Afleveringen
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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." -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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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. -
Also, council member protests Trump policies
The Philipstown Town Board agreed on April 3 to form a committee to draft a permitting system and operating standards for short-term rentals such as those booked through Airbnb and Vrbo.
The regulations would apply outside of Cold Spring, which approved its own code in 2021 that has yet to be enforced. The Village Board is revising the rules, saying they would have been too cumbersome.
Philipstown discussed restrictions as recently as 2022, when residents complained at a Town Hall workshop about a long-running rental in Garrison. On April 3, Van Tassel also referenced a recent fire at an Airbnb in Dutchess County that killed a Cape Cod woman and her infant daughter. According to prosecutors, the rental in Salt Point did not have smoke detectors, although the listing said it did, and the hosts did not have a town permit for short-term rentals.
Pledge protest
Council Member Jason Angell remained seated during the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the meeting. He said he was protesting actions by the administration of President Donald Trump that he considers unconstitutional.
Reading a 2½-minute statement after the pledge, Angell said he "didn't recognize my country" when masked immigration agents arrested Rumeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, on March 25. Öztürk is accused of violating her student visa. The administration has not provided a reason for the detention, but she co-authored an opinion piece in the student newspaper demanding that Tufts "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide" and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Angell also cited the Trump administration's decisions to cut funding and programs approved by Congress. Those decisions are being challenged in lawsuits.
"When an elected official takes office, they take an oath to uphold the Constitution," said Angell. "What happens if a person believes their federal government is violating the Constitution? Should they pledge allegiance to their government or to upholding the Constitution?"
Van Tassel said he agreed with much of what Angell said, but not with sitting during the Pledge of Allegiance. "But I appreciate your courage," he said. Angell, whose term ends Dec. 31, is not running for re-election.
Town justice to resign
The town approved a letter of intent to appoint Cold Spring attorney Luke Hilpert to replace Camille Linson, who plans to resign from her town justice seat in June, according to Van Tassel.
Linson ran unopposed on the Democratic and Conservative lines in winning a third, 4-year term in November. She joined the court after defeating Hilpert in a Democratic primary in 2016 and Republican Faye Thorpe in the general election. She ran unopposed in 2020.
Both Linson and Philipstown's other justice, Angela Thompson-Tinsley, recommended Hilpert to fill the vacancy until the November election. Under state law, the winner will serve for a full term, rather than the 3½ years remaining in Linson's term, according to town attorney Steve Gaba.
Oil moratorium
The board scheduled a May 1 public hearing on a law that would extend for another six months a moratorium on projects with oil tanks exceeding 10,000 gallons.
Philipstown enacted the moratorium in December 2023 to give an advisory committee time to revise zoning regulations that allow tanks with a capacity of up to 399,999 gallons. Allowing tanks that large puts drinking-water sources like the Clove Creek Aquifer at risk from leaks, spills and damage from natural disasters or extreme weather, according to the town.
While the draft law allows for two more six-month extensions, the committee is expected to finalize its recommendations soon, said Gaba.
Depot Theatre
A site near the water tower at the Recreation Department's property off Route 9D is still the optimal location for a facility the Philipstown Depot Theatre initially proposed for a town-owned parcel off Route 403, said Council Member Judy Farrell.
The Depot wants to consolida... -
Firefighters say they will continue fight for station
A state judge on Monday (March 31) dismissed a request by the Beacon Engine Co. that she prevent its members from being "excluded" from a 136-year-old firehouse and delay the city's sale of the building.
Two weeks earlier, Judge Maria Rosa had rejected a request from the retired volunteer firefighters that she pause a city order for them to vacate the station by March 31.
The East Main Street firehouse, inactive since 2020, has been at the center of an ownership dispute as Beacon officials prepare to sell it and the 113-year-old Mase Hook & Ladder station on Main Street. The city hopes to raise $3.7 million.
The retired firefighters argue that Beacon Engine Co. owns the original 2½-story structure, with the city holding an adjacent engine bay added in 1924. In fact, that was what all parties believed for decades, including when the City Council voted to close the station five years ago as part of a plan to consolidate operations.
However, Beacon officials in 2023 conducted a title search that they say revealed municipal ownership of the entire facility. A real-estate expert told the court that a deed recorded in 1889, the year the station was built, showed that the Village of Matteawan, which preceded Beacon, owned the site.
Rosa noted in her decision that the volunteer company, which uses the decommissioned firehouse for social gatherings and to coordinate charitable campaigns, stands to suffer "irreparable injury" - a criterion required for the order it sought - if the station is sold. But at the same time, the firefighters "failed to sufficiently demonstrate" either a valid ownership claim or "any defect in the city's claim of title" in the dozens of documents submitted to the court, she said.
Conversely, Paul Conrad, the title expert hired by the city, provided "copies of the recorded deeds, as well as a survey depicting how the city acquired" the parcels that comprise the property, Rosa said.
