Highlands Current Audio Stories

Former Cold Spring police officer honored

Vinny Damato, a former Cold Spring police officer, isn't surprised when people thank him for his service — he is a former Marine who served in the Gulf War, a former state trooper and a former New York City firefighter who assisted with the search and recovery in 2001 at Ground Zero.

What surprised him on Sept. 10 was seeing his New Windsor backyard transformed into a putting green.

The backyard makeover was a project of Folds of Honor, a nonprofit established in 2007 to provide scholarships to children and spouses of fallen or disabled service members. In 2022, it expanded its mission to include first responders.

"Mr. Damato's commitment to his country, community and family, and his service during the Gulf War and at Ground Zero, made him an ideal recipient of a backyard makeover," said Lt. Col. Dan Rooney, founder and CEO of Folds of Honor. Damato's two children are among more than 70,000 people who have received Folds scholarships.

Damato joined the Marines in 1989, served in the Gulf War with the 2nd Light Artillery Infantry Division and remained in the reserves until 1995. He was a New York state trooper from 1996 to 1999, then joined the FDNY for 23 years. He was a part-time officer in Cold Spring from 2016 to 2021.

The Arizona-based Celebrity Greens has partnered with Folds of Honor since 2021. It designed and supervised the installation of the green, which was built by Total Turf, a program partner in Westchester County. All the labor and materials, valued at around $45,000, were donated.

Damato said he and his wife thought the email announcing his selection for the makeover was a scam. When he didn't respond, Folds of Honor followed up with a phone call.

On Sept. 11, 2001, during the attacks on the World Trade Center, he was serving with Engine Company 74 on West 83rd Street but was off duty. "My flip phone started ringing, and I knew I had to get in there," he said. He was in an NYPD van heading downtown on the West Side Highway when the South Tower came down.

Most of that day was a blur, he said, but he remembers the sun peeking through the dust. "It was chaotic working through the night," he said. "We had lost the heart of the upper echelons of the fire department."

Ruben Correa, a firefighter from Engine Company 74, was among the victims. Health issues related to 9/11 forced Damato to retire from firefighting.

Last week, on the morning of the 25th anniversary of the attacks, Damato attended the Firemen's Memorial at Riverside Drive and 100th Street, as he has each year. He said it is bittersweet to know that some firefighters killed on 9/11, including his wife's cousin, Lenny Regalia, have children serving with FDNY. His feelings are "hard to describe," he said.

"In my mind, it feels like it was yesterday," he said. "But the people around me somehow bring it full circle, and you realize 25 years have passed." He said it's hard to believe that a third of the U.S. population had not yet been born on that day.

This year, Damato did not make it downtown on 9/11 for a sunset vigil. His daughter, Artabelle, a Girl Scout, was laying a wreath at a memorial in Cornwall at 6 p.m. and asked her dad to be there. He arrived in time.

A week after it was installed, Damato said he is enjoying his putting green. "I love golf, but I wouldn't say I'm good at it," he said with a laugh. "I'm more of a weekend warrior." But he insisted his putting has already improved. "I'm reading the greens a little better," he said.

He declined to comment on his wife Kathy's putting but said Artabelle's is "way better than mine."

"I feel good about life," he said. "I have a great family, I'm lucky to be here and I consider that a major blessing."

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

While workers dug for a new road at Wolcott's gravel bank in Matteawan, the skeleton of a man tumbled down a bank. The skull and jawbone were taken to Dr. Hustis. The workers somehow determined that the skeleton belonged to a white man.

The first post office opened in Dutchess Junction.

W.H. Dutcher, the Poughkeepsie pedestrian, performed his celebrated feats at Matteawan, including walking backward and picking up apples and potatoes with his teeth.

A Matteawan homeowner had a woman arrested for trespassing after she took water from his well.

Amos Williams of Matteawan was fined $2 [about $63 today] for hitting his brother John on the head with a boot.

A horse belonging to Thomas Thorne of Matteawan strayed out of its enclosure into the street and walked into a barroom on Mill Street.

