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Prentice, Maasik announce campaigns
Nat Prentice and John Maasik announced last week that they plan to campaign for two open seats on the Philipstown Town Board.
The Philipstown Democratic Committee last month endorsed two other candidates, Ben Cheah and Ned Rauch. The seats are held by Jason Angell and Megan Cotter, who are not running for second terms.
Prentice and Maasik are both Democrats. If at least three candidates gather the signatures needed to appear on the ballot, a primary will be held in June.
Following a career as an investment manager in New York City, Baltimore and Philadelphia, Prentice in 1999 purchased the Garrison home where he grew up. He is a commissioner for the Garrison Fire District, president of the Cold Spring Area Chamber of Commerce and the Putnam County Business Council and a board member for Stonecrop Gardens and Paramount Hudson Valley Arts. In 2018, he served as chair of the Comprehensive Plan Committee.
Maasik, a marketing executive, has served on the Philipstown Recreation Commission since 2012 and as a board member for Friends of Philipstown Recreation since 2014. A 20-year resident, he also volunteered for Scouting America and the Philipstown Soccer Club. -
Zoning amendments could nix Beacon drive-thru
The Healey family, which for 40 years operated auto dealerships along Fishkill Avenue in Beacon, says the City Council is unfairly targeting its effort to redevelop one of its lots, according to a letter addressed to Mayor Lee Kyriacou and council members.
The letter, sent Monday (Feb. 10) on behalf of Dwight Healey and his sons, Jay and Dylan, accuses the mayor and council of expediting "incomplete recommendations" made by the Fishkill Avenue Concepts Committee, a citizen workgroup assembled by Kyriacou to study the corridor. (Jay Healey is a member of the committee.) The recommendations contradict Beacon's comprehensive plan and lack analysis by traffic consultants and other experts contracted by the city, wrote Taylor Palmer, the Healeys' attorney.
Kyriacou said Wednesday that he had been away because of a family matter and had not had time to read the letter in full.
After purchasing a Ford dealership on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie and constructing a Hyundai facility on Route 52 in Fishkill, the Healey family placed four substantial Fishkill Avenue parcels on the market in 2023. The Planning Board last year approved applications from Carvana, the used-car retailer, and Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist organization, to occupy two of the parcels.
In November, the family brought a proposal to the board to convert a building at 420 Fishkill Ave., its former Ford dealership, to a Dunkin' coffeehouse with a drive-thru, three apartments and additional commercial space.
At the same time, the council in November asked the Fishkill Avenue committee to develop interim zoning recommendations for the corridor while continuing its work, which includes studying streetscapes and pedestrian accessibility. J.C. Calderon, the committee chair, delivered the recommendations during the council's Jan. 27 workshop:
Prohibit self-storage facilities.
Prohibit drive-thrus.
Reduce the minimum front-yard setback for new development and require parking behind, underneath or to the side of a building.
Prohibit gas stations, car washes, auto lots and repair shops, but allow existing auto-related uses to remain as non-conformities.
Calderon noted that committee members had not unanimously agreed but said the proposals align with input received during three public "pop-ups" last summer and an online survey. Another public information session is scheduled for March 9 at Industrial Arts Brewing Co.
Planning Board members also questioned the committee's recommendations, Calderon said. During a work session before its Dec. 10 meeting, John Gunn, the board chair, said that auto-related uses and drive-thrus "could be considered appropriate" in the Fishkill Avenue corridor while emphasizing traffic-calming and the pedestrian experience "in context of some of these types of uses."
The City Council on Monday agreed to send a draft law prohibiting self-storage facilities and drive-thrus to the city and county planning boards for review. Council members said they requested the "quick-fix" measures to preserve the city's vision for a walkable corridor that would complement recreational uses such as biking and hiking before incompatible development is approved.
The Planning Board held a public hearing the next night on the Dunkin' proposal. Three residents, one of them the husband of Council Member Pam Wetherbee, opposed the plans. One person favored the project. Thirteen more (eight for, five against) submitted written comments.
In the letter from Palmer, the Healeys asked the council members, if they decide to prohibit self-storage and drive-thrus, to exempt their project because it had been proposed beforehand.
Rose Hill Manor
The owner of Rose Hill Manor Day School, a preschool located for 40 years at 1064 Wolcott Ave., has proposed redeveloping the site as a three-story, 41-room hotel with a gym, spa and 56-seat restaurant.
The hotel would be open year-round with the spa open Tuesday through Sunday. The restaurant ... -
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Survey highlights mental health challenges
Beacon firefighter David Brewer has performed CPR on five people he knew, including a friend who collapsed on Labor Day weekend in 2023 and died despite his efforts.
Then there are the other stressors: being away from his family for 24-hour shifts, the rush of adrenaline when an alarm sounds and the anxious efforts to extinguish a fire. A panic attack hospitalized him on Christmas Eve a few years ago, said Brewer.
"Your bucket just gets filled up and filled up and filled up until, eventually, it overflows," said Brewer.
That is the situation for many first responders, according to an inaugural statewide survey of 6,000 emergency personnel, including 900 from the Mid-Hudson region, that asked about their mental health. Released on Feb. 5, the report is a collaboration between the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, the Institute for Disaster Mental Health and the Benjamin Center for Public Policy Initiatives at SUNY New Paltz.
Of the police officers, firefighters, paramedics, emergency dispatchers and emergency managers surveyed, 94 percent cited stress as a challenge and nine out of 10 mentioned burnout and anxiety. A majority also reported stress from traumatic events such as shootings and accidents (56 percent) and suffering symptoms of depression (53 percent). Another 40 percent experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and 16 percent thought of suicide.
Being exposed to constant trauma "can destroy relationships, it can destroy families, it can destroy that person," said Aaron Leonard, a lieutenant with the Cold Spring Fire Co. and the newly appointed CEO of Guardian Revival, a Beacon organization that provides services for veterans and first responders, including peer counseling.
"I have had my own experiences of sitting at my house having dinner, and then five minutes later, I'm doing CPR, the person passes away and you just go back home," he said. "Where do you unpack that experience?"
The list of barriers that prevent first responders from getting help is long, with about 80 percent citing the stigmas surrounding mental health and concerns that colleagues will deem them unreliable. Others worried that seeking help would impact their career or cause supervisors to treat them differently (74 percent), or lead to losing their firearms license (68 percent).
"It used to be, push that stuff down," said Brewer, whose 43-year firefighting career includes 25 years as a volunteer. "You were a lesser firefighter if you talked about that."
Brewer was "circling the drain" before a 45-minute phone call with a peer counselor at Guardian Revival helped him understand that he did everything possible to save his friend.
He has also attended a Guardian Revival workshop where veterans and first responders congregate around a campfire to talk about stressors. "Sometimes you go, 'Wow, I'm not alone,'" said Brewer. "Sometimes you go, 'I'm not that messed up.' "
In addition to peer counseling, survey respondents expressed interest in training on topics such as managing stress and coping with anxiety or depression. Their wish list of solutions includes access to gym memberships or in-house equipment, like the weight room at Beacon's new firehouse, and paid time for mental health care.
