Highlands Current Audio Stories

Holtec says no wastewater releases imminent

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday (Sept. 24) that the state overstepped its authority when it passed a law to prevent the company decommissioning the former Indian Point nuclear plant near Philipstown from discharging radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River.

The Save the Hudson act was passed in August 2023 to prevent Holtec International from discharging water containing tritium as it decommissions the shuttered nuclear power plant near Peekskill. Holtec sued in April 2024, arguing that the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 gives the federal government the "exclusive right to regulate the discharge of radioactive materials from nuclear power plants."

The company also argued that the discharges would be far below the federal government's limits for tritium in wastewater and that Indian Point had routinely made similar discharges during its 50 years of operation. Judge Kenneth Karas, based in White Plains, agreed, ruling that Holtec was within its rights as it had assured compliance with federal regulations.

The state has not announced whether it will appeal. However, during a Sept. 25 meeting of the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board, Holtec stated that it does not plan any discharges in the near term and will discuss the issue with local stakeholders this month. If the company decides to release wastewater, it must provide the state with at least 30 days' notice.

"Everyone is still digesting this," said Pete Harckham, a Democrat who introduced the Save the Hudson Act in the state Senate. "We don't know what the attorney general will do." The act was introduced in the Assembly by Dana Levenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Philipstown.

Holtec also said on Thursday that it is not considering reopening Indian Point

despite an article in Politico in which Kelly Trice, the company's president, suggested that it was feasible. The company estimates that rebuilding the reactors would cost $8 billion to $10 billion and take four years. Its estimate was prepared because the federal Department of Energy is "asking everyone that has a closed or decommissioned site," said Patrick O'Brien, a Holtec official.

"The question we always get asked is, 'Is it possible to potentially rebuild Indian Point?'" O'Brien said at the Sept. 25 oversight meeting. "Our goal is to answer the question once and for all publicly and just say yes, but if the political will exists."

In January, five Republican senators from other parts of the state introduced a bill to establish a commission to examine the reopening of Indian Point, saying that the closure "has proven to be a significant setback in terms of grid reliability and capacity." The bill died in committee during the previous session.

If Holtec were to attempt to reopen Indian Point, it would face tremendous hurdles. First, as part of the shutdown agreement, any plans to create nuclear energy at the site must be unanimously approved by the Village of Buchanan, the Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York State and the Hendrick Hudson School District.

At the oversight meeting, Susan Spear, the commissioner of emergency services for Westchester County, read a statement from County Executive Ken Jenkins in which he declared that the county "will not agree to support and will oppose any application for nuclear reactors at the Indian Point site." According to Jenkins, "We need to just move on."

The company's estimate for reopening is based on rebuilding the plant, although its reactors have been dismantled. "We would use existing equipment and add reconstituted parts," said O'Brien. "There's still good equipment there. For now, we're continuing down a path of decommissioning."

In addition, because the design of Indian Point was found, near the end of its lifecycle, to violate the Clean Water Act, any new nuclear there wouldn't be able to draw water from the Hudson.

Holtec is in the final stages of attempting to restart the Palisades Nuclear ...

Students adjust to ban with board games, CD players

A month into the statewide school cellphone ban, students in Beacon and Philipstown are playing cards during lunch, reading during study hall and showing up on time to class because they can no longer make TikTok videos on campus.

Some Beacon High School students recently spent a free period playing tag.

"They're being kids again," said Rachel Faiella, a Beacon High School social worker. "It's such a difference."

Beginning in September, state law banned students from using their own internet-enabled devices during the school day. Students, teachers and administrators seem to agree that the ban has transformed the culture, particularly at Beacon High School, Rombout Middle School in Beacon and Haldane High School in Cold Spring.

Cellphones were already banned in the Beacon and Haldane elementary schools, as well as in Haldane Middle School and the Garrison School, which serves students from pre-K to eighth grade. All local public schools had previously banned the use of cellphones during class.

