Afleveringen
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District cites legal advice, fear of losing funds
The Haldane school board voted unanimously on Tuesday (April 22) to suspend its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy in hopes of safeguarding $450,000 in federal funding threatened by the Trump administration's opposition to DEI programs.
The district's resolution suspended the policy "pending clarification of the conflict between the respective positions of the state and federal governments regarding Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964] and DEI."
The five-member board also approved a resolution certifying compliance with Title VI, which prohibits racial discrimination in federally funded programs. The Trump administration had set a Thursday (April 24) deadline for local school districts to eliminate "illegal DEI practices" or potentially lose funding.
However, on Thursday, a federal judge in New Hampshire temporarily blocked the administration's guidance forbidding DEI efforts in K-12 public schools. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the Republican administration of violating teachers' due process and First Amendment rights. On Friday, attorneys general from 18 states, including New York, sought a federal court order stopping the Department of Education from implementing the April 3 certification demand, calling it illegal and unconstitutional.
In February, the U.S. Education Department told schools and colleges they needed to end any practice that differentiates people based on their race or they would risk losing their federal funding. Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, issued a "Dear Colleague" letter arguing that a Supreme Court decision in 2023 banning race-based college admissions extended to DEI policies in public schools.
"DEI programs, for example, frequently preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique moral burdens that others do not," Trainor wrote. "Such programs stigmatize students who belong to particular racial groups based on crude racial stereotypes. Consequently, they deny students the ability to participate fully in the life of a school."
Earlier this month, the department ordered states to gather signatures from local districts certifying compliance with civil rights laws, including rejection of what the federal government calls "illegal DEI practices."
The directive did not carry the force of law but threatened to use civil rights enforcement to rid schools of DEI practices. Schools were warned that continuing such practices "in violation of federal law" could lead to U.S. Justice Department litigation and termination of federal grants and contracts.
At least 15 states, including New York, said they would not comply with the federal order. "We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems 'diversity, equity & inclusion,'" wrote Daniel Morton-Bentley, a lawyer for the New York Education Department. "But there are no federal or state laws prohibiting the principles of DEI." He added also that the federal government had "yet to define what practices it believes violate Title VI."
At Haldane, interim Superintendent Carl Albano called the federal dollars, which are used to educate students with disabilities, provide student lunches and fund other initiatives, "a significant amount of money" that "could be at risk if you keep these policies in place." He said that Haldane's legal counsel had advised suspending the DEI policy, at least temporarily.
The district adopted its DEI policy in December 2022 in "recognition of the inherent value of diversity and acknowledgement that educational excellence requires a commitment to equity in the opportunities provided to students and the resulting outcomes."
The policy noted that Haldane's mission is to prepare its students to succeed in "an ever-changing global society," a goal that requires incorporating a DEI l... -
Haldane has applied for EPA grants
Across the country, more than 500 school districts are waiting on $1 billion in Environmental Protection Agency grants to help pay for more than 3,400 electric buses.
In Cold Spring, Haldane has applied for EPA grants to purchase four buses to meet Gov. Kathy Hochul's mandate that schools no longer purchase gas-powered buses after 2027 and convert to electric fleets by 2035.
If approved, interim Superintendent Carl Albano said the EPA grants would offset $170,000, or almost half, of each $400,000 bus. The district is also hoping to get $147,000 per bus from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
Albano said that while he knows there have been questions about whether federal climate grant programs will continue under President Donald Trump, the district has received no indication that the program has been terminated. Haldane was told a decision would be made on its grant applications by the end of April. If it can't secure federal grants, the district will likely seek additional state funding, he said.
So far, the Beacon, Haldane and Garrison districts do not have any electric buses, although Garrison has two hybrid vans. Haldane is seeking grants to buy its four electric buses and Beacon voters have approved the purchase of two, which have been ordered.
Statewide, only about 100 of 45,000 buses are electric, although about 1,000 have been approved or ordered as of February, according to Adam Ruder, director of clean transportation for NYSERDA. At the same time, residents in a handful of districts, including Hyde Park, have voted against electric bus purchases, even with state grants cutting the cost.
The New York State Educational Conference Board, a coalition of groups that represent superintendents, PTAs, school boards, teachers, business officials and administrators, has raised concerns. In January, the board published a paper stating that Hochul's mandate "will force districts to reduce educational opportunities for students, increase taxes and spend exorbitant sums, and cause voter unrest."
Although the Garrison School doesn't own most of its buses - they are provided under contract with Orange County Transit - the district is studying the range of the electric buses that would transport students to and from Garrison's K-8 campus and to Haldane, Putnam Valley and O'Neill high schools. The vendor's seven buses are parked at Garrison during the day. If they were electric, the district would need to install chargers and the electrical capacity to run them, Joseph Jimick, the district business manager, said earlier this year.
A year ago, voters in the Beacon district approved the purchase of two electric buses at a cost of $495,000 each, including chargers. The district was awarded a $257,000 state grant and the buses are scheduled to arrive this summer and be put into service in the fall. "Our thinking is we're still on track until or if we hear otherwise," Superintendent Matt Landahl said this week. He said in February that the district, with a fleet of 57 buses and vans, would need to upgrade its garage before buying any more electric buses.
Some districts across the country that purchased buses in anticipation of receiving EPA grants now face large bills. For example, in Oklahoma, the Shawnee Public Schools, a 3,300-student district near Oklahoma City, spent nearly $1.5 million on four buses that it believed would be reimbursed from an infrastructure law passed by Congress under President Joe Biden.
The district requested the funding in November but was told that it would be delayed due to a technical glitch. It said that, since Trump took office, it has been calling the EPA and emailing regularly without a response.
The money is part of a Clean School Bus Program that was to provide $5 billion over five years. So far, the program has gone through two earlier rounds. Nearly $1 billion was issued in the first round as rebates to 400 schools for 2,500 b... -
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Food truck brings the farm to Philipstown
Ruby Koch-Fienberg has always loved farming and food systems - an interest that led her in 2022 to earn a master's degree in food studies from New York University.
"I wanted to work with farms, helping them connect more with food pantries," said Koch-Fienberg. "When this job appeared on my radar, it was the perfect fit."
The job is serving as ag and food systems coordinator with Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) for Putnam County, which is based in Carmel. Koch-Fienberg coordinates the extension's Farm to Truck Program, which provides free produce to Putnam County residents facing food insecurity.
CCE contracts with Meals on Main Street, a nonprofit in Port Chester, to deliver food each week. Farm to Truck also drops food at pantries.
On Wednesday (April 16), the Meals on Main Street mobile pantry spent 45 minutes parked at the Chestnut Ridge retirement community and the Philipstown Friendship Center for seniors. It served 85 people at the two stops, said Irma Arango, who has worked for Meals on Main Street for 15 years.
Another 25 people had picked up food at the Brookside Senior Citizen Coop in Philipstown earlier in the day. The truck also makes weekly stops in Putnam Valley, Putnam Lake, Patterson, Carmel, Kent and Mahopac.
"I like engaging with the people," Arango said. "I see their need and I see the smiles on their faces when they see the truck." She said clients sometimes leave thank-you notes. "People are so grateful."
A Philipstown woman who picked up food at Chestnut Ridge said she relied on the weekly deliveries. "It's good for so many things, especially fresh vegetables," she said.
The mobile pantry that day had milk, onions, potatoes, beets, carrots, kale, radishes, apples, baked goods and frozen salmon. The selection will grow as the season progresses.