Charles Davies, 79, who taught at West Point and Columbia University, died at his home in Fishkill Landing. His textbooks, from the basic First Lessons in Arithmetic to college-level courses such as Elements of Descriptive Geometry, with Their Application to Spherical Trigonometry, Spherical Projections and Warped Surfaces, became known as Davies readers and revolutionized math education.

William Mase of Matteawan sold a team of black horses to the Hon. Hamilton Fish of Garrison for $2,000 [$63,000].

The Fishkill Journal reported that a movement was growing in Fishkill Landing to abrogate the village's incorporation because tax assessments were "unequal and unjust."

The Newburgh Telegraph called out the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, accusing it of destroying the Dutchess Hotel's business by constructing a 5-foot-high fence that kept travelers from the only place near the Fishkill Landing depot to buy refreshments. The railroad said it installed the fence to prevent people from jumping on the train without buying a ticket. The hotel owner, Mrs. Myers, earlier had refused the railroad's offer to buy her out for $9,000 [$282,000].

During the parade of Murray's circus at Fishkill Landing, George Robinson's son was in the street looking at the caravan when he was knocked down and run over by a horse and wagon.

Despite the fanfare, the circus performed in Matteawan to a small crowd. After the show, it fired two acrobats and reduced the wages of everyone else. Soon after, the two acrobats were performing in the street, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal. "Their different feats were almost as thin as the crowd around them," it said.

A homeowner who caught two tramps stealing from his home said he didn't have them arrested because he feared they would return and burn down his house.

P.H. Vosburgh launched The Matteawan Observer, a five-column weekly.

The Fishkill Journal reported that the Rev. P. McCourt, pastor of St. Joachim's Church in Matteawan, had been afflicted with a mysterious illness. "He was taken with a pain in the ankle, which extended to his knee, but without soreness or swelling," it said.

Michael Mangolilla, of Beekman Street, was leaning on his shotgun with the muzzle under his arm when it fired and killed him. He had just returned from hunting and was talking to several women about vegetables.

Two 16-year-old girls from Montreal who escaped on Aug. 1 from the New York State Training School in Hudson were captured by Beacon police. The girls were living in a barn, "and a number of boys had been seen in the neighborhood," according to the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. Police detained the girls after a chase at the creek dam. "One of them ran across the top of the dam, which is 150 feet above the water, and was caught on the other side," the paper reported.

Henry Ager, 24, an oiler at the Denning's Point brickyards, caught his pocket on a bolt on a 24-inch belt of the main drive shaft and was hurled through the air at a rate of 300 revolutions per minute to his death at 9:30 a.m. on a Monday morning. He struck timbers and machinery for more than a ...

County uses dozens of license-plate readers

Deputies with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office have used license-plate readers in Philipstown and other municipalities to nab suspects such as the gun-wielding man who robbed a gas station on Route 9D and the man who pleaded guilty to killing a taxicab driver in Southeast.

But those successes are tempered by reports of misuse elsewhere, such as an Albany sheriff's investigator charged Sept. 9 with searching data captured by that county's LPR cameras to track a former girlfriend and four acquaintances. In addition, Putnam's data is stored with the Real Time Crime Center in Westchester County, whose police department is accused in a lawsuit of illegally tracking drivers and allowing access by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Amid a nationwide backlash against license-plate readers and other surveillance technologies, Putnam Sheriff Brian Hess assured the three members of the Legislature's Protective Services Committee on Sept. 9 that the county's system is used only for solving local crimes and that it flags officers if they violate prohibitions on how the data is used.

As in Beacon, the Putnam cameras are not connected to the national Flock network. Police Chief Tom Figlia is scheduled to address the City Council on Monday (Sept. 21) about his agency's use of LPRs.

Hess said access to the database of license-plate numbers collected by Putnam's 48 cameras is limited to his deputies; local officers from Carmel, Kent, Cold Spring and Westchester County; the New York City Police Department and state police in New York and Connecticut. Before being appointed and then elected sheriff last year, Hess commanded the Real Time Crime Center and helped build its LPR system.

