretaries and directors to assistant district attorneys and the county executive's staff, that do not have salary scales. She recommended a 12-grade scale "to help manage costs and also have a guideline for administration to make salary decisions." Each grade would have a minimum salary ranging from $62,080 to $177,121, as well as maximums ($80,960 to $230,988). Culkin-Jacobia identified several management positions for raises, including the county auditor (7 to 10 percent), the two elections commissioners (5 percent), an IT systems specialist (28 percent) and the park superintendent (5 percent). "With the labor shortage over the last two to three years, especially, there's been a lot of retention issues, especially as people were retiring from the county," she said. The challenge of recruiting and retaining employees also prompted Byrne to create a committee to review the amount that workers must contribute to their health insurance premiums. Many new hires pay 30 percent, which falls as they accrue time, Eldridge said. Putnam's rate is significantly higher than the cap in Dutchess and Westchester (20 percent each) and Orange (16 percent) counties. Under the proposal, the 30 percent contributions would be reduced to 17 percent under an agreement between Byrne, the CSEA and the three other unions that represent Putnam employees: the Putnam County Sheriff's Employee Association (jail guards and staff), the Putnam Management Association and the Sheriff's PBA (deputies). The committee also calculated the costs if the county changed the maximum to 20 percent, 18 percent or 15 percent, but Byrne, in a letter to the Personnel Committee, called the 17 percent cap "reasonable, fiscally informed, fair and regionally competitive." Eldridge said that 225 Putnam employees would benefit. The plan would add $865,000 to the $11.5 milli...

Seeks class-action status over First Amendment claims The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is banning opinions by professors in the classroom and some books and courses in a crackdown that violates the First Amendment, a law professor at the military school said in a lawsuit Monday (Sept. 22) seeking class-action status. Tim Bakken filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court and named the school and its leaders as defendants. He said he wants to protect free speech and the right to academic freedom at an institution where he has flourished despite his public criticisms of the academy and the U.S. military. Bakken also noted in the lawsuit that he has a contract with a publisher for a book that is critical of some aspects of West Point and doesn't want to seek approval from the school's leadership prior to its publication because "it is very likely such approval will be withheld." The lawsuit seeks class action status for West Point's civilian faculty members, believed to be more than 100 individuals, and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech, along with unspecified damages and legal fees. Bakken's lawsuit said the school began to scrutinize faculty speech after a January executive order from President Donald Trump to "carefully review the leadership, curriculum and instructors of the United States Service Academies and other defense academic institutions." In February, the military academy at West Point issued a policy preventing faculty members from using the school's "affiliation or branding" in connection with any public comments or writings without the academy's approval, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit said the policy was "to control, chill and suppress faculty speech." The lawsuit said the academy in the spring withdrew books from its library, removed words and phrases from faculty members' syllabi, eliminated courses and majors and threatened or punished faculty members for teaching, speaking and writing without prior approval from the school. During the summer, the academy removed information about faculty members' published books, articles, essays and scholarship entries from all faculty members' webpages on the school's website, the lawsuit said. It also directed instructors not to express opinions in the classroom, it said. "As a professor of law, Plaintiff's inability to express opinions on the subject matter being taught is stifling and disruptive to the educational process," the lawsuit said. It added that he no longer would be able to express to students whether a major or dissenting opinion is persuasive and why. The military academy did not immediately return a request for comment. Bakken, a civilian professor of law in the academy's Department of Law and Philosophy for the last 25 years, is the longest-serving law professor in West Point's history and has written extensively, including books, articles and essays, along with appearances on podcasts, radio and television, the lawsuit said. His most recent books are The Cost of Loyalty: Dishonesty, Hubris, and Failure in the U.S. Military (2020) and The Plea of Innocence: Restoring Truth to the American Justice System (2022). According to the lawsuit, he traveled with U.S. soldiers to Kabul in 2007 during the war in Afghanistan and created the Department of Law at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan. He seeks class action status for West Point's faculty and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech.

White House seeks control of state elections Dutchess and Putnam are among a handful of New York counties where election boards recently have received unusual federal subpoenas for information on registered voters as the administration of President Donald Trump pursues more control over state elections. Lisa Jessup, the Democratic commissioner for the Dutchess County Board of Elections, said on Tuesday (Sept. 16) that in a subpoena received on Sept. 4, the Department of Homeland Security requested information on a single voter who registered to vote as a Republican in 2023 through the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The person has never voted, she said. Two more subpoenas were sent to the Putnam Board of Elections, one in June and another on Sept. 9, said Catherine Croft, the Democratic commissioner, and Kelly Primavera, the Republican commissioner. Primavera said it is not unusual to respond to requests from state or local police, but could not recall having ever gotten a subpoena from the federal government. Homeland Security also subpoenaed records for three voters in Saratoga County and an Ellenville resident in Ulster County who registered through the DMV, according to the Times Union in Albany. A Homeland Security agent contacted by the Daily Freeman in Kingston about the Ulster County request said the subpoena was "related to potential voter fraud," but declined further comment, citing an ongoing investigation, according to the paper. Shadowing the requests is the Trump administration's campaign against alleged widespread voting by non-citizens, despite laws that already prevent them from voting in state and federal elections and a lack of evidence. New York is among at least 27 states where election boards have received requests from the Department of Justice to turn over their databases of registered voters, including driver's license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The letter to New York officials, dated June 30, asked them to detail how the state complies with the Help America Vote Act, including processes for identifying ineligible voters, such as non-citizens and people registered in other states. At least 11 states responded by sending publicly available files, leading to a second round of letters in August requesting the entire databases, according to an analysis by Eileen O'Connor, a senior counsel with the Brennan Center. "The executive branch has no authority to run our elections, nor any authority to compile a massive database of voters' personal information," she said. In March, Trump issued a sweeping executive order that included directing the attorney general and Justice Department to prioritize the prosecution of election crimes, although they appear to be rare. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation lists 1,276 election-fraud cases nationwide over the past 20 years, including 26 in New York for charges ranging from misusing absentee ballots to voting twice in the same election and forging petition signatures. There were 85 cases involving non-citizens accused of registering to vote or casting ballots during that period, and none in New York state. Heritage's database lists no cases nationally for 2020, when more than 155 million people cast votes in the presidential election that Trump lost to Joe Biden. On Sept. 4, Louisiana's Republican secretary of state, Nancy Landry, announced that an investigation involving voter rolls as far back as the 1980s found 390 non-citizens registered to vote, with 79 having voted in at least one election. "Noncitizens illegally registering or voting is not a systemic problem in Louisiana," she said. "In fact, our voter-list maintenance procedures are a key reason why Louisiana is ranked No. 3 in the nation for election integrity." In June, New York and 18 other states that sued the Trump administration over his executive order won a preliminary injunction against some...