CCE launched Farm to Truck in May 2024 with a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is operated in partnership with New York Food for New York Families, a division of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets.
The program supports regional agriculture by purchasing produce from about 20 farms in Putnam (including Longhaul and Glynwood in Philipstown), Dutchess, Columbia, Orange and Westchester counties.
Mobile Pantry Schedule
Monday: Putnam Valley
9:45 a.m. Library
11 a.m. Senior Center
Wednesday: Philipstown
9 a.m. Brookside
10 a.m. Chestnut Ridge
11:30 a.m. Senior Center
"We've spent more than $700,000 [on locally grown products] and expect to spend $1.3 million by the end of August," said Koch-Fienberg. She said Putnam residents made more than 3,000 trips to the food truck in March, which included many repeat customers. Nearly 300,000 pounds of produce, meat, eggs and dairy products have been distributed since the program began a year ago.
Koch-Fienberg said it can be hard for people to ask for help, especially in communities considered wealthy. "Pockets of every community experience need," she said. "We absolutely have need in this county."
The most recent data compiled by the United Way for its ALICE Project (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) indicates that 37 percent of households in Putnam are above the poverty level but below the annual income needed for basic survival, including savings for emergencies.
Koch-Fienberg said that it's not clear if the federal grant that funded Farm to Truck will be renewed when it ends in August. "People have come become so reliant on the program, she said. "It's incredibly sad for it to have an uncertain future." -
Artists and writers celebrate do-it-yourself ethos
Inspired by hardcore punk of the early 1980s, the do-it-yourself spirit that spawned the zine scene rages on.
Back then, the mainstream media mocked the music and the mosh pit, so fans of the bands chronicled the anti-commercial goings-on in minute detail because no one else was going to do it for them.
But the zine world eclipsed the crude, smudgy black-and-white punk rock periodical phase a long time ago. As book artists elevate printmaking to new levels of sophistication that bring color and creativity to the form, 24 practitioners will display their work at the Beacon Art Book and Zine Fair on Saturday (April 26).
A zine by Chelsea Rae Mize
Chelsea Rae Mize selling her zines at an event
"Germ Carrying Insect" by Marianne Petit
Sample spreads from "My Anatomical Journal," by Marianne Petit
Marianne Petit
"Toy Truck Memorial" by Randy Calderone
Randy Calderone
Organized by the Beacon Photo Club's leading lights, Emma McDonald and Diana Vidal, the fair will allow its members to share their work, including Beacon resident Randy Calderone, who self-published a paperback filled with dozens of photos taken around the Hudson Valley, most focused on urban decay. All seven selections shown in a just-closed group exhibit at Grit Gallery in Newburgh are included in the collection.
The photo club began in 2023, when McDonald and Vidal met at KuBe Art Center. "We immediately clicked on the same train of thought: to create more of a community and share work, resources and inspiration," says McDonald. "Art books, photo books and zines often came up in conversation at our meetings and after putting out a call for submissions, we were blown away by the amount of interest from participants and by the caliber of their work."
The event will include workshops on collage techniques and creating one-page zines. Marianne Petit, one of the more accomplished creators attending, is a professor at New York University who raised $40,000 on Kickstarter to publish a pop-up alphabet book. Her work is housed in museums, private collections, the British Library and the Library of Congress.
The zine and art book world is a substantial subculture due to a confluence of factors, including the general art-world bubble, says Petit, who lived in Beacon for a few years during the pandemic but got "priced out" and moved to Amenia.
In addition, "printmaking is a technical field that fosters communal spaces: people share presses, teach paper arts and develop a generous open-source community," she said. "It's also less expensive at the entry level and easy to transport. I can fold entire exhibits that fill up a room into one suitcase."
Members of Chelsea Rae Mize's writing group, Little Histories, will share a table and offer typewritten poetry on-demand. She will display the three-zine series, Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll, which compiles work from other artists in 30-page collections, along with the somewhat risque four-volume set, Short Shorts.
After a stint in Hollywood writing screenplays, Mize ended up in Beacon and self-publishes bestselling cozy mysteries, a distinct genre that centers on a murder but lacks violence and prurience. Her Dog Groomer series features humorous juxtapositions between punny titles and the cute pooch on the cover.
Also a cartoonist, her life transformed after meeting a "punk anarchist squatter" who lived in lower Manhattan and "wrote an incredible fantasy story about George W. Bush," she says. "I'd never encountered a DIY ethos so full of talent and that's why I self-publish my books. There's pros and cons to it, but the direct-to-consumer relationship inspired me."
The Beacon Art Book and Zine Fair will take place at the VFW Hall, 413 Main St., in Beacon from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday (April 26). Admission is free. See beaconphotoclub.com. The schedule includes a collage workshop for kids at 11 a.m., a one-page zine workshop at 2 p.m. and ongoing community art proje... -
The most beautiful words in data journalism - except for free coffee - are longitudinal study.
Polling often obscures more than it illuminates. Questions can be vague or misleading. If you ask, "Do you approve of the president's handling of immigration?" the respondent will base their answer on whatever they think the president's immigration policy is. And polls are just a snapshot. With the stock market and egg prices hopping up and down like a rabbit on hot coals, someone's opinion on the economy may be out of date before the next sunrise.
But a longitudinal study - in which you ask the same questions or observe the same group for a long period of time, even decades - removes volatility. And if the questions have a range of possible answers, as opposed to "yes" or "no," you get a more nuanced picture of how people are feeling.
My favorite example of this is a poll that the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication has conducted at least once a year for nearly 20 years. Instead of asking people if they believe that climate change is real and primarily caused by humans, it asks them to put themselves into one of six categories: Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful or Dismissive.
Sometimes, for fun, I ask friends to guess what percentage of Americans think climate change is a hoax. The answers range from 30 percent to 80 percent. In fact, according to Yale's surveys, it's about 10 percent; the Dismissive group fluctuates between 9 percent and 12 percent. Doubtful has also remained steady at 12 percent.
If you think climate change isn't real, or even if you're not sure, nothing in the past 20 years - the avalanche of studies, the hotter summers, the heavier storms, the droughts, the wildfires, the floods, the lack of snow, species on the verge of extinction - has made you change your mind. That is why I don't write too many columns trying to "convince" people that climate change is real.
What has changed is that the Cautious (18 percent) and Concerned (28 percent) groups have shrunk while the Alarmed group has grown (26 percent).
The problem is that nearly everyone in the Dismissive group seems to have a podcast, a gig on cable news, a paycheck from a fossil fuel company or a desk in the White House. For the sake of comparison, a 2021 poll by the University of New Hampshire found that 12 percent of Americans believe the moon landings were faked, and last I checked we weren't reorienting the economy and manufacturing sector around that (knock on wood).
The contrast gets even starker when you zoom out. A 2024 poll from Oxford University found that 89 percent of people around the world want their governments to do more to mitigate climate change. Do you know how hard it is to get 89 percent of people to agree on anything? We can't even get that many people to agree that the moon landings happened.
If you'll forgive me for writing about the Pope for two columns in a row, I was struck this week by how often people who work in climate said, in the wake of Pope Francis' death on April 21, that it was his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si': On Care for our Common Home that gave them the courage to get involved in climate in the first place. They had thought that caring about the climate was a fringe belief. But if the head of a faith-based, conservative, 2,000-year-old global institution was taking the science seriously, maybe it was mainstream.
