Apartments, retail proposed for Beekman Street in Beacon

In some ways, a public hearing held Tuesday (April 8) on a proposal to construct two 4-story buildings with 64 apartments along Beekman Street at Route 9D in Beacon resembled a revolving door.

One by one, residents opposed to the 45 Beekman St. project registered complaints with the Planning Board, which has been reviewing the application since December 2023. As the speakers finished, Taylor Palmer, the applicant's attorney, approached the podium to challenge the complaints.

In addition to one- and two-bedroom apartments, the project at one of the gateways to Beacon (Interstate 84 is a few blocks away) is set to include 15,000 square feet of commercial space. Renderings show brick buildings with metal trim, although metal components may not be allowed in the city's linkage district, which connects the waterfront and Main Street. The building inspector will make a determination.

Streetscape elements would include benches, bicycle racks and a public area at the 9D intersection with sculptures and seating. A parking lot behind the buildings would sit close to the backyards of a half-dozen properties on High Street and Tompkins Avenue.

Some neighbors feel the proposal is out of scale with its surroundings and will detract from the 12 multicolored Victorian homes on High Street, part of Beacon's protected historic district. They also say trees the developer intends to plant at the site will not adequately screen their views.

Project officials contend that the linkage zone is meant for high-density, mixed-use development and say the proposal is in line with nearby developments such as The View and West End Lofts, and civic buildings such as City Hall and the recently completed central fire station.

However, "the fire station requires multiple vehicles exceeding 25 feet and weighing 12 tons to park inside," said Jim Zellinger, a West Church Street resident, on Tuesday. "Showing these buildings as comparable only demonstrates the oversized scale of the proposal."

Palmer countered, saying the linkage district was created to encourage residential development that will support Main Street businesses. "The comprehensive plan and its [2017] update explicitly call for this type of mixed-use development along Beekman Street," he said.

Palmer shared a letter from the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) indicating the agency did not believe the project would adversely affect the High Street-to-Tompkins Avenue neighborhood, which the agency said is eligible for the state and national Registers of Historic Places.

OPRHP conditioned its statement on the developer submitting a "construction protection plan" for historical resources within 90 feet and revising the rooftop design of the building closest to High Street.

Later in the hearing, Maryellen Case, a High Street resident, disputed the finding, even with its caveats. Case said she had called the state official who wrote the letter, and "she explained that the office is inundated with these types of evaluations. She also didn't realize that there was any public opposition, particularly from High Street residents."

Jill Reynolds, a former Planning Board member, also spoke, noting that the board's review of the application is likely nearing its end. "I don't know how you can stop that ocean liner before it hits the iceberg," she said. "I just want to keep Beacon from becoming downtown White Plains."

The project has been on the agenda for 14 meetings, Palmer said, and issues raised Tuesday "are important, but they're comments that the board considered throughout the review process."

The Planning Board typically holds public hearings on multiple elements of a project, such as environmental impacts or for site-plan approval, although speakers rarely distinguish their comments. It will continue the hearing on 45 Beekman next month while opening another on the subdivision of parcels at the site. "There's stil...

Administration promotes benefits for students, teachers

Beacon school board members will vote April 22 on the district's 2025-26 budget proposal, which includes $87.7 million in spending and a 5.09 percent tax levy increase, just under the maximum allowed under a complicated state formula.

The board will hold a public hearing during its May 6 meeting, and district voters will be asked to approve the plan on May 20.

With the levy increase, the district could collect about $50 million in property taxes. The remainder of its revenue comes mostly from state and federal aid. Although state legislators had not approved a budget as of Thursday (April 10), Beacon is expected to receive about $31.5 million from Albany, including $21.7 in unrestricted foundation aid, a 2 percent increase.

Direct federal aid accounts for about 2 percent of the Beacon district's budget, or $1.7 million. The Trump administration has threatened to cut funding to states and local districts that do not eliminate what the White House considers to be diversity, equity and inclusion programs, although New York State says it will resist.

Beacon administrators plan to use the increased funding to implement summer workshops for incoming Beacon High School students and increased mental health support for students at the high school and Rombout Middle School. Math and reading teachers for struggling elementary students will be hired, as well as a part-time speech instructor at the elementary level. Teacher training would focus on "the science of reading" - a research field that investigates how children develop reading and writing skills.