Her decision would appear to give Beacon the go-ahead to sell the station. City officials have commissioned Gate House Compass Realty to list Beacon Engine in May for $1.75 million and Mase for $1.95 million.
The stations are to be sold with covenants that restrict renaming them or altering historical features. The proceeds will offset the $14.7 million the city spent to build a central fire station that opened near City Hall last fall.
Nonetheless, Joe Green, a Beacon Engine Co. trustee, said Wednesday that the firefighters are preparing another legal challenge. In a document submitted to the court on March 27, Lauren Scott, the firefighters' attorney, said the fire company's claim that it owns at least two-thirds of the property is based on a title search it commissioned.
Scott, who called the testimony by the city's title expert "glaringly deficient due to its lack of analysis" of historical deeds, argued that Beacon's charter prevents a litigant from enforcing a claim, debt or demand against the city for at least 30 days after filing a notice of claim in court.
Because Beacon Engine filed notice on March 7 signaling its intention to seek judgment on the ownership challenge and "unjust enrichment" for building maintenance and insurance the volunteers say they funded, the company cannot submit its complaint until Monday (April 7), Scott said. -
Meeting draws rally by farmers
The Putnam County Legislature took the first step toward lowering its portion of the sales tax rate during a Tuesday (April 1) meeting filled with farmers protesting lawmakers' refusal to add operations to a special district.
Legislators, by a 5-4 vote, approved a request for state legislation to lower the sales tax collected by Putnam from 4 percent to 3.75 percent. The higher rate had been in place since 2007, when the state enacted a law allowing Putnam to increase its sales tax from 3 percent. The law has been extended every two years since, with the most recent extension expiring Nov. 30, 2025.
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. If Putnam's request is approved by the state, the new tax rate will be 8.125 percent.
County Executive Kevin Byrne and four of the nine legislators, including Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, opposed the reduction, which will cause an estimated $5 million reduction in annual revenue for the county. Byrne said the proceeds from sales taxes have funded property-tax reductions and a sales tax exemption for clothing and footwear under $110.
Town and village officials, who have demanded for years that Putnam share sales tax revenue with their governments, also support the higher rate, said Montgomery.
"They're the ones who hold the burden of generating the sales tax," she said. "They're the ones who pick up the garbage; they're the ones who provide and pay for the EMTs who respond to people falling off the mountain or falling on your sidewalk."
Legislator Dan Birmingham, who had initially proposed a reduction to 3.5 percent, said the county's savings, or "unrestricted reserve funds," of $134 million 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.
In one confusing sequence during the Tuesday meeting, Montgomery voted for the 3.75 percent reduction, proposed a motion to reconsider its approval and argued with Chair Amy Sayegh before being allowed to change her vote to "no." "Robert's Rules say that if you vote yes on a resolution, you can make a motion to reconsider," said Montgomery, explaining her initial vote.
Montgomery also tried to place on the agenda a resolution authorizing the county to share 50 percent of sales tax revenues above the budgeted amount with towns and villages.
Ag district
With farmers standing in solidarity, Montgomery asked her colleagues to suspend the April 30 deadline for applications to the county's Agricultural District while the process undergoes a review. Farms approved for the district gain protection from "unreasonable" local restrictions, and other benefits, under a 1971 state law designed to preserve agriculture.
A vote in August to reject five farmers recommended by the Agriculture & Farmland Protection Board for inclusion not only spurred a lawsuit from Ridge Ranch, a livestock operation in Patterson, but protests by farmers and their advocates. Amid the backlash, Paul Jonke, then chair of the Legislature, removed a Philipstown farmer, Jocelyn Apicello, from the board.
The farmers accuse a faction of the Legislature and Neal Tomann, a Philipstown resident who is the interim Soil & Water District manager, of being hostile to farming, and their complaints led Byrne to convene a roundtable meeting last month.
Before Tuesday's meeting, farmers gathered in the parking lot behind the Historic Courthouse, their vehicles draped with banners - "Save Putnam County Farms" and "Learn More About Ridge Ranch and the Fight for Fair Farming." Inside the courthouse, they lined up to speak, often talking over Sayegh a... -
The scraped-up underbellies of skateboards add an organic texture to Betty Stafford's sculptures and hanging works. The scratches multiply when riders slide across curbs, railings and other urban obstacles while performing tricks.
Stafford disfigures and reshapes the discarded boards to create abstract sculptures, wall hangings and mobiles that convey movement. They are carved with a handheld jigsaw and assembled with a drill. Beyond the wood decks, Stafford uses ball bearings and the metal trucks that connect the wheels.
Like many of her low-lying sculptures, the components of "Catch of the Day" (a bird going after fish) fit together with slots and seem to lean into each other around a solid center of gravity. "Fiddlehead" features curlicues that resemble flowers.
Cross-cutting the decks reveals from six to a dozen plies of laminated wood, some darker than others, though bright pinks, blues and greens peek through on occasion. Stafford often leaves the edges unfinished and incorporates the boards' natural bends.