Guardian Revival has memorandums of understanding to assist 25 fire departments in Dutchess and Putnam counties with wellness programs, said Leonard. The Cold Spring Fire Co. launched its program on Monday (Feb. 10) with a yoga class for firefighters and their families.
Shari Alexander, a Cold Spring firefighter, coordinates the program with Leonard's wife, Leslie, who teaches the yoga class. Alexander said two personal trainers have volunteered to lead strength training, she will lead a class on breathing techniques and there will be a pushup challenge and sessions on topics such as healthy eating.
"Calls can be difficult and emotional and taxing," she said. "Part of it is preven... -
Cost, range, garage space present huge challenges
Is the transition to electric school buses too expensive and too complicated?
That's the question being asked by legislators and educators in the Highlands as New York's mandated, seven-year transition to a zero-emission fleet begins in 2027.
Electric school buses can cost $400,000 or more, three times the cost of a diesel bus. And there are concerns about range, electrical capacity and the need for larger garages to accommodate the buses and chargers.
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 four electric buses and Beacon voters have approved the purchase of two.
Statewide, only about 100 of 45,000 buses are electric, although about 1,000 have been approved or ordered, according to Adam Ruder, director of clean transportation for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (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.
State Sen. Rob Rolison, a Republican whose district includes the Highlands, said he supports the transition to zero-emission buses. But he said the state needs to "listen to the school superintendents, school boards and taxpayers who are saying, 'Can we just slow down? Let's get it done. But the time frame is unrealistic.'"
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. Last month, the board published a paper stating that the mandate "will force districts to reduce educational opportunities for students, increase taxes and spend exorbitant sums, and cause voter unrest."
It proposed changes that include giving districts more money toward the estimated $15 billion in costs; allowing hybrid and low-emission buses; certifying range estimates from manufacturers; better access to funding by third-party transportation providers; and special utility rate structures for districts.
Assembly Member Dana Levenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Philipstown, said it's too soon to start "kicking the can down the road" by pushing back the zero-emission bus mandate. "We need to continue to work toward the goal. If we can't reach the goal, we can extend the deadline." She said she is not aware of any plans to add funding for electric buses to the 2025 state budget.
Jonathan Jacobson, a Democratic member of the Assembly whose district includes Beacon, said the conversion to electric buses "has presented more challenges than anticipated" including rising fleet costs, a lack of charging stations and electrical capacity and that "the buses would be too heavy for many of the small bridges in suburban and rural districts." But he said he was optimistic legislators and state agencies could find "affordable solutions."
At NYSERDA, Ruder said districts should get started, regardless. "We've been encouraging districts to buy one or two, kick the tires and get a sense of how they perform," he said, adding that 75 percent of districts have the electrical capacity to charge at least 10 buses.
Haldane, with a fleet of 15 buses and six vans, is trying to piece together financing to buy four electric buses, at a cost of $375,000 each, said Carl Albano, the interim superintendent. Albano said grants would cover all but about $50,000 of the cost if the district is approved for funding for each bus from the state ($147,000) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency ($170,000). Whether the EPA grant will be allowed to go forward under the Trump administration is unclear.
"Being patient and measured is the way to go," Albano said. "Teaching and learning should be the priorities, along with safe buildings. Protecting the environment is a high priority, but I don't think it should come at the... -
Today he's releasing her music online.
Rochelle Gambino, who lived in Cold Spring for nearly a decade and owned a dog grooming business on Main Street, died suddenly, apparently of heart failure, in 2007 at age 44. A singer and guitarist, she left behind a trove of analog recordings and ephemera.
Today (Feb. 14), after working with a sound studio in the city, her son A.J. Vitiello is releasing 20 songs recorded by his mother in a compilation called For Romantics Only.
"She lived in the pre-streaming era, so I had to get this project done before the tapes break," says Vitiello, 25, a travel writer. "Deciding what to release took a long time, and I had to kill some darlings. A good song could be ruined by a scratchy recording or be so '80s that it sounds stale."
The process of sifting through hundreds of songs and transcribing lyrics brought him closer to a woman who died when he was 7. Gambino also left behind diaries, letters and photos. "This project is almost an attempt to reconstruct her persona," he says. "It's as if she's using me as a vessel to get her music out there."
He adds: "People used to ask, 'When are you going to pick up the guitar?' That's not my thing - the talent didn't transfer. But I do long for a time when rock 'n' roll was the only thing that mattered."
After Vitiello's parents separated, he lived with his mother in Nelsonville before moving to Connecticut with his father. Sometimes, he travels from Brooklyn to spruce up her gravesite at Cold Spring Cemetery.
One vivid memory is a visit she made to his kindergarten class at Haldane Elementary. "She wrote a song for every student using their names," he says. "She was known for sheer kindness and being bubbly. My mom had a lot of devoted fans in the Hudson Valley and played shows all the time."
Gambino, who grew up in Croton-on-Hudson, received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She dropped out and moved to Nashville but returned to New York, where she told a newspaper reporter: "I'm not some piece of plastic to be molded and make somebody else rich."
Gambino met Vitiello's father at one of her Black Jacket Band shows and the couple settled in Cold Spring. At their Dockside Park wedding, she strapped a black electric guitar over her white dress and wailed away.
Her music ranges from acoustic ballads to hard rock and includes a few religious songs. Toward the end of her life, she spent more time at Our Lady of Loretto on Fair Street, says Vitiello.
"She could shred on guitar and also compose on piano," he says. "She had vocal chords of steel. I still remember her fingernails being cracked and mutilated, as if she'd been to war. I still find [guitar] picks in her stuff."
Gambino chafed at comparisons to Janis Joplin. After she died, a close friend held tributes in Croton that raised money for music students.
The melancholy breakup song "Cold Spring" tells of "too much fighting / too many angry lies." The chorus refrains: "I didn't know what you meant to me / That night in Cold Spring / Where we fought to save our dreams / It was a dream we had when young / As the Hudson River runs / That night in Cold Spring."
For Romantics Only is available at Spotify (dub.sh/gambino-spotify) and YouTube (dub.sh/for-romantic). -
As many critics and moviegoers gush over the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, Greg Linksman shrugs. He has already dived deep into the music and background of one of his heroes but saw the film on a lark.
"I've read all the books and watched the concert footage and documentaries, so there's no real need to see a re-creation of a scene that I've already seen in its original form," he says.
Due to thirsty ears and a curious mind, he has accumulated at least a degree's worth of facts and knowledge about popular music, especially from the 1950s to the 1970s.
"I get excited listening to Motown when you know 30 seconds in that you're getting a hooky chorus in a perfectly crafted song, or knowing that Paul Simon will have amazing arrangements," he says. "But I also appreciate Buddy Holly and that punk rock thing with two chords."
Linksman, 36, hails from Westchester County. He knew Beacon because an aunt lived in the city. He started coming up more often in the 2010s to take breaks from Brooklyn and fell in with the Dogwood music crew. Then he met Kyra Auffermann, got engaged and relocated last year.
Over the years, he's performed semi-monthly pop-up shows at local bars and joined DIY events like a five-band event at the VFW Hall in December.
