Highlands Current Audio Stories

New traffic routes coming to Haldane campus

Buses and cars will be required to use separate routes for entering and leaving the Haldane campus as part of a pilot program being implemented in April.

Superintendent Gail Duffy and School Board President Peggy Clements explained the changes to the Cold Spring Village Board at its Wednesday (Jan. 28) meeting.

The traffic changes will coincide with a voter-approved, $28 million capital project set to begin this year. A multi-purpose student center, science lab and classrooms will be added to the high school, while improvements at the elementary and middle school will include a student support center and science lab.

"While the architects were developing the plans, they noted that Haldane has an unhealthy mix of car, bus and pedestrian traffic," especially during peak drop-off and pickup times, Duffy said.

In addition, a transportation audit conducted by the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and recommendations from two consultants pointed to the need to address traffic congestion, she said.

Beginning April 13, only buses will be allowed to enter and exit campus via Route 9D, while cars will be required to enter on Cedar Street and exit on upper Craigside Drive, Mountain Avenue and its feeder streets.

"We all know that traffic movement at Haldane is tough," said Mayor Kathleen Foley. "Folks have been thinking for a long time about how to try to make that better and safer."

As part of the pilot, Haldane officials have asked the village to increase police patrols during drop-off and dismissal and shift the crossing guard stationed on Route 301 to Orchard Street.

During the discussion, the Cold Spring Police Department officer-in-charge, Matt Jackson, raised concerns over how the traffic patterns will affect the movement of emergency vehicles, including ambulances stationed on Cedar Street. Village and school officials plan to meet to fine-tune the proposal.

In other business …

Foley praised Robert Downey Jr., the Highway Department crew chief, for his planning and coordination with Putnam County and local contractors before the Jan. 25 snowstorm. She also thanked village workers for the many hours they spent clearing streets.

The board reviewed a proposed letter addressed to the state parks department requesting a public hearing on the the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, which was released Jan. 7. Trustee Andrew Hall suggested language be added and objected to sending the letter as presented because he said he had only seen the draft the day before.

Hahn Engineering, which serves as the village engineer, was authorized to request proposals for stormwater drainage repairs at the corner of Fishkill and Mountain avenues, necessitated by damage caused by extreme amounts of rainfall during the July 2023 storm. Foley said the intersection is a key area in dealing with stormwater that comes off Bull Hill and flows through the village to the Hudson River. The work, which will be funded in large part by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, could begin this spring and is expected to take four to six weeks.

Hahn Engineering will call for proposals to inspect the village dock. The first phase will assess the size boats the dock can handle while phase two will determine if any short- or long-term repairs are needed. The dock was last inspected 15 years ago.

The mayor has asked trustee Tony Bardes to document for budget purposes docking fees charged by other Hudson River municipalities. Seastreak has yet to submit a proposal for its fall cruise schedule, but a request to dock at Cold Spring has been received from a company interested in providing ferry service between Peekskill, Bear Mountain, West Point and the village. Foley said the proposal will be discussed after the dock has been inspected and docking fees considered. The proposed 64-foot ferry is about half the length of Seastreak.

The board unanimously approved a reso...

Legislation allowed attorney for Democratic rep

A power struggle between Putnam Executive Kevin Byrne and county legislators continued last week when he vetoed a measure granting both political parties in the Legislature the power to hire their own attorneys.

Approved 6-0 on Dec. 31, with Legislators Erin Crowley, Bill Gouldman and Laura Russo absent, the charter amendment created the positions of counsel to the majority and counsel to the minority. Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, is the only Democrat on the panel.

The amendment superseded language in the code that requires the county attorney to sign off on legal services for the Legislature, allowing the Republicans and Montgomery to hire counsel independent of the Law Department.

Although he enacted a 2026 budget that included $96,000 for a majority counsel and $50,000 for a minority attorney, Byrne vetoed the charter change on Jan. 23, eight days after he presided over a public hearing in which Crowley and Russo were among those who denounced it.