Her bane is removing grip tape, the sandpaper-like coating atop the deck. In the summer, after letting the boards bake in the sun for a few hours, she can peel it off with minimal effort. Otherwise, it can take hours, she says.
Her fractured portraits, inspired by modern English painter Francis Bacon, include a work encased in a purple plastic milk crate and others that use the covers of wooden boxes that once shipped plumbing supplies. Thin, oxidized copper wires culled from boat windows sometimes add a minimalist touch.
"Coffee Break"
"Creature"
Detail from "Ishod"
"Ishod"
"Kingsize Slim"
Stafford has a BFA from the University of Texas, Austin and studied drawing and watercolor at the Art Students League in Manhattan before moving to Philipstown more than three decades ago. She worked in the fashion industry and still draws but began making art with skateboards following the death of her son Sam, an avid rider, in 2013 at age 19.
Skateboards usually contain colorful designs beneath the deck, the part that gets scratched up. Riders will cover the damage with stickers and those images sometimes are reflected in Stafford's work, which caused a stir when a skateboard sculpture was accepted for a recent group show. The gallery asked her to remove any copyrighted images, so she pulled the piece.
Stafford's Ishod and Mask series goes for an Oceanic look, including an image reminiscent of Easter Island. A profile of Bob Dylan during the 1960s conveys lightness because of circles and ellipses drilled into his faux Afro.
No matter what medium she uses, Stafford says her art is "all over the place." Daily walks in the woods help inform her style.
She gets the raw material from 2nd Nature Skatepark in Peekskill and Hacienda Skate Shop in Newburgh. "I've received some seriously broken boards that made me wonder if the skater was all right," she says.
For more of Betty Stafford's work, see bettystafford.com. -
Institute sends $8 million annually to New York
Local librarians are campaigning against a March 14 executive order issued by President Donald Trump that could cripple a New York agency that distributes state funds to local libraries.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C., which has a $290 million budget, sends federal money to cultural institutions and state library associations, including $8 million annually that funds the New York Division of Library Development.
The DLD is responsible for distributing state aid to public libraries - including $70 million annually to those outside New York City - through regional organizations like the Mid-Hudson Library System, whose 66 members include the Howland in Beacon, the Butterfield in Cold Spring and the Desmond-Fish in Garrison. The DLD also oversees $45 million in state funds distributed each year for library construction projects.
The Mid-Hudson Library System, which is based in Poughkeepsie and has a $3.74 million budget, provides support services, programming grants and negotiates discounted group licenses from software, e-book and database providers.
"The absence of DLD staff to facilitate aid programs that impact us is our largest, immediate concern," said Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, executive director of the Mid-Hudson system. "Severe delays in receiving our operating aid could deplete our reserve funds and compromise our ability to pay our bills."
Along with shared resources, the Howland library expects to receive $8,200 in grants from MHLS in 2025; Desmond-Fish, $4,000; and Butterfield, $54,000 for an HVAC project. "We pushed to finish the project so as not to incur additional costs as we were told by contractors that prices were set to increase in April due to tariffs" implemented by Trump, said Joanna Reinhardt, the director at Butterfield. "This was prior to learning of the IMLS news; we may have held off had we known."
There are 762 public libraries in New York.
Gillian Murphy, the director at the Howland, feels that same sense or uncertainty. "Grant money may not come through or will come late because lack of staff," she said. "We have construction grants that we rely on and who knows what will happen to those."
The IMLS, created by Congress in 1996, is one of seven small agencies named in Trump's executive order, titled Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy. It directs that the agencies be "eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law."
The acting director of IMLS, Keith Sonderling, said on March 20 that he planned to "revitalize" the agency and "restore focus on patriotism, ensuring we preserve our country's core values, promote American exceptionalism and cultivate love of country in future generations."
The federal money sent to states by IMLS should be funded through October, Smith Aldrich said, but 60 of the agency's 70 employees have been placed on administrative leave, which "calls into question if this is happening. The Grants to States Program may need to be reauthorized this fall by Congress," which is a focus of lobbying.
IMLS also distributes grants to museums. The Greater Hudson Heritage Network received $269,038 in 2024 to conserve 35 objects at 10 museums, including Maj. John Andre's flute at Boscobel in Philipstown.
Catching Up with…
The Howland Public Library (Beacon)
The Julia L. Butterfield Library (Cold Spring)
The Desmond-Fish Public Library (Garrison) -
The Mayor flies into eternity
Karen Finnegan never expected the bird to have such an impact.
Before The Mayor became the unofficial mascot of Beacon, the red hen was a scruffy, squawky stray who had a thing for laying eggs in people's yards. In the spring of 2020, about two months after the pandemic shutdown began, the hen was seen wandering around Harbor Hill Court and Davies Avenue. Neighbors dubbed her the Beacon Hood Chicken.
Finnegan already owned chickens, so when she read about the stray online, she drove from her home in Fishkill to rescue it from what surely would have been a lonely, and perhaps short, life on the streets. Once home with her new family, the hen carried herself like she owned the place. She was renamed The Mayor.
