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Public hearing extended to next month

Nathaniel Salerno and his husband have used income from two short-term rentals at their Philipstown home to pay for paving and other maintenance costs on the private road they share with three other property owners.

Christina O'Neill said she lives next to an STR that has "disrupted my life for a couple of years." Once, the occupants had a fire going in the backyard when the weather turned windy, raising the risk of a wildfire that could have spread to her property. O'Neill said she spent nearly an hour trying to reach the property's owners, who couldn't get to Philipstown but tried to reach the tenant.

"They couldn't reach them as well," she said. "It was pretty scary."

The property's owner or a representative would have to be able to respond within 20 minutes under proposed regulations Philipstown's Town Board is crafting for short-term rentals. O'Neill and Salerno were two of the five residents who commented Thursday (Oct. 1) during a public hearing, which will continue at the board's next monthly meeting on Nov. 5.

Those comments illustrated the balancing act Philipstown is seeking: ensuring STR owners provide safe units for renters who respect neighbors while preserving their ability to generate income. Thursday's hearing drew both praise and criticism of the draft regulations.

"We want to be really good community stewards, and we welcome these safety standards," said Tyler Isaacson, who operates an STR. "We deserve that as residents — as people operating a short-term rental — and the visitors that are coming to our community deserve that as well."

Under the proposed rules, STRs would be limited to zones where single-family homes are permitted, and solely in single- and two-family dwellings or accessory apartments with a certificate of occupancy. Operators would need a permit, renewable every two years. The draft law sets the initial fees at $90 for the application and $100 for an inspection by the town's Building Department.

Philipstown would allow owners permits for up to three properties if one is used as a primary residence for at least 260 days a year. Properties owned by corporations, limited liability companies, trusts or other entities would count as owner-occupied if one of the owners or a tenant is a primary resident. Property owners living outside Philipstown would be limited to two permits.

Among the criteria for a permit would be bedrooms, or "sleeping" rooms such as a living room with a futon or sofa bed, that are at least 70 square feet and have access to a bathroom and no less than two exits, one of which must be a door or window that can be exited safely. Ceilings must be at least 7 feet high and walls at least 7 feet wide.

Philipstown would ban renting more than one unit per property at a time and limit guests to two per room, except when the additional person is a child age 5 or younger. Hosts offering books to more than four people would need Planning Board approval for a minor site plan, and all hosts have to purchase at least $500,000 in liability insurance.

Owners could only book one party at a time, preventing STRs from operating like inns or hotels, and must provide off-street parking at their property or another location. They or a designated agent must also be available to respond within 20 minutes to problems with "the condition, operation or conduct of guests."

According to the proposal, STR hosts "shall use best efforts" to ensure that their guests "do not create unreasonable noise or disturbance, engage in disorderly conduct, violate any provisions of the Philipstown code or violate any law pertaining to disorderly conduct, the consumption of alcohol or the use of illegal drugs."

Violating the regulations would carry a fine of $1,000 for the first offense, $2,000 and a ban on renting for the rest of the year for the second offense and $5,000 and a four-year ban for a third offense.

Ilka Marquardt said she believes the regulations would place an "unnec...

Rules that candidate violated finance law

A state judge on Friday (Oct. 2) ordered County Executive Kevin Byrne's campaign to refund more than $21,000 in contributions that five voters in a lawsuit said exceeded the legal limit.

The Republican incumbent is seeking re-election on Nov. 3 against Democrat Brett Yarris and Conservative Tatiana Brahimi.

The state Board of Elections said it verified that contributions exceeded the $3,639.80 limit allowed for the general election per individual or entity since Nov. 9, 2022, when the campaign cycle began for the four-year position.

The lawsuit, filed on Sept. 17, claimed the Byrne campaign received contributions over the limit from 10 contributors, with totals ranging from $4,850 to $7,800.

According to the legal filing, three of the contributors have ties to Philipstown: Paul Guillaro, the owner of Unicorn Contracting in Cold Spring, which built the Butterfield complex; Ken Kearney, a developer who owns the former Marathon Battery site in Cold Spring; and George Whipple, a lawyer and preservationist who lives in Garrison and whose foundation owns The Putnam County Times and The Putnam County Press.

The others were the Taxpayer Action Network; the Albany law firm Roemer Wallens Gold & Mineaux; the New York State Laborers' PAC; Minuta Architecture in New Windsor; Laborers Local 60 PAC Fund; Teamster Local Union No. 456; and ELQ Industries of New Rochelle.