Byrne said that the Legislature had approved the change "with limited public discussion, limited transparency and noticeably without the participation of several legislators who were either absent or had not yet been sworn into office at the time of the vote." (Jake D'Angelo and Thomas Regan Jr. were seated Jan. 1.)

At the public hearing, Montgomery pushed back on claims from Crowley and Russo that the approval had been rushed and that establishing a counsel for the minority party would be costly and partisan. She said the amendment was discussed at six public meetings and "aligned the county charter" with the 2026 budget, which was supported by Crowley and Russo.

"There were many written messages about a lot of the resolutions we passed — many comments, many opinions of different line items in the final budget," said Montgomery. "Yet there was no mention, either positive or negative, with respect to the funding for legislative counsel."

Byrne and the Legislature spent part of 2024 sparring over an attempt by legislators to give themselves the power to fire the county attorney, with Byrne at one point suing lawmakers. Putnam's charter allows the county executive to fire the county attorney, but only with approval by two-thirds of the Legislature.

On the heels of that skirmish, the Law Department terminated the contract of Robert Firriolo, who had advised the Legislature for seven years and been approved for reappointment. Firriolo unsuccessfully sued the county, and the Legislature is now getting advice from an attorney in the Law Department.

Jennifer Colamonico, chair of the Putnam Democratic Committee, said Byrne's veto represented a "politically and punitively motivated attack on minority rights," in reference to Montgomery. "Access to legal counsel — especially with respect to limiting the powers and abuses of the executive branch — is essential to the Legislature's ability to execute its chartered duties," she said.

Byrne said he supported amending the charter to give legislators "a stronger form of independent counsel through one attorney that it can hire and remove at will," but added that "this same consideration" should be given to his office regarding the county attorney.

Byrne said he has requested that the Legislature reconvene Putnam's Charter Review Commission "to address these and other outstanding structural issues in a thoughtful, deliberative manner that respects both branches of government."

Montgomery said she is "fully prepared to support and, if necessary, introduce future charter clarifications that restore and reaffirm the county executive's authority over the county attorney."

Forecasters expect another East Coast storm

Three brothers who perished in an icy Texas pond were among several dozen deaths in U.S. states gripped by frigid cold as crews scrambled Tuesday (Jan. 27) to repair hundreds of thousands of power outages in the South, and forecasters warned that snow and severe cold could return to the East Coast this weekend.

Deep snow — over a foot extending in a 1,300-mile swath from Arkansas to New England — halted traffic, canceled flights and triggered school closures. According to spotters for the National Weather Service, 13 inches had fallen in Nelsonville as of 7 a.m. on Monday and as much as 17 inches in Beacon as of 11 a.m.

In the Highlands, crews worked overnight early in the week to plow the snow and then haul it away. Sitting in his Bobcat on Main Street in Cold Spring on Tuesday, Anthony Winters of the village Highway Department said he had gone to work early Sunday morning and returned home Monday afternoon.

The arctic misery across the eastern half of the U.S. could return today (Jan. 30) and Saturday. Although, as of Thursday, less than 2 inches of snow was expected in the Highlands, the National Weather Service said a storm may bring record low temperatures as far south as Florida.

"This could be the coldest temperature seen in several years for some places and the longest duration of cold in several decades," the agency's Weather Prediction Center warned on Tuesday.

The U.S. aviation system was returning to normal after a brutal weekend that saw more than 17,000 flights canceled. There were about 6,300 cancellations on Monday and 2,500 on Tuesday, but fewer than 500 were expected on Wednesday, according to FlightAware.

Officials in states afflicted with severe cold reported at least 50 deaths. In New York City, officials said 10 people had been found dead outdoors in the cold. In Fannin County, Texas, three brothers, ages 6, 8 and 9, died Monday after falling through ice on a private pond, the sheriff said.

Other deaths included two people hit by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, two teenagers killed while sledding in Arkansas and Texas and a man found in his home in the Indianapolis area with no heat.