More than 75 percent of the budget will be spent on salaries and benefits for the district's 682 teachers, administrators and other staff.

The proposed levy increase is larger than in years past due primarily to two factors: (1) debt service (about 8 percent of expected expenditures) on a $50 million capital project approved by voters last year and (2) increased residential development in Beacon.

The capital project will fund sweeping improvements at all six district schools and is the first such effort to trigger a tax increase in at least 15 years. In addition, Beacon's tax base has also grown more than any other district in Dutchess County in the past five years. That growth is one of the factors in the complex state tax formula that determines how much a district can increase its levy; in Beacon it will allow the schools to add $1.2 million to the taxes collected for 2025-26.

Superintendent Matt Landahl told school board members during their April 7 meeting that the district is creating individualized data sheets on budget impacts for each school. "This year is really important to give people as much information as they can have walking into their polling place," he said.

While the levy is increasing, individual homeowners' tax bills may not go up by the same percentage. Development in Beacon adds taxpaying households, while assessments also impact what a homeowner owes.

The district estimates that the owner of a home assessed at the median value in Beacon ($304,700) will pay $3,127 annually in school taxes - still considerably less than other Dutchess districts (see chart). "In my mind, this is an argument to go to the tax cap," Landahl said. "In our hiring and retaining employees, these are some of our closest-competing districts."

If you expand the comparison regionwide, "that number just grows, if we're talking about Orange County, Putnam County and obviously Westchester County," he said. "That school tax estimate just gets bigger and bigger, compared to what we're paying here."

Program spurred by federal cuts

Hudson Valley farmers reeling from cuts and freezes to federal funding will get some help from one of their own as the growing season gets underway.

On Tuesday (April 8), the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in Philipstown announced it is accepting applications for private aid designed to buoy operations as the U.S. Department of Agriculture cancels grants, produce purchases for food pantries and schools and funding for other farming initiatives.

Describing its Hudson Valley Farm Relief Fund as a "time-limited emergency response," Glynwood hopes to raise as much as $1.5 million to distribute to farmers in Dutchess, Putnam and nine other counties who have lost funding from nearly 20 federal programs.

Applications are open through April 21 at dub.sh/HV-farm-aid. Recipients can use the funds "in the most impactful way for their business," according to Glynwood.

The funding freezes and contract cancellations began after Brooke Rollins took the oath as the USDA's secretary on Feb. 13. A week later, Rollins said the agency's programs "are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers, not DEIA [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility] programs or far-left climate programs."

Some of the frozen contracts were for the USDA's Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities program, which awarded grants to the Hudson Valley and three other regions to improve the ability of farmers to adapt to drought, extreme heat and other threats from climate change.

Glynwood, which oversees the program, hired Zach Wolf of EZ Farms in Columbia County to develop plans for eight farms. The practices included planting cover crops, as well as integrating more trees to act as a windbreak, improving soil, water and air quality and providing perennial crops in the form of fruit.

"We have partners who received letters out of the blue telling them that their government contracts - contracts that have been signed and that they were already doing work toward - have been canceled," said Megan Larmer, the senior director of programs at Glynwood.

On Wednesday (April 9), U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, lambasted cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program, through which the USDA purchases locally grown farm products for food banks to distribute to hospitals, pantries, schools, senior centers and soup kitchens.

Some of the local beneficiaries, such as the Philipstown Food Pantry, receive TEFAP-purchased food through the Regional Food Bank in Montgomery, which said it expects the cuts to cost it 200 tractor-trailer shipments delivering an estimated 8 million pounds of food from farmers.

"I had to read this five times before I believed it," said Ryan of the canceled shipments. "We're all already feeling the crunch of the affordability crisis, which is made immeasurably worse by Trump's tariffs. Now he's ripping food away from hungry children - it's absolutely disgusting."

Hudson Valley farmers who benefited from the federal Local Food Purchase Assistance funding are among those eligible for Glynwood's emergency aid. Along with another program facing cuts, Local Foods for Schools, LFPA funding allows food banks, schools and childcare programs to buy food from farmers.

Using LFPA funding, the state's Food for New York Families program awarded $2 million in 2023 to the Regional Food Bank and $2 million to Cornell Cooperative Extension Putnam County, which has bought and distributed 290,000 pounds of farm products via pantries and a truck whose stops include the county senior center and Chestnut Ridge in Cold Spring and the Brookside mobile home park in Philipstown.