Under a policy approved by the Putnam Legislature in 2023, LPR data can only be searched for criminal investigations and accessed by federal or out-of-state agencies with the sheriff's approval. Deputies using the system must undergo training and are prohibited from using captured data "for personal, curiosity, financial, political or other non-official purposes," or an investigation based on "religious, political or social views or activities" or "participation in a noncriminal organization or lawful event."

The policy also bans using the technology to target someone based on their ethnicity, immigration status, race, sexual orientation or exercise of First Amendment rights. Automated "audits" flag irregularities in searches, and "any misuse of any of those systems will result in discipline," said Hess. "Are there concerns? Yes. But they [cameras] are effective," he added. "We're not just collecting data to collect data."

Former Sheriff Robert Langley Jr. introduced LPRs to Putnam, including the cameras mounted in 2021 on Route 9D just south of Peekskill Road, at Little Stony Point Park and in Nelsonville on Main Street (Route 301) just east of Peekskill Road. Putnam has cameras in 21 locations, with two more sites scheduled to be added.

Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 11, the network issued alerts for 184 vehicles reported stolen, 27 associated with "known burglary crews" and 22 with organized retail thefts, and 17 for wanted suspects and people missing or at risk of harming themselves or others, according to a document provided to the committee by Hess and the police chiefs for Carmel and Kent.

The camera near Peekskill Road helped police capture David Peres in the February 2022 armed robbery of a Gulf gas station on Route 9D; he was sentenced in December 2024 to eight years in prison. The cameras are also credited with helping deputies capture Santos Vasquez-Ramirez, a Pawling resident who in June pleaded guilty to killing a cab driver in Southeast.

Hess and police in Carmel and Kent say alerts issued when cameras record the plate of a stolen vehicle or cars associated with burglary or retail-theft crews help locate suspects before they commit additional crimes. Officers also use them to investigate crimes when pol...

Says it must first study environmental impact

New York State said it must draft an Environmental Impact Statement and hold public hearings before it can gift the University Settlement Camp to the City of Beacon, according to documents released this week.

Last October, the City Council passed a resolution asking state parks to transfer the Settlement Camp, which is part of the Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve. Nothing in the state's draft scoping document — a first step toward an Environmental Impact Statement — indicates that it is unwilling to do so.

The University Settlement Society of New York sold the 51-acre property, originally established in 1914 as an idyllic summer camp for children from low-income urban families, to the state in 2007.

The city manages the site through a 20-year, no-cost lease that runs to November 2027. In 2015, the City of Beacon opened a municipal swimming pool and, two years later, the Recreation Department launched Camp at the Camp, a signature offering that serves 150 Beacon children every summer.

The city, however, has been reluctant to commit too much money to a site it does not own, and decades of deferred maintenance have left the property in what the state calls "fair to poor condition." Significant investment is needed to stabilize and repair buildings, install updated septic tanks (or tie into Beacon's sewer system), install a modern water distribution system, renovate the pool and improve roads and drainage.

Across an expansive meadow, timeworn cabins from the original camp sit in the woods. The structures still used on the property have no insulation or heat. Because it does not own the property, the city must seek written consent for even routine undertakings, such as improvements or alterations or executing sub-leases.

Some of the buildings at University Settlement Camp are dilapidated and unusable. Others, although in use by the city, need significant repairs. (Photos by J. Simms)

According to the documents released this week, the state parks department believes a transfer would positively affect open space and recreation and improve the property. It also would be consistent with community plans and character and would not have negative environmental impacts. The only potential for a negative effect would be to historic resources, it said.

According to the scoping document, the Settlement Camp is eligible for inclusion in the National or State Register of Historical Places because it is "associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns in our history."

State law requires a deed covenant to protect "historic character-defining features." At a minimum, that would require a new owner to consult with the state before undertaking work that could impact historic features. Although they are not identified in the scoping document, the city would be prohibited from destroying or altering certain buildings; the site's "setting" could not be altered; and no visual elements could be introduced that are "outside of character of the property."

