Highlands Current Audio Stories

Discovery comes as Riverkeeper launches monitoring tool

On Sept. 10, the environmental group Riverkeeper launched a water quality portal with an interactive map that shows where it's safe to swim and fish in the Hudson River.

It also indicates where sewage is more likely to overflow during heavy rains, the location of concentrated animal feeding operations (a frequent source of pollution) and the presence of bacteria that can form harmful algal blooms that are dangerous to people and pets.

The timing, unfortunately, was perfect. Two days later, the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies in Millbrook announced that it had documented the largest harmful algal bloom (HAB) in at least 40 years of monitoring, stretching across the river from Kingston to Staatsburg.

The discovery comes at the tail-end of a busy summer for blooms, with similar (although smaller) ones occurring elsewhere, including Beacon's Long Dock Park in August. Earlier this summer, Putnam County shut down 14 beaches due to blooms.

"The algal bloom points out both the importance of having historic data" to monitor conditions and consider responses, said Tracy Brown, president of Riverkeeper, which is based in Ossining and Kingston. The nonprofit will soon update its portal to show the effects of climate change on the river.

Pollution and stormwater run-off can cause HABs, but Chris Solomon of the Cary Institute, one of the researchers who discovered the large bloom, said its origins are not clear. He said it's likely that drought and warm water were involved, as they were in the creation of an HAB that appeared in Beacon's Melzingah Reservoir during the hot, dry summer of 2021.

Both of those factors are likely to become more common in the Hudson Valley. "Increasing water temperatures, air temperatures and droughts are the things that are triggering the algal blooms we're seeing now," said Brown. "Climate change is here, and it's unfolding in real time."

The surface area of the HAB near Kingston isn't its only notable feature, said Solomon. Blooms usually only form in slack water, so it's unusual to see one stretch out across the free-flowing river instead of hugging the shore. And the bloom is unusually wide and deep. "Anywhere we looked in the water column, the algae was quite dense," said Solomon. Satellite imagery taken earlier this week showed that the bloom has continued to grow.

HABs can cause skin irritation, gastrointestinal symptoms and, in more potent cases, neurological damage and death.

Riverkeeper partners with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to collect data for its portal, but NOAA, like many federal science agencies, has been targeted by the Trump administration for cuts. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) secured $250,000 to launch the portal, but Brown expects there may not be more funds coming.

Earlier versions of the portal highlighted that "the open Hudson tends to be cleaner than a lot of the tributary rivers and streams," said Brown. "That flies in the face of people's assumptions. They think, 'Oh, this beautiful little stream going through my local duck pond is going to be nice to swim in as opposed to the big, nasty Hudson.' People were swimming in Rondout Creek in Kingston because they thought it would be cleaner than Kingston Point Beach, on the Hudson."

The Riverkeeper portal is one of several new monitoring tools. This past summer, Bard College unveiled an air monitoring site and the Open Space Institute debuted maps that track how much carbon America's forests are sequestering.

Riverkeeper's online portal is at data.riverkeeper.org. To report a Harmful Algal Bloom, see bit.ly/HABform or email [email protected]. The state also maintains a map of HABs at tinyurl.com/nys-hab-map.

Lana Lagomarsini

"The best way to get me to do something is to challenge me," says Lana Lagomarsini, who moved with her family from the Bronx to Beacon when she was 15. So far in her career, she has proven that by competing on Bravo's Top Chef, Netflix's Pressure Cooker and the Food Network's Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen: Knives Out.

How did she navigate those stressful situations? "I'm generally a calm person, but, yeah, I do like a challenge," she says. "I like a challenge with parameters, too - for some reason, it helps me think."

The transition to Beacon from New York City as a teenager was not easy. "We drove out so far and I saw a cow," she says. "I started crying. I had been going to the same school since I was 5 years old." After she settled in at Beacon High School, "I was the cool girl who moved up from the city. I didn't even realize that I had a New York City attitude on me."

While studying journalism at Northeastern University, Lagomarsini began blogging about food and Boston's restaurant scene. Posts about her Game of Thrones pop-up dinners prompted a friend to offer her a part-time job as a line chef. "He said, 'How would you like to put your money where your mouth is?'" says Lagomarsini. "That just started everything."

She found her niche in restaurant kitchens, where chefs were "pirate-y," she says. "They all had tattoos, and they're saying all this cool lingo. They're working so hard, and everything looks so beautiful and tastes so good. Everything's sparkling clean. I was like, 'I want to do this.'"