East Coast could get hit again this weekend

Many people in the U.S. faced another night of below-freezing temperatures and no electricity after a colossal winter storm heaped more snow Monday (Jan. 26) on the Northeast and kept parts of the South coated in ice. At least 29 deaths were reported in states afflicted with severe cold.

In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office said at least 10 people were found dead outside as temperatures plunged between Saturday and Monday morning, though the cause of their deaths remained under investigation.

Deep snow — over a foot extending in a 1,300-mile swath from Arkansas to New England — halted traffic, canceled flights and triggered school closures. According to spotters for the National Weather Service, 13 inches fell in Nelsonville as of 7 a.m. on Monday and 15.5 to 17 inches in Beacon as of 11 a.m.

Beacon lifted its parking restrictions as of noon on Monday, while Cold Spring extended theirs to 7 a.m. Wednesday as plows work to clear streets. Vehicles must be removed from Beacon municipal parking lots by 9 a.m. Thursday. Nelsonville said crews would remove snow from Division and Pearl streets on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service said Monday that a fresh influx of arctic air is expected to sustain freezing temperatures in places already covered in snow and ice. And forecasters said it's possible another winter storm could hit parts of the East Coast this weekend, according to AccuWeather.

New York City saw its snowiest day in years, with neighborhoods recording 8 to 15 inches. Though public schools shut down, roughly 500,000 students were told to log in for online lessons on Monday. (Haldane will be remote on Tuesday, with after-school activities canceled; Beacon will have a two-hour delay.) Snow days off from school melted away in New York, the nation's largest public school system, after remote learning gained traction during the pandemic.

Elsewhere in the country, the death toll included two people run over by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, fatal sledding accidents in Arkansas and Texas, and a woman whose body was found covered in snow by police with bloodhounds after she was last seen leaving a Kansas bar.

Most power outages were in the South, where weekend blasts of freezing rain caused tree limbs and power lines to snap, especially in northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee. It was Mississippi's worst ice storm since 1994.

The U.S. had more than 11,000 flight delays and cancellations nationwide Monday, according to flightaware.com. On Sunday, 45 percent of U.S. flights were canceled, the worst day since the pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Each faces life in ex-husband's disappearance

A federal judge upheld the convictions of a former Beacon couple found guilty in September of killing the wife's ex-husband, who disappeared in April 2020 after dropping off his two teenage daughters following a custody visit.

In an opinion released on Friday (Jan. 23), Judge Philip Halpern rejected motions for acquittal or a new trial by Jamie Orsini and Nicholas Orsini, who a jury found guilty of carjacking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit carjacking in the disappearance of Steven Kraft.

Prosecutors say they were the last ones to see Kraft before he disappeared on April 28, 2020, after returning his daughters to the West Church Street apartment his ex-wife shared with Nicholas Orsini. His disappearance came six weeks before a court hearing as Kraft sought either sole custody of his daughters or greater visitation.

Both Orsinis, who were initially charged in June 2023, claim that prosecutors failed to prove that Kraft was killed. According to Jamie Orsini, surveillance video capturing Nicholas Orsini driving Kraft's car in the City of Newburgh showed evidence of a passenger, suggesting her ex-husband was still alive after he returned their daughters to Beacon.

They also claimed that supplies bought from the Home Depot and Walmart in Fishkill before and after Kraft's disappearance — including a tarp, duct tape, painters coveralls and galvanized trash cans — should not have been used as evidence because they were "everyday household items" used in barbecuing and painting, not tools for disposing of Kraft's body as alleged by prosecutors.

In addition to rejecting those claims, Halpern ruled against the Orsinis' arguments that the carjacking statute is "unconstitutionally vague" and that the trial court erred by allowing the testimony of two neighbors — one who reported a "foul" smell wafting through her window and another who described an "acrid, awful" smell from two large containers "being attended to by Nicholas Orsini" in the couple's backyard.