Mayor Lee Kyriacou said on Wednesday (Sept. 16) that he's not concerned about such limitations. "The state is just following its procedure," he said. "Many of the buildings at University Settlement are dilapidated; some are worth preserving."

Village 'slammed' over Labor Day Weekend

If Labor Day marks the beginning of Cold Spring's busiest season, this year may foreshadow what villagers can expect throughout the fall.

"We got slammed this weekend; we were overwhelmed with visitors arriving by train and by car," Mayor Kathleen Foley said at the Wednesday (Sept. 9) Village Board meeting. She said she has asked Metro-North for passenger counts.

Foley outlined several problems, from heavy pedestrian traffic and vehicle congestion that necessitated making Fair Street one-way northbound, to vandalism and hikers trespassing on private property. She said there were also lineups of "50 or more" at village eateries, restaurants running out of food and a traffic accident.

She pointed to a need for improved communications with New York State Parks, citing two mountain rescues during which parks staff couldn't be dispatched directly because their radios aren't linked with Putnam County 911. One parks police officer, she said, joined the rescue effort after seeing it posted on Facebook.

"This is bananas," she said. "It should be a simple solution."

Trash was also an issue. Royal Carting missed a scheduled pickup on Labor Day, leaving overflowing cans up and down Main Street while prompting critical comments on social media. Foley read an apology from the company for what it called the "unsightly and unsanitary mess" caused when its new computer program failed to schedule the holiday pickup.

"Cold Spring is being crushed by overtourism; our community cannot handle more people," Foley said. "We cannot continue to bear the cost of tourism ourselves. And we can't live with the consequences of a new attraction," a reference to the ongoing lawsuit brought against the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail and New York State Parks by the village and the Town of Philipstown. The municipalities argue in the lawsuit that an environmental review of the proposed 7.5-mile trail between Cold Spring and Beacon did not adequately address the project's impact on the village.

Foley reported that work has begun to stabilize the rock wall on Lunn Terrace. The sidewalk on the east side of Lunn is closed, and an alternate walkway has been established along the west side of the street. Trustee Tony Bardes described an "insane" scene in that area over the weekend as pedestrians walked around cars while drivers honked and yelled at them. Foley said the state Department of Transportation's delivery of Jersey barriers, which would direct pedestrian and vehicle traffic, had been delayed. "This is going to be really challenging through the busy fall, but it's something that we have to get through," she said.

In its structural assessment of the Cold Spring dock submitted in late August, Race Coastal Engineering found the village pier to be in "fair to moderate" condition with no major items requiring immediate action, a conclusion Hahn Engineering's Will Angelillo described as "good news." The report's major recommendation calls for cleaning and coating the waterside face of the bulkhead and its cap along with minor repairs, work estimated to cost about $1 million. The report also provides detailed mooring recommendations, including maximum allowable wind speeds for vessels while docked at Cold Spring, from the 76-foot sloop Clearwater to Seastreak ferries that exceed 150 feet in length. Race Coastal also noted that the dock should be reexamined every three to five years. It was last assessed in 2011.

The mayor was authorized to complete negotiations with Seastreak for its fall schedule of weekend cruises to Cold Spring.

The board accepted Wind River's low bid of $64,050 to remove and dispose of sludge from the wastewater treatment plant, a 2 percent increase over its successful bid two years ago. Tully Environmental bid $238,000 for the contract.

The board accepted Clove Excavators' low bid of $235,375 for fall paving projects, as recommended by Hahn Engineering. Paving will be completed on Rock, Main, Fair and Ch...

Gen. George Washington reorganized his army into three divisions, including one led by Maj. Gen. Israel Putnam, for whom Putnam County was later named.

The Turtle, a submersible pod built by David Bushnell and piloted by Ezra Lee, attempted to attack the 64-gun HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.

Washington asked Congress to send 600 men from Orange and Ulster counties to the Highlands to defend and strengthen its forts.