As the Trump administration continues its attempts to roll back environmental regulations, there's a temptation to throw up your hands. "He won the election, so I guess this is what the country wants." But the Oxford poll found that two-thirds of Americans think this country should do more about climate.
If the country is going to make any progress on climate over the next few years - or at least stop the backsliding - the silent majority in the Highlands and around the country and world needs to make itself heard.
This column is part of The 89 Percent Project, an initiative ... -
Depot Theatre presents dance drama
Five rehearsals in, the folks responsible for producing The Tango Diaries at the Philipstown Depot Theatre in Garrison had mastered the outline.
Attention turned to fine-tuning, including lighting, blocking (where to stand and how to move) and what inflection to use when saying a line, which could be changed on the fly by the playwrights in the room.
For months, Alice Jankell has acclimated to her new role as the venue's artistic director. (She succeeded Nancy Swann, who retired after 20 years.) Now serving as a hands-on director for her first play as an employee, she's keen on spotlighting a work that showcases why Argentina's chief cultural export exerts such a powerful hold around the world that it has "saved people's lives," according to the promotional copy. The play, which features dancing and live music (via electronic keyboard), opens May 2.
A pro's pro, Jankell spent the last four decades compiling a blizzard of prestigious acting, writing and directing credits, including musicals for Disney. Last year at the Depot, the Kent resident directed Dirt in conjunction with the Putnam Theatre Alliance, a coalition she helped kickstart during the pandemic.
Early rehearsals for The Tango Diaries unfolded with purpose and playfulness. Ideas ricocheted between the stage, Jankell's seat and the play's writers, Ron Hutchinson and Alisa Taylor, who are driving up from Brooklyn for each rehearsal and performance with their white lapdog, Lucy, in tow.
"More than any other dance, the tango touches the human condition in a deep manner, which is why there's a global obsession over it," Jankell says. "The largest festival is in Finland."
This is the play's premiere as a stage production, though 6 million people listened to a radio version on the BBC, which is quite a feat because there's no way to see people dance over the aural airwaves.
One of Jankell's directorial challenges is to weave choreography with drama to ensure fluidity on the small stage. Characters often pierce the fourth wall.
Local actors include Maia Guest, Sara Jay Halliday, Erin McGuff-Pennington, Dante Nastasi, Mike Pirillo and John Christian Plummer. Haldane senior and intern Oliver Petkus occupied the assistant director chair for one rehearsal. Musicians and four dancers (two of whom have prominent acting roles) travel from New York City.
The tango itself is constructed of several set steps that can be reassembled in any configuration. One person leads, the other follows, and "that interplay is the challenge," says Jankell. "It's a visceral transfer of power, mixed with intimacy; it takes great concentration to do it well."
Married to a psychiatrist, Jankell views the dramatic arts like a sociologist: "It's a way to explore how people navigate each other, like two dancers. Theater helps us understand human behavior."
The Philipstown Depot Theatre is located at 10 Garrison's Landing. The Tango Diaries opens at 7:30 p.m. on May 2 and continues weekends through May 18. See depottheater.org for tickets, which are $25, $30 or $45 each. -
Met Chorus Artists will perform on May 4
A few photos on the Met Chorus Artists website show five singers and an accompanist performing at the Howland Cultural Center in 2018.
On Sunday (May 4), the group will return with a pianist and narrator along with two tenors, three sopranos, a mezzo-soprano and a bass-baritone to present History of Opera: Up Close.
There's a long tradition of classical chamber settings featuring vocalists, usually paired with a piano or small ensemble. The repertoire is known as lieder in Germany, melodie in France and art songs elsewhere, says Sara Heaton, a soprano who will be performing.
But selling tickets for stripped-down vocal concerts can be a challenge, says Akiko Sasaki, music director at the Howland Chamber Music Circle.
In 2017, Sasaki introduced a Classics for Kids series and eight years ago, Met Chorus Artists performed a show for the wee ones. On May 4, they will present a young person's concert in the afternoon that pulls examples from The Magic Flute to punctuate points.
The 4 p.m. adult-oriented retrospective is being performed for the first time ever. Selections range from the Baroque era, represented by Claudio Monteverdi (born 1567) and George Friedrich Handel, to contemporary opera, including works by Igor Stravinsky and Kevin Puts (born 1972). Excerpts by the genre's one-name stars - Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and Puccini - will also air.
Heaton and Sasaki's friendship spawned the 2018 visit from Met Chorus Artists, a nonprofit outreach for members of the Metropolitan Opera chorus.
"We started it a few years ago with the goal of bringing the music to other spaces outside the opera house and to work on a smaller scale than the grand opera that we do at the Met," says Heaton.
Sasaki also takes chamber music beyond the concert hall by programming pop-ups in libraries, art galleries and Beacon Music Factory (on May 3). But the Howland Cultural Center, with its renowned acoustics for unplugged instruments, is a special place to see such a performance, she says.
"A program like this fits well in a chamber setting," she says. "It's exciting because opera is usually performed in a big house with 4,000 people in the audience. Here, the singing fills up the room and you can feel their vibrato."
The narrator, Whitney Young, a composer and conductor who shatters the stereotype with sleeves, neck tattoos and attitude, inspired the format after several singers in the Met Chorus attended Young's lecture on the history of the string quartet at the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan. The lecture was augmented with a cellist, violist and two violinists who provided live examples on the spot, says Heaton, who lived in Beacon for seven years but moved in 2022 to Westchester to shorten her commute to Lincoln Center.
Bringing an expansive ensemble from New York City that provides flexibility to mix and match presents a more varied performance than a soloist singing lieder and art songs. "This is such a great format," she says. "We worked hard putting together a taste of Opera 101."
The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. Opera for Kids will be performed at 1 p.m. on May 4. Tickets are $15 for adults and free for children. All ages are welcome, but it is recommended for ages 6 and older. The Met Chorus Artists concert is scheduled for 4 p.m. on May 4. Tickets are $35, or $10 for students ages 25 and younger. See howlandmusic.org/tickets for both shows. -
Project near Beacon border faces opposition
A Beacon developer proposing to build a self-storage facility on land between Interstate 84 and Van Ness Road has finalized its responses to concerns from city and Fishkill residents about aesthetics, traffic and safety.
In an environmental-impact statement submitted on April 10 to the Fishkill Planning Board, 1292 Route 9D LLC said its two story, 26,000-square-foot facility would be a low-visibility, low-traffic project and not "change or diminish" the character of the area or quality of life for people living south of the property, which sits across 9D from the Southern Dutchess Country Club.
The 30-foot-high structure would be set back 200 feet, or twice the required distance, from the highway and contain 333 self-storage units (ranging from 24 to 240 square feet), 26 parking spaces and a loading area.
The developer, based at 268 Main St. in Beacon, estimates that 37 vehicles (including two trucks) will enter the facility on weekdays and 42 (three trucks) on Saturdays. The vehicles must use a driveway just north of Van Ness Road and can only enter from northbound 9D and turn right when exiting.
That "right in/right out" requirement by the state Department of Transportation means southbound drivers visiting the facility will have to go past it and use one of Beacon's residential streets to turn around.
In comments submitted in October, Mayor Lee Kyriacou said the use of residential streets for through traffic is "inconsistent with best practice" and would harm the community character of Dutchess Terrace, Rock Hill Road and Verplanck Avenue. To avoid having to continue south to turn around, some drivers may attempt illegal left turns or dangerous U-turns, he said.