For first time, students don't need to bring their own It's hard to say who likes the Garrison School's new lunch program more: the children who dine daily on entrees such as hot dogs, tacos and chicken Caesar salads, or the parents who no longer have to pack sandwiches. The public school, which has about 200 students from pre-K to eighth grade, had never had a daily lunch program. Students brought their meals from home, although parents sold pizza on Fridays for years as fundraisers. The new program "has been a game-changer," said Principal Allison Emig. "It's a big help to families getting their kids out the door. But also, it's a game-changer in the school culture. The kids are happy." The meals are offered free to every student through a Universal Free Meals program included in this year's state budget. Funded by state and federal grants, it also covers breakfasts if a school offers them. Garrison provides its lunches in partnership with the Putnam Valley Central School District, said Greg Stowell, the superintendent. He said that the meals are prepared, in part, at Putnam Valley High School and delivered to Garrison. The daily menu is posted on the school website, and the students tell their teachers each morning if they want a cafeteria meal. The school provides about 180 lunches each day; some students still bring their own. The district expects to spend about $50,000 to upgrade its kitchen and hopes to add a la carte offerings for purchase. On Monday (Sept. 15), the menu included cinnamon French toast, ham and cheese sandwiches, chef salads, oranges and fruit salads. On Tuesday, Beshea Toribio, a seventh grader, selected chicken tenders, tater tots, green beans and strawberries. "The salads are also good," she said, speaking over the din of the raucous lunchroom. A classmate, Julia Murphy, also chose the chicken tenders and tater tots but added what appeared to be at least four packets of ketchup. She drank chocolate milk. "I love chocolate milk," said Murphy, 12. "Now I get to have it every day for free." Lunch has been "the highlight of her day since she started school," said Julia's mom, Sandi Murphy, who has spent many years packing meals for her three children. "I'm just hoping her excitement about it continues, because it certainly gives me one less thing to do." In Cold Spring, the Haldane district also began offering all students free meals this year and says it has seen a 15 percent increase in lunches served and a much larger jump in breakfasts, from 58 during the first two weeks of school in 2024 to 500 this year. Beacon public schools have offered free meals since January 2024.

Discovery comes as Riverkeeper launches monitoring tool On Sept. 10, the environmental group Riverkeeper launched a water quality portal with an interactive map that shows where it's safe to swim and fish in the Hudson River. It also indicates where sewage is more likely to overflow during heavy rains, the location of concentrated animal feeding operations (a frequent source of pollution) and the presence of bacteria that can form harmful algal blooms that are dangerous to people and pets. The timing, unfortunately, was perfect. Two days later, the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies in Millbrook announced that it had documented the largest harmful algal bloom (HAB) in at least 40 years of monitoring, stretching across the river from Kingston to Staatsburg. The discovery comes at the tail-end of a busy summer for blooms, with similar (although smaller) ones occurring elsewhere, including Beacon's Long Dock Park in August. Earlier this summer, Putnam County shut down 14 beaches due to blooms. "The algal bloom points out both the importance of having historic data" to monitor conditions and consider responses, said Tracy Brown, president of Riverkeeper, which is based in Ossining and Kingston. The nonprofit will soon update its portal to show the effects of climate change on the river. Pollution and stormwater run-off can cause HABs, but Chris Solomon of the Cary Institute, one of the researchers who discovered the large bloom, said its origins are not clear. He said it's likely that drought and warm water were involved, as they were in the creation of an HAB that appeared in Beacon's Melzingah Reservoir during the hot, dry summer of 2021. Both of those factors are likely to become more common in the Hudson Valley. "Increasing water temperatures, air temperatures and droughts are the things that are triggering the algal blooms we're seeing now," said Brown. "Climate change is here, and it's unfolding in real time." The surface area of the HAB near Kingston isn't its only notable feature, said Solomon. Blooms usually only form in slack water, so it's unusual to see one stretch out across the free-flowing river instead of hugging the shore. And the bloom is unusually wide and deep. "Anywhere we looked in the water column, the algae was quite dense," said Solomon. Satellite imagery taken earlier this week showed that the bloom has continued to grow. HABs can cause skin irritation, gastrointestinal symptoms and, in more potent cases, neurological damage and death. Riverkeeper partners with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to collect data for its portal, but NOAA, like many federal science agencies, has been targeted by the Trump administration for cuts. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) secured $250,000 to launch the portal, but Brown expects there may not be more funds coming. Earlier versions of the portal highlighted that "the open Hudson tends to be cleaner than a lot of the tributary rivers and streams," said Brown. "That flies in the face of people's assumptions. They think, 'Oh, this beautiful little stream going through my local duck pond is going to be nice to swim in as opposed to the big, nasty Hudson.' People were swimming in Rondout Creek in Kingston because they thought it would be cleaner than Kingston Point Beach, on the Hudson." The Riverkeeper portal is one of several new monitoring tools. This past summer, Bard College unveiled an air monitoring site and the Open Space Institute debuted maps that track how much carbon America's forests are sequestering. Riverkeeper's online portal is at data.riverkeeper.org. To report a Harmful Algal Bloom, see bit.ly/HABform or email HABsinfo@dec.ny.gov. The state also maintains a map of HABs at tinyurl.com/nys-hab-map.