150 Years Ago (April 1875)

The shoe stores of Thomas Martin and Hugh Patterson were burglarized by culprits who fled toward Breakneck in a light wagon. "Strange to say, no reward was offered and, consequently, no pursuit was made," The Cold Spring Recorder reported. A week later, several pairs of ladies' gaiters were found in a buggy stored in an unoccupied building on Market Street that was once the Presbyterian Church.

Allen Brewer appeared to have "skedaddled" from Nelsonville with all his family's goods except the calico.

A miniature steam engine puffed away in a hole on April 2 opposite Patterson's shoe store to thaw a frozen pipe 2 feet below the surface that had prevented any water from flowing below Chestnut Street. The work continued for more than two weeks. On April 15, the engine exploded outside Mr. Murry's store and a piece of burning charcoal landed between the collar and neck of Jimmie Mellravy, causing a blister.

Charles Emerson, who lived near Mekeel's Corners, claimed he killed six crows with one shot from his English fowling piece. Jackson Tompkins of Putnam Valley said he shot 12 foxes over the winter.

The Episcopal bishop of New York visited Cold Spring for a Saturday morning service to install the Rev. Mr. Isaac Van Winkle as rector of St. Mary's Church. Van Winkle then left for a 10-day vacation.

Twice in a week, a train was stopped by a malfunctioning south signal, which did not instill confidence in the system.

Dr. Griffin of Nelsonville opened a branch office at the corner of Main and Stone streets that he manned daily from 7 to 8 a.m. and 5 to 6 p.m.

Officer McAndrew caught two truants from the Rock Street School after "a lively chase."

After guests at the Pacific Hotel heard wild geese honking on the river, they began to shoot at them for sport.

The Recorder editor reported that Jacob Levi and Barny Clinton exchanged "a great many small rocks and vile epithets" just outside the newspaper office.

A freight engine, while taking water at the station, sent a spark onto the roof of a shed, but a young man spotted the smoke and climbed to put it out.

William Conroy drove to Sandy Landing Cove to wash the mud off his wagon, but the horse sank in the sediment. When Conroy climbed down to get it out, the horse knocked him into the water.

After determining that the oath given to members of the Nelsonville board had been improperly administered, the village petitioned the state Legislature to legalize its past proceedings.

The governor vetoed a bill giving the Garrison and West Point Ferry Co. a half-mile monopoly. He said it was unconstitutional to give exclusive benefits to a private corporation.

The father of Miss Warner, author of Wide Wide World, died at the family home on Constitution Island. She sent for two clergymen to conduct the service but, when they failed to show, knelt by the coffin and led the prayers.

There was a split in the Baptist Church among parishioners who wanted to dismiss the Rev. Benjamin Bowen and those who wanted him to stay. When a deacon said taking a vote would be illegal, most people left. Those who remained then voted to keep Bowen for another year.

125 Years Ago (April 1900)

The M. Taylor Granolithic Co. rented the Truesdell property on Main Street to manufacture the liquid it used in its patented sawdust flooring.

The Cold Spring Hose Co. changed its name to the Cold Spring Fire Co. No. 1.

Dr. Lewis Morris, a former Cold Spring physician, was engaged to Katherine Clark, whose father planned to give the couple a mansion on Fifth Avenue.

After Thomas Coe began selling 26 eggs for 25 cents [$9.50] at his dry goods store, Truesdell offered 30 for 25 cents; Morris, 35 for 25 cents; and Secor, 36 for 25 cents. Morris then went to 50 for 25 cents.

Charles de Rham hired King Quarry Co. to cut a $1,500 [about $57,000 today] fountain and horse trough (shown today, below) for the highway near Indian Brook as a memorial to his late wife.

Mrs. Michael Clare reported to the village po...

Photographer 'can't leave the material alone'

Sometimes it's difficult to believe that William Loeb's experimental photos began inside a camera. His black-and-white print "Manuscript," which looks hand-drawn, zooms in on a microscopic section of a chandelier's reflection on a Grand Central Station window.

Loeb does manipulate his shots with shading, cropping and "deciding what slice of the world the camera is focused on to create what's inside the frame," he says. "I take it to an extreme, so maybe it's not exactly photography. It could be something else."

At first glance, a shot of the Churchill Downs racetrack in his home state of Kentucky seems like a nightfall crowd scene, but the ominous sky is disproportionately huge.