Beacon and Haldane students have mostly been complying, keeping their phones in their backpacks or leaving them at home, according to school officials. On Wednesday (Sept. 24), Julia Sniffen, the principal at Haldane High School, said a handful of students were starting to test the ban. She said she had three confiscated phones in her office.

Walking down a hallway during lunch, Sniffen saw several students walking together and said, "I hope I don't see any cellphones." The students smiled and raised their hands to show they were empty.

In interviews, students said they like the ban. "It's a lot easier to stay focused and on track, not only academically but also mentally," said Melby Scher, a Beacon senior. She said that, in previous years, the text message "We need to talk" could turn into a daylong distraction.

"Before this year, I was on TikTok and Instagram trying to watch everything," said Samiria Ferrer, another Beacon senior. "Now the phone's away, so I can just focus on schoolwork."

"In study halls, I'm seeing more actual studying," said Rebecca Masback, a Haldane High School teacher.

Students have been innovative in battling boredom, relying on old-school music players that don't violate the ban on internet-enabled devices, said Corey Dwyer, the principal of Beacon High School. "We've seen CD players, Walkmans, MP3 players. We've been joking that the '90s are back."

Haldane and Beacon are providing board games like Scrabble, UNO, Connect 4, Twister and Cornhole. "I'm great at Jenga," said Khiana Nicholson, a Beacon senior, who was playing with friends during lunch.

Some students noted loopholes. For instance, they have discovered they can still stream shows and movies on Hulu and BritBox through their school-issued Chromebooks.

Prince Jones, a Beacon senior, said he thought the ban shouldn't apply to study halls, especially early in the year, when there isn't much homework. During a study hall during the first week of school, "I would just stare at the walls for a little bit and sleep," he said.

"It's a hard adjustment for a lot of us, because, you know, we're all addicted to our cellphones," said Nadine Alayon, a Haldane junior, who was playing an oversized game of Connect 4 in front of the school. "It's been hard not going on TikTok during lunch. But it's fun to see everybody talk and socialize in the hallways."

"I like it a lot," said David Powlis, another junior at Haldane, who was playing Twister in the hall during lunch on Wednesday. He said in previous years, before the ban, "I would be sitting with my nose in my phone, wasting my lunch period."

Federal government settles over land claims

In a settlement with the federal government, eight Dutchess and Putnam County landowners, including five in Beacon, were awarded $1.06 million in compensation for property taken for a proposed 13-mile rail trail - apparently the first resolution in a slew of similar lawsuits.

Metro-North, which acquired the dormant Beacon Line in 1995, is negotiating to relinquish the tracks to the state for a Beacon-to-Hopewell Junction trail. It would wind from Beacon's train station for 4 miles around the city's southern perimeter before running parallel with Tioronda Avenue and the east end of Main Street. The entire Beacon Line is 41 miles long and stretches to the Connecticut border.

The eight plaintiffs are represented by Lewis Rice, a law firm in St. Louis that specializes in rail trail "takings" cases. Four own homes on Tioronda Avenue and another is the limited-liability company behind the condos at 1 East Main St.

The property under and adjacent to the tracks was seized in February 2024 under the National Trails System Act, which allows abandoned railroad lines to be converted to parks. A feasibility study commissioned by Dutchess County and released in August recommended tearing out the unused tracks between Beacon and Hopewell for $46 million to $56 million rather than installing a path alongside them.

Landowners adjoining the corridor can claim swaths of land likely lost in the 19th century, when railroads that needed the corridors purchased or condemned the land or acquired easements, according to Steve Wald of Stewart, Wald & Smith, another St. Louis law firm specializing in rail-trail property cases. The firms argue that modern owners are "predecessors in title" who "have the same rights as the original landowners."

The plaintiffs in this case and similar ones elsewhere in the country say that, in the event of a conversion of use to something other than rail access, they should receive "full possession and control" or be compensated. If a court agrees, appraisers determine the amount of land lost, as well as any damages related to loss of privacy and/or security from the trail construction.