Fishkill residents living on streets north of Interstate 84, such as Dogwood Lane and Chiappardi Place, expressed concern that drivers exiting onto northbound 9D will use their streets as a turnaround to go south.
To prevent visitors from using those streets, 1292 Route 9D LLC said it would require the facility's operator to post online directions for entering and exiting, specifying routes that do not require use of the local streets. The developer also said it would petition GPS providers to dictate routes that avoid residential streets.
Because the property is in Fishkill's restricted-business zone, where self-storage facilities are not allowed, the developer needs a special permit from the Planning Board in addition to site-plan approval.
Granting a special permit requires a finding from the board, with input from the building inspector, that a project "is substantially similar" to other uses in the district and "consistent with the stated purposes of the district."
According to 1292 Route 9D LLC, its project "is consistent with the surrounding land uses and the built environment" because it will generate "minimal traffic, noise and air emissions" and be screened from the view of neighbors.
At the board's urging, 1292 Route 9D LLC assessed two alternative projects - a residence and a hotel. It concluded that a hotel would generate more traffic than the storage facility and require more tree clearing and parking spaces. A single-family home would not be "economically viable," according to the developer.
Liz Axelson, a senior planner with Clark Patterson Lee and the Planning Board's consultant, said in October that a restaurant, small hotel or bed-and-breakfast would be more appropriate. "The assertion that the proposed self-storage would complement any of the nearby uses is not well supported, in my opinion," she said.
According to Clark Patterson Lee, 11 self-storage facilities exist within 5 miles of the proposed site. The Fishkill Town Board in August 2023 approved a one-year moratorium on approvals for self-storage, citing concerns from residents about a flood of applications. -
Board votes to override levy cap
The Nelsonville Village Board on Monday (April 21) approved a $377,540 spending plan for 2025-26 after voting to exceed the state's 2.77 percent cap on levy increases.
Expenses are projected to be 6.6 percent higher, and the adopted levy rises by 5.21 percent to $326,697. Taxes for the average property owner will increase by $68, said Mayor Chris Winward.
Anticipated legal spending will increase by 20 percent, to $15,000 annually; Keane & Beane has had to defend the village from multiple lawsuits while also reviewing contacts, Winward said. Electricity bills are expected to be 33 percent higher and Nelsonville allocated an increase of 13.6 percent more, to $28,411, for insurance for its buildings (including the one leased by Putnam County for a sheriff station) and court actions against its elected and appointed officials.
An additional 9.42 percent was appropriated for employee benefits. The court and village clerk will receive 3 percent raises and the deputy village clerk will receive a 2.55 percent boost.
Winward's salary will remain at $4,500 annually and the trustees will continue to reach receive $2,650.
Court changes
The Nelsonville trustees voted to appoint Philipstown Justice Angela Thompson-Tinsley as the acting village justice in place of Stephen Tomann, who retired.
The board also renewed a $150-per-hour contract with Kevin Irwin, a Pawling attorney who prosecutes traffic tickets and other non-criminal violations for Nelsonville, and approved the use of a credit-card reader giving to the village by the state's Unified Court System.
Melissa Harris, the village clerk, said she hopes the machine will increase revenues from fines. "A lot of the time, people will say, 'I only have a card; can I have a week to pay and mail it in?' And then they don't," she said.
New meeting day and time
The board voted to move its monthly workshop and regular meetings to the second and third Wednesday of each month, respectively. The meeting time will also change, beginning a half-hour earlier, at 7 p.m.
Mondays present a problem because many holidays fall on that day, and compiling information packets for trustees by Friday afternoons has proved difficult, said Winward. "This will give us a lot more time to be able to prepare for meetings," she said.
No parking
A sign prohibiting parking on Spring Street should be installed soon. Nelsonville approved a ban on Spring Street in December in response to drivers parking along the side of Blacksmith Wines, leaving only one lane.
Trustee Dave Moroney said the installation of a no-parking sign had to be postponed because of equipment problems. There are new no-parking signs on Secor Street. Winward said the village anticipates more hikers parking there to use Nelsonville Woods because Breakneck closed for two years starting Monday (April 21).
"It's only a matter of time until people figure out that they can just have the same view going up Bull Hill," she said. -
Cites support for NYC toll, interest in Lawler seat
A Philipstown resident who represents Putnam County on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board rejected a demand by the county executive that he resign because of his support for congestion pricing in lower Manhattan and his interest in the U.S. House seat held by Rep. Mike Lawler.
Neal Zuckerman, a Democrat who chairs the MTA board's Finance Committee, served on the Metro-North Commuter Council for six years before being appointed in 2016 to the MTA board with a recommendation from then-County Executive MaryEllen Odell, a Republican. He was reappointed, to a term that ends in 2026, by the state Senate in 2023 with a recommendation from Byrne, also a Republican.
Byrne, a former Assembly member elected as county executive in 2022, is an ally of Lawler and a critic of the MTA's 3-month-old congestion-pricing program, which launched on Jan. 5 with a $9 toll for passenger and small commercial vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street.
Zuckerman supports the toll, which is higher for buses and trucks, and raised $48 million in the first month while reducing traffic and travel times in lower Manhattan, according to the MTA.
In an April 3 letter, Byrne claimed that Zuckerman "conveyed a genuine desire to work across the aisles regardless of political differences" during a meeting in 2023 for his reappointment but had since "outright opposed the policy positions" of the county and "openly assailed several officials duly elected by the people of Putnam County." He called on Zuckerman to resign "in a manner which is dignified and appropriate."
Byrne also referenced news reports about Zuckerman's interest in seeking the 17th District congressional seat held by Lawler, a Republican in his second term. Philipstown is within the district's borders.
Those reports "make clear that you intend to present yourself as a candidate for public office and seem to be using your position in furtherance of that pursuit," said Byrne. "It is imperative that we have a representative on the board who is dedicated to the position."
Byrne copied his letter to President Donald Trump, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Gov. Kathy Hochul, both U.S. senators from New York, Lawler, four members of the state Legislature, the MTA board chair and the chair of the county Legislature.
Individual legislators were also asked to sign a separate letter from Bill Gouldman, who represents Putnam Valley, calling for Zuckerman's resignation.
Lawler said in a statement on Wednesday that Byrne's letter "speaks for itself. If Neal Zuckerman is not representing the interests of Putnam County residents on the MTA board, he should resign."
In a letter responding to Byrne, Zuckerman said that chairing the board's Finance Committee has enabled him to champion projects that benefit Putnam riders, who use both the Harlem and Hudson lines. Those projects include repairs at the Cold Spring and Garrison stations and funding in the 2025-29 capital plan to buttress the Hudson Line against flooding, he said.
He said his support for congestion pricing "should come as no surprise" since he had voted in 2019 for a capital plan that relied on it. "At recent board meetings, I have lamented the added burden of yet another fee on residents of our region," he wrote. But the program, enacted by state law in 2019, will help fund $15 billion (25 percent) of the MTA's capital plan for 2025-2029, which will "improve the system that is essential to the livelihoods of Putnam County commuters and, indeed, for the region's economy," said Zuckerman.
He said that 69 percent of Putnam residents who visit the congestion zone get there by train but will benefit from the toll collected from drivers.