"I can't leave the material alone because it never captures the thing that I want," he says. "I only know what I want after tinkering with it for hours."

Prominent photos hanging in his house include a colorization of the iconic coin-operated binocular found at tourist locations and a street scene. But several enigmatic works feature white markings against black backgrounds.

Loeb, who arrived in Beacon more than a year ago after splitting time between Brooklyn and Columbia County, is one of four local photographers participating in an exhibit, Work in Decay: The Renaissance of Beacon, Then and Now, that opens April 19 at the Howland Cultural Center. It will focus on photos taken by Patrick Prosser in 1982 and donated to the Beacon Historical Society, paired with modern updates by Loeb, Michael Goldfarb, Pierce Johnston and Tony Cenicola.

"Age"

"Gaslight"

"Harbinger"

"Iphigenia"

"Manuscript"

"Unseen"

Loeb climbed Mount Beacon to shoot the incline railroad's rusting gear house and promises to avoid surrealism when processing the final images. In darkroom days, he viewed photos as the beginning of a process that required interacting with instruments. All those instruments are now digital, such as Topaz, software Loeb relies on to "de-noise, play with the visible spectrum, sharpen smaller images within the photo and upscale the detail."

In a photo of an abandoned industrial site in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, nearly all the 400 windows look individually hand-tinted. For one favored behind-the-lens technique, he shakes the camera with intent, which turned photos of Manhattan buildings after dark into "Surveillance State." Its intertwined, squiggly lines look like they were etched with a stylus.

Another quasi-political photo, shot in Greenwood Cemetery during the pandemic, depicts a vague Manhattan skyline looming beyond the graves and mausoleums to represent the plague subsuming the city.

"I'm trying to see the world beyond the world - to throw the viewer off-balance and enliven, entertain and create unsettling perceptions," Loeb says. "Where does the digital art begin and the photos end? No matter what you call it, there is a camera involved, but I also live inside Photoshop."

The Howland Cultural Center, at 477 Main St., is open Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. "Work in Decay" begins with a reception from 1 to 3 p.m. on April 19 and continues through July 21.

New manager follows 'championship behaviors'

The Hudson Valley Renegades opened their 2025 baseball season with a winning weekend, besting the Jersey Shore BlueClaws in two of three games at Heritage Financial Park (formerly Dutchess Stadium). The 'Gades lost the season opener, 3-1, on April 4 in front of 3,600 fans but bounced back, winning 8-7 on Saturday and 6-2 on Sunday.

The team will finish a six-game road series with the Brooklyn Cyclones on Sunday (April 13) then return to Wappingers Falls for a six-game homestand with the Wilmington Blue Rocks beginning Tuesday.

The Renegades, the High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, have a new and an "old" look going into their 132-game season in the South Atlantic League North Division. (The five minor-league levels are Rookie League, Single-A, High-A, Double-A and Triple-A.)

The entire coaching staff is new, led by manager James Cooper, 42, who takes over from Nick Ortiz, who left for the Houston Astros organization. Cooper previously managed the Yankees' Single-A affiliate, the Tampa Tarpons, and coached at Grambling State University in Louisiana for 12 seasons. As a player, Cooper was drafted by the Astros in 2004 and played two seasons in the minor leagues and a season in Canada.

Although the Renegades players range in age from 18 to their early 20s, this is an experienced team. The opening roster included 21 veterans of the 2023 and 2024 squads along with nine newcomers. Nineteen of the 30 players are pitchers. The squad has six of the Yankees' top 20 prospects, including infielder George Lombard Jr. (No. 2) and pitcher Ben Hess (No. 4). The others are pitchers Bryce Cunningham (No. 6), Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz (No. 8), Carlos Lagrange (No. 19) and Kyle Carr (No. 20). The No. 1 prospect, Jasson Dominguez, is on the Yankees' roster.

The 2025 Renegades have a long tradition of winning to live up to. The team won 73 games last season and reached the league championship, where it lost to Bowling Green. It was the Renegades' 12th consecutive winning season. Since 2012 the Renegades have recorded the highest winning percentage in the minor leagues.

Asked on April 1 if he feels added pressure coming to a franchise where winning is the default, Cooper said "for me to leave this place better than I found it, we have to win it [the title]. That'll be the mission."