Lana Lagomarsini "The best way to get me to do something is to challenge me," says Lana Lagomarsini, who moved with her family from the Bronx to Beacon when she was 15. So far in her career, she has proven that by competing on Bravo's Top Chef, Netflix's Pressure Cooker and the Food Network's Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen: Knives Out. How did she navigate those stressful situations? "I'm generally a calm person, but, yeah, I do like a challenge," she says. "I like a challenge with parameters, too - for some reason, it helps me think." The transition to Beacon from New York City as a teenager was not easy. "We drove out so far and I saw a cow," she says. "I started crying. I had been going to the same school since I was 5 years old." After she settled in at Beacon High School, "I was the cool girl who moved up from the city. I didn't even realize that I had a New York City attitude on me." While studying journalism at Northeastern University, Lagomarsini began blogging about food and Boston's restaurant scene. Posts about her Game of Thrones pop-up dinners prompted a friend to offer her a part-time job as a line chef. "He said, 'How would you like to put your money where your mouth is?'" says Lagomarsini. "That just started everything." She found her niche in restaurant kitchens, where chefs were "pirate-y," she says. "They all had tattoos, and they're saying all this cool lingo. They're working so hard, and everything looks so beautiful and tastes so good. Everything's sparkling clean. I was like, 'I want to do this.'" She tried out for a job with Kristen Kish (who won Top Chef in 2013 and later hosted during Lana's season). "I didn't even have my own knives," Lagomarsini recalls. "I have a plucky attitude, though." The second day of her trial run, Kish told Lagomarsini "nicely" that she needed to go to school or get more experience. Lagomarsini wanted to go to a French cooking school in Thailand, but her mother noted that she could commute to the world-class Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. She graduated in 2016 and worked at Restaurant Daniel and Momofuku Ko in Manhattan and apprenticed in Patagonia with Francis Mallman. It was a long way from her first food service jobs at Friendly's and Pizza Hut in Fishkill and Brother's Trattoria in Beacon. For now, Lagomarsini is a private chef (lanacooks.com) who does pop-ups such as a recent collaborative dinner of fried chicken and sparkling wine at the James Beard Foundation and a residency at Fulgurances Laundromat, a chef incubator in Brooklyn. Her cooking is inspired by the African diaspora and the Great Migration, during which her mother's family moved from a small town in Alabama to New York City. Lagomarsini grew up learning - and eating - the food traditions passed down by her grandmother, and she's constantly riffing on Southern classics. "I do a lot of things with pot liquor," she says. "I make a lot of chow-chow. Pimento cheese makes its appearance. Cornbread is on the menu in many ways." Recent experiments include a mash-up of Mexican salsa macha with Nigerian suya (a street food) and a terrine of turmeric dough and oxtails inspired by Jamaican beef patties. "I'm constantly considering what is diasporic food, and that is evolving as well." Of her cooking shows, she most enjoyed Top Chef. "I didn't have to worry about who likes me and who doesn't, because it doesn't matter as long as the judges like the food." On Season 22, against 14 other contestants, she made it to Episode 11. That's when the judges found fault with her grilled steak with potatoes and Haskap berries (the sage was overpowering and the meat "over-rested"). She is working on a dream project: a supper club series inspired by Georgia Gilmore. "She fed the Montgomery bus boycott," Lagomarsini says. "She called it the Club from Nowhere. It was at her house, but she fed people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X." If you haven't heard of her, Lagomarsini says, "that goes to show how much of...