If Zuckerman decides to pursue Lawler's seat, he could face at least four other Democrats declaring their candidacies: Beth Davidson, a Rockland County legislator; Jessica Reinmann, founder of the nonprofit 914Cares in Westchester County; Cait Conley,... -
Cold Spring church operated day care for 57 years
The Community Nursery School and Learning Center operated by the First Presbyterian Church of Philipstown will close in June after 57 years, in large part because of the loss of 4-year-olds to prekindergarten programs launched by public schools with state aid.
Community Nursery opened in 1968 at the Cold Spring church on Academy Street as an "affordable alternative," the school said in a news release. It was directed for much of its history by Rosemary Rodino, whose 38-year tenure ended with her retirement in 2023.
"We are grateful for the rich history of the school and the efforts made by students, teachers, parents and church volunteers for helping the school to thrive for so long," the Rev. Brian Merritt, the pastor at First Presbyterian, said in a statement. "This was a very tough and emotional decision for us." The Sunday morning service on June 8 will be dedicated to the school.
Because of state regulations, Community Nursery operates for just under three hours in the mornings. It considered expanding to a full-day program but found it too expensive to comply with the licensing requirements, said Laura Reid, who serves on the oversight committee for the school. She said the school has 16 students enrolled but that 10 will turn 4 by Dec. 1, making them eligible for pre-K programs such as those newly offered by Haldane and Garrison.
"We're applauding the fact that Universal pre-K has come to the community, but unfortunately it means that the Community Nursery School is not viable," she said. "We would be losing most of our 4-year-olds."
St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Garrison has a preschool that has operated for 64 years, since 1960. Like the Community Nursery, it runs for just under three hours in the morning. It has 24 students but saw a dramatic drop in 4-year-olds when the Garrison School across the street launched a pre-K program two years ago, said Betsy Alberty, its director.
The school, which has space for 30 children, had 14 four-year-olds then and now has five. In response, St. Philip's began accepting more 2-year-olds. "We had to be flexible," Alberty said.
Ilana Friedman, the director of the preschool at the Beacon Hebrew Alliance, said pre-K has not had such a dramatic effect because all but one of its 13 students are 2 or 3 years old.
The rise of pre-K at public schools has impacted licensed day cares, as well. In years past at Stacy's House, a preschool operated by Stacy Labriola at her home in Philipstown, as many as half of the children were 4. Today, only two of 16 are that old. "It's free - you can't compete with that," she said of pre-K programs. -
Benchmarks and awards increase as city renews certification
With Earth Day approaching, the City of Beacon announced this week that it has received nearly $900,000 in grants over the past year through the New York State Clean Energy Communities program.
The funding, awarded because of Beacon's "silver" certification as a Climate Smart community, is being used to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from municipal operations, including through the purchase of electric vehicles, installation of EV charging stations and energy-efficiency audits on city buildings. Beacon earned silver certification, the highest rating possible, in 2020.
Because the Trump administration is dismantling programs created to mitigate climate change, Mayor Lee Kyriacou said it is "more critical than ever for local governments to redouble our efforts to transition toward a clean-energy future."
Energy-efficiency studies are underway at three city-owned buildings: the Wastewater Treatment Plant's administrative building, the Veterans Memorial Building on Main Street and the Beacon Volunteer Ambulance Corps facility on Arquilla Drive. After collecting utility data, state funds will be used to upgrade insulation and convert the aging buildings from directly burning fossil fuels to electric heating and cooling.
Additionally, Clean Energy Communities grants helped the city purchase emissions-free electric vehicles for multiple departments, including police, recreation, building and administration. An electric Ford F-150 Lightning is on order for the Recreation Department. Electric vehicle charging stations will be installed at City Hall and the Recreation Center on West Center Street.
The city is also preparing to solicit bids for a rooftop solar array at the Highway Garage with funding secured by Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon. The project is expected to add 223,000 kilowatt-hours annually to the electricity already being produced by a solar array on Dennings Avenue. That facility, opened in 2018 on a 20-acre former landfill site, generates about 70 percent of the electricity used in municipal buildings.
Finally, the city is participating in the Mid-Hudson Municipal Landfill Emissions Mitigation Project, funded by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The money pays for biofilters that will reduce methane emissions at 14 closed landfills.
Five years after its silver certification, Beacon is preparing to renew its status. "This isn't tinkering," said Faye Leone, the city's Climate Smart coordinator. To qualify for state grants, "we have to keep reducing our emissions by taking on bigger and bigger projects. The work gets harder and harder."
Leone said she expects the "next frontier" in sustainability to be the conversion of municipal buildings to clean energy. Citing the city's all-electric, geothermal, "super-insulated" central fire station that opened last year, she said it "sets a new bar for city buildings: zero or low emissions, cost-efficient and healthy and comfortable for those who work there." -
Program would connect city with Newburgh
Two area residents have been awarded $100,000 by New York State to explore a bike-sharing program that would connect Beacon and Newburgh.
Thomas Wright, a Beacon resident and head of the city's Greenway Trail Committee, and Naomi Hersson-Ringskog, an urban planner who lives in Newburgh, were awarded the funding through a Clean Mobility program overseen by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). It aims to add zero-emission connections to public transportation in underserved communities.
The award is not to create a bike-share program but to plan how one could work. Wright, who works in Newburgh, and Hersson-Ringskog will be paired with WXY Architecture + Urban Design to develop a blueprint for a program similar to New York City's Citi Bike initiative. Wright and Hersson-Ringskog said they envision stations with eight to 10 bikes each, some electric, which users could check out for a fee or perhaps at no charge because of sponsors.
The duo foresee their plan leading to a public-private partnership like Citi Bike's, which partners with the New York City Department of Transportation and Lyft, the ridesharing company. A combination of private funding, sponsors and memberships support the program.
Officials on both sides of the Hudson River have indicated they're supportive of bikes for transportation, Hersson-Ringskog said. In Beacon, Mayor Lee Kyriacou has endorsed the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, a 7.5-mile linear park that Scenic Hudson is planning between Beacon and Cold Spring. The city is equally enthusiastic about a proposed Beacon-to-Hopewell rail trail. Both projects would significantly increase safe bike routes.
Beacon also has applied for funding from Dutchess County for a rehab of Beekman Street, which leads to the Metro-North station. The project, still several years away, could include bike lanes that would build on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's "first mile, last mile" initiative for environmentally friendly ways for passengers to connect to trains.
In Newburgh, Hersson-Ringskog's nonprofit, Dept of Small Interventions, in 2020 partnered with the city's Transportation Advisory Committee to create a community bike action plan, while monthly "critical mass" community rides take place from April to October. "You feel proud of your community that you're not starting from zero," Hersson-Ringskog said.
She and Wright are also working to create the "Regional Connector," a 1-mile path that would connect the Metro-North station in Beacon to the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. That effort, they say, could unify a growing network of trails. A bike-share program could accelerate the campaign, Wright said, "by providing a means of mobility which gives users much greater range. When you add in e-bikes, the options are further multiplied."
WXY plans to survey residents in both cities (see linktr.ee/newburgh.beacon.bike), while Wright and Hersson-Ringskog will make presentations to community groups. WXY will also help with data analysis, mapping and exploring partnerships for maintenance, operations and funding.
"We hope to uncover the voice of a broad cross-section of the communities that desires this," Hersson-Ringskog said. "Here you have a transportation system that could really unite Beacon and Newburgh. We're stronger together, essentially."