More than 80 abandoned railroad lines in New York state have been converted to trails, including the 13-mile Dutchess Rail Trail that stretches from Hopewell Junction to the Walkway Over the Hudson and the 12-mile Putnam County Trailway between Baldwin Place and Brewster.

More lawsuits are pending. Stewart, Wald & Smith has at least three outstanding cases that name 260 landowners. In Beacon, their clients include the Elks, Lank's Automotive, Lori Joseph Builders, Levi Reavey Sr. and Whitefield Properties. On Aug. 21, Lewis Rice filed a lawsuit on behalf of G.P. Beacon LLC at 578 Main St. and property owners in Fishkill and Pawling. On Sept. 17, Stewart, Wald & Smith filed a claim for owners in Fishkill, Hopewell Junction, Pawling and Poughquag.

Italian artist created wry, but serious, works

Piero Manzoni, who became famous in Italy before his death in 1963 at age 29, challenged conceptions of art as Marshall Plan funds flowed in after World War II and his nation shifted from agrarian to industrial.

He also lampooned celebrity and consumer culture, worked with non-traditional materials and believed that the creator alone determined what is art.

As chronicled in a video on display at a new exhibit, Total Space, at Magazzino Italian Art in Philipstown, Manzoni dipped his thumb in ink, imprinted hard-boiled eggs and placed them in small boxes. He blew up balloons for his Artist's Breath series but really grabbed attention with 90 tins of Artist's Shit. No one knows what's inside the cans; even before Warhol, Manzoni made a bold statement about the art world and its pretenses.

"Many a truth is told in jest," says Greg Slick, the museum's chief docent. "He lets us into his art with a smile, but he was dead serious about it."

Several examples of Manzoni's iconoclastic approach are on view at Magazzino, which specializes in the Arte Povera movement that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Manzoni exerted a major influence on the loosely affiliated group of artists who expanded his ideas into new frontiers.

In a cavernous gallery with booming echo and the statement "Stand Here You Are Art" in bold black on the back wall, Manzoni's "Magical Base" (a wood pedestal) offers visitors the chance to play statue and get a good photo op.

Also included are six works from the artist's Achrome series, a word he concocted that translates to "anti-color." All the work is whiteish, but the focus is on texture. They are differentiated by dates. A folded canvas created in 1958-59 looks like undulating water. Another, made in 1958 from plaster and kaolin on canvas, resembles a slab of stone; a 1960 piece frames a stack of eight polystyrene squares.

Two significant works on display are the roughly 10-foot cubic spaces commissioned by the artist's family foundation in conjunction with the gallery Hauser & Wirth, based on a concept briefly mentioned in a letter the artist wrote to a friend in 1961.

In the Lower Gallery

Three decanters visible as visitors descend the stairs into Magazzino's lower gallery provide a harbinger of the heart-stopping works in the exhibition Yoichi Ohira: Japan in Murano.

Ohira studied in Venice and designed elaborate vessels after becoming artistic director of de Majo glassworks on the island of Murano in 1987. Drawings outlining his intentions hang on the wall. Italian craftsmen executed the details with precision, and Ohira credited the glassblowers and the carvers, as well.

The work, primarily executed by maestro Livio Serena, evokes a wide range of textures, some of which resemble wood or ceramics. Several vessels present optical illusions: In the Pasta vitrea series, some of the shapes appear to rise from the surface. Others are specked with colorful chips that seem to be recessed, but everything is flat. For fans of the glassblower's art, run, don't walk.

The museum owns the rooms, designed by architect Stephanie Goto. During a preview opening, RAI, the Italian public broadcast outlet, interviewed curator Nicola Lucchi, who is the museum's director of research and education.