She would peck at the back door to be let inside. Unintimidated by larger members of the animal kingdom, she drank water from the same dish as the three family dogs.
Once, when The Mayor slipped into Finnegan's house, she hopped up on the kitchen table and took a sip from her husband Kevin's coffee. Exasperated, he could only muster: "There's a chicken in here. I need a new coffee."
That's the confident, outspoken bird that Finnegan recalled on Tuesday (March 25), a week after The Mayor died quietly in her arms. Finnegan said she doesn't suspect bird flu. "I think it was just old age," perhaps exacerbated by fright from an encounter with a fox, she said. "Before anyone else says it, she was no spring chicken and she was a good egg," Finnegan wrote on Facebook. The Mayor was about 6 years old, an average lifespan for a backyard fowl.
After adopting the chicken, Finnegan leaned into The Mayor's unique character, livestreaming the hen's bedtime routine on Facebook. "She was such a funny little animal," Finnegan said. "She was making me laugh, and I wanted to spread that. She was a little bit of joy in a very dark period" of the pandemic.
Things snowballed after Halloween in 2020. Desperate to maintain a semblance of normalcy, volunteers collected donations and cleaned out the candy shelves at Walmart so The Mayor - wearing a pink tutu donated by a Beacon seamstress and wheeled in a stroller - could deliver treats to more than 100 houses. The exercise was repeated, only larger, at Christmas and Valentine's Day.
By 2021 The Mayor had become a celebrity, attracting a crowd everywhere she went. That spring she met Marc Molinaro, then the Dutchess County executive and later elected to Congress, who proclaimed her the county's Poultry Laureate. Drivers would slow down to say hello when Finnegan walked The Mayor down Main Street. In 2023, the hen threw out the first pitch at a Hudson Valley Renegades baseball game.
Something else was happening, too. Assuming The Mayor's persona, Finnegan's voice became amplified. Online and in person, she began to comment on the cultural changes she saw happening during the pandemic, often with a biting sarcasm that she might not have used before.
"The Mayor led the charge," said Alexandra Devin, whose 6-year-old daughter, Madelein, participated in a women's march with the chicken and 100 other humans at Memorial Park in 2021. "She was like the face of what Karen wanted to put out into the world."
When COVID-19 vaccines were introduced in December 2020, The Mayor and Finnegan, who has an immune-compromised child, hand-delivered cards congratulating people who took the shots. Inevitably, they were criticized by those opposed to the vaccines or the masks that were still commonplace.
The Mayor "was able to be political and funny," Finnegan said. If things got too heated, she would remind detractors to "stop arguing with a chicken, jackass."
Finnegan also has four children who identify as queer - "I have an L, a G and a B; I don't have a T," she said. In 2022, she founded Defense of Democracy with Laura Leigh Abby, who co-owned a Beacon fitness studio. The organization mobilized around school board elections in Wappingers Falls, opposing candidates endorsed by a conse... -
Developer proposes million-dollar homes off Route 9
The Philipstown Planning Board gave its final approval on March 20 to a site plan for Hudson Highlands Reserve, a 24-lot residential project revived in 2021 after being in limbo for more than five years.
Horton Road LLC, the developer, applied to construct 22 homes on part of a 210-acre property between Horton Road and East Mountain Road North, setting aside 79 percent as open space. The homes, at 2,500-to-3,000 square feet, will be listed for $1 million to $3 million and built to "green" environmental standards. They will be clustered, along with two existing residences, on 31 acres and accessed from a new road off Route 9.
The development also will include a commercial lot on the highway and a 15-acre common lot with a 19th-century barn for a homeowners' association clubhouse. As part of its agreement with the town, Horton Road LLC agreed to pay $105,000 in recreation fees.
The project is Philipstown's first approved "conservation subdivision," which allows the developer to build more homes in exchange for leaving open space. Its 166 acres of protected space will include portions of Clove Creek, the 5.7-acre Ulmar Pond, forests and wetlands, and a one-lane, stonewall-lined trail that is a remnant of a roadway connecting Horton Road and East Mountain Road North.
Under a conservation agreement between Horton Road LLC and the town, the open space will be reserved for "passive recreational uses" by the homeowners, such as cross-country skiing, hiking, picnicking and walking. The agreement also restricts new buildings, herbicides and pesticides and the clearing of trees and vegetation.
Although Horton Road LLC still has conditions to satisfy, such as obtaining a state Department of Transportation permit for the Route 9 entrance and approval from Putnam County for wells, the Planning Board approval caps a process that began in 2014.
Horton Road LLC is owned by the David Isaly 2008 Trust and the Jason Isaly 2008 Trust, and managed by Christina Isaly Liceaga, David Isaly's sister and the wife of Ulises Liceaga, who was identified in 2014 as the project's architect.