On Friday (Feb. 21), his group, Mickey Green's Off-Track, will play at Industrial Arts Brewing Co. For New Yorkers of a certain age, a word is missing from the name and indeed, his grandfather, Mickey Green, frequented the Off-Track Betting parlors that once dotted neighborhoods across New York City and showed horse races via closed-circuit analog television feeds.
Onstage, Linksman wears a shamrock-green cap knitted by his great-grandmother. "It's always been my color," he says.
Linksman is still perfecting his sound and says he has yet to record anything serious, so he works out arrangements and approaches during his laidback solo gigs. On guitar, he delivers a full sound with hybrid picking, where his thumb and forefinger squeeze a triangular flat pick to play the low end and the other three fingers pluck out higher notes.
The technique is associated with country guitarists (who call it "chicken picking") and helps fatten up Linksman's feel-good pop tunes. In general, verses are simple and well-placed minor chords color the mood, taking songs in different directions.
During "What Cha Gonna Do About It?", the opening number at an informal Tuesday gig on Feb. 4 at Draught Industries on Main Street, he launched into a lush solo based on the tune's main riff and ended the song by holding a bell-like falsetto note for what seemed like a minute.
In the second set, he reeled off the iconic opening riff of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" as a finger exercise. "I do it just to warm up my hands; it's a parlor trick that's more flashy than difficult."
Tuesday nights are typically slow in Beacon, especially in the winter. "It's a relaxed atmosphere; I can try out some new things," he says. "If you're doing what you love and you have to do it, you can feel the support in this town even if only nine people show up."
Industrial Arts Brewing Co. is located at 511 Fishkill Ave. in Beacon. The Feb. 21 show, which begins at 8 p.m., also will include performances by Barnaby! and the Vibeke Saugestad Band. -
Rik Mercaldi acquired his main electric guitar at age 15 and has been mastering its intricacies ever since. Give him a country song, a three-chord vamp or a funky bass line and he will execute an impressive solo with impeccable tone.
Playing with Last Minute Soulmates at the Towne Crier Cafe in Beacon on Feb. 7, he balanced feeling with technique and made his wah wah effect pedal cry like a baby as he sang along.
"People tell me that I sing, but it's not conscious and I guess I can't help it," he says. "I wasn't trying to draw undue attention, but sometimes the adrenaline kicks in when you're playing live, and you lose yourself."
Though he can rip out ferocious licks up and down the neck, Mercaldi only unleashes the beast at the proper time.
"That's the goal of a sideman, to make everything sound better," he says. "It's not about showboating."
Delivering tasteful lead guitar parts in an original pop/rock band is one skill, but over the years he has performed a wide range of styles, including the Cosmokaze project, which performs at 8 p.m. on Feb. 20 and every third Thursday at Quinn's.
The sound is as far out as the name because, unlike the more pat blues and rock that first forged Mercaldi's sound and style, this instrumental trio improvises for 45 minutes to an hour at a time, like one long jazz solo.
Drummer Todd Guidice produced and engineered the group's two albums at Roots Cellar Studio in Philipstown.
Regarding the band's name, which sounds like an exotic cocktail, "we were kicking stuff around with the general feeling of trippy, spacey, astral and the word cosmic came up and Josh [Enslen on bass] blurted it out," he says. "It's a cosmic kamikaze if that makes any sense."
Instead of crashing and burning, the music soars like a Grateful Dead space jam, sometimes gelling into a steady chord pattern and then fading into an ambient wash of sound or a low frequency rumble. Solos can break out at any time.
"It's not a jam band, we're doing spontaneous composition," he says. "We're like a jazz group with rock instruments."
No two performances are alike, but they can incorporate "a riff or chordal thing we've used before, which works well as a springboard."
There is plenty of musicality for listeners to latch onto a groove, or pocket, as segments lurch along then morph into a pattern with a strong backbeat.
Exotic sounds augment the mix, including two twangy lap steel guitars, a digital sitar effect and found backgrounds, like snippets from old films and answering machines. An electromagnetic EBow device transforms the guitar's timbre into an otherworldly, high-pitched buzz with sustain for forever.
Mercaldi moved to Beacon in 2016 from Hastings-on-Hudson, his first suburban stop. Visiting Dogwood (now Cooper's) sealed the deal.
Cosmokaze is a 180-degree departure from Last Minute Soulmates and The Subterraneans, which gigged all over the city and New Jersey during the 1990s. They're still around, putting together a concept album.
The Jersey native also spent five years playing mandolin and other acoustic instruments with Yonkers-based Spuyten Duyvil, which made a name in folk music circles touring the country and performing at big festivals before disbanding in 2018.
"I need to scratch every musical itch," he says. "I love [Cosmokaze's] creative freedom and relaxed pace; I don't need to be out there wanking a solo all the time. At home, this is something I would be noodling with, so now I'm just doing that in front of an audience."
Quinn's is located at 330 Main St. in Beacon. Mercaldi also will play a solo set at the Towne Crier Café on Feb. 22. See cosmokaze.bandcamp.com. -
Beacon committee's plan would prohibit self-storage, drive-thrus
The Beacon City Council is expected on Monday (Feb. 10) to begin its review of a draft law that, if approved, would ban new self-storage facilities and businesses with drive-thrus on Fishkill Avenue (Route 52).
The proposal is part of a first batch of recommendations for the busy thoroughfare generated by the Fishkill Avenue Concepts Committee, a citizen workgroup assembled by Mayor Lee Kyriacou a year ago. The council in November asked the group to present "quick fixes" while the committee works on more detailed recommendations for the mile-long stretch from Blackburn Avenue to the Town of Fishkill line near the Industrial Arts Brewing Co.
The City Council will likely fine-tune the draft on Monday before scheduling a public hearing and sending the proposal to the Dutchess County and Beacon planning boards for review.
Existing businesses in the corridor would be exempted. There are no drive-thrus on Fishkill Avenue, but the Planning Board will hold a public hearing the following night (Feb. 11) on a proposal to convert 420-430 Fishkill Ave., the former site of the Healey Brothers Ford dealership, to a Dunkin' coffeehouse with a drive-thru. The building also would have other commercial space and three apartments.
If the Planning Board approves the Dunkin' proposal, it would be regulated by whatever zoning is in place when a foundation is poured and "something substantial has come out of the ground," City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis told the council during its workshop on Jan. 27.
During that meeting, J.C. Calderon, who chairs the Fishkill Avenue committee, introduced four recommendations, although the law being discussed Feb. 10 will only include the first two:
1. Prohibit self-storage facilities, which provide minimal employment and do not contribute to "vibrant corridors."
2. Prohibit drive-thrus, which are inconsistent with the committee's "pedestrian-scale vision."
3. Reduce the minimum front-yard setback for new development in the corridor from 15 feet to 10 feet, and require parking spaces to be located behind, underneath or to the side of a building. If to the side, parking should be screened by a low wall or landscaping.
4. Prohibit gas stations, car washes, vehicle sales or rental lots and auto-repair shops, while allowing existing auto-related uses in the corridor to remain as non-conformities.