The bike-share grant was one of 29 - totaling $2.9 million - that NYSERDA announced in March. Projects elsewhere in the state will explore the feasibility of charging hubs, scooter-share programs and electric-vehicle car shares. Ten of the 29 are in the Hudson Valley, including in Kingston, Poughkeepsie and New Paltz. With "transformational" developments being considered in the region, Wright said he believes "multi-modal systems" that can alleviate congestion without polluting the environment "are so important to think about." -
Endorses revenue sharing with towns, villages
Putnam Executive Kevin Byrne this week vetoed a sales-tax reduction passed by the county Legislature and announced a long-discussed plan to share revenue with towns and villages if the rate remains unchanged.
In a memo sent Monday (April 14) to the Legislature, Byrne called on lawmakers to convene an emergency meeting to rescind their 5-4 vote requesting the state allow Putnam to lower the county's portion of the tax on purchases from 4 percent to 3.75 percent. The reduction would cost the county an estimated $5.3 million annually.
The higher rate has been in place since 2007, when the state enacted a law allowing Putnam to increase its sales tax from 3 percent to 4 percent. A series of extensions have kept the higher rate in place, but the most recent one expires on Nov. 30, requiring passage of another bill before state lawmakers end their 2025 session on June 12.
Consumers in Putnam County pay 8.375 percent sales tax, which includes 4 percent for the state and 0.375 percent for the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District. With the reduction, the total tax would fall to 8.125 percent.
Preserving the rate will allow the county to continue reducing property taxes and fund capital projects, Byrne wrote in his memo.
Flanked by officials from Philipstown, Cold Spring, Nelsonville and Putnam's other towns and villages, Byrne also announced outside Kent Town Hall on Tuesday that if county legislators renew the extra 1 percent, one-ninth of its revenue would be distributed annually to municipalities for infrastructure and capital projects.
If sales-tax sharing had been in place in 2024, Putnam would have distributed $2.4 million to the county's six towns and three villages on a per capita basis, said Byrne during a news conference. Each would be guaranteed at least $50,000.
With the move, Putnam would join 50 of New York's 62 counties that share sales tax revenue with their municipalities, according to the state Comptroller's Office. Dutchess' 2025 budget includes $46 million in sales-tax distributions, with an estimated $6.1 million for Beacon.
Extending the current rate will also help fund a $1 million reduction in the property-tax levy that Byrne says he will propose for the 2026 budget. The reduction would be the largest in county history, he said.
Addressing the Legislature on April 1, Cold Spring Mayor Kathleen Foley accused legislators of "hoarding" money because Putnam has accumulated $134 million in savings. Speaking at the news conference, Foley said the village has stormwater impacts it needs to address and that extra revenue could also help the village manage tourism.
Dan Birmingham, the legislator who initially proposed a reduction to 3.5 percent, said the size of Putnam's savings, or fund balance, justified giving residents a break. During his first stint as a legislator, from 2004 to 2012, Birmingham supported the 2007 increase to 4 percent to cover county losses attributed to the Great Recession.
Now, Putnam is "sitting on top of the largest fund balance-to-budget ratio this county has ever seen," he said.
When Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of the Putnam Valley, predicted before the April 1 vote that Byrne would veto the lower sales tax, Birmingham said that unless the Legislature has six votes to override a veto, "you return to the status quo" after Nov. 30 - the 3 percent rate that existed before 2007.
Byrne said on Tuesday that sacrificing the full 1 percent "would not help the towns; it would hurt this county" because the annual revenue loss would total about $20 million.
In 2022, the Legislature unanimously agreed to pass along sales tax that exceeded what the county collected the previous year. In what turned out to be a one-time distribution, it shared $5 million, sending $369,670 to Philipstown, $101,671 to Cold Spring and $31,945 to Nelsonville, which used its portion to study the feasibility of building a sewer system.
Nelsonvil... -
Apartments, retail proposed for Beekman Street in Beacon
In some ways, a public hearing held Tuesday (April 8) on a proposal to construct two 4-story buildings with 64 apartments along Beekman Street at Route 9D in Beacon resembled a revolving door.
One by one, residents opposed to the 45 Beekman St. project registered complaints with the Planning Board, which has been reviewing the application since December 2023. As the speakers finished, Taylor Palmer, the applicant's attorney, approached the podium to challenge the complaints.
In addition to one- and two-bedroom apartments, the project at one of the gateways to Beacon (Interstate 84 is a few blocks away) is set to include 15,000 square feet of commercial space. Renderings show brick buildings with metal trim, although metal components may not be allowed in the city's linkage district, which connects the waterfront and Main Street. The building inspector will make a determination.
Streetscape elements would include benches, bicycle racks and a public area at the 9D intersection with sculptures and seating. A parking lot behind the buildings would sit close to the backyards of a half-dozen properties on High Street and Tompkins Avenue.
Some neighbors feel the proposal is out of scale with its surroundings and will detract from the 12 multicolored Victorian homes on High Street, part of Beacon's protected historic district. They also say trees the developer intends to plant at the site will not adequately screen their views.
Project officials contend that the linkage zone is meant for high-density, mixed-use development and say the proposal is in line with nearby developments such as The View and West End Lofts, and civic buildings such as City Hall and the recently completed central fire station.
However, "the fire station requires multiple vehicles exceeding 25 feet and weighing 12 tons to park inside," said Jim Zellinger, a West Church Street resident, on Tuesday. "Showing these buildings as comparable only demonstrates the oversized scale of the proposal."
Palmer countered, saying the linkage district was created to encourage residential development that will support Main Street businesses. "The comprehensive plan and its [2017] update explicitly call for this type of mixed-use development along Beekman Street," he said.
Palmer shared a letter from the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) indicating the agency did not believe the project would adversely affect the High Street-to-Tompkins Avenue neighborhood, which the agency said is eligible for the state and national Registers of Historic Places.
OPRHP conditioned its statement on the developer submitting a "construction protection plan" for historical resources within 90 feet and revising the rooftop design of the building closest to High Street.
Later in the hearing, Maryellen Case, a High Street resident, disputed the finding, even with its caveats. Case said she had called the state official who wrote the letter, and "she explained that the office is inundated with these types of evaluations. She also didn't realize that there was any public opposition, particularly from High Street residents."
Jill Reynolds, a former Planning Board member, also spoke, noting that the board's review of the application is likely nearing its end. "I don't know how you can stop that ocean liner before it hits the iceberg," she said. "I just want to keep Beacon from becoming downtown White Plains."
The project has been on the agenda for 14 meetings, Palmer said, and issues raised Tuesday "are important, but they're comments that the board considered throughout the review process."
The Planning Board typically holds public hearings on multiple elements of a project, such as environmental impacts or for site-plan approval, although speakers rarely distinguish their comments. It will continue the hearing on 45 Beekman next month while opening another on the subdivision of parcels at the site. "There's stil... -
Administration promotes benefits for students, teachers
Beacon school board members will vote April 22 on the district's 2025-26 budget proposal, which includes $87.7 million in spending and a 5.09 percent tax levy increase, just under the maximum allowed under a complicated state formula.
The board will hold a public hearing during its May 6 meeting, and district voters will be asked to approve the plan on May 20.
With the levy increase, the district could collect about $50 million in property taxes. The remainder of its revenue comes mostly from state and federal aid. Although state legislators had not approved a budget as of Thursday (April 10), Beacon is expected to receive about $31.5 million from Albany, including $21.7 in unrestricted foundation aid, a 2 percent increase.