Candidates can collect more contributions if they face a primary challenge, but the plaintiffs noted that Byrne did not. On Sept. 29, Byrne's campaign treasurer said she had mailed refund checks to the 10 supporters and fixed an error on the website that gave the wrong contribution limits. A report submitted to the state Board of Elections on Oct. 2 shows $21,476 in refunds to the 10 contributors.

In a statement sent to reporters, Alex Mathis, Byrne's campaign manager, called the lawsuit "a politically motivated attack and misuse of the courts by Brett Yarris and his allies targeting County Executive Byrne, his supporters, labor organizations and respected community philanthropists."

Mathis said the campaign "received updated guidance from the State Board of Elections and complied with it. It proactively returned certain contributions, as reflected in its most recent filing, rendering the practical issues raised in the lawsuit moot. There was no need to manufacture a courtroom spectacle."

In his own statement, Yarris said: "Today the judge found that Kevin Byrne violated the law, and attempted to wield undue influence over our local elections. I first called this out in July and, at that time, Kevin Byrne chose, seemingly, to mislead the people of Putnam County. But there is no escaping accountability before the law."

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for its newsletter here.

Many counties, including Putnam and Dutchess, don't have them

On a recent July morning, a defendant appeared in a New York courtroom in a loose-fitting white dress shirt, his wrists handcuffed at his back.

"The DA's fed up, they say you belong in prison," Judge Matthew D'Emic told the man. "I'm not saying that. I'm trying to help you."

D'Emic runs the Brooklyn Mental Health Court. Instead of sending the man back to jail, he was releasing him to a residential treatment facility. Colorful decorations softened the courtroom. A banner on D'Emic's bench read, "Hello summer," and images of tropical fruit adorned the walls.

"The question is," D'Emic said, "How do we give you a foundation for the rest of your life that is built on bedrock and not on sand?"

The defendants on D'Emic's docket typically live with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Most arrive in his courtroom facing felony charges related to assault, robbery or burglary. In exchange for a guilty plea, they can access community-based mental health treatment, supportive housing and other services. If they complete the court-supervised program, their charges are generally reduced or dismissed.

For many participants, it pays off. Recent graduation rates from the program have ranged from 73 to 87 percent, according to data from the Center for Justice Innovation, which runs the court in partnership with the state judicial system. An evaluation of the court found that participants tend to see significant reductions in re-arrest.

More than 40 mental health courts like D'Emic's have sprung up across New York state since the early 2000s, part of a growing effort to provide alternatives to incarceration. Their goal, proponents say, is to stabilize vulnerable New Yorkers, interrupt cycles of hospitalization and incarceration, and create safer communities. Research, though limited, suggests that they can be effective at reducing recidivism and driving increased use of mental health services.

But while New York state's network of mental health courts has expanded in recent years, its reach remains modest. Roughly 1,700 people were active, compliant participants in mental health courts statewide last year, according to data from the Office of Court Administration for the New York State Unified Court System obtained through a FOIL request.

About half of New York's 62 counties still don't have a mental health court, including Dutchess and Putnam. Unlike drug courts, which serve people with substance use issues, mental health courts aren't required by state law. "You walk over an invisible line that divides two counties, and the legal outcomes are completely different," said Leanne Lapp, the public defender in Ontario County, near Rochester. (A law signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in December provides a stopgap, allowing a case to be transferred from a county that doesn't have a mental health court to a neighboring one that does.)

Graphic: Eliza Fawcett / New York Focus

At the Brooklyn Mental Health Court, widely seen as a model for judicial diversion, a total of 1,560 people have graduated from the program from when it opened in 2002 to the end of last year. Meanwhile, about 1,600 people with a serious mental illness were incarcerated in New York City jails in December alone. Judicial diversion can be powerfully effective, participants and advocates say, but it's a path that's open to very few New Yorkers who might benefit from it.

In a statement, Al Baker, spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration, said that the court system "relies on deep, differentiated assessments of every individual" to determine eligibility for mental health courts. Many incarcerated people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness don't meet the criteria for diversion, he noted, and some who would be eligible for diversion choose...

Deadline is Oct. 31 to request nomination

Putnam County is soliciting applications for its five-member Board of Ethics, whose members are volunteers who serve two-year terms.