Ulises Liceaga told the Planning Board in 2014 that he and his wife purchased land on East Mountain Road North in 2000 to build a weekend home while living in New York City. "Avid horseback riders, we looked for a place to have some horses" and began envisioning Hudson Highlands Reserve, he said. In 2013, Horton Road LLC had acquired parcels from Lyons Realty, Rodney Weber and Joseph and Denise Frisenda.
After a public hearing in 2019, the project went dormant while its owners prepared responses to detailed questions from the Planning Board and others and began drafting a state-mandated environmental impact statement. In 2021, Horton Road LLC reintroduced the project to the Planning Board, which granted preliminary site plan approval in September 2023. -
Judge expected to rule on legal challenge
A title expert hired by the City of Beacon testified in court last week that the municipality has owned the Beacon Engine Co. firehouse at 57 East Main St. since 1889, the year it was built.
Earlier this month, a group of retired volunteer firefighters asked state Judge Maria Rosa to pause an order by the city for them to vacate the former firehouse by March 31 because Beacon intends to sell the building. The firefighters challenged the city's ownership, saying it relied on "aged, handwritten deeds" and "incomplete searches and conclusory assertions." They asked Rosa to stop any sale until she determined their rights.
Paul Conrad, the president of Real Property Abstract & Title Services, a Poughkeepsie firm, testified on March 21 that, after surveying the site and conducting an "extensive, thorough review" of deeds dating from 1860 to 1921, "the city's ownership of the property is clear." Conrad said the volunteer Beacon Engine Co. "never came into ownership of such reserved land."
The 2½-story brick firehouse was conveyed to the Village of Matteawan, he said, which merged with Fishkill Landing in 1913 to become the City of Beacon. Property owned by the village was assumed by Beacon.
Rosa denied the firefighters' request for a pause on March 14. She is expected to rule on the ownership dispute next month.
The city intends to sell the empty Beacon Engine and Mase Hook & Ladder stations to offset the $14.7 million it spent on a central fire station that opened near City Hall last fall. According to an agreement filed with the court, Gate House Compass Realty will list Beacon Engine in May for $1.75 million and Mase, at 425 Main St., for $1.95 million.
Gate House will receive a commission of 2 percent of the sales - or $35,000 and $39,000, respectively, if the buildings sell for the asking prices. The agency's agreement with the city gives it exclusive listing rights until Nov. 1.
Any delay in marketing the properties could prevent the city from obtaining the highest price, City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis wrote in a memo to the judge. He argued that the retired firefighters have failed to produce any title reports, recorded deeds or certified surveys showing ownership.
The City Council voted in February 2020 to close Beacon Engine, one of two stations in the city that had been headquarters for volunteer fire companies for more than a century. At the time, it was believed that the volunteer company owned the 1889 station, with the city holding an engine bay that was added in 1924.
The city's plan was to modernize Mase and the Lewis Tompkins Hose Co. building, a third volunteer station. But by 2023, two things had changed: Beacon officials conducted a title search that they said showed municipal ownership of Beacon Engine. In addition, the city pivoted, opting to tear down Tompkins Hose and build the central station at the site. When it opened, the Beacon Engine and Mase buildings became surplus.
According to testimony by Mayor Lee Kyriacou, the retired volunteers offered in 2023 to lease or purchase Beacon Engine. The city rejected that offer but the mayor said he told the volunteers they could use the station rent-free as a social hub and to coordinate charitable campaigns. When the central fire station was completed, they were welcome to meet there, he said. -
Demand surges at libraries, but they are expensive
A trip to the library used to mean driving into town, searching the shelves for the latest bestselling novel and taking the book to the circulation desk.
These days, more residents are opening their smartphones or tablets, scrolling through digital shelves and tapping "borrow."
Librarians in the Highlands report dramatic increases in apps like Libby and Hoopla that allow patrons to borrow e-books, audiobooks and digital magazines.
"You can bring a piece of the library with you on the road," said Johanna Reinhardt, director of the Butterfield library in Cold Spring. Reinhardt said the library circulated nearly 20,000 e-books, audiobooks and other electronic material last year, compared to 2,200 in 2015.
The demand is similar at the Howland library in Beacon and the Desmond-Fish library in Garrison. In January alone, nearly 80,000 e-books, audiobooks and other digital materials were circulated through the Mid-Hudson Library System to patrons using Libby. Ten years ago, it was 16,000.
Librarians Scramble as Trump Targets Agency
Gillian Murphy, director at the Howland, said that digital loans will soon be dominant. "We're still lending more print books, but it's going to flip in the next couple of years," she said. Dede Farabaugh, the director at Desmond-Fish, added: "We have patrons who never see us because they're just doing things electronically."
The growth of digital lending brings financial challenges because libraries must purchase licenses that are sometimes more expensive than the physical copy. For example, a digital copy of a bestseller may cost $15 on Amazon, but libraries often must pay $50 or more and are limited in how many times it can be lent. With print books, libraries may pay $30 for a bestseller and lend it out until it falls apart.