Editor's note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing. 150 Years Ago (September 1875) Ten residents armed with revolvers formed a "vigilance committee" in Matteawan to "protect persons and property from prowling tramps and other marauders." The roof of the Fishkill Landing Machine Works caught fire from a spark from the chimney. The Dutchess County Citizen, which covered Matteawan, Fishkill and Pine Plains, closed and its publisher left town. When the ticket agent for the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad Co. went upstairs at the depot on a Monday afternoon to retrieve some papers, he left behind his vest, which had $30 [$880] in cash in the pockets. Two boys on the platform testified that James McGinnis, 18, took the money and promised them 50 cents [$15] each to say nothing. The judge set bail at $200 [$6,000]. George Kittridge, while hunting with Henry Alden on a Thursday morning, accidentally shot his companion in the knee. The limb had to be amputated, and Alden died that afternoon. Judge Ornshee of Matteawan ruled that Ada Ray, 14, Minnie Ray, 7, and Willie Ray, 5, had been abandoned by their mother, Olive, and sent them to the House of Refuge at Randall's Island. 125 Years Ago (September 1900) At a Democratic meeting held at Fishkill, John Gracey, a Republican produce vendor, threw ripe fruit at one of the speakers, Col. John Dougherty. "Arrests were made," according to The Cold Spring Recorder. The lineup was released for the firemen's parade at Fishkill and Matteawan: local and visiting fire chiefs, Flocton's Band (Peekskill), Cortland Hook and Ladder (Peekskill), Keink's Band (New York City), Phoenix Hose (Poughkeepsie), Fishkill and Matteawan Military Band (30 pieces), Lewis Tompkins Hose (Fishkill Landing), Nineteenth Separate Drum Corps (Poughkeepsie), Davy Crockett Hook and Ladder (Poughkeepsie), 90th Regiment Band (Kingston), W.H. Mase Hook and Ladder (Matteawan), Middletown Drum Corps, Eagle Hose (Middletown), Rifton Glen Band, Weiner Hose (Kingston), Wheeler & Wilson Band (Bridgeport) and Beacon Engine (Matteawan). Belle Archer, one of the most photographed actors and singers of the 1890s, performed her new Western-themed play, "Jess of the Bar Z," at Fishkill Landing on Sept. 4 as part of a statewide tour. [Two weeks later, Archer tripped at a train station south of Buffalo and hit her head, causing a fatal brain bleed. She was 41.] According to a newspaper account, Mrs. Winthrop Sargent of Matteawan had for nine years operated a school for housekeepers from her home, which included a model kitchen garden. "The pupils do all the work, undertaking for a term of three weeks at a time the duties, now of one servant, now of another, until they thoroughly understand all," it said. The Rev. J. McGrath of St. John's Church admonished his congregation during a sermon for not wearing hats to Mass. He also warned the men that they could not attend services dressed in then-fashionable "shirtwaists" that resembled blouses. Marguerite Upton, 8, who lived in the Timothyville brickyard settlement, was shot in the arm, which had to be amputated. She said she had found a loaded .48-caliber revolver in a drawer. However, a week later, she confessed to a nurse that her cousin, Frank Kilpatrick, 17, had shot her accidentally after coming into the room and playfully telling her, "Throw up your hands!" The Matteawan coroner identified remains found in an abandoned well at a farm near Stormville as Charles Brower, a laborer who had disappeared 14 years earlier. According to witnesses, he and Peter Austin, who owned the farm, left the Austin house together, but only Austin returned. A search party found nothing. In 1898 Austin sold the farm, and the new owner discovered the skeleton. Investigators learned that Austin owed Brower $300 [$11,500], and Mrs. Austin said she was "tricked" by police into admitting her husband had confessed to her. Edward Selek, a Russian making his way to New York City, was struck...

Neighbors raised environmental concerns A mining company won approval on Sept. 11 to build a cement plant on Route 9 just north of Philipstown, overcoming concerns from residents about noise, traffic and potential risks to Clove Creek and the aquifer beneath it, a source of drinking water to several municipalities. After a nearly yearlong review, the Town of Fishkill Planning Board approved a plan by Century Aggregates to build an 8,050-square-foot plant at its 310-acre property at 107 Route 9, on a portion of the property once occupied by the Snow Valley Campground. The operation will draw 10,000 gallons of water daily from a new well, and require a new septic system, 12 parking spaces and six propane tanks. Century Aggregates plans to operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 6 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, the firm said. Mixer trucks would enter the site through an entrance opposite Carol Lane and cross an existing bridge over Clove Creek, a protected waterway and tributary to Fishkill Creek that snakes through the property. To address concerns about the environmental impact, Century Aggregates agreed to leave trees and vegetation in an 8.2-acre greenway that is at least 200 feet wide, includes Clove Creek and its shoreline and extends 500 feet north and 700 feet south of the bridge that crosses the waterway. Trees in the zone that "show signs of a material deterioration or tree cover thinning" will have to be replaced, according to Planning Board documents. Ted Warren, public policy manager with the Hudson Highlands Land Trust, joined residents in expressing reservations to the Planning Board during a May 8 public hearing. Along with concerns about truck traffic, noise and dust, and endangered and threatened wildlife such as the timber rattlesnake, Warren said newly paved surfaces risk sending contaminated runoff into the creek, to the detriment of water quality and fish. "Given the increase in extreme precipitation events that we are facing these days, and the fact that the proposed plan is located at the base of steep slopes, the potential for storms to overwhelm the proposed containment and drainage systems during heavy precipitation events should be closely examined," Warren said. Century Aggregate's daily withdrawal of 10,000 gallons of water, which a lawyer for the company called "de minimis" compared to the amount used by homes and businesses, could also affect the creek and its underlying aquifer, said Warren. The aquifer parallels Route 9 from East Mountain Road South to the town border with Fishkill. Its groundwater feeds private wells that supply residents and businesses along Route 9, the towns of Fishkill and Wappinger, the Village of Fishkill and Beacon. "The dust and the pollution that's going to come from the operating of that plant is going to definitely have an impact on the environment, the creek and the living conditions of businesses and houses," Carlos Salcedo, a Philipstown resident whose property on Old Albany Post Road borders the creek, told the Planning Board in May. According to a study based on readings taken at a concrete plant in Hudson, the loudest sounds will come from the blowers on the trucks used to transfer cement to the project's three storage silos, mixer trucks and the loading of the bins that hold the aggregate used in concrete manufacture. The study estimated that "no excessive or unusually loud" sounds will impact neighbors or wildlife, and Century Aggregates agreed to measure noise levels when the plant is operating.

Includes information for renters, homeowners, seniors The City of Beacon has added a Housing Resources page to its website with information on affordable housing and state and county agencies that assist renters and homeowners. See dub.sh/beacon-housing. The page is divided into sections on tenants' rights, affordable housing, emergency housing, accessory dwelling units, short-term rentals and reports by agencies such as Dutchess County and Pattern for Progress. It also provides contacts for immigrant resources, legal assistance and homeownership assistance. The page is maintained by Ben Swanson, the secretary to Mayor Lee Kyriacou.