The patterns in "Hairy Room," whose interior consists of faux white fur, are almost psychedelic. In the also-trippy "Phosphorescent Room," the light switches on and off every 30 seconds. In one mode, the walls and ceiling are fluorescent neon green; the other flips the tint to beige-yellow as the light emanates from the floor.

Manzoni may have equated art with excrement to pull people in but, for better or worse, his provocations helped push the philosophical boundaries of conceptual creativity to its extremes during his lifetime.

Magazzino, at 2700 Route 9, is open Friday to Monday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $20 ($10 seniors, students, disabled visitors; $5 ages 5 to 10...

Retired Beacon officer accused of killing roommate

The mental health of Edison Irizarry, the retired Beacon police officer accused of murdering the man who shared his apartment, will be evaluated before his next court date in December.

Irizarry, 52, was arrested July 21 after Beacon police responded to a 911 call placed by Irizarry, who said he had shot his roommate. Police found Casey Cuddy, 58, of Beacon, dead inside an apartment at 86 Rombout Ave.

Irizarry served 17 years with the Beacon police before retiring in 2021. After determining that the caller was a retired officer, Beacon police turned the investigation over to the New York State Police.

Irizarry was indicted by a Dutchess County grand jury on Aug. 5 on a second-degree murder charge and is being held at the county jail in Poughkeepsie without bail.

The district attorney's office said that Irizarry is accused of shooting Cuddy, a psychiatric mental health nurse, multiple times with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic Glock pistol. Irizarry pleaded not guilty in Beacon City Court on July 22.

In an interview last month, Irizarry told the Times Union that he acted in self-defense to prevent "something evil from happening."

On Wednesday (Sept. 24), Susan Mraz Mungavin, Irizarry's public defender, and Brittney Kessel, the deputy unit chief of the Dutchess County DA's Office, met privately for about 10 minutes with Judge Jessica Segal.

When they emerged, Segal said that Mungavin had hired a psychiatric expert to evaluate her client. She set an Oct. 22 deadline for Mungavin to file motions related to the evaluation.

Prosecutors must file their response, if any, by Nov. 12 and Segal set Dec. 10 as the next court date. Irizarry did not appear.

Howland again focuses on photography

Strange things are happening at the Howland Cultural Center's photo exhibit Focus on Photographers II. On Sept. 20, a mother and daughter from New Mexico stopped by. They are friends of Wilbur Norman, one of the artists, who lives outside Santa Fe.

The following day, a couple from Queens - by way of Nepal - dropped in and named the monks in Norman's photograph, "Puja for the Safe Trek of Our Tour Group," which captures a cavernous temple scene.

Curators Larry Kerschberg and Ronnie Sauers live in Cold Spring. He is a retired computer science professor active with the Beacon Photography Group on Facebook. Sauers, an interior designer, moved to Beacon in 1987. The bridge on East Main Street over Fishkill Creek is named after her and her late husband, Ron, who died in 2011.

The exhibit's feng shui is apparent in the way she bookended Norman's display with two striking photos taken abroad - "Bat Man" and "Dance Preparations by Hul Wig Man." The wall flanking Ron Hershey's work features two images showcasing radiant blue hues shot in Morocco.

Robert Tirrell, who lives in the city, contributed five photos. In his composition "Bird Gang," seven pigeons strike humorous poses while standing on the roof of a car.

Hillary Clements, Ross Corsair, Amy Finkel and Hershey are locals. Clements layers multiple exposures inside the camera, an effect that creates captivating images of leaves and plants. Some look like collages, others resemble human creations. The print "Ferns" evokes an X-ray of the bumpy plants.

Also employing an unorthodox technique, Ross Corsair's shots come "straight out of the camera, with no post-processing or AI enhancement," he says. Three deftly silhouetted images convey anonymity, such as "Assignation," an urban street scene taken from a bird's-eye view, where a lone figure with a blue and red umbrella punctuates the bland grays and browns.