Last year, Butterfield reduced the e-books and other items that patrons can check out on the Hoopla platform from 10 to five per month because of a surge in usage that raised costs.
Public libraries have lobbied for legislation to reduce e-book prices, but Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have compelled publishers to lower digital prices for libraries. She said the legislation would violate federal copyright laws that give publishers and authors the right to determine what to charge. -
Neighbors seek to reclaim view and privacy
When the Rosenberg family bought a house in 2013 on a hill rising from Route 9 in Philipstown, the views to the south and north were "1,000 percent blocked with trees," said Beth Rosenberg.
To the south sat Cockburn Farms, which had been dormant for two decades. To the north was a single-family home at 201 Old West Point Road.
"We didn't hear anything and didn't see anything," she said.
Three years later, in 2016, Sean Barton and Joshua Maddocks bought and reopened Cockburn Farms to sell Christmas trees. Five years after that, Barton bought the home to the north, cut down trees and began operating, without town approval, a landscaping business.
"I would have never bought the property if it was sandwiched between two commercial properties," said Mark Rosenberg.
Now, some trees will be returning, courtesy of the Philipstown Planning Board, which is reviewing a request by Barton and his company, KPB Properties, to legalize its commercial use of 201 Old West Point Road.
KPB wants to construct a 7,400-square-foot, two-story building with an office and storage for landscaping equipment and materials. It will have eight parking spaces and an access road from Route 9 that runs along the south side of the Garrison Garage. The residence will remain.
A planting plan reviewed during a public hearing in February shows young trees along the front of the structure to screen it from Route 9 but no screening along the border with the Rosenberg property. "He absolutely needs to find not just one level of depth [of trees] but a couple of levels for Beth's side because that just seems like an unnecessary burden for a homeowner," said board Chair Neal Zuckerman.
When the hearing continued March 20, project engineer Margaret McManus opened with a revised proposal reflecting changes based on the board's criticisms. Chief among them: Two rows of evergreens - up to 8 feet when planted, and as high as 50 feet when mature - to replace weathered stockade fencing.
Between the hearings, Beth Rosenberg said she and Barton discussed her family's concerns while walking the property together. "Since we were able to talk, it ironed out some things," she said. "It's just the privacy."
Both properties are in the Highway Commercial zone, which allows single-family homes to coexist with businesses ranging from art galleries and bed-and-breakfasts to light-industry, retail and service businesses.
Cockburn Farms had not grown trees since the mid-1990s when Barton and Maddocks, both from Garrison, purchased the property. In 2018, KPB bought 201 and 203 Old West Point Road.
According to Ron Gainer, the town's engineer, Barton moved his landscaping business to 201 Old West Point Road "without benefit of any permits or town approvals," resulting in multiple violations and a stop-work order.
When Barton introduced the project to the Planning Board in January 2024, his appearance "had been mandated by the court," which required that he get a site plan approved by the board, said Gainer.
Last month, Beth Rosenberg told the Planning Board that she and her husband and three children were sometimes awakened as early as 6 a.m. by the sounds of mowers and other equipment, along with workers yelling and playing music. Those concerns spurred a discussion this month about ways to mitigate the impact on the family, including adjusting operating hours.
Barton told the board that when snowstorms occur, his employees arrive early to warm up the trucks and attach plows. Warming up a diesel truck can take up to 20 minutes, but "Route 9 traffic is louder than my trucks," he said.
Beth Rosenberg said she understands that trucks need to idle but that the yelling and laughing from employees while they're getting set up is a problem. "I'm not trying to stop them from doing business," she said. "It's just being more cognizant of what you're doing at what hours." -
Judge rejects request to delay eviction
A Dutchess County judge last week rejected a request by retired volunteer firefighters to pause a city order to vacate a 136-year-old station on East Main Street. The firefighters argue it is not clear that Beacon owns the property.
City officials plan to sell the Beacon Engine Co. and Mase Hook and Ladder stations and apply the proceeds to a $14.7 million central station that opened in October near City Hall. Gate House Compass Realty was selected to facilitate the sales, and the buildings should go on the market next month.
The Beacon Engine Co. station was built in 1889 at 57 East Main St. by the Village of Matteawan, which merged in 1913 with Fishkill Landing to become the City of Beacon. The 2½-story brick structure was constructed in the Second Empire style of 19th-century France. The Mase firehouse is a 113-year-old, three-story brick building at 425 Main St.
Together with the Lewis Tompkins Hose Co. station, which was on the site of the new firehouse, the buildings were the headquarters for generations of volunteers. Beacon Engine closed in 2020 and Mase was vacated when the new station opened, but retired volunteers have continued to use Beacon Engine for social and charitable events.
On March 12, a group of those volunteers asked Judge Maria Rosa to set aside a city order that they vacate the building by March 31. The volunteers also asked Rosa to stop any sale until she determined their rights to the station.
After Rosa denied the petition two days later, Beacon Engine Co. trustees said they are preparing to move out, although they dispute city ownership.