The committee is expected to make other recommendations that could include the creation of a Fishkill Avenue zoning district. Calderon noted that the interim suggestions, particularly No. 4, were not unanimous among the nine committee members, although he suggested some of that could be attributed to a misunderstanding about existing businesses being exempt.
Natalie Quinn, the city's planning consultant, told the council: "There's a thought that these [gas stations, car washes, car dealers and auto-repair shops] are viable business options that provide services to members of the community, and they have to be located somewhere, and this may be one of the last corridors in the city that allows some of these uses." She said, in some cases, the opposition could be boiled down to: "Many people own a car that needs repair at some point."
Beacon Planning Board members have also expressed concern with the fourth recommendation, Quinn said, because auto-related ventures are "what the market is currently providing" for available lots on Fishkill Avenue.
Pam Wetherbee, who represents Ward 3, which includes the corridor, said she favors banning drive-thrus because of the emissions and traffic they create. "We're going to have a rail trail," she said, referring to Dutchess County's study of a dormant line along Fishkill Creek, "and to have emissions happening right where people are walking in nature seems to go against itself."
But she and Kyriacou each said they would move deliberately on No. 4 because much of the corridor is autocentric. "I don't want to be in the situati... -
Community kitchen closes, but free meals continue
After the Beacon Community Kitchen closed last month, volunteers launched two free meal programs to feed residents who might go without.
A week ago, on Jan. 31, more than 100 people were fed at the inaugural weekly dinner at the First Presbyterian Church provided by volunteers from Fareground, an anti-hunger nonprofit founded in 2012. Two weeks ago, a newly created nonprofit, Beacon's Backyard, began serving breakfasts on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at The Yard.
Both projects were in the early planning stages before the closing of the Beacon Community Kitchen, which had been serving weekday lunches at Tabernacle of Christ Church since 2015 under the direction of Candi Rivera and other volunteers.
About the same time Beacon Community Kitchen closed, a meal program at First Presbyterian Church also stopped. In both cases, longtime coordinators retired or relocated.
"This wasn't the original plan," said Justice McCray, a former Beacon City Council member who helped organize Beacon's Backyard in December with plans for spring programming. "We pivoted."
Jamie Levato, the executive director at Fareground, said the sudden change feels like "a generational shift."
Fareground's Welcome Table and Beacon's Backyard Kitchen are carrying on a local tradition of feeding the hungry at a moment's notice. It took Beacon Community Kitchen less than a week to go from conception to opening in 2015 when the Salvation Army's kitchen closed unexpectedly. In March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, Beacon Mutual Aid was operating within 24 hours. Volunteers were never in short supply.
"We have a lot of people who are ready and willing to step up," said McCray. "They're just waiting for the Bat-Signal."
Special Reports
Hunger in the Highlands (2021)
Hunger in the Highlands Update (2024)
The Fareground dinner began after a volunteer who also helped at First Presbyterian noted the church has a commercial kitchen. "It was perfect timing because that's what we needed to make it happen," said Levato. (Fareground moved into a space just outside Beacon last year that has a commercial kitchen, but it needs major upgrades.)
The First Presbyterian kitchen needed a few minor fixes to pass inspection by the county health department, so Meyer's Olde Dutch Beacon donated pasta, meatballs, salad and bread for the Jan. 31 meal. Diners lingered and caught up with friends while music played and children colored.
The welcoming atmosphere is as integral to the program as the food, Levato said. "We want people to have access to fresh, healthy food because food is a human right," she said. "We also want people to engage with each other. There's a lot of issues that arise from people feeling lonely and a lack of connection.
"If you see somebody once a week, you can notice that something might be wrong. Maybe they need a ride to the doctor, or maybe they have some amazing news that they want to share with someone. If you can have those connections, you can build a network of support and community care."
"It's mutual aid," said Jason Hughes, a volunteer with Beacon's Backyard Kitchen, on Tuesday (Feb. 4) before breakfast was served at The Yard. "We're not feeding them - we're feeding us."
Altrude Lewis Thorpe
Beatrice Clay
Brian Arnoff
Chef Zeke
Jeff Silverstein
Rhys Bethke
The Yard has a commercial kitchen inside a trailer. Professional chefs and enthusiastic amateurs spent the early morning preparing shakshuka, potato hash, bacon, toast and fruit salad, while volunteers laid out muffins and cereal. As the dining room filled, the kitchen staff made and packaged a dozen sandwiches to hand out for lunch.
McCray said Beacon's Backyard Kitchen decided to serve breakfast because many working people couldn't attend the Beacon Community Kitchen lunches. "With a dine-in and takeout option, people don't have to go to work hungry," McCray said. "We know there's been a lot of success with the Beacon schools' ... -
Dutchess County has slowest growth
A New York report released last month found that the number of people without long-term housing nearly doubled between 2022 and 2024, although Dutchess County had the lowest growth rate in the state, at 11 percent.
The report, compiled by the state Comptroller's Office, found that, from January 2022 to January 2024, New York's homeless population grew by 50 percent, compared to 20 percent in the rest of the country.
It relied on a census conducted annually by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that estimated about 770,000 people in the U.S. were homeless in 2024, including 140,000 in New York City and 18,000 in the rest of the state. Only Hawaii and Washington, D.C., had higher rates per capita.
The homeless population in Dutchess County grew to an estimated 705 residents. Putnam County was not broken out, but Westchester County had a 19 percent increase, to 1,611. The statewide increase was 113 percent, although nearly all of that growth was in New York City, the report said, citing an influx of asylum seekers, the end of a pandemic freeze on evictions, a lack of affordable housing and rising rents.
In a news release on Jan. 30, Dutchess County cited its "proactive approach to addressing homelessness" for its state-low growth, including street outreach, case management and two licensed social workers hired in December.
How to Get Help
Dutchess County residents who need housing or a warming center can call the Department of Community & Family Services at 845-486-3300 during business hours or call 211 or law enforcement.
Putnam County residents who need emergency housing can call the Department of Social Services & Mental Health at 845-808-1500, ext. 45233, during business hours.
The state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance at 800-342-3009 or dub.sh/NY-help can provide guidance for emergency benefits.
Last summer, the county Department of Community & Family Services took over operations of a Poughkeepsie shelter, known as PODS, where an eight-person team works with each resident to develop "individualized independent living plans" and provide mental health support and crisis intervention. The shelter population dropped by 33 percent from 2023 to 2024, the county said.
According to the federal data, the number of families without long-term housing in New York state tripled between 2022 and 2024, to 96,000, accounting for about 60 percent of the population. More than half of state residents without long-term housing are Black or Hispanic, and an estimated 10 percent suffer from severe mental illness or chronic substance abuse.
To its credit, New York state has the lowest rate of unsheltered homeless in the country (3.6 percent of all homeless, versus 44 percent nationally), the lowest rate of homeless seniors (2.5 percent) and the lowest rate of chronically homeless (3.6 percent).