Each faces a maximum penalty of life in prison on the carjacking resulting in death charge and five years on the conspiracy charge. In scheduling Jamie Orsini's sentencing for June 16 and Nicholas Orsini's for June 18, Halpern said the evidence "cannot be said to have been insufficient to support the jury's guilty verdict."

According to that evidence, said prosecutors, the couple began plotting Kraft's murder before he disappeared, buying items that could be used to dismember and burn a body. Police recreated their movements using GPS and cellphone data, along with surveillance video from public and private cameras.

Security footage and a store receipt from April 8, 2020, from the Home Depot on Route 9 in Fishkill showed that Jamie Orsini bought a 10-foot-by-100-foot tarp, duct tape and a Tyvek suit and boots, according to prosecutors. Video from the parking lot captured Nicholas Orsini helping load the supplies into the couple's GMC Envoy.

That same day, according to the complaint, the pair drove to Newburgh to determine how to dispose of Kraft's car. Data from their phones and video footage tracked the couple driving from West Church Street over the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge to the City of Newburgh.

Prosecutors said that Kraft, a former U.S. Marine who was 34 when he disappeared, had custody of his daughters from 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and noon to 3 p.m. every other Saturday. On the Tuesday he disappeared, Kraft picked up the girls and drove to a Sonic restaurant in the Town of Newburgh and then to his apartment in Marlboro, before returning to Beacon at 7 p.m. Police said cellphone data confirmed that Jamie and Nicholas Orsini followed him to the restaurant.

The next day, Kraft failed to show up to his deli job in Marlboro, and on May 4, investigators found his 1999 Camry abandoned at Third Street and Carpenter Avenue in the City of Newburgh.

One of the earliest pieces of evidence was surveillance footage showing Kraft's ...

Editor's note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing.

150 Years Ago (January 1876)

A resident reported that the new year in Matteawan was greeted with the ringing of bells, firing of shotguns, crowing of roosters, burning of bonfires of stolen beer barrels and fence rails and "yelling and hooting of the factory hoodlums."

A burglar stole hams and whiskey from William Murray's grocery store in Fishkill Landing.

A resident in Fishkill Landing reported finding a grasshopper on New Year's Day, when the temperature reached 48 degrees.

One of the Methodist pastor's children was sitting at his father's writing desk in the parsonage at Fishkill Landing, reading by the light of a lamp, when he tried to refill the oil by lifting the reservoir cap. A fire burst startled him, and the lamp fell to the floor. Passersby extinguished the flames.

Pat Murphy, the proprietor of a saloon on the Matteawan road, fell down a set of stone steps at his home and broke his collarbone.

A Kingston firm had constructed 30 dwellings for A.T. Stewart in Glenham, with the men laying 50,000 bricks per day.

The Hudson River Railroad Co. drew stone for the foundation of a brick depot at Fishkill Landing, a short distance north of the old depot.

William Ager of Fishkill Landing had surgery at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, during which half of his upper jaw was replaced with a silver plate.

William Ott, a brakeman on the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad, lost a finger while uncoupling cars at Dutchess Junction.

The railroad's new bridge at Glenham passed a quality-control test when three locomotives weighing 50 tons each passed over and it didn't collapse.

Congregants at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Matteawan presented their pastor, the Rev. C.W. Millard, with a gold watch and chain and $100 [about $3,000 today].

A farmer's wife in Glenham, Mrs. Walter Cromwell, 35, hanged herself, apparently because of depression following a decision against her in a lawsuit involving her mother's estate. She had suffered a bout of melancholy about a year earlier, but her husband thought she had recovered.

100 Years Ago (January 1926)

The Public Service Commission authorized Central Hudson Gas and Electric Co. to buy the Citizens Railroad, Light and Power Co., the Fishkill Electric Railway Co. of Beacon and the Southern Dutchess Gas and Electric Co.

The Mase Five quit the Hudson River League to play basketball as an independent. Eugene Cadmus, the manager, said the quintet had not been able to secure a consistent home court, had to travel too far and believed they could draw more paying spectators on their own.