When the City Council voted in February 2020, just weeks before the pandemic shutdown, to close Beacon Engine, both the retired volunteers and city officials believed the fire company owned two-thirds of the building - the original structure, which is believed to have housed the first motorized fire engine in Dutchess County - with the city holding a larger bay added in 1924.
Since that time, the firefighters say, Beacon officials conducted a title search that showed municipal ownership of the entire building. In their petition, the volunteers disputed that, saying ownership is unclear because of "aged, handwritten deeds" and "incomplete searches and conclusory assertions" by the city.
City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis said Tuesday (March 18) that Beacon provided the volunteer trustees with documentation of its sole ownership two years ago and would file supporting evidence with the court today (March 21). The volunteer company offered to lease or purchase the building but was turned down, he said.
"While the city recognizes and appreciates the years of contribution from the volunteer firefighters," the company has provided no evidence of ownership, Ward-Willis said.
Since the city closed the station in 2020, volunteers say they have paid for its maintenance, including roof, floor and window repairs and insurance, despite the unclear title. It continued to be the headquarters for charitable efforts such as the annual Toys for Tots drive and fundraising for a campus in Hudson for volunteer firefighters who can no longer care for themselves.
The building is a social hub for retired volunteers and could attract more members if the city halted or paused plans to sell, said Joe Green, a Beacon Engine Co. trustee. "There's a lot of guys who would use this firehouse if they could," he said, estimating that as many as 250 retirees from the three companies live in the area.
Mike Angeloni, the company treasurer, said the volunteers approached the Beacon Historical Society about creating a City of Beacon Firefighters Museum at the site and, if given the green light, would have pursued grants to continue rehabbing the building. The company had a good working relationship with the city "until the dollar signs came out," he said.
The Beacon Engine firehouse was listed in 2004 on the National Register of Historic Places, which limits what... -
Agency says PCB monitoring and mitigation will continue
For many people, much of the news coming out of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the second Trump administration has been disheartening.
Lee Zeldin, the former New York State legislator who was recently appointed to lead the agency, has said he intends to roll back dozens of regulations, slash the agency budget by 65 percent and eliminate its scientific research department.
"We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate-change religion," he said in a news release on March 12. Zeldin described regulations targeting greenhouse-gas emissions, the primary driver of climate change, as "hidden 'taxes' on U.S. families."
But announcements from the EPA's Albany office, which oversees the Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site, have a different tone.
"We are full speed ahead with our full team," said Project Director Gary Klawinksi, an EPA veteran, earlier this week.
He said that includes the continuing monitoring and clean-up of pollutants called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that General Electric dumped into the river from two manufacturing plants over a 40-year period that ended in 1977. The pollution ended commercial fishing in the river and kicked off decades of legal battles.
The EPA will continue to work with the Army Corps of Engineers to clean the river, Klawinski said. He noted that, as part of a settlement agreement with the agency, GE has to reimburse his office for the work.
"It's all set up under different, various legal agreements, and those legal agreements are important," he said. Klawinski said Superfund programs appear to be off the table from funding cuts and freezes that are taking place elsewhere. The agency also receives some of its funding from outside the federal government. "It's my understanding that the Superfund program remains an important part of both the EPA and this administration's work, regardless of who is reimbursing the projects," he said.
At EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., a representative said "work continues apace at Superfund sites" because "the president's priorities and Administrator Zeldin's first pillar of Powering the Great American Comeback is providing every American with clean air, land and water."
In the last days of the Biden administration, Klawinski's office released a final version of its latest five-year review of the cleanup. It confirmed the findings of a draft released in July 2024 that determined the EPA doesn't have enough information to determine if GE needs to continue to dredge sediment from the Upper Hudson to remove PCBs. Klawinski said that the agency plans to release an addendum by 2027 - and possibly as soon as this year - which will make that determination.
Local environmental groups, banding together under the name Friends of a Clean Hudson, released their own report in November 2023, analyzing the data that the EPA used and concluding that it has enough to rule the cleanup hasn't worked. For more than a decade, the groups have warned that the clean-up was doomed to fail because initial measurements of the contamination were flawed and GE wasn't targeting PCB "hot spots."
Last week, 15 members of Congress from New York and New Jersey, including Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, and Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican whose district includes Philipstown, signed a letter to Zeldin urging him to declare that the cleanup has not worked, based on 2023 and 2024 data.
But in Albany, Klawinski said "we just don't scientifically have enough years of data in order to be able to, with enough confidence, make a decision" about the effectiveness of the cleanup. While the data shows that the level of PCBs in fish and sediment are declining, "are they going down in a way that meets the expectations of the record of decision in those legal agreements?" he asked.
Klawinski said his office is analyzing the most recent data, which wasn't included in the five-year report. It... -
Philipstown resident sees program frozen
If things had gone as planned, Sophia Ptacek would be making the final arrangements for her Fulbright fellowship, a nine-month stint working on industrial decarbonization and air pollution reduction for a Colombian government ministry.