In Philadelphia, Congress adopted the name "United States of America."

After Washington retreated to what is now Morningside Heights, the Council of War voted 10-3 to abandon New York City as indefensible.

British ships ferried 4,000 troops to Kip Bay [34th Street]. After a quick victory, Maj. Gen William Howe pushed his forces north to what is now 90th Street.

On Sept. 20, a fire destroyed 493 buildings between Broadway and the Hudson River.

On Sept. 22, the British hanged the spy Nathan Hale, 21, in Manhattan. He had been posing as a Dutch schoolteacher. By one account, Hale's final words included the lament, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Some speculate Hale was reciting a line from Cato, a popular play: "What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country."

Detective Scanlon caused a stir when he alighted from an early train with Dan Bow, who had escaped from the Carmel jail on April 11. "This is the first time we remember when an escaped prisoner was ever returned to our county jail," said The Cold Spring Recorder.

Johnny Parker was cleaning a pane in the front door at Carey Brown's place when he slipped off the chair and pushed his hand through the glass, badly slicing his wrist.

The U.S. steamer Mayflower, manned by cadet engineers, docked at Cold Spring. "The sailors, with the true instinct of that profession, got a taste of our 'firewater' the moment one of them got leave to come ashore," The Recorder said.

A rough-looking "humbug" circulated in Cold Spring selling a powder that he claimed would prevent a kerosene lamp from exploding. Several boxes were sold.

Another crowd gathered around a trader of packaged stationery who had "a discordant banjo and a jabber of nonsense," according to The Recorder.

After the driest summer in six years, with just 6 inches of rain, the pump at the corner of Main and Market went dry.

The window of the telegraph office was draped in mourning for Miss Dykeman, the late operator.

Robert Barton opened a news depot three doors from the post office, with all the New York City periodicals and delivery to anywhere in Cold Spring.

J.G. Southard put up a lantern in front of his store, making four on one side of Main Street, with Baxter's, Southard's, McCarty's and O'Donnell's.

James Ladue, who left Cold Spring 12 years earlier to enlist in the Union Army, returned to work at the West Point Foundry.

The Town Hall hosted a return engagement by Blind Tom Wiggins, 27 (below), a pianist who had visited five years earlier. Promoters said the former slave from Georgia was discovered as a boy playing pieces he heard when the girls practiced.

A.W. Cole, a Putnam Valley farmer, harvested a 14-inch ear of corn with 592 kernels.

John Foster, Edward Foster and Peter McCaffery shot three raccoons in Breakneck Hollow that weighed 18, 19 and 27 pounds.

The village president offered to return his $25 annual salary [about $780 today] as trustee to repair the southerly walk on Bank Street. He had opposed paying the trustees.

Hance Wood added a sign to his blacksmith shop that covered the front of the building.

The Hudson River Railroad extended the signal wires from Sandy Landing to a point near the depot, eliminating the need for a day hand and a night watch.

Kent Henlon, keeper of the Putnam County farm, grew a 40-pound watermelon to enter at the fair, but someone stole it from the field.

The school year started at the Nelsonville school with a record attendance of 95 pupils. The Garrison Union Free School, with 96 students, had a new principal, F.D. ...

Beacon Film Society to screen doc about news broadcast

There should be at least a little bit of pit bull grit in every reporter's gut.

Amy Goodman has sacrificed her body to get the story. In 1991, she stepped into the middle of a massacre by the Indonesian military. Riot police in St. Paul, Minnesota, also roughed her up at the 2008 Republican National Convention.

At 69, she's still globetrotting. This year, she says, "I'll be in Berlin, London, Copenhagen, Brazil and Turkey." During these trips, Zazu, a Shih Tzu-Bichon Frise mix, who accompanies her human almost everywhere, including the newsroom and a protest in Manhattan, stays at home.