A creator of lush work, Hershey's misty, dreamy photo, "Li River Landscape, China," looks like a painting. Another shot, "Woman in a Narrow Passage, Morocco," appears to be posed, as the subject fits perfectly into the crevasse and wears a blue outfit that complements the background.

Finkel points her camera at everyday subjects, like a dog dressed in a peacock costume baring its lower fangs; "Stanley" is adorable, but also a bit menacing. Another pup chomping on a ball in "New Veneers" appears to have a perfect set of teeth, as the toy's design aligns in the pooch's mouth. "Carousel" captures a girl's face in focus while the swirling background fades into a blur.

As the exhibit's title suggests, this is the second go-round for Kerschberg and Sauers in the curatorial department. The exhibit's third iteration will return next year. "It takes a lot of time putting this together," he says, "but it's worth it because the work is so good."

The Howland Cultural Center, at 477 Main St. in Beacon, is open from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and most Sundays. See howlandculturalcenter.org. "Focus on Photographers II" continues through Nov. 16.

Putnam also considers lower premiums for employees

A consultant is recommending salary increases for Putnam County public health nurses and other positions. At the same time, the Legislature took up a proposal to dramatically reduce the amounts employees contribute to their health coverage.

Julia Culkin-Jacobia of Catapult Executive Consulting presented to the Legislature's Personnel Committee on Sept. 18 the results of her review of the salaries paid to employees covered by the Civil Service Employees Association, the county's largest union.

The committee also reviewed a draft agreement between County Executive Kevin Byrne and labor unions that would cap the employee share of their health insurance premiums at 17 percent, instead of the current maximum of 30 percent.

The six nursing jobs in the Department of Health were the original focus of the study, but it expanded to include other positions as Putnam seeks to improve recruitment and retention. For nurses, Culkin-Jacobia suggests that Putnam boost the starting rate from $72,269 to $75,770 by reassigning them to a higher CSEA pay scale, Grade 19 instead of Grade 18. The starting salary would then be closer to the average of $74,153 in seven "peer counties," including Dutchess, Orange, Rockland and Westchester.

Kathy Percacciolo, the nursing supervisor for the Health Department, said that many counties and hospitals used pandemic relief funds to raise the salaries of public health nurses, but in Putnam, "the COVID money was not used for that reason, which set us back."

Putnam has had a "real struggle" to fill the nursing positions, said Paul Eldridge, the county personnel officer. Five of the six positions are now filled, but three were open as recently as August, he said. To entice new hires, the county is offering starting pay at the higher end of Grade 18, but that leaves little room for raises. Reclassifying the positions to Grade 19 allows the county to offer higher starting pay while retaining the "ability to use the other steps" of the higher grade, he said.

Culkin-Jacobia also suggested changes for management positions, ranging from confidential secretaries and directors to assistant district attorneys and the county executive's staff, that do not have salary scales. She recommended a 12-grade scale "to help manage costs and also have a guideline for administration to make salary decisions." Each grade would have a minimum salary ranging from $62,080 to $177,121, as well as maximums ($80,960 to $230,988).

Culkin-Jacobia identified several management positions for raises, including the county auditor (7 to 10 percent), the two elections commissioners (5 percent), an IT systems specialist (28 percent) and the park superintendent (5 percent).

"With the labor shortage over the last two to three years, especially, there's been a lot of retention issues, especially as people were retiring from the county," she said.

The challenge of recruiting and retaining employees also prompted Byrne to create a committee to review the amount that workers must contribute to their health insurance premiums. Many new hires pay 30 percent, which falls as they accrue time, Eldridge said. Putnam's rate is significantly higher than the cap in Dutchess and Westchester (20 percent each) and Orange (16 percent) counties.

Under the proposal, the 30 percent contributions would be reduced to 17 percent under an agreement between Byrne, the CSEA and the three other unions that represent Putnam employees: the Putnam County Sheriff's Employee Association (jail guards and staff), the Putnam Management Association and the Sheriff's PBA (deputies).