But because the Trump administration paused funding for her program, the 28-year-old is living with her parents in Philipstown and checking her email.
"I'm holding on to hope that it could still happen," said Ptacek, who grew up in Garrison and Cold Spring and attended the Poughkeepsie Day School. "But I am in limbo. It's sad."
Ptacek last year completed a dual master's program at Yale University in environmental management and public health. She also was selected for a Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship, part of a U.S. State Department international exchange and education program suspended by the White House in February. Founded in 1946, the Fulbright program typically awards 9,000 scholarships each year to promote international cooperation and an exchange of ideas.
"The freeze on State Department grant programs threatens the survival of study abroad and international exchange programs that are essential to U.S. economic and national security," said Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, based in Washington, D.C. "Halting inbound and outbound exchanges shuts the United States off from a vital flow of ideas, innovation and global understanding and influence, creating a vacuum that could easily be filled by competing nations."
Ptacek wants to help reduce air pollution in Colombia. "There's quite a lot of manufacturing and heavy industry, and as a result, a lot of air pollution that has public health impacts for communities near these plants," she said.
The details of her fellowship were still being confirmed, but Ptacek was scheduled to travel to Bogotá to work for the ministry of health, environment or energy and mines. Last month she received an email telling her to "pause making travel arrangements" because of "ongoing administrative issues affecting the transfer of funds from the U.S. State Department to Fulbright implementing partners."
Last week she received a second email informing her of layoffs at the Institute for International Education, the organization that administers her program.
As to what happens next, "I have no clue," said Ptacek.
Because of the uncertainty, she has taken a job with Turner Construction helping clients figure out how they can implement energy-efficiency measures, electrification and building decarbonization, she said. She'd also like to work in maritime decarbonization, moving ships and ports away from fossil fuels to mitigate climate change and reduce air pollution. -
Designs would 'calm' traffic, protect pedestrians
Rutgers University has released a traffic study of Cold Spring that includes recommendations to improve safety at four busy village locations.
The study was conducted by the Voorhees Transportation Center at the university and funded by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC). It outlines measures to reduce and "calm" traffic and improve pedestrian safety.
NYMTC, created in 1982, is the metropolitan planning organization for Putnam, Westchester and Rockland counties, New York City and Long Island.
The report, posted at dub.sh/CS-traffic-study, makes recommendations for Main Street at the Visitors' Center; Fair Street; Lunn Terrace at Market Street; and Main at Route 9D. It also considers the trolley operated by Putnam County.
During its research, Voorhees conducted a resident survey and hosted a workshop. Its 39-page report was also reviewed by Putnam County and state agencies.
Main Street at Visitors' Center
The report notes this is the only Main Street location where legal U-turns can be made and is a busy area with frequent encounters between drivers and pedestrians. It recommended adding high-visibility paint and patterns to crosswalks; adding a crosswalk across Main; and installing signage and pedestrian lighting. It also suggested the village consider a mini roundabout.
Fair Street
The street is a challenge because it's narrow, frequently used by delivery trucks and congested with hikers on busy weekends. Inconsistent parking rules and one-way traffic on weekends create confusion, the report said. It recommends adding sidewalks to both sides between Main Street and Mayor's Park, installing pedestrian lighting, restricting on-street parking and encouraging drivers to use the municipal parking lot.
Lunn Terrace at Market
The area is described as "the most challenging" of those examined for the study because it provides the only vehicle access to the Metro-North parking lot and the lower village, and it's busy. It suggested a crosswalk across Market and better signage, road markings and striping to direct pedestrians and drivers. It also said the village could consider a small roundabout with splitter islands and a flashing sign at the crosswalk.
Cold Spring trolley
The researchers observed what most residents already knew - people don't know how to find it and can't get real-time data about its schedule. The recommendations included payment options besides cash; route modifications to encourage ridership; updated signage with timetables; and shelters at popular stops.
Main Street at Route 9D
The researchers found that, between 2019 and 2022, there were 68 vehicle crashes in the village, and that 44 percent were on Route 9D and 20 percent at its intersection with Main Street. Its recommendations included reflective crosswalk markings; the removal of obstacles that interfere with driver sightlines ("daylighting"); no parking within 25 feet of the intersection; increasing the interval on pedestrian crossing signals; and streetscaping to slow traffic. It also suggested examining the addition of left-turn lanes on Route 9D.
In response to the report, Mayor Kathleen Foley said there is a perception that the village is so overrun with visitors, that it can't do much on its own. But she said the report "emphasizes steps that are common sense and simple, and that we can do ourselves to improve traffic and pedestrian movement for residents and visitors alike."
She noted that the report could help the village make the case for grants to address the issues it identifies.
Foley said eliminating parking on Fair Street has made driveways safer, reduced driver confusion and created a wider roadway for trucks, buses and emergency vehicles. "Shifting Fair to one-way northbound during the busy season, as we did in the fall, provided an alternate loop for vehicles to move around the village and eliminated tangle-causing left turns onto Main Street," she said.
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