Cooper knows many of the players, having coached them in the past on other teams, including Lombard. "You understand what gets a player going if you've had a relationship over the years," he said. "We just want to do everything we can to develop these guys, put them in positions to go out here and dominate and give them a chance to move up."

Before receiving a $3.3 million signing bonus in 2023, Lombard, 19, played shortstop at Gulliver Prep in Pinecrest, Florida. In 2024 he played 91 games with the Tampa Tarpons before joining the Renegades for 29 games.

This spring Lombard attended the Yankees training camp. "The thing you learn from those guys is their attitude, the mindset and confidence they bring to the game every single day," he said. "It takes a different type of confidence to be successful at the level they are.

"It was a good being here last year, getting a little taste of it," he said. "Physically, I'm just trying to get faster and stronger every year, trying to become an all-around better baseball player."

Founded in 1994, the Renegades were part of the Texas Rangers' organization until 1996, when they moved to the Tampa Bay Rays. They won league titles in 1999, 2012 and 2017 and division titles three times since 2021.

Heritage Financial Park is located at 1500 Route 9D in Wappingers Falls, just north of Beacon. For tickets, which start at $6, see milb.com/hudson-valley.

Also, council member protests Trump policies

The Philipstown Town Board agreed on April 3 to form a committee to draft a permitting system and operating standards for short-term rentals such as those booked through Airbnb and Vrbo.

The regulations would apply outside of Cold Spring, which approved its own code in 2021 that has yet to be enforced. The Village Board is revising the rules, saying they would have been too cumbersome.

Philipstown discussed restrictions as recently as 2022, when residents complained at a Town Hall workshop about a long-running rental in Garrison. On April 3, Van Tassel also referenced a recent fire at an Airbnb in Dutchess County that killed a Cape Cod woman and her infant daughter. According to prosecutors, the rental in Salt Point did not have smoke detectors, although the listing said it did, and the hosts did not have a town permit for short-term rentals.

Pledge protest

Council Member Jason Angell remained seated during the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the meeting. He said he was protesting actions by the administration of President Donald Trump that he considers unconstitutional.

Reading a 2½-minute statement after the pledge, Angell said he "didn't recognize my country" when masked immigration agents arrested Rumeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, on March 25. Öztürk is accused of violating her student visa. The administration has not provided a reason for the detention, but she co-authored an opinion piece in the student newspaper demanding that Tufts "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide" and divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Angell also cited the Trump administration's decisions to cut funding and programs approved by Congress. Those decisions are being challenged in lawsuits.

"When an elected official takes office, they take an oath to uphold the Constitution," said Angell. "What happens if a person believes their federal government is violating the Constitution? Should they pledge allegiance to their government or to upholding the Constitution?"

Van Tassel said he agreed with much of what Angell said, but not with sitting during the Pledge of Allegiance. "But I appreciate your courage," he said. Angell, whose term ends Dec. 31, is not running for re-election.

Town justice to resign

The town approved a letter of intent to appoint Cold Spring attorney Luke Hilpert to replace Camille Linson, who plans to resign from her town justice seat in June, according to Van Tassel.

Linson ran unopposed on the Democratic and Conservative lines in winning a third, 4-year term in November. She joined the court after defeating Hilpert in a Democratic primary in 2016 and Republican Faye Thorpe in the general election. She ran unopposed in 2020.

Both Linson and Philipstown's other justice, Angela Thompson-Tinsley, recommended Hilpert to fill the vacancy until the November election. Under state law, the winner will serve for a full term, rather than the 3½ years remaining in Linson's term, according to town attorney Steve Gaba.

Oil moratorium

The board scheduled a May 1 public hearing on a law that would extend for another six months a moratorium on projects with oil tanks exceeding 10,000 gallons.

Philipstown enacted the moratorium in December 2023 to give an advisory committee time to revise zoning regulations that allow tanks with a capacity of up to 399,999 gallons. Allowing tanks that large puts drinking-water sources like the Clove Creek Aquifer at risk from leaks, spills and damage from natural disasters or extreme weather, according to the town.

While the draft law allows for two more six-month extensions, the committee is expected to finalize its recommendations soon, said Gaba.

Depot Theatre

A site near the water tower at the Recreation Department's property off Route 9D is still the optimal location for a facility the Philipstown Depot Theatre initially proposed for a town-owned parcel off Route 403, said Council Member Judy Farrell.

The Depot wants to consolida...