Philip VanBuren died. Many years earlier, he opened the Cozy Lunch on Main Street after leaving his job as a foreman at a local silk company.

Philip Hoyt, 37, a Beacon native, was appointed as a deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department. The Princeton graduate spent 10 years as a reporter for The New York Times before joining the city finance department.

Beatrice McClintock Ward of Beacon served her husband, George Ward, with divorce papers. After reaching George Ward by "long-distance telephone" at his office in New York City, the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News said he provided this statement: "For practically the last year, Mrs. Ward has been seeking to gain her freedom from the contract in which she entered in August 1923. She has consistently refused to move to Boston or New York, where I have been employed [by the Hearst Corp.] since last summer, and she has exhibited a constant desire to return to her artwork, which in my opinion precludes any chance of maintaining home life." Mrs. Ward sought custody of their infant son.

James Murray, 63, died after falling down a flight of stairs at his residence on Willow Street. "He suffered a broken hip and, because of his advanced age, little hope had been held for his recovery," the Eagle-News reported. Dr. George Jennings, who responded, suffered a hemorrhage while he struggled to lif...

Report included responses to comments

New York State finalized its environmental review on Tuesday (Jan. 20) of the proposed Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, summarizing the findings of a report released two weeks earlier.

The findings statement concludes that the trail "will achieve a balance between the protection of the environment and the need to accommodate social and economic considerations" and that "the project is consistent with the coastal policies identified in the City of Beacon's approved Local Waterfront Revitalization Program to the maximum extent practicable."

Notably, it does not mention Cold Spring's Local Waterfront Revitalization Strategy. The environmental group Riverkeeper, which serves on the HHFT's ecological working group, believes the project conflicts with both Beacon's and Cold Spring's strategies.

That conclusion is unlikely to placate residents who believe that instead of mitigating overtourism, the 7.5-mile linear park between Cold Spring and Beacon will make the problem worse. Cold Spring has requested a public hearing to discuss the final environmental report.

The parks department received over 650 public comments on the draft environmental review. The 12th and final appendix of the review issued two weeks ago, at 957 pages, includes agency replies to nearly every comment, some of which were hundreds of pages long and not reproduced in full.

If a commentator praised the trail, the state typically replied, "comment noted." For those who raised concerns, the parks department often cross-referenced responses because many grievances were common. Here's a look at some of the common concerns and responses:

More specifics

Some commenters argued that a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) was not right for the project, which needed a more-specific Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). "Unlike an EIS, a GEIS may be broader, analyze impacts generally and include assessment of site-specific impacts only if they are available, and be based on conceptual information," wrote the law firm Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna, representing Protect the Highlands, which opposes the project.

The Philipstown Town Board wrote that "the proposal as presented is conceptual in nature and certain thresholds must be met when the final design of the project is complete. … However, the document is vague at best about the particulars. … It is not possible to fully evaluate the extent of potential impacts or assess whether proposed mitigation measures will be effective."

State response: The parks department replied that, even with a conceptual design, a GEIS was "appropriate to evaluate this action." HHFT must continue to check in with the state during the process, it said, and the agency "will determine whether any design modifications would warrant supplemental environmental review."

Avoiding Cold Spring

Many Philipstown commenters said the trail should end at Little Stony Point or Breakneck rather than connecting to Cold Spring. "We believe that the HHFT could be successful if its limits were from the City of Beacon to the Breakneck Ridge train station, where pedestrians could use the train to return to Beacon or points south," wrote the Town of Philipstown Conservation Board. "Allowing the HHFT into Philipstown would only exacerbate vehicular and pedestrian traffic."

State response: The parks department replied that a Beacon-to-Breakneck trail would defeat the project's purpose, which is to "address increasing visitation to [Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve] and the surrounding communities and related public safety, quality of life and maintenance concerns arising from such increased visitation" as well as "reduce pedestrian crowding in Cold Spring by offering a more direct route" from the Metro-North station to the trailhead at Dockside Park.

With the trail starting at Dockside, visitors arriving by train would be encouraged to walk through the lower village instead of Main Street, the state said. Otherwise, they w...