Climate change is supercharging the frequency and severity of storms and flooding. At the same time, the White House is gutting disaster management. Can the Highlands take care of itself? Four years ago this month, the remnants of Hurricane Ida slammed into the Highlands, dumping 5½ inches of rain. Basements flooded, trains shut down and roads were washed out. Dry Brook on Mount Beacon overflowed, sending debris down the mountain and into Jessen Pond. "That's the area off Violet Drive where Dry Brook comes down from the mountain, and all the cobble and the waste came pouring down and filled it in," said Beacon City Administrator Chris White. Ida came at the tail end of an especially wet summer in the Highlands; a month later a nor'easter dropped another 3 inches of water in two days. If Jessen Pond hadn't been cleared before that storm, the neighborhood around it probably would have flooded. Fortunately, then-President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration in Dutchess and Putnam counties, making them eligible for funding and help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). "We spent weeks cleaning out that pond," said White. "FEMA paid the bill," which was $60,000 to $70,000. However, the next time a hurricane or nor'easter affects the Highlands, Beacon and Philipstown may be on their own. FEMA was created in 1979 after years of governors complaining that the U.S. lacked a comprehensive emergency management policy and that some disasters were so costly and destructive that no state could recover from them alone. Like many federal agencies, it has found itself in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's effort to shrink the size of the government. FEMA's workforce, already short-staffed before this year, has been reduced by more than 10 percent since January, and Trump has spoken about eliminating the agency. Last week the Government Accountability Office released a report warning that because of staffing cuts, FEMA no longer has the resources to respond to multiple disasters in a short period of time, such as in 2011 when Tropical Storm Lee hit the Hudson Valley weeks after Hurricane Irene. In response, the White House blamed Biden for making too many emergency declarations, "burning through FEMA's budget on so-called 'climate change' and DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] pet projects." The turmoil at FEMA comes as the effects of climate change are being increasingly felt across the country, leading to costlier and deadlier disasters. New York State has spent at least $5 billion over the past five years on disaster recovery, and the number of disasters that cause at least $1 billion in damage is increasing. However, that may become harder to track. Recently, the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that "in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates and staffing changes," it would no longer be updating its database. "Many states had already braced themselves for having to continue the fight against climate change, in terms of mitigation and adaptation, without help from the federal government when Trump was re-elected," said Amanda Stevens of the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA). "This is not an either/or situation. We do need to continue to reduce greenhouse gases. Reducing our emissions will reduce the severity of climate change and the severity of the impacts, but we will still experience impact." With FEMA being diminished and possibly eliminated, municipalities in New York and the Highlands will have to shoulder the burden of those impacts. "Who's going to respond to tornadoes and floods and heat emergencies and fires?" asked White. "People need help getting on their feet again. We don't have the capacity to do that as a city." Bracing for impact A report released last year by NYSERDA outlined how climate change may affect the Hudson Valley: more days above 90 degrees, more humidity, more droughts, more deluges and more ...

Drug World, Beacon Wellness to begin giving vaccine Drug World's phones have been "ringing nonstop" with inquiries from Philipstown residents seeking COVID-19 shots, but owner Heidi Snyder only had one answer while awaiting the annual federal approval that had been routine until this year. That approval is still pending, but the Cold Spring pharmacy will begin scheduling vaccinations as early as Monday (Sept. 15) because of an executive order issued Sept. 5 by Gov. Kathy Hochul, who declared an emergency "in the face of attacks on science and healthcare from the federal government." The directive, which expires on Oct 5, allows physicians and nurse practitioners to order COVID-19 shots for patients as young as 3 years old and expands pharmacists' authority to administer vaccines to children under 18, according to the governor. For the first time, she said, it permits pharmacists to prescribe the vaccines themselves. Snyder said that Drug World and other pharmacies now have the "standing order" they need to give the shots to the broader public without a prescription - an approval usually given by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), whose membership has been gutted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Without ACIP approval, according to Hochul, many pharmacies in New York state began restricting the vaccines for children ages 3 to 17, pregnant people and adults under 65 without an underlying condition, at a time of year when infections typically begin rising as people spend more time indoors. Two days before Hochul's executive order, Tim Lindner, a Cold Spring resident, said in an email to The Current that he visited Sam's Club in Fishkill for the COVID-19 booster shot he gets each September. Lindner, 74, said the pharmacist told him the company had just that day instituted a policy requiring a prescription for the shot. The Beacon Wellness Pharmacy just received one of the two Moderna vaccines this week, according to Lee Williams, a pharmacy technician. Drug World's "hands were tied until Gov. Hochul issued her executive order," said Snyder, who expects to have one of the two Moderna vaccines and the Pfizer shot available on Monday. If ACIP does not approve those vaccines and the one from Novavax when it meets Sept. 18, "I don't know what will happen," said Snyder. "I have to hope that her [Hochul's] executive order is going to hold." Insurers typically base their vaccine coverage decisions on the recommendations of ACIP, a panel of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but some say they will also look to medical professional groups, including the American Medical Association. Earlier this year, Kennedy replaced the entire CDC panel, naming several doctors and researchers who have repeatedly questioned the safety of commonly used vaccines and ingredients. In a social media post on Aug. 27, Kennedy said the shots will be "available for all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors." But Americans are likely to confront logistical hurdles. U.S. regulators approved updated COVID-19 shots on Aug. 27 but limited their use for many Americans - and removed one of the two vaccines available for young children. The new shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are approved for all seniors 65 and older. But the Food and Drug Administration narrowed their use for younger adults and children to those with at least one high-risk health condition, such as asthma or obesity. That presents new barriers to access for millions of Americans who would have to prove their risk - and millions more who may want to get vaccinated and suddenly no longer qualify. Drug World will not ask for proof, said Snyder, but "if you're 64 or younger, you're going to need to attest that you have a pre-existing condition," she said. "We have to make sure that we cross our T's and dot our I's and make sure everybody who wants a vaccine can get one." Additionally, Pfizer's vaccine will no long...