The county Legislature recently passed a resolution remaking the board, which was enacted last week without the signature of County Executive Kevin Byrne, who objected to some of its provisions. In the past, the county executive nominated all five members for approval by the Legislature. Under the new law, the county executive nominates two members and the chair of the Legislature, the full Legislature and the leader of the minority party each propose one.

Nominees must live in Putnam County. The new law also added other restrictions. Members may not be an appointed officer or employee of the county; hold office in a political party; be employed or act as a lobbyist; or hold elected office in the county.

To apply, send a letter of interest, resume and any optional supporting material to [email protected] or by mail to the Office of the Clerk, Putnam County Legislature, 40 Gleneida Ave., Carmel, NY 10512. All applications will be available for public inspection.

But tiptoes around the issue himself

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for its newsletter here.

Rep. Mike Lawler is seizing a new wedge against his Democratic challenger Cait Conley in their closely watched race for the House seat that includes Philipstown: data centers.

The GOP incumbent's new seven-figure ad campaign, launched last month, cites Conley's consulting work for two defense tech firms as an indication that she "wants to build data centers in the Hudson Valley." An accompanying press release asks, "Does she support Gov. [Kathy] Hochul's moratorium on new large data centers, yes or no?"

There's just one catch: Conley has already said she backs Hochul's one-year pause on data center construction, while Lawler has criticized the pause as reflecting a broader anti-business climate in New York.

"When you look at the situation, and Kathy Hochul implements a statewide moratorium, what she is saying is, 'Don't come here, go do your business elsewhere,' which is why New York state leads the nation in outmigration," Lawler told Fox Business in August.

Conley, meanwhile, has championed Hochul's moratorium, saying in July that, if elected, she would "push at the federal level for similar responsible regulation and legislation to ensure that data center companies are not exploiting our communities."

Lawler's new ad campaign disregards this record; the 30-second spot replays — three times — a clip of Conley saying, during an April candidate forum, "We need data centers."

It leaves out what she said just beforehand: "Local officials who are approving these projects need to understand the harm that they are going to bring. … Communities [are] unwittingly agreeing to terms where these data centers are literally profiting off the backs of our communities."

"We need data centers. We're not going to get rid of them," she continued, but added, "We can mandate things to make sure they are better going forward than what we are seeing play out."

As of July, Conley still worked with one of the two firms at the center of Lawler's ad campaign, according to an interview with the Rockland County Business Journal. But she said that hasn't influenced her views on data centers.

Lawler's campaign did not answer New York Focus's questions about his position on Hochul's moratorium or a number of controversial data center projects in the district.

"Congressman Lawler believes local residents should decide what gets built in their community," wrote Lawler's campaign manager Ciro Riccardi in an emailed statement. "Municipalities should use every tool available to protect residents' quality of life and keep the cost off ratepayers, who already pay a third more for electricity than New Jersey and Pennsylvania because of Albany's energy policies."

Lawler is cosponsoring a bill, called the Ratepayer Protection Act, aimed at making data centers pay the full cost of any infrastructure upgrades needed to meet their voracious energy demands. The bipartisan bill has drawn opposition from an industry trade group, the Data Center Coalition, which says it unfairly singles out the computing facilities. The bill passed the U.S. House on Sept. 16 with almost unanimous support.

But Lawler has steered clear of local fights.

He has not taken a position — either publicly or in response to New York Focus's questions — on the expansion of a Rockland County data center operated by the Texas-based company Databank. The project is one of several in the area that have received large tax breaks from local authorities, and it has generated significant local backlash over concerns that it could raise power bills and contaminate the local water supply. (Databank has said the facility will use a closed-loop water system that poses no risk to the adjacent reservoir.)

Conley announced her opposition to the center in July.

"Let's be clear — Cait Conley supports a data center moratorium. Mike Lawle...

Blogger asks why no one was arrested

The Beacon Police Department issued a statement on Wednesday (Sept. 30) in response to a resident's complaints about a "mooning" near the county building on Main Street.

Katie Hellmuth, who publishes A Little Beacon Blog, told the City Council on Sept. 8 that she had seen videos taken by bystanders showing a man exposing his buttocks on the afternoon of Aug. 28, in view of police officers.

"As far as I know, no arrest was made," she said. After alleging that "stories from women of assault and abuse … do not make it into Beacon police reports," she asked: "How much butt crack do the Beacon police need for it to become a Class B misdemeanor?"

In the statement, Chief Tom Figlia said that he wanted to address the situation because it "apparently caused concerns of favoritism or police inaction among some members of the community."