Feedback sought on first parcel of land

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting public comments through Jan. 31 on a proposal to remediate a small portion of the abandoned Texaco Research Center site just outside of Beacon.

The DEC has broken the 153-acre property, now called Glenham Mills, into nine pieces, or "operable units," that correspond with Town of Fishkill tax parcels. Each will have its own remediation strategy. The first parcel under consideration is also the smallest — a 0.67-acre wooded patch north of Washington Avenue.

The Glenham Mills property was the home of a textile mill in the early 1800s. After Texaco purchased the land in 1931, it built a complex where more than 1,000 employees researched and developed aviation gasolines and other petroleum products. By the time the center closed in 2003, Fishkill Creek, which divides the property, had been heavily polluted with petroleum, coal products and solvents.

The state has assessed the impact of that pollution on fish and wildlife, the soil and human health. Remedial measures have included decommissioning storage tanks, excavating soil, repairing dams and sparging, in which pressurized air is injected below the water table, forcing gasoline or solvents into the soil, where they are extracted. The groundwater has been tested annually since 2009.

"It may look like nothing has been going on, but work has been performed for decades now," said Greta Kowalski, a DEC geologist.

Once remediation of Glenham Mills is complete, years from now, DEC will retain oversight through a site-management plan and environmental easements. "It's like the Hotel California," Kowalski said. "You can check out, but you can never leave."

Chevron, which merged with Texaco in 2003, has sent proposals to the DEC to remediate most of the operable units. Once a plan is set for the first unit, known as OU-3, Kowalski said the next candidates could be OU-1B, a 15-acre parcel that once had a church, or OU-1E, a 93-acre segment south of Washington Avenue and Fishkill Creek known as the Back 93, which Texaco used for worker recreation.

The Back 93 is probably the most attractive parcel for development; a 2021 Chevron report identified two sludge lagoons, three chemical burial sites, a disposal pit and a container disposal site as "areas of interest." More than 26,000 tons of material were removed from the Back 93 in the 1980s.

Chevron's proposal for the 0.67-acre OU-3 is to excavate a 225-square-foot area where soil samples revealed semi-volatile organic compounds 6 inches below ground. Volatile chemicals can move from below ground into buildings, but nearby residences on Washington Avenue and Belvedere Road have not been contaminated, the company said.

How to Comment

Email Greta Kowalski at [email protected].

For more information, see Chevron's site at glenhammills.com.

Chevron has been trying to sell Glenham Mills since 2020, and there has been a renewed effort recently to market the site to "brownfield" developers, said Alex Cheramie, a company representative. An online flyer does not list a sale price but notes that the property offers an "excellent redevelopment opportunity" due to its proximity to Interstate 84 and Route 52. It is zoned for offices, laboratories and industrial or manufacturing uses.

Chevron would like to restore the land to "restricted residential" status, a classification that the DEC says would be appropriate for a public park. During a Jan. 13 public meeting at Fishkill Town Hall, an audience member asked Kristin Kulow, a representative from the state Department of Health, whether she would feel safe living in a house in OU-3 once it is remediated. "Yes, I would, absolutely," she said.

Philipstown landmark was built in 1874

A 19th-century schoolhouse that has sat empty for 90 years is on its way to a new life as a state park visitor center.

The state parks department announced on Jan. 16 that Friends of Fahnestock and Hudson Highlands State Park (FOFHH) will receive $77,950 for the first phase of $600,000 in restoration work on the Philipstown landmark near the intersection of Routes 9 and 301.

FOFHH has already raised the $22,550 in matching funds required for the Park and Trail Partnership Grant, according to President Katharine Spector. She said work should begin in the spring or summer, once permits have been secured.

The grant is part of $2.25 million in funding distributed to 27 nonprofit organizations, including $27,450 to the Bannerman Castle Trust to connect trails on the island to improve accessibility for visitors, and $62,350 to the Walkway Over the Hudson to replace outdated and deteriorating wayfinding signs.