Goodman helped create Democracy Now!, an hour-long weekday news program. The Long Island native is also the subject of Steal This Story, Please!, a documentary that will be screened by the Beacon Film Society at the Howland Cultural Center on Sept. 18. The title, one of the broadcaster's mantras, reflects the desire for major media outlets to piggyback on her work and pay attention to the marginalized and forgotten.

As an independent journalist whose show airs on 1,500 radio and television stations nationwide, Goodman has shaped global events by directing tough, relentless questions at those in power, known in the trade as "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable."

Dismissed by detractors as an activist rather than a journalist, her voice is sometimes the one that is shoved aside.

"Corporate distributors refused to touch this film, so we did it ourselves, and it has played regular theatrical runs several times a day at 200 cinemas across the country," says Carl Deal, who co-directed with Tia Lessin. "It's been a slow burn, but we proved to ourselves and the gatekeepers that there is an appetite for real content beyond contrived true crime and celebrity documentaries."

Goodman developed a muckraking style at her high school newspaper, calling out the principal over disparities in spending between boys' and girls' sports. At radio station WBAI in Manhattan, her reporting helped free a death row prisoner in Louisiana. The station's coverage generated so many phone calls to the governor that his office changed the number.

In 1991, Goodman landed in East Timor, a province of Indonesia about the size of Connecticut, to investigate persecution by the military regime, a U.S. ally. Soldiers in uniform attacked unarmed gatherers at a cemetery, including Goodman and Allan Nairn at The New Yorker, killing more than 200 people in what became known as the Santa Cruz massacre.

A local journalist filmed the scene, buried the document in a fresh grave and retrieved it after nightfall. The major networks' flagship news shows "stole" the story and aired the harrowing footage, which helped spark worldwide protests; the region achieved independence in 2002.

Founded in 1996, viewer- and listener-supported Democracy Now! shuns corporate and government sponsorship. In the early days, Goodman worked with a skeleton crew, reel-to-reel tape and other antiquated technologies. Now, she operates from a gleaming studio with a team of assistants at digital workstations.

With Zazu close by, Goodman reflects on the film: "I never expected this kind of response, showing at screenings all over and winning a dozen audience favorite awards at festivals with packed crowds."

In the documentary, she explains that the dog's name refers to the "anti-Nazi youth of occupied France. They loved jazz and swing and gathered at underground nightclubs. Every time [I tell people her name], they say, 'Oh, Lion King.' I didn't know that, but I go, 'Yeah, whatever.'"

The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. Tickets for the documentary, which begins at 7 p.m., are $15 at bit.ly/BFS-9-18, or $20 at the door. A Q&A with Deal and producer Karen Ranucci will follow the screening.

Weekly concert series continues until Oct. 9

Less than a year after taking over the entertainment reins at Little Stony Point Citizens Association, Bryan Jennings has expanded the musical offerings beyond a weekly song circle and two annual festivals. He even brought a bluegrass band to Bar-ber on Main Street in Cold Spring.

Founded by Pete Seeger and others in 1984, the Philipstown group has presented The Hoot and Maple Syrup Day since the mid-1990s.

"Pete was always playing banjo and making syrup," says Fred Martin, the nonprofit's vice president. "We have his old evaporator behind the fence."

In June, Jennings produced a country-themed performance by Woody Guthrie's grandson, Cole Quest. The annual Hoot, with seven bands, takes place on Sunday (Sept. 13), followed by a series of shows that are part of a new series called Down by the Riverside. It kicked off on Sept. 4 with the Stephen Clair Band from Beacon, featuring Clair, Daria Grace (bass) and Aaron Latos (drums). Brian Grahn and Karen Kapoor opened with an acoustic set.

At peak attendance, about 150 people, half of them under 10 years old, enjoyed plenty of pizza on a humidity-free evening. Volunteers Bo Bell, Mike Muller and Jennings tended to the sound system. Others donned bright-yellow safety vests and shined flashlights on orange construction flags to usher people across the dark roadway after the performance.