He said that when officers arrived, they observed three men yelling and cursing. One of them appeared to be intoxicated. Figlia said the men could have been charged with violations (akin to traffic tickets) such as disorderly conduct and exposure of a person. But because it was not a violent situation, they decided "to employ de-escalation techniques to calm and separate the involved parties" rather than make arrests "for low-level offenses and people in crisis across the spectrum of society."

Newburgh-Beacon ferry returns for test run

For the first time in more than 18 months, a passenger ferry will run between Beacon and Newburgh over the next two weekends as a pilot to gauge demand for regular service.

The ferry, a 39-passenger vessel chartered from the New York Boat Co., will make 14 daily crossings between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 3 and 4) and the following weekend, Oct. 10 and 11. A schedule and $1 tickets can be found at dub.sh/ferry-tickets.

The pilot will coincide with cultural events in the two cities, including Spirit of Beacon, Newburgh Porchfest, the Beacon Flow Festival and Archtober Newburgh. Volunteers from the Save the Ferry Coalition raised $30,000 from the Orange County Industrial Development Agency, Central Hudson and the Awesome Newburgh Foundation to support the four days of service.

Austin Haase, the owner of the New York Boat Co., is providing the ferry at a discount. "Anything we can do to get people connected with the river and connect more cities, I'm on board," he said.

Organizers said they would track demand and, through interviews, spending and the purpose of riders' visits. The hope is that elected officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which discontinued the commuter ferry between the cities in June 2025, will take notice.

"This is something we have all been clamoring for," said Carson Carter, a Save the Ferry volunteer. He said that the Mid-Hudson Valley — particularly Newburgh, where, according to census data, 23 percent of households do not have a car — has been "systemically neglected" by New York State and the MTA for years.

Carter pointed to the Ossining-to-Haverstraw ferry, which has had seasonal weekend service since May 2024. "It's all the things that we've been asking for and getting little to no conversation with policymakers and, in the case of the MTA, nothing at all," he said. "They have never engaged with us."

With the potential for hundreds of new waterfront residents through a transit-oriented development in Beacon and housing in the 144-acre Hillside Brownfield Opportunity Area in Newburgh, Carter said he expects congestion to worsen. "We need more investment in non-vehicular, multimodal transportation," he said.

Earlier this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Pat Ryan, whose district includes Beacon, announced a West of Hudson transit study to improve local bus routes and commuter and on-demand services. The study would also examine ferry service. In June, a group of Ulster County legislators asked Hochul to also look at restoring passenger service to the CSX line, aka the West Shore Line.

Unlike in Dutchess County, the west side of the Hudson is a "transportation desert" that provides few ways to reach New York City, the legislators said, beyond driving or taking a Trailways bus. To reach a Metro-North train, Ulster residents must drive to Poughkeepsie or Rhinecliff. Although a free bus runs to the Poughkeepsie station, the distance and traffic make it easier to skip the train.

The MTA suspended the Beacon-to-Newburgh ferry in January 2025 because of ice in the Hudson River. Soon after, the agency said it discovered damage to the floating dock in Beacon. Citing declining ridership and the $2.1 million annual cost, it canceled the service in June, ending a 20-year run.

Buses now shuttle commuters between the cities; in July, the state Department of Transportation added weekend and holiday service. While ridership has grown, passengers complain that rush-hour traffic on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge makes its timing unpredictable.

The upcoming weekend ferry will board in Beacon at the Sloop Club dock. The ice-damaged MTA dock has been removed, although Mayor Lee Kyriacou said Tuesday (Sept. 29) that there have been discussions regarding a replacement.

On the west side of the Hudson, the ferry will use the Riverfront Marina. Newburgh officials are negotiating with New York State on the scope of reconstruction of a city-owned doc...

Library, band to celebrate Beacon landmark

As Beacon's odd but iconic street fixture turns 100, The Dummy Lights are enjoying a moment.

In April, the band, which includes alums of the Dogwood (now Cooper's) stage and Beacon Music Factory bootcamps, began a Second Saturday residency at Quinn's on Main Street. Before its next show on Oct. 10, the Lights will perform an acoustic set at the Howland Public Library's opening of an art exhibit featuring visual works that celebrate the traffic signal's centennial.