The state has 128,000 emergency beds (compared to 76,000 in California), 95 percent of which are in shelters, according to the report. The remaining 5 percent consists of "rapid re-housing" for moving people to permanent homes, "safe havens" for people with severe mental illness and "transitional housing" with support for up to 24 months. -
Show features paintings by 'archaeo-nerd'
Greg Slick's studio in Newburgh is an interesting place. With a treetop view of brick apartments and Victorian-era homes, the former carriage repair shop dates to the 1870s.
A pulley system with a 4-foot-diameter gear, a larger flywheel and steel rope wound around a cylinder peeks over a wall in the modest space. "I am inspired by that," says Slick, a New Jersey native who has lived in Beacon since 2003.
Two umbrella lights, typically used for photo shoots, flank his desk. Slick is "partially sighted," he says. "With a little help, the brain is remarkably good at adapting to challenging conditions."
Slick crafts what he calls "weird little" sculptures, but his current approach is painting with acrylic on wood, a technique informed by an obsession with the late Neolithic era about 5,500 years ago, when humans settled into farming.
Evidence of his armchair archaeological studies is reflected in Depth Perception, a solo show at the Garrison Art Center that opens Saturday (Feb. 8). In the adjoining gallery, a group exhibit, Home is Where the Heart Is, features work by Amy Cheng, Erik Schoonebeck and Zac Skinner, who lives in Beacon.
Though Stonehenge is the most famous monument, Neolithic societies arranged rocks and created elaborate structures with significant care and skill at thousands of sites across Europe and elsewhere.
Slick considers himself an "archaeo-nerd." In his studio, he flips through The Old Stones: A Field Guide to the Megalithic Sites of Britain and Ireland, a thick, illustrated listing of more than 1,000 places. Two copies of The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, an academic journal published by Cambridge University Press, sit on another table.
"I joined the society so I could get the journal," says Slick, who has visited several ancient architectural constructs and is the chief docent at the Magazzino Italian Art museum in Philipstown.
The new show's title is apt because Slick's striated series has evolved to feature what resembles layers of rocks beneath the Earth's surface. Early iterations consist of piles of abstract stones (or scoops of ice cream).
"Bocan"
"Guadalperal"
"Sueño Oscuro"
"Vertical Time 2"
"Shadow Field"
"Sueño Oscuro"
The work developed into what he calls "stratigraphic, research-based" pictures with three layers separated by a stone-like wash created by dragging and dabbing a brush roller across the surface with his hands.
Up close and from the side, the works look like collages, with textured surfaces. Covering a stone with grids or a chevron breaks up the colors and evokes shamanistic and hallucinogenic rituals from prehistoric times, he says.
Some of the featured shapes are textured and scratched, while others are rendered with flat surfaces and brighter colors, like red and blue. At the bottom, a layer of what seems like dark yellow goo suggests magma.
"If you dig down far enough in the Earth, you'll find a wall, a pot, a skull," Slick says. "All this materiality connects us to the past. It's the history underneath our feet and a bridge to 5,000 years ago."
The Garrison Art Center is located at 23 Garrison's Landing. The exhibits open with a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. on Feb. 8 and continue through March 9. An artist's talk is scheduled for March 1. For more of Slick's artwork, see gregslick.com. -
Barbershop quartet to perform at St. Mary's
On Feb. 15, the acapella quartet Heartfelt, consisting of members of the Westchester Harmony chorus, will perform at St. Mary's Church in Cold Spring. Beacon resident Scott Kruse is substituting to sing baritone, which insiders call the "junk notes" because they sound almost unmusical when performed solo.
The tones are "integral to the overall chord, but hearing them alone is rough sledding," says Bill Kruse, Heartfelt's lead singer and Scott's father.
Traditional barbershop repertoire consists of popular songs from more than a century ago, like "Sweet Adeline," "Hello! Ma Baby" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon." Heartfelt will deliver some comedy, lead sing-a-longs and perform numbers appropriate for Valentine's Day.
The spelling of "Ma Baby" hints at the genre's roots in minstrelsy, where white performers corked up their faces and caricatured Black people, a portrayal perpetuated by Hollywood through the 1950s. Early barbershoppers appropriated the style from Black singers who secularized four-part gospel harmony.
Louis Armstrong sang in a New Orleans quartet and ragtime composer Scott Joplin's 1910 opera Treemonisha includes a barbershop number, "We Will Rest a While."
The groups that recorded in the late 1890s and early 1900s, like the Edison and the Haydn quartets, "got to do so because they were white," says Brian Lynch of the Nashville-based Barbershop Harmony Society. "The Black groups couldn't get that kind of exposure."
Then came the porkpie hats, red vests, maybe a mustache and always the cornpone humor. The style is characterized by a tenor pitched above the melody (or lead). The bass nails down the low end and the baritone fills in the mid-range notes. Chords are held for emphasis, notes are bent, repeated and inverted to create sounds that can be stirring.
In 1938, toward the end of the Great Depression, a group of singers in Tulsa formed the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, known by the awkward acronym SPEBSQUA, which lampooned federal New Deal agencies. After a stint in Wisconsin, the organization moved to Nashville in 2007 and became the Barbershop Harmony Society a year later.
"There's a lot of experimentation going on" in the genre, says Lynch, but at competitions, the society enforces rules regarding the number of seventh notes that must be sung. Known as the "blue note," the seventh emphasizes a half-step drop of pitch from the keynote and is the genre's signature sound.
The Westchester group dates to 1953. Like many other ensembles, it has performed concerts dedicated to the Beatles, Broadway, the music of the 1960s and composers associated with the Great American Songbook.
For a traditional style of music, things are in flux. Known as the Westchester Chordsmen for many years, Westchester Harmony rebranded last year and began accepting women as members following the Barbershop Harmony Society's lead in 2018, Lynch says. Today about 20 percent of the 650 choruses in North America include women (along with seven of Westchester Harmony's 55 singers).
Beyond tight harmonies and corny humor, barbershop choruses are known for constant and consistent recruiting. "We're always looking for voices," says Bill Kruse. "The beauty of being among a lot of singers is that you can easily blend in, but if you're in a quartet and someone hits a wrong bass note, it's easy to identify the culprit. The beauty of the larger group is that anyone can sing this style of music, and it's fun."
St. Mary's Church is located at 1 Chestnut St. in Cold Spring. The free concert, which is part of the ongoing Music at St. Mary's series, begins at 2 p.m. -
Beacon concert will celebrate Broadway
In a rarity for classical music ensembles, the Hudson Valley Symphony Orchestra will feature a saxophone soloist for its program of Broadway arrangements at Beacon High School on Feb. 22.
The orchestra recruited Jerry Vivino, a member for 25 years of the house bands for Conan O'Brien's late-night shows, to sit in, although the headliner will be Hugh Panaro, who played the lead in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway more than 2,000 times.
Panaro will indeed sing "Music of the Night," along with songs from Chess, Jersey Boys, Les Misérables and The Wizard of Oz. In addition, the orchestra will perform instrumental arrangements of selections from Evita, Wicked, Chicago, 42nd Street, On the Town and The Music Man.
This is the Poughkeepsie-based ensemble's second recent concert in Beacon. It performed Messiah in December and returns in May to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of French composer Maurice Ravel with a program of his Ma Mere l'Oye Suite (Mother Goose), Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 107, John Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Elgar's Enigma Variations.