The committee also calculated the costs if the county changed the maximum to 20 percent, 18 percent or 15 percent, but Byrne, in a letter to the Personnel Committee, called the 17 percent cap "reasonable, fiscally informed, fair and regionally competitive."

Eldridge said that 225 Putnam employees would benefit. The plan would add $865,000 to the $11.5 milli...

Seeks class-action status over First Amendment claims

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is banning opinions by professors in the classroom and some books and courses in a crackdown that violates the First Amendment, a law professor at the military school said in a lawsuit Monday (Sept. 22) seeking class-action status.

Tim Bakken filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court and named the school and its leaders as defendants. He said he wants to protect free speech and the right to academic freedom at an institution where he has flourished despite his public criticisms of the academy and the U.S. military.

Bakken also noted in the lawsuit that he has a contract with a publisher for a book that is critical of some aspects of West Point and doesn't want to seek approval from the school's leadership prior to its publication because "it is very likely such approval will be withheld."

The lawsuit seeks class action status for West Point's civilian faculty members, believed to be more than 100 individuals, and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech, along with unspecified damages and legal fees.

Bakken's lawsuit said the school began to scrutinize faculty speech after a January executive order from President Donald Trump to "carefully review the leadership, curriculum and instructors of the United States Service Academies and other defense academic institutions."

In February, the military academy at West Point issued a policy preventing faculty members from using the school's "affiliation or branding" in connection with any public comments or writings without the academy's approval, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit said the policy was "to control, chill and suppress faculty speech."

The lawsuit said the academy in the spring withdrew books from its library, removed words and phrases from faculty members' syllabi, eliminated courses and majors and threatened or punished faculty members for teaching, speaking and writing without prior approval from the school.

During the summer, the academy removed information about faculty members' published books, articles, essays and scholarship entries from all faculty members' webpages on the school's website, the lawsuit said. It also directed instructors not to express opinions in the classroom, it said.

"As a professor of law, Plaintiff's inability to express opinions on the subject matter being taught is stifling and disruptive to the educational process," the lawsuit said. It added that he no longer would be able to express to students whether a major or dissenting opinion is persuasive and why.

The military academy did not immediately return a request for comment.

Bakken, a civilian professor of law in the academy's Department of Law and Philosophy for the last 25 years, is the longest-serving law professor in West Point's history and has written extensively, including books, articles and essays, along with appearances on podcasts, radio and television, the lawsuit said. His most recent books are The Cost of Loyalty: Dishonesty, Hubris, and Failure in the U.S. Military (2020) and The Plea of Innocence: Restoring Truth to the American Justice System (2022).

According to the lawsuit, he traveled with U.S. soldiers to Kabul in 2007 during the war in Afghanistan and created the Department of Law at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan.

He seeks class action status for West Point's faculty and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech.

White House seeks control of state elections

Dutchess and Putnam are among a handful of New York counties where election boards recently have received unusual federal subpoenas for information on registered voters as the administration of President Donald Trump pursues more control over state elections.

Lisa Jessup, the Democratic commissioner for the Dutchess County Board of Elections, said on Tuesday (Sept. 16) that in a subpoena received on Sept. 4, the Department of Homeland Security requested information on a single voter who registered to vote as a Republican in 2023 through the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The person has never voted, she said.

Two more subpoenas were sent to the Putnam Board of Elections, one in June and another on Sept. 9, said Catherine Croft, the Democratic commissioner, and Kelly Primavera, the Republican commissioner. Primavera said it is not unusual to respond to requests from state or local police, but could not recall having ever gotten a subpoena from the federal government.

Homeland Security also subpoenaed records for three voters in Saratoga County and an Ellenville resident in Ulster County who registered through the DMV, according to the Times Union in Albany. A Homeland Security agent contacted by the Daily Freeman in Kingston about the Ulster County request said the subpoena was "related to potential voter fraud," but declined further comment, citing an ongoing investigation, according to the paper.