At a recent Quinn's gig that kicked off after the galleries closed and the blues band at Denning's Point Distillery wrapped up its final set, Tom Rigney dedicated a song to "the thousands of cars and trucks that have smashed into the dummy light." (Most recently, it was struck on Thanksgiving 2023.) The band also announced "beer-thirty" — with a toast — which can be anytime.

Though they like to joke around, the band members take their music seriously. The lineup is about a year old, says Rigney, who plays bass and acoustic guitar. Back in the day, he and others signed with indie labels (The Moths, for him), so they know how to craft songs and put them over.

The tunes are short and catchy, sans jams or extended solos. With Slim Simon on lead guitar, the band leans toward a streamlined, countrified sound. (He also plays mandolin and slide guitar.) Simon, who lives in Connecticut but is considering a move west, makes his own amps. "It's just a wooden box with speakers and some wires," he says.

Tight timekeeper Dave Stengel builds drum shells in Beacon and nails tempo shifts and abrupt endings. In "Act Your Age," he doubled up the beat in the chorus and played a stuttering part in "I Can't See the Stars."

Chris Hutz sets up an electronic keyboard at gigs, but during a typical set, he's more likely to fill out the string-based sound by squeezing an electric accordion.

Though songs are collaborative efforts, where suggestions are made (and some taken), guitarist John Kelly is the main songwriter and lead singer.

"Mini Dummy," by Polly Perkins

"Dummy Moon," by Brandon Fiege

"July 8 PM," by Sharon Zhang

"Stop & Go," by Tena Cohen

Chemistry in musical groups can be elusive, but the band's mature members maintain a balance. "We're at a different place in life, where we have real jobs and new priorities," says Rigney. "We've all been in situations where people take it too seriously, or there are egos, but that's not us."

Musical examples are evident. A surprising but effective bridge emerges midway through the sarcastic "American Dream." Another notable tune, "Knuckle Sandwich," is a country parody portraying a man "born to fight," who wakes up "every morning with an empty bottle in my left hand and a tasty knuckle sandwich in my right."

Like the song's protagonist, The Dummy Lights roll with the punches. "We're having a lot of fun," says Rigney. "We don't worry about stupid stuff; we just think about the music and how to make the songs better. What's great about being in an original band is that you can tell a story no one's heard before."

The Howland Public Library is located at 313 Main St. in Beacon. A reception for its exhibit, "Beacon's Dummy Light: 100 Years (1926-2026)," will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 10, with The Dummy Lights performing at 5:30 p.m. The band will follow that with a set at 9 p.m. at Quinn's, 330 Main St.

Young storytellers debut first collection

Like many boys, Grayson and Logan Gatto (11 and 9) love sports. Their parents park in the street so they can shoot hoops in the driveway, choosing from eight basketballs resting in a rack. Bicycles, soccer balls and other outdoor gear fill the family garage.

But they also converted a small playroom with a decent-sized television into a neat, well-stocked art nook. A sign on the wall reads "la galleria di Gatto" and the two sit next to each other at a desk, collaborating on zines, a 75-page stop-motion flipbook and other creative endeavors for hours as the TV remains dark and silent.

In the Beacon bubble, screen fatigue is real. Along with 11 other young comic creators, the brothers completed an intensive, week-long workshop at Stanza Books. For three hours a day, they honed their drawing, storytelling and character development, then took another week to gussy things up and submit their panels for publication in Comics by Kids. Stanza and the young artists are hosting a launch party at the Howland Cultural Center on Saturday (Oct. 3).

"There is definitely a trend toward putting down the phones and getting away from computers," says Mark Harris, Stanza's co-owner, who linked up with fellow comic fanatic and writer Jose Sheehan-López to co-edit the compilation and run the sessions.

It's a windfall for Sheehan-López: When Stanza moves into the former Mase Hook & Ladder firehouse next to the Memorial Building, he'll help transform the current location at 508 Main St. into a comics mecca with "graphic novels, comic-adjacent stuff and more programming for kids and adults," he says.

During the workshops, he focused on plot and pacing rather than pictures. "People can be turned off if they think it's an art class," he says. "There are many places where you can learn to draw, but it's all about how the story is told. The medium needs new readers and creators, and a way to make that happen is to publish them, engage them and build a passion for the comic style."

In his note from the editor, Sheehan-López writes about the "occasional insanity on display," which could include the adventures of Pickles, the intoxicated cat (August Birks), a dog food-stealing brachiosaurus (Lucas Schaerlaeckens) and time travel back to the dinosaur age that a character fears will "break history" (Rhys Donnelly).