The back porch of the Volunteer Center, which doubles as a stage, is augmented by a substantial deck at ground level. To keep the music going for six hours during the Hoot, bands will alternate between the two platforms, breaking down and setting up while others perform. The acts include Kat Lee Rivers, Gotham River (David and Jake Bernz) and the Americana Band from the Beacon Music Factory.

The five-piece group Dr. (Sept. 25) is a passion project of Bryan Kopchak, who runs a monthly jazz jam at Quinn's in Beacon. Known primarily as a drummer, he will trade the sticks for guitar, vocals and vocoder. Regarding the band's name, he says, "There is an element of healing tunes, among other songs, to help the listener delve deep into who they are."

Along with Stephen Clair, the other Beacon-based artist in the series is Damon Banks on Sept. 18, accompanied by Gwen Laster on violin, David Gilmore on guitar and Todd Isler on drums. "When I was living in the city, we all came through the ranks," says Banks, who plays bass. "It'll be fun to bring people together and preview some songs from the next record."

The quartet will also perform stripped-down versions of selections from his 2013 album Travelguides, which features horns and lush arrangements. "I've played these songs with acoustic guitar and upright bass," he says. "It's up to me to figure out how to translate the texture of the record and let a new cast of people breathe new life into it."

For the remainder of the series, Jennings imported The Scrub Ups (Oct. 2) and Jorge Caraballo and the Freakin' Ricans (Oct. 9). The performances are underwritten by an unsolicited grant from the Franklin Foundation. "When we asked to reach out and thank the people involved, they said, 'Sorry, it's anonymous,' so we're going to pay it forward," says Martin.

Little Stony Point is located at 3007 Route 9D in Philipstown. The Friday concerts begin at 6 p.m. For more info, see littlestonypoint.org.

I was at my desk at Police Headquarters, eating a bagel with coffee. I heard the explosion, and I said to myself: That's the real thing. I got back to my desk days later, and my breakfast was right where I left it. But everything else had changed.

It was my second day at a new job, teaching at an elementary school in the South Bronx, one that Jonathan Kozol describes in his book, Savage Inequalities. Parents began turning up to take their children home, but none of them could tell me exactly why. Someone said, "They bombed the Pentagon." The administrators wouldn't give us any information, although they must have known because they were listening to the radio.

With no phone for teachers and no cellphone, I bought a phone card and called my husband from a bodega. He was on a business trip in Denmark, watching it all on TV. Subway service was disrupted, so it took me four hours to get home to Chelsea, which was 2 miles north of the Trade Center. The smell of smoke and burned bodies was chokingly strong, and looking south along Eighth Avenue, I could see plumes of smoke still rising. The streets were full of people, in shock, some of them weeping.

I recall vividly my wife Maia and I dropping our son Charlie at his first day of preschool and weeping and embracing in the hallway because he was growing up and we were ready but we weren't. I remember going to the polls to vote for Mark Greene for mayor.

I remember my train down to work in Union Square being stopped due to an incident at the World Trade Center and I remember remembering an incident there before, a thwarted bombing, and a pit in my stomach which only grew when I asked the subway conductor what happened and he said a plane hit one of the buildings, and I ascended out of the station in time to see the smoke pouring out of the tower and I remember stopping to chant "nam myoho renge kyo" as I walked to work to use the phone to call my wife, chanting for all the people in danger and all the people who had just died and for more people to wake up and stop using violence as a political weapon and I remember ending up walking 23 blocks back uptown until I caught a bus and finally got back to the preschool only to learn that my wife had heard the news and picked Charlie up and was at our apartment and walked there and we embraced and wept for so much more than our son's first day of school.

I had returned the night before from Buffalo, where I was taking care of my aging parents, who were having a difficult time. The radio signal went out. We turned on the television and saw the plane hit the first tower. My fiancé, now husband, said, "That was no accident." He went to work at a large insurance company a few blocks away. I returned to my home office. I turned on the TV, but it went out. I went into a neighbor's apartment, where they were standing on the terrace, and I watched the towers fall. I was worried about my sister, who had flown in from Boston the night before. She had been at Logan Airport at the same time as the attackers.