Beacon studio hosts Night of Authenticity The principals of Silica Studio 845 are waist-deep in running a business, but eight months ago, they decided to host a Night of Authenticity designed for locals. "This gives people who live here something to do during the week and helps build community," says co-partner Daniela Rzepnicki. "We love the tourists, but on the weekends, you can't find your friends. And there are a lot of people who moved here in recent years, so we also want to welcome them." On the third Thursday of every other month (next up: Sept. 18), working with singer Leah Valentine, they transform the pottery studio into a salon. Around 70 people attended in July. The suggested admission is $10, and beer, spiked seltzer and mixed drinks (especially the spicy margaritas) flowed freely. Vendors plied wares, people swapped clothes and a tattoo artist worked on Rzepnicki's ankle. Only a few of the seven pottery wheels overseen by the other Silica Studio partner, Rachel "Ranch" Miller, got a workout. MJ DiMartino, 27, threw for the first time. "I feel creative and happy," he said. "It's a cool spot, and it's nice to make new connections. I came for the music but got so much more out of it." When the mood lighting clicks in, Valentine grabs the mic. A couple of months ago, singer-guitarist Jessica Simkovic headlined and sang an ode to cannabis, along with the whimsical ditty "Dennis Kucinich Slept in My Bed." Before the set concluded, friends joined in and delivered three-part harmony on a Gillian Welch song. Accompanied by bass ace Nate Allen, Juliet Strong showcased original tunes on keyboard, some of which conveyed an Irish lilt. During the performance, she praised the "listening room environment," likening it to a jazz club where people pay attention to the music. For this month's gathering, it's Strong's turn to headline and recruit an opening act (Lea Serras, who will be the next headliner and choose her opener). Strong praised the "warm vibe" of the July gig: "I come from the folk music tradition, and it felt so intimate, like a house concert." The location, Silica Studio's third-landing spot, opened last summer and occupies the pottery room of the old Beacon High School, now the KuBe Art Center. The space, much larger than their previous place, is spic-and-span because inhaling pottery dust (the silica) can be harmful. Along with a well-organized wall panel holding implements for making clay sculptures or vessels from the wheel, another one hidden in a corner contains power drills and other hand tools. The partners built out the interior and are "always fixing or constructing things," says Rzepnicki, 28. "We have a pro account at Home Depot." She created and designed the studio's logo, a "bleeding blossom that represents the dark side of femininity," she says, rendered in a twisted white neon light that is the centerpiece of a mural on the studio's long wall that features flowers and homages to ancient Japanese water waves. Beyond seeking ways to expand their enterprise, the duo pursues individual artistic directions. Rzepnicki, a glassblower, is constructing a birdbath so large that she had to break down the kiln and rebuild it around the piece to fire it up. Besides her ceramic work, Miller is an illustrator. "Dani and Ranch are cool young whippersnappers," says Strong. "I like being one of the old people in the room. It's great to see earnest artists and entrepreneurs going about their business without airs and making it happen." Silica Studio 845, in Studio 109 of the KuBe Art Center at 211 Fishkill Ave. in Beacon, is open daily except Tuesday. See silicastudio845.com. For tickets to the "Night of Authenticity" on Sept. 18, see dub.sh/silica-sept-18.

The Wednesday (Sept. 10) meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board opened on a somber note. "Today we had a political assassination [of Charlie Kirk] and another school shooting [in Colorado]," said Mayor Kathleen Foley. "I'd like a moment of silence for everyone we've lost to gun violence." The mayor also asked that everyone remember those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. Trustee Laura Bozzi introduced the Flood Resilience Reconnaissance Study submitted to the village in June by Fuss and O'Neill, an engineering firm. The study focuses on the Back Brook watershed, the 160-acre drainage area that sends stormwater from as far upstream as Bull Hill to culverts beneath Fair Street before it empties into the Hudson River. The Fair Street drain collapsed during a severe storm in July 2023. The study recommends improvements to the upstream drainage system, which dates to the late 19th century. Bozzi said that once feedback is received from Nelsonville, Haldane, state parks and other partners, a strategy and timeline will be developed. The board accepted the low bid of $60,098 from PCC Contracting of Schenectady to repair damage to the pedestrian tunnel from the 2023 flooding. Six bids were received; the highest was $177,180. The contractor will inject material into the tunnel walls to make them watertight, and doors will be added later so it can be closed off during flooding. Superintendent of Water and Sewer Matt Krug is investigating why the fecal coliform count in treated wastewater entering the Hudson River from the sewage treatment plant exceeded limits set by the state. Kroog also said that, with less than two inches of rain in August, the reservoirs have fallen to 80 percent capacity. The village will establish its fourth public electric-vehicle charging station at McConville Park. Central Hudson will pay 90 percent of the cost, and the village the remainder, about $3,000. The units will be paid for with a state grant. The Highway Department began installing sidewalk ramps at key intersections that will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The board voted to increase the hourly wage for school crossing guards from $15.50 to $20 an hour. The village is short one guard but had no response to its advertisements. The Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing for Sept. 25 regarding an application for a change of use from retail to bakery at 37 Main St., adjacent to the pedestrian tunnel. As it did last year, the board authorized the Police Department to suspend on-street parking all day on Fair Street and Northern Avenue on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and to divert traffic as needed through November. CSPD handled 123 calls in August, including 18 traffic stops that resulted in 10 tickets. There were also 27 assists to other first responders, nine alarms, six vehicle crashes, five suspicious incidents, three noise complaints, two domestic incidents, and incidents of burglary, harassment, person in crisis and a dispute. Cold Spring Fire Co. volunteers answered 17 calls in August, including six activated alarms, four medical assists, two brush fires and calls for a mountain rescue, mutual aid to Garrison Fire Co., Metro-North elevator rescue, outdoor smoke investigation and propane odor. CSFC was one of four Putnam County fire departments to take part in the first training session at the county's new $1.6 million Fire & EMS Training Center in Kent.