Firefighters say they will continue fight for station

A state judge on Monday (March 31) dismissed a request by the Beacon Engine Co. that she prevent its members from being "excluded" from a 136-year-old firehouse and delay the city's sale of the building.

Two weeks earlier, Judge Maria Rosa had rejected a request from the retired volunteer firefighters that she pause a city order for them to vacate the station by March 31.

The East Main Street firehouse, inactive since 2020, has been at the center of an ownership dispute as Beacon officials prepare to sell it and the 113-year-old Mase Hook & Ladder station on Main Street. The city hopes to raise $3.7 million.

The retired firefighters argue that Beacon Engine Co. owns the original 2½-story structure, with the city holding an adjacent engine bay added in 1924. In fact, that was what all parties believed for decades, including when the City Council voted to close the station five years ago as part of a plan to consolidate operations.

However, Beacon officials in 2023 conducted a title search that they say revealed municipal ownership of the entire facility. A real-estate expert told the court that a deed recorded in 1889, the year the station was built, showed that the Village of Matteawan, which preceded Beacon, owned the site.

Rosa noted in her decision that the volunteer company, which uses the decommissioned firehouse for social gatherings and to coordinate charitable campaigns, stands to suffer "irreparable injury" - a criterion required for the order it sought - if the station is sold. But at the same time, the firefighters "failed to sufficiently demonstrate" either a valid ownership claim or "any defect in the city's claim of title" in the dozens of documents submitted to the court, she said.

Conversely, Paul Conrad, the title expert hired by the city, provided "copies of the recorded deeds, as well as a survey depicting how the city acquired" the parcels that comprise the property, Rosa said.

Her decision would appear to give Beacon the go-ahead to sell the station. City officials have commissioned Gate House Compass Realty to list Beacon Engine in May for $1.75 million and Mase for $1.95 million.

The stations are to be sold with covenants that restrict renaming them or altering historical features. The proceeds will offset the $14.7 million the city spent to build a central fire station that opened near City Hall last fall.

Nonetheless, Joe Green, a Beacon Engine Co. trustee, said Wednesday that the firefighters are preparing another legal challenge. In a document submitted to the court on March 27, Lauren Scott, the firefighters' attorney, said the fire company's claim that it owns at least two-thirds of the property is based on a title search it commissioned.

Scott, who called the testimony by the city's title expert "glaringly deficient due to its lack of analysis" of historical deeds, argued that Beacon's charter prevents a litigant from enforcing a claim, debt or demand against the city for at least 30 days after filing a notice of claim in court.

Because Beacon Engine filed notice on March 7 signaling its intention to seek judgment on the ownership challenge and "unjust enrichment" for building maintenance and insurance the volunteers say they funded, the company cannot submit its complaint until Monday (April 7), Scott said.

Meeting draws rally by farmers

The Putnam County Legislature took the first step toward lowering its portion of the sales tax rate during a Tuesday (April 1) meeting filled with farmers protesting lawmakers' refusal to add operations to a special district.

Legislators, by a 5-4 vote, approved a request for state legislation to lower the sales tax collected by Putnam from 4 percent to 3.75 percent. The higher rate had been in place since 2007, when the state enacted a law allowing Putnam to increase its sales tax from 3 percent. The law has been extended every two years since, with the most recent extension expiring Nov. 30, 2025.

Consumers in Putnam County pay 8.375 percent sales tax, which includes 4 percent for the state and 0.375 percent for the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District. If Putnam's request is approved by the state, the new tax rate will be 8.125 percent.

County Executive Kevin Byrne and four of the nine legislators, including Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, opposed the reduction, which will cause an estimated $5 million reduction in annual revenue for the county. Byrne said the proceeds from sales taxes have funded property-tax reductions and a sales tax exemption for clothing and footwear under $110.

Town and village officials, who have demanded for years that Putnam share sales tax revenue with their governments, also support the higher rate, said Montgomery.

"They're the ones who hold the burden of generating the sales tax," she said. "They're the ones who pick up the garbage; they're the ones who provide and pay for the EMTs who respond to people falling off the mountain or falling on your sidewalk."

Legislator Dan Birmingham, who had initially proposed a reduction to 3.5 percent, said the county's savings, or "unrestricted reserve funds," of $134 million justified giving residents a break. During his first stint as a legislator, from 2004 to 2012, Birmingham supported the 2007 increase to 4 percent to cover county losses attributed to the Great Recession.