Hourly, we heard the sirens coming up First Avenue, bringing remains to the morgue. It was just an oppressive time of fear and sadness. Later, I taught freshman writing at Fordham and asked the students to write about the first event that hit them outside their family. I encouraged them to choose topics other than 9/11 because I just didn't want to read the essays. But 13 of the 16 wrote about that day, when they were 9 years old, and it was startling how much they remembered: what they were wearing, where they were standing, whom they were speaking to and how the adults lied to them, for their own protection, of course. They were told that a pesticide had been sprayed on the grass, and that's why they had to come in from the playground, or that there was a problem with the air conditioning, so their parents had to pick them up. The essays conveyed a sense of betrayal, which I think the country felt to some degree.

Mary Anne Myers and her husban...

Forecast documents trends, needs, funding

The Dutchess County Transportation Council adopted a 25-year forecast last month that sets priorities for cars, public transit, walking and bike infrastructure. The plan is updated every five years. To solicit ideas, the council held public meetings and pop-up events, including at the Beacon Farmers' Market. Here are six takeaways:

Dutchess County has 2,521 miles of public roads. The council estimates that 81 percent of trips, and 77 percent of commutes, are made with personal vehicles — rates that have remained largely unchanged since 1980. The county's population, at about 300,000 people, has also remained steady, but the number of passenger vehicles grew by 4 percent over the 15 years before 2025. (There are about 7,500 vehicles registered in the county.)

Traveling for family reasons and personal business account for 36 percent of trips, followed by 28 percent for social and recreational activities. Commuting makes up 21 percent of trips. Those trends are expected to hold, although the report predicts slightly less commuting because of remote and hybrid work, and fewer shopping trips because of home delivery. The number of people working from home increased from 8 percent in 2019 to 14 percent in 2023.

Electric vehicles cut pollution, but without a robust charging network, many people hesitate to purchase them. E-bikes make cycling more accessible and let people travel farther, but the devices raise safety concerns because they can reach 20 mph or higher; riders do not need a license, and not everyone wears a helmet.

"Unless our development patterns change substantially, transit, walking and bicycling are unlikely to be feasible for many trips, especially outside of our cities, villages and town centers," the council says.

The council notes there are challenges to replacing car trips with pedal power. The state Department of Transportation has designated an on-road bike route on part of the Empire State Trail in northern Dutchess, along with segments of Routes 9, 9D, 22, 199 and 308. However, the routes run on shared travel lanes and/or shoulders and are intended for experienced adult cyclists. No dedicated lanes exist except along short segments of Route 9. This creates what the council report calls "a major impediment to people feeling comfortable bicycling for everyday travel."

In 2025, the council concluded that a rail trail between Beacon and Hopewell Junction utilizing a 13-mile corridor abandoned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could be built. The project just lacks a sponsor and funding. The City of Beacon intends to construct the 3.3-mile segment from its waterfront to the Town of Fishkill and has hired an engineering firm. On Tuesday (Sept. 8), Mayor Lee Kyriacou named 11 members to a committee that will provide input on trail projects, including, first and foremost, the Beacon Rail Trail.

The Department of Transportation says that, of the county's 655 miles of roads that qualify for federal aid, 321 miles, or about half, are in "good" condition or better. (That's from 2023, the most recent survey available.) Fourteen percent were rated "poor." About 30 miles of interstate and "principal arterials" in the county, or 12 percent of the total, were in poor condition.

While Dutchess anticipates receiving more than $1.5 billion in highway funding over the next 25 years, that will not be enough to maintain infrastructure. The county also expects $1 billion in transit funding. It estimates that funding and expenses will break even for rail service but produce a deficit for buses.

The county will have to address the shortages by reducing costs (such as deferring maintenance), increasing funding or using "innovative" financing methods such as public/private partnerships, tolls and other user fees and local sales taxes.

The report also highlights eight "illustrative" projects that lack funding. The Beacon-to-Hopewell trail is one, along with conversion to a zero-emis...