Direct federal aid accounts for about 2 percent of the Beacon district's budget, or $1.7 million. The Trump administration has threatened to cut funding to states and local districts that do not eliminate what the White House considers to be diversity, equity and inclusion programs, although New York State says it will resist.
Beacon administrators plan to use the increased funding to implement summer workshops for incoming Beacon High School students and increased mental health support for students at the high school and Rombout Middle School. Math and reading teachers for struggling elementary students will be hired, as well as a part-time speech instructor at the elementary level. Teacher training would focus on "the science of reading" - a research field that investigates how children develop reading and writing skills.
More than 75 percent of the budget will be spent on salaries and benefits for the district's 682 teachers, administrators and other staff.
The proposed levy increase is larger than in years past due primarily to two factors: (1) debt service (about 8 percent of expected expenditures) on a $50 million capital project approved by voters last year and (2) increased residential development in Beacon.
The capital project will fund sweeping improvements at all six district schools and is the first such effort to trigger a tax increase in at least 15 years. In addition, Beacon's tax base has also grown more than any other district in Dutchess County in the past five years. That growth is one of the factors in the complex state tax formula that determines how much a district can increase its levy; in Beacon it will allow the schools to add $1.2 million to the taxes collected for 2025-26.
Superintendent Matt Landahl told school board members during their April 7 meeting that the district is creating individualized data sheets on budget impacts for each school. "This year is really important to give people as much information as they can have walking into their polling place," he said.
While the levy is increasing, individual homeowners' tax bills may not go up by the same percentage. Development in Beacon adds taxpaying households, while assessments also impact what a homeowner owes.
The district estimates that the owner of a home assessed at the median value in Beacon ($304,700) will pay $3,127 annually in school taxes - still considerably less than other Dutchess districts (see chart). "In my mind, this is an argument to go to the tax cap," Landahl said. "In our hiring and retaining employees, these are some of our closest-competing districts."
If you expand the comparison regionwide, "that number just grows, if we're talking about Orange County, Putnam County and obviously Westchester County," he said. "That school tax estimate just gets bigger and bigger, compared to what we're paying here." -
Program spurred by federal cuts
Hudson Valley farmers reeling from cuts and freezes to federal funding will get some help from one of their own as the growing season gets underway.
On Tuesday (April 8), the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in Philipstown announced it is accepting applications for private aid designed to buoy operations as the U.S. Department of Agriculture cancels grants, produce purchases for food pantries and schools and funding for other farming initiatives.
Describing its Hudson Valley Farm Relief Fund as a "time-limited emergency response," Glynwood hopes to raise as much as $1.5 million to distribute to farmers in Dutchess, Putnam and nine other counties who have lost funding from nearly 20 federal programs.
Applications are open through April 21 at dub.sh/HV-farm-aid. Recipients can use the funds "in the most impactful way for their business," according to Glynwood.
The funding freezes and contract cancellations began after Brooke Rollins took the oath as the USDA's secretary on Feb. 13. A week later, Rollins said the agency's programs "are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers, not DEIA [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility] programs or far-left climate programs."
Some of the frozen contracts were for the USDA's Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities program, which awarded grants to the Hudson Valley and three other regions to improve the ability of farmers to adapt to drought, extreme heat and other threats from climate change.
Glynwood, which oversees the program, hired Zach Wolf of EZ Farms in Columbia County to develop plans for eight farms. The practices included planting cover crops, as well as integrating more trees to act as a windbreak, improving soil, water and air quality and providing perennial crops in the form of fruit.
"We have partners who received letters out of the blue telling them that their government contracts - contracts that have been signed and that they were already doing work toward - have been canceled," said Megan Larmer, the senior director of programs at Glynwood.
On Wednesday (April 9), U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, lambasted cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program, through which the USDA purchases locally grown farm products for food banks to distribute to hospitals, pantries, schools, senior centers and soup kitchens.
Some of the local beneficiaries, such as the Philipstown Food Pantry, receive TEFAP-purchased food through the Regional Food Bank in Montgomery, which said it expects the cuts to cost it 200 tractor-trailer shipments delivering an estimated 8 million pounds of food from farmers.
"I had to read this five times before I believed it," said Ryan of the canceled shipments. "We're all already feeling the crunch of the affordability crisis, which is made immeasurably worse by Trump's tariffs. Now he's ripping food away from hungry children - it's absolutely disgusting."
Hudson Valley farmers who benefited from the federal Local Food Purchase Assistance funding are among those eligible for Glynwood's emergency aid. Along with another program facing cuts, Local Foods for Schools, LFPA funding allows food banks, schools and childcare programs to buy food from farmers.
Using LFPA funding, the state's Food for New York Families program awarded $2 million in 2023 to the Regional Food Bank and $2 million to Cornell Cooperative Extension Putnam County, which has bought and distributed 290,000 pounds of farm products via pantries and a truck whose stops include the county senior center and Chestnut Ridge in Cold Spring and the Brookside mobile home park in Philipstown. -
150 Years Ago (April 1875)
The shoe stores of Thomas Martin and Hugh Patterson were burglarized by culprits who fled toward Breakneck in a light wagon. "Strange to say, no reward was offered and, consequently, no pursuit was made," The Cold Spring Recorder reported. A week later, several pairs of ladies' gaiters were found in a buggy stored in an unoccupied building on Market Street that was once the Presbyterian Church.
Allen Brewer appeared to have "skedaddled" from Nelsonville with all his family's goods except the calico.
A miniature steam engine puffed away in a hole on April 2 opposite Patterson's shoe store to thaw a frozen pipe 2 feet below the surface that had prevented any water from flowing below Chestnut Street. The work continued for more than two weeks. On April 15, the engine exploded outside Mr. Murry's store and a piece of burning charcoal landed between the collar and neck of Jimmie Mellravy, causing a blister.
Charles Emerson, who lived near Mekeel's Corners, claimed he killed six crows with one shot from his English fowling piece. Jackson Tompkins of Putnam Valley said he shot 12 foxes over the winter.
The Episcopal bishop of New York visited Cold Spring for a Saturday morning service to install the Rev. Mr. Isaac Van Winkle as rector of St. Mary's Church. Van Winkle then left for a 10-day vacation.
Twice in a week, a train was stopped by a malfunctioning south signal, which did not instill confidence in the system.
Dr. Griffin of Nelsonville opened a branch office at the corner of Main and Stone streets that he manned daily from 7 to 8 a.m. and 5 to 6 p.m.
Officer McAndrew caught two truants from the Rock Street School after "a lively chase."
After guests at the Pacific Hotel heard wild geese honking on the river, they began to shoot at them for sport.
The Recorder editor reported that Jacob Levi and Barny Clinton exchanged "a great many small rocks and vile epithets" just outside the newspaper office.
A freight engine, while taking water at the station, sent a spark onto the roof of a shed, but a young man spotted the smoke and climbed to put it out.
William Conroy drove to Sandy Landing Cove to wash the mud off his wagon, but the horse sank in the sediment. When Conroy climbed down to get it out, the horse knocked him into the water.
After determining that the oath given to members of the Nelsonville board had been improperly administered, the village petitioned the state Legislature to legalize its past proceedings.
The governor vetoed a bill giving the Garrison and West Point Ferry Co. a half-mile monopoly. He said it was unconstitutional to give exclusive benefits to a private corporation.