Founded in 1932, the orchestra began as an independent entity but partnered with the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie in 1999 after tough times. Over the years, its programming dropped from 12 concerts and 130 school visits annually to three concerts, says Executive Director Rachel Crozier. Last year, it became a nonprofit and is again operating independently.
The Pete and Toshi Seeger Theater at Beacon High School is one of the few venues in the Hudson Valley that can accommodate a full symphony orchestra, says Crozier, who plays second violin. In addition to the guest soloist and saxophonist, about 60 musicians will fill the stage, including two substitutes who live in Beacon, Eva Gerard (viola) and Adrienne Harmon (violin).
Crozier praises the auditorium's acoustics: "The sound is warm, and it carries throughout the hall," she says.
André Raphel, who last year became the symphony's principal conductor and artistic advisor, assembled the program. Raphel, who previously worked with the New York Philharmonic and the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra in West Virginia, seeks to recreate the versatile sound heard on original cast albums from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
"Hearing Broadway material performed by an orchestra is going to be sonically superior to attending the show itself because, no matter how good the pit musicians are, you're getting a lush performance with so many more instruments," he says.
One challenge for the future of classical music is its aging audience. "The way we talk about it needs to shift," says Crozier. "Classical is for everyone, and we want people to be comfortable."
Mixing things up, like offering a holiday choral work, providing accompaniment for a silent film and rolling out a pops or Broadway program, help orchestras engage with larger audiences, says Raphel.
"Movies would be much less engaging or emotional without the background music, which is usually recorded by a full orchestra," says Crozier. "Just as music makes movies better, people can enhance their days by making classical music part of the soundtrack to their lives."
Beacon High School is located at 101 Matteawan Road. Tickets are $55 ($68 reserved seating, $38 seniors, $15 students, children ages 5 and younger free) at hudsonvalleysymphony.org. -
Officials at the Haldane, Garrison and Beacon school districts, like many across the country, are vowing to protect undocumented immigrant students from President Donald Trump's push for mass deportations.
Concern about raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at schools arose after the Trump administration on Jan. 21 reversed a policy enacted more than a decade ago barring raids in "sensitive locations," such as schools and churches.
Allan Wernick, a Cold Spring resident who is an attorney and founder of Citizenship Now! at The City University of New York, said he believes ICE raids on workplaces are more likely than those on schools. "I wouldn't be too concerned that they're going to come to some [local] school" to detain students, he said. "It's not a very good use of resources."
Superintendents at the three local districts said this week that federal agents would not be permitted on school grounds without a court order. "Law enforcement agencies can't just come in and request to see a student, talk to a student, interrogate a student or detain a student," said Gregory Stowell, superintendent of the Garrison district.
Stowell said the district would consult its attorney before proceeding if ICE agents show up with a court order or warrant. Haldane Superintendent Carl Albano and Beacon Superintendent Matt Landahl each said the same. The superintendents emphasized that state and federal laws do not require districts to record the immigration status of students.
During a Beacon school board meeting on Monday (Jan. 27), a retired schoolteacher, Vicki Fox, urged district officials to hold "know your rights" workshops and to encourage immigrant families to create preparedness plans. Parents should also understand the difference between a search warrant signed by a judge and "something just signed by an ICE official, which does not go along with the Fourth Amendment for searches," Fox said.
Landahl said Beacon administrators planned to meet soon with the district's attorneys and that bilingual staff members have been helping immigrant families prepare. "We're working as an administrative group to make sure we're as well-informed as possible," he said. "I think that's the only thing we can do right now."
Guidelines issued earlier this month by New York State reinforce that all children ages 5 to 21 who have not received a high school diploma are entitled to a free public education. Districts may not refuse enrollment based on national origin, immigration status, race or language proficiency, among other grounds. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that students may not be denied a free public education based on their immigration status or that of their parents or guardians.
The state guidelines also instruct schools not to release students' personal information, including immigration status, citizenship or national origin.
Landahl said in an email to community members on Jan. 22 that the Beacon district's code of conduct limits law enforcement access to students during the school day. "I should also note that we have a very collaborative relationship with local law enforcement, and they are in our buildings frequently for drills, school walkthroughs and athletic and other events, and we welcome that," he wrote. -
When U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Neftali Caal-Chocoj in October 2023, the agency complained that Putnam County had released the undocumented Guatemalan because of "local laws," rather than allow ICE officers to take custody at the county jail.
In fact, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office notifies ICE when detainees sought by the agency are scheduled for release but will not hold them longer unless a federal judge signs a warrant, said Capt. Michael Grossi, speaking for the sheriff. He said that had been county policy for at least 10 years, and under two previous sheriffs.
The county practice largely tracks with guidance issued Jan. 22 by the state Attorney General's Office in response to President Donald Trump's vow to arrest and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
Attorney General Letitia James released her guidance a day after Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general in Washington, D.C., asserted in a memo to Justice Department staff that federal law prohibits state and local governments "from resisting, obstructing and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands."
Bove warned that the Justice Department would investigate "incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution, including for obstructing federal functions," and "identify state and local laws, policies, and activities that are inconsistent" with Trump's immigration initiatives and "take legal action" against those laws.
According to James, county jails are not legally obligated to notify ICE that a prisoner will be released from custody or to honor its requests, known as "detainers," to hold inmates for 48 hours beyond their scheduled release. Detainer requests are often accompanied by an administrative warrant issued by immigration authorities to arrest an undocumented immigrant for deportation, but James recommended that local officers only honor detainers when authorities have a warrant signed by a federal judge.
"We have laws that protect immigrants and limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts," she wrote in her guidance. "Those laws should continue to be followed by all New York law enforcement and officials."
How Many Undocumented?
An estimated 850,000 undocumented immigrants - meaning they do not have work permits or green cards - live in New York state, mostly in New York City, according to the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. How many live in the Highlands is not known, but if immigration court data is indicative, the numbers have risen dramatically over the past 20 years. As of August, there were nearly 400 new immigration cases involving Putnam County residents, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University (TRAC). In 2004, there were 34 cases filed during the entire year.
The numbers for Dutchess are similar. As of August, there were 779 immigration cases. In 2004, there were 33. About 75 percent of those cases involve immigrants from Central and South America, according to TRAC.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, which describes itself as a "pro-immigrant, low-immigration" think tank, Dutchess is among the New York counties that do not notify ICE before a detainee's release or allow "adequate hold time" for ICE to arrest someone.
The Dutchess County Sheriff's Office did not respond to an email asking to clarify its position on detainer requests, but Capt. John Watterson, a representative, said on Jan. 7 that "immigration laws fall under the jurisdiction of federal authorities, and at this time we are not aware of any plans to have the Sheriff's Office become involved in their enforcement."
New York law also bars local and state law enforcement from detaining people for civil immigration violations, according to the Attorney General's Office. People can only be arrested for violating civil immigration laws when police "have probable cause to believe that an individual has committed a ... -
Opposes trail structures in the Hudson River
At a Jan. 14 public hearing on the state environmental review of the proposed Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, the environmental group Riverkeeper shared concerns over the plans and suggested alternatives.