Shadowing the requests is the Trump administration's campaign against alleged widespread voting by non-citizens, despite laws that already prevent them from voting in state and federal elections and a lack of evidence. New York is among at least 27 states where election boards have received requests from the Department of Justice to turn over their databases of registered voters, including driver's license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The letter to New York officials, dated June 30, asked them to detail how the state complies with the Help America Vote Act, including processes for identifying ineligible voters, such as non-citizens and people registered in other states.

At least 11 states responded by sending publicly available files, leading to a second round of letters in August requesting the entire databases, according to an analysis by Eileen O'Connor, a senior counsel with the Brennan Center. "The executive branch has no authority to run our elections, nor any authority to compile a massive database of voters' personal information," she said.

In March, Trump issued a sweeping executive order that included directing the attorney general and Justice Department to prioritize the prosecution of election crimes, although they appear to be rare. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation lists 1,276 election-fraud cases nationwide over the past 20 years, including 26 in New York for charges ranging from misusing absentee ballots to voting twice in the same election and forging petition signatures.

There were 85 cases involving non-citizens accused of registering to vote or casting ballots during that period, and none in New York state. Heritage's database lists no cases nationally for 2020, when more than 155 million people cast votes in the presidential election that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

On Sept. 4, Louisiana's Republican secretary of state, Nancy Landry, announced that an investigation involving voter rolls as far back as the 1980s found 390 non-citizens registered to vote, with 79 having voted in at least one election. "Noncitizens illegally registering or voting is not a systemic problem in Louisiana," she said. "In fact, our voter-list maintenance procedures are a key reason why Louisiana is ranked No. 3 in the nation for election integrity."

In June, New York and 18 other states that sued the Trump administration over his executive order won a preliminary injunction against some...

For first time, students don't need to bring their own

It's hard to say who likes the Garrison School's new lunch program more: the children who dine daily on entrees such as hot dogs, tacos and chicken Caesar salads, or the parents who no longer have to pack sandwiches.

The public school, which has about 200 students from pre-K to eighth grade, had never had a daily lunch program. Students brought their meals from home, although parents sold pizza on Fridays for years as fundraisers.

The new program "has been a game-changer," said Principal Allison Emig. "It's a big help to families getting their kids out the door. But also, it's a game-changer in the school culture. The kids are happy."

The meals are offered free to every student through a Universal Free Meals program included in this year's state budget. Funded by state and federal grants, it also covers breakfasts if a school offers them.

Garrison provides its lunches in partnership with the Putnam Valley Central School District, said Greg Stowell, the superintendent. He said that the meals are prepared, in part, at Putnam Valley High School and delivered to Garrison. The daily menu is posted on the school website, and the students tell their teachers each morning if they want a cafeteria meal. The school provides about 180 lunches each day; some students still bring their own.

The district expects to spend about $50,000 to upgrade its kitchen and hopes to add a la carte offerings for purchase.

On Monday (Sept. 15), the menu included cinnamon French toast, ham and cheese sandwiches, chef salads, oranges and fruit salads. On Tuesday, Beshea Toribio, a seventh grader, selected chicken tenders, tater tots, green beans and strawberries. "The salads are also good," she said, speaking over the din of the raucous lunchroom.

A classmate, Julia Murphy, also chose the chicken tenders and tater tots but added what appeared to be at least four packets of ketchup. She drank chocolate milk. "I love chocolate milk," said Murphy, 12. "Now I get to have it every day for free."

Lunch has been "the highlight of her day since she started school," said Julia's mom, Sandi Murphy, who has spent many years packing meals for her three children. "I'm just hoping her excitement about it continues, because it certainly gives me one less thing to do."

In Cold Spring, the Haldane district also began offering all students free meals this year and says it has seen a 15 percent increase in lunches served and a much larger jump in breakfasts, from 58 during the first two weeks of school in 2024 to 500 this year. Beacon public schools have offered free meals since January 2024.