Parker Sheehan-López's protagonist, who forgets his weighted boots on a low-gravity day, is just dumb, she says, nothing more. Elliott Enos feeds his fish a boatload of inappropriate items and Rowan Craig, who chafes at losing a comic contest, unleashes a beast in the streets (with a cliffhanger). In Lily Nguyen's panels, a vase and lamp get bored and run away. Despite the nice weather and friendly greetings from neighbors, they return to their domestic roles.

Logan Gatto's characters deal with betrayal when the orb gets stolen. Brother Grayson admits that his comic is bleak. Frolicking on a lovely afternoon, the main subject realizes that the entity in charge is deleting reality and warns people, "You're gonna die, leave the planet." The ending fades to black. There is no symbolism, he says.

For visual artists, discipline can be advantageous. Asked what he learned, Logan says, "Deadlines are important; you can't procrastinate."

The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. The Young Storytellers Guild's comics launch party begins on Saturday (Oct. 3) at 3 p.m. RSVP at stanzabooks.com/comics.

Led high school plays and musicals for 19 years

Martha Mechalakos has directed shows for Haldane Drama since 2007, but The Crucible on Dec. 4 and 5 will likely be her final performances. After 19 seasons organizing the high school's plays and musicals as a contractor, she says the district has forced her out.

The Cold Spring resident said she met with Principal Julia Sniffen after Haldane Drama's performance of Les Misérables in March and was told that Sam Sauer, a district employee who oversees the chorus and elementary school musicals, wanted to direct the high school's productions. Mechalakos said she learned she wouldn't be directing the 2027 musical from an announcement that listed the school board's appointments for the coming academic year.

She sought another year, telling Sniffen that the 2027-28 school year would be her 20th as director, and a nice bookend to her time at the school. "For as much as I've done for the school and its students, how long I've done it, and how well I've done it," Mechalakos said she "had earned the right to leave" on her own terms.

Instead, in an email sent Aug. 20, Haldane suggested she would assist Sauer as stage manager, but she declined. "If someone is going to implement a hostile takeover of my position with no conversation, I do not feel obligated to assist in any way," Mechalakos said. "It's just too much to ask."

Haldane has a "right-of-first-refusal" policy for extracurricular advising and coaching positions that gives preference to members of the teachers' union, the Haldane Faculty Association. Sniffen said that Haldane hired Sauer "knowing that he had a love and a desire to direct shows, and so I felt like the time was right for him to have the chance to do so."

During last spring's production of Les Misérables, Sauer assisted with vocal coaching. "It's been a great partnership" between Mechalakos and Sauer, said Sniffen. "Mr. Sauer uplifted the students in terms of their final product, which is great and has been great for years."

Before students returned for the 2026-27 school year on Sept. 1, a group of parents and alumni circulated a petition supporting Mechalakos, whom students call "Ms. Mech." In an email soliciting signatures for the petition, they argued that Haldane could have handled the transition with "more compassion, care and grace." The organizers plan to present the petition, which has about 80 signatures, to the school board at its Tuesday (Oct. 6) meeting.

Jessica Costantine, the mother of a Haldane Drama student and one of the organizers, said that "it's about recognizing what she's built. She puts on plays, but she's also created a community that reaches the students and the families and our whole Cold Spring community, and that sort of engagement is rare."

Costantine said she worries about the institutional knowledge that will be lost. "She's not just running a program; she is the program," said Costantine. "It's going to be hard to replace the magic of Haldane Drama."

For 16 years, Mechalakos also directed The Blue Notes, the school's a capella group, which in 2017 performed the national anthem before a Mets game at Citi Field. Three years ago, she handed the role to Sauer, feeling that the group would be "in good hands."

Mechalakos said she texted Sauer, but received no response. "I just thought there would be a mutual agreement, a discussion of the timeline," she said. "It doesn't make any sense to me that this would be someone's choice."

Sauer declined to comment.

Some Haldane students believe that the district badly mishandled the change, with Diem Lee, a junior, calling it "completely unprofessional." Petra Brooks-Saladyga, another junior, also criticized Mechalakos' removal. "Can't you give Ms. Mech her 20th year and just let her be done?" she asked. "It feels disrespectful."

Brooks-Saladyga, Lee and other students said their criticisms were aimed at the district's administration and school board, not Sauer. "I love Mr. Sauer," said Maisie Matthe...