Mike Dulong, the watchdog's legal program director, said the organization is concerned that the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) dismisses the impact of construction and shading that the trail could create and asked HHFT to avoid placing structures in or over the water.
The remote hearing, which drew 258 people over two sessions, was hosted by the state parks department, the lead agency for the environmental review.
Dulong said Riverkeeper, as a member of the HHFT Steering Committee, supported the Fjord Trail and its goals to increase public safety along Route 9D while providing opportunities for outdoor recreation, nature appreciation and education. He said many of the potential environmental impacts Riverkeeper identified could be avoided depending on the chosen route.
As proposed, the 7.5-mile Fjord Trail would link Cold Spring, Breakneck Ridge and Beacon. HHFT's preferred southern route would include two half-mile sections over the river, one running south from Breakneck and the other from Dockside Park in Cold Spring to Little Stony Point. According to the plans, the construction would include 149 piles and 1,920 cubic yards of fill, which Riverkeeper fears will endanger shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon.
Read Riverkeeper's Full Statement
Dulong said HHFT's assertion that the shoreline in those sections is not within the sturgeon's preferred habitat is incorrect. He said the DGEIS correctly states that the area from Denning's Point in Beacon to Little Stony Point is designated as a "significant coastal fish and wildlife habitat" for sturgeon, adding that the state Department of Environmental Conservation describes it as "critical habitat for most estuarine-dependent fisheries originating from the Hudson River" because it "contributes directly to the production of in-river and ocean populations of food, game and forage fish species."
The two in-river trail sections would require about 18 months to construct, according to HHFT. The shading, hydrological impacts on the shoreline and impacts on the ecosystem would also indirectly impact sturgeon, Dulong said.
In its comments, Riverkeeper also called for making wetland protection a priority in the northern section, where HHFT is considering two routes. It advocated avoiding a route that would include a boardwalk over a freshwater wetland south of Fishkill Creek that provides habitat for threatened and endangered species such as the eastern box turtle, spotted turtle, eastern hognose snake and pied-billed grebe.
Dulong said the possible presence of the Atlantic Coast leopard frog, which he said the DEC may add to its list of endangered species, should be considered. The group prefers the other proposed route, which it said could leave freshwater wetlands largely intact, although it requires further study.
Riverkeeper also objected to plans to add 22 acres of impervious or semipervious areas along the trail route, arguing that stormwater runoff from surfaces such as parking lots could increase contaminants entering the river and wetlands. Riverkeeper said it wants to see "minimal or no new impervious surfaces."
The group also spoke against expanding the Washburn parking lot opposite Little Stony Point, which it said is a potential habitat for the eastern fence lizard.
Dulong said Riverkeeper's comments at the public hearing were abridged, and its review of the DGEIS will continue.
HHFT Steering Committee
Project Lead
Scenic Hudson
State Agencies
Environmental Conservation
Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
Transportation
Metro Area Agencies
Metro-North Railroad
NYC Environmental Protection
Nonprofits
Hudson Highlands Land Trust
Lenape Center
Open Space Institute
Riverkeeper
New York-New Jersey Trail Confe... -
Newburgh bar shares works by 'new Bohemian' artists
Beginning Friday (Feb. 7), there will be reunions for the ages in Newburgh at a new gallery called Assisted Living. Artists who escaped from Williamsburg before it began to gentrify in 2000, moving to Beacon and other spots in the Hudson Valley, will exhibit a work completed in Brooklyn and a more recent piece.
The gallery is tucked in the back of the dive bar Untouchable, owned by Tom and Yukie Schmitz, who also own Quinn's on Main Street in Beacon. They moved across the river several years ago. "Beacon doesn't remind me of Brooklyn anymore," says Tom. "Newburgh reminds me of Brooklyn."
Anna West, who lived in Williamsburg from 1989 to 2004 before moving to Beacon, curated The New Bohemia Now, which includes works by 31 artists who live up and down the river, from Catskill to Hastings-on-Hudson. Besides West, the Beacon contributors include Ron Horning, Katherine Mahoney, George Mansfield, Sue Rossi and Laurel Shute.
After Soho gentrified in the 1970s and the galleries disappeared from the East Village in the 1980s, artists decamped to Williamsburg's cheap lofts. For a 1992 article in which New York magazine christened the working-class neighborhood as "the new Bohemia," a carefree West appeared on the cover with two friends at a cafe beneath the Williamsburg Bridge.
More media converged, attracting hipsters and investment bankers. "When someone built the first luxury building with no parking in the middle of a rough neighborhood, I knew the times were changing," says West. "That happened in Beacon, too, across from the post office" at 344 Main St.
After 2000, many Williamsburg artists dispersed upstate and to nearby Bushwick, where luxe buildings are popping up again, says West.
As Beacon experienced growing pains, especially for artists, the larger burgh across the river became a refuge. One slogan is "Don't Beacon Our Newburgh."
The Untouchable complex is located on semi-chic Liberty Street at the far end of the commercial strip past Washington's Headquarters and a block from Big Mouth Coffee Roasters, a satellite of the flagship Beacon store.
Entering the bar is like stepping into a time machine. The smell of fresh-cut wood infuses the back room as Schmitz continues building panels and creating clever and practical interior designs to accommodate bands, artists and exhibitors. The backyard is huge.
As at Quinn's, Yukie handles the food. For now, the menu is a work in progress because the prep area is a nook off the bar. Tom takes care of the arts and events.
In 1991, he opened Earwax Records in Williamsburg (mentioned twice in the 1992 New York story) and promoted illicit and infamous warehouse parties. Eventually, he sold the business and the couple moved to Japan.
After the country's 2011 earthquake, they came to Beacon at the behest of George Mansfield, a close friend who had relocated after 9/11. (Tom and George opened Dogwood on East Main Street, which they sold in 2023 and is now Cooper's.)
West, her curation complete, reminisces about those halcyon Brooklyn days of the early 1990s. "There were a zillion zines," she recalls. "With the open studios, you could see everyone else was doing something, not just sitting around. It wasn't a competition - it was more about inspiration because you wanted to be a part of the energy and excitement."
Then rents ballooned and new buildings along the East River blocked the views of the quaint four-story walkups. West and her husband could only afford Coney Island, an hour by subway from Manhattan, so the couple initiated a "one-hour policy," she says. After visiting Beacon on Metro-North in 2004, they put down roots.
Is it ironic for Beacon artists to participate in a show about a once-dicey locale revitalized by an artistic community that gentrified 25 years ago? "Everyone sees what's happening here," says West. "I'm glad I bought my house back in the day."
Assisted Living is located inside the Untouchable Bar & Restauran... -
County executive lawsuit cost $52,300
An aborted lawsuit filed by the Putnam County executive against the Legislature cost more than $50,000 and accounted for one-third of a request by the Law Department for more money to pay outside law firms.
After Amy Sayegh, who chairs the Legislature and its Audit Committee, criticized the spending as excessive, the committee voted Monday (Jan. 27) to delay until February the department's $150,000 request.