The father of Miss Warner, author of Wide Wide World, died at the family home on Constitution Island. She sent for two clergymen to conduct the service but, when they failed to show, knelt by the coffin and led the prayers.
There was a split in the Baptist Church among parishioners who wanted to dismiss the Rev. Benjamin Bowen and those who wanted him to stay. When a deacon said taking a vote would be illegal, most people left. Those who remained then voted to keep Bowen for another year.
125 Years Ago (April 1900)
The M. Taylor Granolithic Co. rented the Truesdell property on Main Street to manufacture the liquid it used in its patented sawdust flooring.
The Cold Spring Hose Co. changed its name to the Cold Spring Fire Co. No. 1.
Dr. Lewis Morris, a former Cold Spring physician, was engaged to Katherine Clark, whose father planned to give the couple a mansion on Fifth Avenue.
After Thomas Coe began selling 26 eggs for 25 cents [$9.50] at his dry goods store, Truesdell offered 30 for 25 cents; Morris, 35 for 25 cents; and Secor, 36 for 25 cents. Morris then went to 50 for 25 cents.
Charles de Rham hired King Quarry Co. to cut a $1,500 [about $57,000 today] fountain and horse trough (shown today, below) for the highway near Indian Brook as a memorial to his late wife.
Mrs. Michael Clare reported to the village po... -
Photographer 'can't leave the material alone'
Sometimes it's difficult to believe that William Loeb's experimental photos began inside a camera. His black-and-white print "Manuscript," which looks hand-drawn, zooms in on a microscopic section of a chandelier's reflection on a Grand Central Station window.
Loeb does manipulate his shots with shading, cropping and "deciding what slice of the world the camera is focused on to create what's inside the frame," he says. "I take it to an extreme, so maybe it's not exactly photography. It could be something else."
At first glance, a shot of the Churchill Downs racetrack in his home state of Kentucky seems like a nightfall crowd scene, but the ominous sky is disproportionately huge.
"I can't leave the material alone because it never captures the thing that I want," he says. "I only know what I want after tinkering with it for hours."
Prominent photos hanging in his house include a colorization of the iconic coin-operated binocular found at tourist locations and a street scene. But several enigmatic works feature white markings against black backgrounds.
Loeb, who arrived in Beacon more than a year ago after splitting time between Brooklyn and Columbia County, is one of four local photographers participating in an exhibit, Work in Decay: The Renaissance of Beacon, Then and Now, that opens April 19 at the Howland Cultural Center. It will focus on photos taken by Patrick Prosser in 1982 and donated to the Beacon Historical Society, paired with modern updates by Loeb, Michael Goldfarb, Pierce Johnston and Tony Cenicola.
"Age"
"Gaslight"
"Harbinger"
"Iphigenia"
"Manuscript"
"Unseen"
Loeb climbed Mount Beacon to shoot the incline railroad's rusting gear house and promises to avoid surrealism when processing the final images. In darkroom days, he viewed photos as the beginning of a process that required interacting with instruments. All those instruments are now digital, such as Topaz, software Loeb relies on to "de-noise, play with the visible spectrum, sharpen smaller images within the photo and upscale the detail."
In a photo of an abandoned industrial site in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, nearly all the 400 windows look individually hand-tinted. For one favored behind-the-lens technique, he shakes the camera with intent, which turned photos of Manhattan buildings after dark into "Surveillance State." Its intertwined, squiggly lines look like they were etched with a stylus.
Another quasi-political photo, shot in Greenwood Cemetery during the pandemic, depicts a vague Manhattan skyline looming beyond the graves and mausoleums to represent the plague subsuming the city.
"I'm trying to see the world beyond the world - to throw the viewer off-balance and enliven, entertain and create unsettling perceptions," Loeb says. "Where does the digital art begin and the photos end? No matter what you call it, there is a camera involved, but I also live inside Photoshop."
The Howland Cultural Center, at 477 Main St., is open Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. "Work in Decay" begins with a reception from 1 to 3 p.m. on April 19 and continues through July 21. -
New manager follows 'championship behaviors'
The Hudson Valley Renegades opened their 2025 baseball season with a winning weekend, besting the Jersey Shore BlueClaws in two of three games at Heritage Financial Park (formerly Dutchess Stadium). The 'Gades lost the season opener, 3-1, on April 4 in front of 3,600 fans but bounced back, winning 8-7 on Saturday and 6-2 on Sunday.
The team will finish a six-game road series with the Brooklyn Cyclones on Sunday (April 13) then return to Wappingers Falls for a six-game homestand with the Wilmington Blue Rocks beginning Tuesday.
The Renegades, the High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, have a new and an "old" look going into their 132-game season in the South Atlantic League North Division. (The five minor-league levels are Rookie League, Single-A, High-A, Double-A and Triple-A.)
The entire coaching staff is new, led by manager James Cooper, 42, who takes over from Nick Ortiz, who left for the Houston Astros organization. Cooper previously managed the Yankees' Single-A affiliate, the Tampa Tarpons, and coached at Grambling State University in Louisiana for 12 seasons. As a player, Cooper was drafted by the Astros in 2004 and played two seasons in the minor leagues and a season in Canada.
Although the Renegades players range in age from 18 to their early 20s, this is an experienced team. The opening roster included 21 veterans of the 2023 and 2024 squads along with nine newcomers. Nineteen of the 30 players are pitchers. The squad has six of the Yankees' top 20 prospects, including infielder George Lombard Jr. (No. 2) and pitcher Ben Hess (No. 4). The others are pitchers Bryce Cunningham (No. 6), Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz (No. 8), Carlos Lagrange (No. 19) and Kyle Carr (No. 20). The No. 1 prospect, Jasson Dominguez, is on the Yankees' roster.
The 2025 Renegades have a long tradition of winning to live up to. The team won 73 games last season and reached the league championship, where it lost to Bowling Green. It was the Renegades' 12th consecutive winning season. Since 2012 the Renegades have recorded the highest winning percentage in the minor leagues.
Asked on April 1 if he feels added pressure coming to a franchise where winning is the default, Cooper said "for me to leave this place better than I found it, we have to win it [the title]. That'll be the mission."
Cooper knows many of the players, having coached them in the past on other teams, including Lombard. "You understand what gets a player going if you've had a relationship over the years," he said. "We just want to do everything we can to develop these guys, put them in positions to go out here and dominate and give them a chance to move up."
Before receiving a $3.3 million signing bonus in 2023, Lombard, 19, played shortstop at Gulliver Prep in Pinecrest, Florida. In 2024 he played 91 games with the Tampa Tarpons before joining the Renegades for 29 games.
This spring Lombard attended the Yankees training camp. "The thing you learn from those guys is their attitude, the mindset and confidence they bring to the game every single day," he said. "It takes a different type of confidence to be successful at the level they are.
"It was a good being here last year, getting a little taste of it," he said. "Physically, I'm just trying to get faster and stronger every year, trying to become an all-around better baseball player."
Founded in 1994, the Renegades were part of the Texas Rangers' organization until 1996, when they moved to the Tampa Bay Rays. They won league titles in 1999, 2012 and 2017 and division titles three times since 2021.
Heritage Financial Park is located at 1500 Route 9D in Wappingers Falls, just north of Beacon. For tickets, which start at $6, see milb.com/hudson-valley. - Laat meer zien