Two longtime members recently resigned The Beacon school board will leave two vacancies open, opting to stay at seven members, until the election in May. In a straw poll, board members unanimously chose to wait, rather than appoint members to replace Anthony White and Kristan Flynn, who resigned last month. The board had four options: leave the seats open until the election in May; make appointments to fill the seats until the election; ask Jodi DeLucia, the superintendent of the Dutchess Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), to make appointments until the election; or call a special election. However, only two options - leaving the seats open or appointing members - seemed practical, since a special election would cost the district at least $10,000, and DeLucia and other BOCES administrators may not know the Beacon community well enough to make informed choices. The board has taken both paths in recent years. Flynn was appointed in 2016 to fill a vacancy, while the seat held by John Galloway Jr., who was appointed in 2020, was left open after his 2023 resignation. "There are times when appointments feel very necessary," President Flora Stadler said during the board's Monday (Sept. 8) meeting. But "there's a big difference between appointments to the board and actually running, having to go out and collect signatures and speak to 100 people in your community." She asked her six colleagues to weigh the need for a full, nine-member board versus the value of someone choosing to run for a seat. While everyone said they favored leaving the seats open, Chris Lewine asked whether the board should use the opportunity to revisit another question that has come up in recent years: Should it shrink? According to the New York State School Boards Association, board membership ranges from three to 13 people in public school districts statewide, with seven members the most common size. If the Beacon board were to recommend shrinking, district voters would have to approve a proposition making the change during a May budget vote. The smaller board size would go into effect the following year. The board would need to notify district officials of its intention by March of a given year to get a proposition on the ballot two months later, Superintendent Matt Landahl said. Vice President Meredith Heuer said Monday that she is neutral after having previously advocated a smaller board. Her mind changed "because our committees have become so much more robust and there is a lot of work to do," she said. Stadler noted that keeping membership at nine "allows for a broader range of ideas and experiences" among the group. She added that, in the state's eyes, Beacon still has a nine-member board, so a five-person quorum will be required for future meetings. The next several months will give the board a chance to test-run having seven members, Lewine said.

Sojourner Truth plied the Hudson for 20 years Over seven decades, the Clearwater and Woody Guthrie have sailed the Hudson, amplifying folk singer and Beacon resident Pete Seeger's passionate call to clean up the river and make it more accessible. The iconic sloops are part of Seeger's legacy, but what has largely faded from the collective memory is a third boat he inspired, Sojourner Truth, which carried out his environmental mission for two decades before being destroyed in a storm. Like the Woody Guthrie, the Sojourner Truth was a replica of the ferry sloops that carried goods and people across the Hudson in the 18th and 19th centuries. By the 1830s, more than 1,000 of the wide, shallow-hulled boats were navigating the river. "Pete was an enthusiast for ferry sloops and after failing to convince people to build one, he decided to pay for the Woody and Sojourner out of pocket," hoping to inspire other river towns, said James Malchow, a Woody Guthrie captain. Seeger wanted the smaller, affordable, volunteer-led sloops to carry out Clearwater's environmental mission. "Pete saw the ferry sloops as an organizing tool - a way to get people to work together," Malchow said. Seeger and his wife, Toshi, are credited with naming the Sojourner Truth, an homage to the former enslaved woman from Ulster County who during the 19th century advocated abolition, temperance, civil rights and women's rights. The sloop's hull was built in 1979 by Ferro Boat Builders in Annapolis, Maryland, using a mold from the Woody Guthrie. The hull consisted of steel mesh, rebar and concrete, which is less costly than wood and requires less maintenance. The hull was trucked to Eddyville, near Kingston, where Seeger and other volunteers began outfitting the boat until Ferry Sloops, a newly created nonprofit, took over the project in Yonkers and later in Hastings-on-Hudson. Con Edison donated a utility pole that became the 46-foot mast. The local highway department provided yellow paint for the hull. The boom was shaped from Clearwater's original gaff. Seeger, who owned the Woody Guthrie, contributed its spare suit of sails. An inboard motor was donated. The 47-foot Sojourner Truth was launched in August 1981 and, within two years, began appearing at riverfront festivals. Its ports included Hastings-on-Hudson; Alpine, New Jersey; Yonkers; and Croton-on-Hudson. Other than the hull color, the Sojourner Truth was a twin to Woody Guthrie, launched three years earlier. (The Clearwater, launched in 1969, is 106 feet.) In the early 1990s, Sojourner Truth was vandalized while moored at Yonkers. Fire destroyed its sails and damaged the deck, but it was repaired and continued to sail. Its volunteer crew numbered from four to eight and the sloop, which could hold a dozen passengers, offered sailor training, venturing as far north as Albany and as far south as Sandy Hook, New Jersey. For years until the late 1990s, in October and November, the three sloops sailed the river filled with pumpkins, replicating the work of the 19th-century sloops. Free sails were offered at each port of call, culminating around Halloween at South Street Seaport in New York City, recalled Maryellen Healy, a former Woody Guthrie captain and Clearwater sailor. "It felt like a special moment in time," she said. Sojourner Truth also was a frequent visitor at the Great Hudson River Revival Festival, a celebration of music and the environment co-founded by Seeger and, until recently, held each June at Croton Point Park. Beverly Dyckman, a former Peekskill resident, sailed on Sojourner Truth in the 1980s, training as a crew member. "It was empowering," she said. "I felt freedom, a respite from my worries. When we were zigzagging across the river, slicing into the wind, there was a feeling of power, with water coming up over the rail because we were going so fast." Although Sojourner Truth had a top speed of 7 knots (about 8 miles an hour), Healy has similar memories. "That sounds slow in the auto...