Michael Lewis, the finance commissioner, said the Law Department already received $200,000 after exhausting its $300,000 budget in 2024 for outside counsel. He said a "good amount" of the billing was from Harris Beach, a firm defending the county in a lawsuit filed by the contractor hired to reconstruct the intersection of Oscawana Lake and Peekskill Hollow roads in Putnam Valley.
Another firm, Murtagh, Cossu, Venditti & Castro-Blanco, based in White Plains, billed the county $52,300 for representing Kevin Byrne in his lawsuit against the Legislature. He sued over a law that amended the county charter so lawmakers can fire he county attorney at will and a resolution that allowed them to hire their own attorney without Law Department approval.
Byrne dropped the lawsuit on Dec. 18, citing its projected cost. "That's where the money's being spent," said Legislator Paul Jonke (R-Southeast), on Monday. "That's where the money's being wasted."
Sales tax extension
The three legislators on the Audit Committee on Monday weighed Byrne's request to ask the state for authorization to renew a 1 percent sales tax increase that will otherwise expire on Nov. 30.
Putnam residents pay 8.375 percent on purchases - 4 percent in state tax, 4 percent to the county and 0.375 percent to the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District. The Putnam tax has been 4 percent since 2007, when the state renewed a previous 0.5 percent increase and allowed the county to raise the rate by another 0.5 percent. A series of extensions, most recently in 2023, have kept the rate at 4 percent.
Legislator Dan Birmingham (R-Mahopac), who chaired the Legislature in 2007, said sales tax and other revenue were "tanking" at the time while expenses rose. Today, he noted, the county has $134 million in savings, including $78 million that has not been budgeted.
Birmingham, who left the Legislature in 2012 but returned this month after winning a seat in November, suggested the Legislature ask the state for a 0.5 percent increase, which would lower the tax to 3.5 percent, to "return some of that fund balance directly back to the taxpayers."
In a memo addressed to legislators, Lewis advocated for 1 percent, which equates to about $22 million annually, or 25 percent of the $88 million collected in 2024. Those revenues allowed the Legislature to exempt sales tax on clothing and footwear under $110 and reduce its property tax levy and cut tax rates, he said.
"All these accomplishments would be jeopardized if Putnam County failed to extend its existing rate," Lewis said. -
After my visit to Vietnam, I made brief stops in Laos and Cambodia.
Our mighty country still does not have a bullet train - but Laos does, despite being one of the poorest nations in the world. The route makes stops in nine cities or towns in the northern half of the country, and one train per day continues to China. Does this sleek modernization come at a cost? One fears in the future for the country's new indebtedness to China.
A couple of photos here are of monks, who are omnipresent in both these predominantly Buddhist countries. In every town and city, the monks, clad in bright orange robes, leave their temples at dawn and form lines to be given small portions of rice and food by the local populace. If the local people didn't hand over some food to the monks each morning, they would starve.
No one minds these food donations - it is an honor and devoted payment for the religious role the monks play. If a monk has enough food in his bowl, there are larger bowls for extra donations for those who are less fortunate, much like food pantries in the U.S. Monks take their bowls to their temples and eat some of the donated food for breakfast and later for lunch. There is no dinner: As a part of their devotion, they fast until morning.
There are no Social Security benefits in these countries; families take care of one another and their elderly. When there is no family, a widow will often become a nun, because the Buddhist temples will look after her. No widow is turned away.
Laos
At one Cambodian temple I visited, there was a long alley filled with elderly nuns, all wearing white robes, and all with their heads shaved. They each live in a small hut, the size of car, assembled from wood and metal sheeting and whatever else was at hand. The bathrooms and showers are communal because there is no running water in any of the huts. I spoke broken English with a couple of them. They did not understand when I said I was from the U.S., but they did understand and were pleased when I finally said, "America."
Suddenly one of the Cambodian nuns spoke perfectly fluid English and exclaimed she hailed from "Newport Beach!" (California). In that setting, I was astounded. She had lived (and still lived) in Newport Beach for most of her adulthood, making an American life for many decades there with her late husband. She showed me photos of herself in Newport Beach where she looked quintessentially Californian. After her husband's death, she began to visit this temple in rural Cambodia each year for a few months to meditate and reflect on her life.
Although its heyday was in the 12th and 13th centuries, Angkor Wat ("Temple City") in Cambodia remains the largest religious site in the world and much of it still stands. Back then, its size and population was about nine times the size of London. Angkor Wat consists of 250 miles of temples within temples - 1,000 buildings, endless statues, stone carvings and many reflecting pools: the 8th wonder of the world.
On the other side of the coin, I also visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, commemorating the Khmer Rouge period of the mid-to-late 1970s in Cambodia, when a third of the population was murdered by its own insane government. Money of any kind was abolished, civil rights and property rights were eliminated and anyone who was a professional or had any schooling was executed, including anyone who wore glasses. Everyone else was marched to the countryside to become farmers. Year Zero - starting over from nothing.
Like the Nazis during World War II, the Khmer Rouge documented everything. At the museum there are rooms and rooms of photos of the many condemned. Tuol Sleng was one death site out of nearly 200 around the country. It was formally a school. At this particular prison in the capital, Phnom Penh, some 12,000 people were murdered. Only 12 souls made it out alive, four of them children.
Many people fled Cambodia during this terrible time, including a couple ... -
Also says state should ban student cellphone use
Gov. Kathy Hochul's state budget proposal, released Jan. 21, recommends that nearly every school district in New York, including Haldane, Garrison and Beacon, receive 2 percent increases in unrestricted foundation aid for 2025-26.
That differs from her proposal last year, which would have cut the aid sent to Beacon and Garrison, although much was restored in the final spending plan adopted by the Legislature in April. The 2025-26 budget is expected to be finalized by April 1, although legislators have missed that deadline before.
For 2025-26, Hochul proposed that Beacon receive $21.7 million in foundation aid (up from $21.3 million this year) and $31.5 million in total aid, an increase of 1.83 percent. Superintendent Matt Landahl on Monday (Jan. 27) thanked community members for advocating increased funding. "It may not make a difference in the moment, but over time it does," he said.
Haldane is expected to receive $3 million in foundation aid, an increase of $58,000. Hochul proposed sending the district a total of $4.6 million in state aid, an increase of 3.5 percent. Garrison is expected to receive $600,000 in foundation aid, an increase of $12,000, and $1.2 million overall, an increase of 5.24 percent.
The governor's proposal also includes $340 million to provide free breakfast and lunch for every public school student in New York. Beacon has provided free meals since December 2023 while Haldane has a cafeteria where students can buy prepared food.
Garrison would need to spend about $100,000 to renovate its kitchen to serve meals, said Superintendent Gregory Stowell. "Now that there's a potential revenue source for the school lunch program, we're certainly going to take a hard look at it," he said.
In addition, Hochul proposed a "bell-to-bell" restriction on cellphone use by students, a plan that Landahl said he expects will become law. The budget proposal includes funding to help schools pay for storage units for student phones. All three local districts have restrictions on student cellphone use during class. - Visa fler