In Phase 1 of the schoolhouse project, FOFHH will restore the exterior brick and stone foundation, replace the roof and install historically accurate windows and doors. The interior will be restored during Phase 2, which is expected to cost $200,000. A picnic area, outdoor public restroom and a trail connecting the site to nearby Hubbard Lodge and trailheads will be completed during Phase 3, for $300,000.

Built in 1874, the one-room schoolhouse was part of a hamlet known as Griffin's Corners, and later Mekeels Corners, that included houses, the Griffin Hotel, a tavern, a blacksmith shop and the Philipstown Methodist Episcopal Union Chapel (1867), which still stands and is the site of a non-denominational service each year on Independence Day.

The school operated until 1936, when it was sold to Helen Fahnestock Hubbard at public auction. The state parks department bought the property in the late 1980s.

Daria Grace revives century-old pop

In the early 2000s, many Brooklyn bands explored offbeat styles. A Village Voice cover story in 2008 chronicled the borough's talented country scene and mentioned Kings County Queens, one of many music projects juggled by Daria Grace, who by 2013 had become a fixture in the Beacon music scene.

Another of Grace's bands, Daria Grace & The Pre-War Ponies, performed obscure pop tunes from the 1920s through the 1940s culled from her sheet-music collection. The group last appeared in Beacon a decade ago at Quinn's, but the drought ends Friday (Jan. 30) at Lucky Dog, a new venue located at Beacon Music Factory.

Grace doesn't read notes or play the piano, but arrangements from the period often included ukulele chords as Americans became enamored with Hawaiian sounds, so she learned to strum the four-stringed instrument and recorded the album Introducing The Pre-War Ponies in 2007. The band still plays in Brooklyn once a month.

Grace mines old ditties that are easy on the ears but never made it into The Great American Songbook. The Ponies retrieve lesser-known gems from hitmakers Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter, along with tunes by unsung writers who cranked them out on Tin Pan Alley.

During the years between the world wars, lyricists often disguised risque blues references, but the title of "Pettin' in the Park," which appeared in the film Gold Diggers of 1933, states the obvious.

On the surface, "The Gentleman Just Wouldn't Say Goodnight" seems similar to the now-controversial song "Baby, It's Cold Outside," about a guy cajoling a woman to stick around and pitch some woo.

In the gentleman tune, however, written by Don Reid and Dave Terry, a couple wakes up at the crack of dawn and, it turns out, "the lady didn't want to say goodnight" either.

The band's recording of the song on their more elaborate second disc, Get Out Under the Moon (2015), features a languid trombone solo by Grace's chief collaborator, J. Walter Hawkes, who also sings and plays soprano ukulele.

The touch of brass enhances the vibe, since these songs date to the horn-dominated Big Band era. Also appearing at Lucky Dog will be Willie Martinez on drums and Andrew Hall on standup bass.

Grace, whose bread-and-butter instrument is the electric bass, has toured and recorded with many bands as a gun for hire. In the Ponies, "I'm the singer, so it is my baby, although Walter has been along for the ride from the beginning and is integral to the sound."

Delivering live shows with professional polish, she sings with pitch-perfect flow and phrasing. Because smaller ukuleles can't achieve much heft, Grace plays a baritone version, which resembles a guitar and adds depth to the sound.

In 2008, she and then-husband Jack Grace left Brooklyn for Woodstock and ended up in Beacon five years later when they moved into the backyard cottage of George Mansfield, then co-owner of Dogwood (now Cooper's).

As a member of The Wynotte Sisters, Grace's taste is impeccable: One favorite is the hipster pearl, "Give Me the Moon Over Brooklyn," written by Terry Shand and Jason Matthews. Guy Lombardo released a recording in 1946.

"While touring, I was always on the lookout for old sheet music in junk shops," she says. "But someone from Texas gave that to me."

Lucky Dog is located at 333 Fishkill Ave. in Beacon; the performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $20. See dub.sh/BMF–tickets