Transfers Fair Street property to Cold Spring The Putnam County Legislature on Tuesday (Sept. 2) approved contributions of $10,000 each for Boscobel and the Garrison Art Center and the transfer of property on Fair Street to Cold Spring for the village's stormwater project. Boscobel said it will use its funding to expand participation in its Patriots and Loyalists program, an initiative that educates students in about 80 schools about the Revolutionary War. Boscobel wants to involve more schools and older students, said Abby Adams, its communications and marketing manager. Legislator Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, requested the funding for Boscobel and the Garrison Art Center, which will use its $10,000 on Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant building upgrades. Montgomery also requested the $10,000 the Legislature approved for Second Chance Foods, a Brewster organization that distributes free meals and earlier had received $20,000 from the county. Because Second Chance recently lost $70,000 in federal funding, "there's a lot of pressure on us to meet our community's needs and to find ways to make up that lost funding," said Martha Elder, its executive director. In another vote, legislators approved spending $17,950 to purchase 500 U.S. flags and poles for the county's Row of Honor, an annual display erected on Memorial Day along Lake Gleneida in Carmel. Karl Rohde, director of the Veterans Service Agency, said the current poles are "woefully inadequate" and must be repaired each year. The program allows residents to sponsor a flag for three years for $100. Cold Spring land The Legislature voted to transfer to Cold Spring a vacant 0.9-acre property at 101 Fair St. that the county has owned since 2000. Cold Spring will use the property for a stormwater outfall that is part of its drainage work on Fair Street. Heavy rains in July 2023 caused a subsurface stormwater drain to fail, and parking adjacent to Mayor's Park has been prohibited since. The project will replace the failed 30-inch pipe with two 42-inch pipes. "While it seems to be a simple resolution, it's critical for Cold Spring" in managing stormwater and preventing flooding, said Montgomery. County golf course Legislators voted to pay off the remaining $4.7 million debt on bonds whose proceeds were used by the county to purchase the Mahopac golf course in 2003. Paying off the bonds early will save $477,000 in interest, but the main benefit will be to release Putnam from restrictive IRS rules governing tax-exempt bonds, said Bill Carlin, the interim finance commissioner, on Aug. 25. Because of the restrictions, Putnam owns the drink, food and pro shop inventory and is responsible for the cash-handling, John Tully, the commissioner of general services, said in June. Michael Lewis, the former finance commissioner, noted at the time that Homestyle Caterers & Food Services, which provides beverage and food service to golfers, cannot "claim ownership, claim depreciation and/or amortization deductions, investment tax credits or deduct for any payment." In addition to Homestyle, Putnam contracts with Troon Golf to run and maintain the course and its pro shop, along with a third company "to protect our interests and make sure that those two other contractors are playing nice in the sandbox, and that they're coordinating events and all things together," said Tully. Being released from the IRS rules "will free up the Legislature to make decisions about how the course is run," said Carlin. Montgomery voted in favor of retiring the bonds but said she had "real discomfort with what this signals" because the main driver is not debt reduction but the ability of the county to renegotiate a contract with a vendor. With the vote, she said, the Legislature is "strategically reshaping" financing policy to "allow government-owned property to be run more like a private business." "That's a slippery slope," said Montgomery. "Government's role is n...

Beacon's Jayoung Yoon weaves with hair Jayoung Yoon wants to create larger works, but her hair only grows so long. The artist, who lives in Beacon, specializes in sculpture and two-dimensional pieces created with her hair. During the pandemic, she studied the ancient art of Korean horsehair weaving on the island of Jeju-do and is now crafting intricate works that incorporate her hair, horsetails and, in a deft detail added to "The Fabric of Energy 03," two milkweed seeds suspended at the center of the piece's open ends. For her residency at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan, which runs through February, she seeks hair donations to incorporate into a sculpture in her Fabric of Energy series. Visitors to her Saturday studio hours or people who contact her online will receive an index card to fill out and a prepaid envelope to mail in at least four to five strands no shorter than 3 inches. Designed to hang at eye level, "The Fabric of Energy 03" is a stunning work of intricate weaving technique that consists of eight separate parts created by making wood molds with a lathe and then dunking the sculpted elements in boiling water for 30 minutes. The pieces, a ball made from her hair, a funnel and what resembles a traditional Korean drum, interlock and are designed to shimmer in the sunlight. Photos cannot do the works justice; they must be seen and experienced to be fully appreciated. The same goes for the Empty Void series, where she stretches her hair in four or five layers across a wood panel covered by canvas and uses a computer program to design shapes inspired by toruses and nature that seem to pop out of the frame, giving them a three-dimensional quality. "The tension has to be perfect," she says. "Too tight and they break; too loose and it doesn't look right." Most of the pieces are 8-by-8 inches. To get the longest length of hair possible, she has shaved her head seven times and created eight videos in which she is bald and naked. For now, the 46-year-old artist's straight, jet-black mane dangles to her hips, but that state is impermanent, something she appreciates as a Buddhist: "I would love to work with gray hair. I look forward to that." There is a conceptual element behind most of her work, some of it stemming from the burden of Korean history. The Japanese imprisoned her grandfather during World War II, and South Korean authorities arrested and monitored her mother during the 1970s for protesting the military dictatorship. During Yoon's residency, she plans to complete four sculptures in the Fabric of Energy series. Of the 429 applicants for this cycle, the program chose six artists, and she will be in the studio greeting visitors on Saturdays through Feb. 20. For a place once called the American Craft Museum, "handcrafting is still in our DNA, but we're trying to push the boundaries," says Lydia Brawner, its deputy director of education. "Many artists work with hair, but we've never collaborated with someone weaving horsehair or human hair with such precision, and we were wowed seeing it in person." The Museum of Arts and Design, at 2 Columbus Circle in New York City, is open daily except Monday. Yoon's studio hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission to the museum is $20 ($16 seniors, $14 students, free for 12 and younger). See madmuseum.org/learn/jayoung-yoon and @jayoungart