Now, Putnam is "sitting on top of the largest fund balance-to-budget ratio this county has ever seen," he said.

In one confusing sequence during the Tuesday meeting, Montgomery voted for the 3.75 percent reduction, proposed a motion to reconsider its approval and argued with Chair Amy Sayegh before being allowed to change her vote to "no." "Robert's Rules say that if you vote yes on a resolution, you can make a motion to reconsider," said Montgomery, explaining her initial vote.

Montgomery also tried to place on the agenda a resolution authorizing the county to share 50 percent of sales tax revenues above the budgeted amount with towns and villages.

Ag district

With farmers standing in solidarity, Montgomery asked her colleagues to suspend the April 30 deadline for applications to the county's Agricultural District while the process undergoes a review. Farms approved for the district gain protection from "unreasonable" local restrictions, and other benefits, under a 1971 state law designed to preserve agriculture.

A vote in August to reject five farmers recommended by the Agriculture & Farmland Protection Board for inclusion not only spurred a lawsuit from Ridge Ranch, a livestock operation in Patterson, but protests by farmers and their advocates. Amid the backlash, Paul Jonke, then chair of the Legislature, removed a Philipstown farmer, Jocelyn Apicello, from the board.

The farmers accuse a faction of the Legislature and Neal Tomann, a Philipstown resident who is the interim Soil & Water District manager, of being hostile to farming, and their complaints led Byrne to convene a roundtable meeting last month.

Before Tuesday's meeting, farmers gathered in the parking lot behind the Historic Courthouse, their vehicles draped with banners - "Save Putnam County Farms" and "Learn More About Ridge Ranch and the Fight for Fair Farming." Inside the courthouse, they lined up to speak, often talking over Sayegh a...

The scraped-up underbellies of skateboards add an organic texture to Betty Stafford's sculptures and hanging works. The scratches multiply when riders slide across curbs, railings and other urban obstacles while performing tricks.

Stafford disfigures and reshapes the discarded boards to create abstract sculptures, wall hangings and mobiles that convey movement. They are carved with a handheld jigsaw and assembled with a drill. Beyond the wood decks, Stafford uses ball bearings and the metal trucks that connect the wheels.

Like many of her low-lying sculptures, the components of "Catch of the Day" (a bird going after fish) fit together with slots and seem to lean into each other around a solid center of gravity. "Fiddlehead" features curlicues that resemble flowers.

Cross-cutting the decks reveals from six to a dozen plies of laminated wood, some darker than others, though bright pinks, blues and greens peek through on occasion. Stafford often leaves the edges unfinished and incorporates the boards' natural bends.

Her bane is removing grip tape, the sandpaper-like coating atop the deck. In the summer, after letting the boards bake in the sun for a few hours, she can peel it off with minimal effort. Otherwise, it can take hours, she says.

Her fractured portraits, inspired by modern English painter Francis Bacon, include a work encased in a purple plastic milk crate and others that use the covers of wooden boxes that once shipped plumbing supplies. Thin, oxidized copper wires culled from boat windows sometimes add a minimalist touch.

"Coffee Break"

"Creature"

Detail from "Ishod"

"Ishod"

"Kingsize Slim"

Stafford has a BFA from the University of Texas, Austin and studied drawing and watercolor at the Art Students League in Manhattan before moving to Philipstown more than three decades ago. She worked in the fashion industry and still draws but began making art with skateboards following the death of her son Sam, an avid rider, in 2013 at age 19.

Skateboards usually contain colorful designs beneath the deck, the part that gets scratched up. Riders will cover the damage with stickers and those images sometimes are reflected in Stafford's work, which caused a stir when a skateboard sculpture was accepted for a recent group show. The gallery asked her to remove any copyrighted images, so she pulled the piece.

Stafford's Ishod and Mask series goes for an Oceanic look, including an image reminiscent of Easter Island. A profile of Bob Dylan during the 1960s conveys lightness because of circles and ellipses drilled into his faux Afro.

No matter what medium she uses, Stafford says her art is "all over the place." Daily walks in the woods help inform her style.

She gets the raw material from 2nd Nature Skatepark in Peekskill and Hacienda Skate Shop in Newburgh. "I've received some seriously broken boards that made me wonder if the skater was all right," she says.

For more of Betty Stafford's work, see bettystafford.com.