She tried out for a job with Kristen Kish (who won Top Chef in 2013 and later hosted during Lana's season). "I didn't even have my own knives," Lagomarsini recalls. "I have a plucky attitude, though." The second day of her trial run, Kish told Lagomarsini "nicely" that she needed to go to school or get more experience.

Lagomarsini wanted to go to a French cooking school in Thailand, but her mother noted that she could commute to the world-class Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. She graduated in 2016 and worked at Restaurant Daniel and Momofuku Ko in Manhattan and apprenticed in Patagonia with Francis Mallman. It was a long way from her first food service jobs at Friendly's and Pizza Hut in Fishkill and Brother's Trattoria in Beacon.

For now, Lagomarsini is a private chef (lanacooks.com) who does pop-ups such as a recent collaborative dinner of fried chicken and sparkling wine at the James Beard Foundation and a residency at Fulgurances Laundromat, a chef incubator in Brooklyn. Her cooking is inspired by the African diaspora and the Great Migration, during which her mother's family moved from a small town in Alabama to New York City.

Lagomarsini grew up learning - and eating - the food traditions passed down by her grandmother, and she's constantly riffing on Southern classics. "I do a lot of things with pot liquor," she says. "I make a lot of chow-chow. Pimento cheese makes its appearance. Cornbread is on the menu in many ways."

Recent experiments include a mash-up of Mexican salsa macha with Nigerian suya (a street food) and a terrine of turmeric dough and oxtails inspired by Jamaican beef patties. "I'm constantly considering what is diasporic food, and that is evolving as well."

Of her cooking shows, she most enjoyed Top Chef. "I didn't have to worry about who likes me and who doesn't, because it doesn't matter as long as the judges like the food." On Season 22, against 14 other contestants, she made it to Episode 11. That's when the judges found fault with her grilled steak with potatoes and Haskap berries (the sage was overpowering and the meat "over-rested").

She is working on a dream project: a supper club series inspired by Georgia Gilmore. "She fed the Montgomery bus boycott," Lagomarsini says. "She called it the Club from Nowhere. It was at her house, but she fed people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X." If you haven't heard of her, Lagomarsini says, "that goes to show how much of...

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

150 Years Ago (September 1875)

Ten residents armed with revolvers formed a "vigilance committee" in Matteawan to "protect persons and property from prowling tramps and other marauders."

The roof of the Fishkill Landing Machine Works caught fire from a spark from the chimney.

The Dutchess County Citizen, which covered Matteawan, Fishkill and Pine Plains, closed and its publisher left town.

When the ticket agent for the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad Co. went upstairs at the depot on a Monday afternoon to retrieve some papers, he left behind his vest, which had $30 [$880] in cash in the pockets. Two boys on the platform testified that James McGinnis, 18, took the money and promised them 50 cents [$15] each to say nothing. The judge set bail at $200 [$6,000].

George Kittridge, while hunting with Henry Alden on a Thursday morning, accidentally shot his companion in the knee. The limb had to be amputated, and Alden died that afternoon.

Judge Ornshee of Matteawan ruled that Ada Ray, 14, Minnie Ray, 7, and Willie Ray, 5, had been abandoned by their mother, Olive, and sent them to the House of Refuge at Randall's Island.

125 Years Ago (September 1900)

At a Democratic meeting held at Fishkill, John Gracey, a Republican produce vendor, threw ripe fruit at one of the speakers, Col. John Dougherty. "Arrests were made," according to The Cold Spring Recorder.

The lineup was released for the firemen's parade at Fishkill and Matteawan: local and visiting fire chiefs, Flocton's Band (Peekskill), Cortland Hook and Ladder (Peekskill), Keink's Band (New York City), Phoenix Hose (Poughkeepsie), Fishkill and Matteawan Military Band (30 pieces), Lewis Tompkins Hose (Fishkill Landing), Nineteenth Separate Drum Corps (Poughkeepsie), Davy Crockett Hook and Ladder (Poughkeepsie), 90th Regiment Band (Kingston), W.H. Mase Hook and Ladder (Matteawan), Middletown Drum Corps, Eagle Hose (Middletown), Rifton Glen Band, Weiner Hose (Kingston), Wheeler & Wilson Band (Bridgeport) and Beacon Engine (Matteawan).

Belle Archer, one of the most photographed actors and singers of the 1890s, performed her new Western-themed play, "Jess of the Bar Z," at Fishkill Landing on Sept. 4 as part of a statewide tour. [Two weeks later, Archer tripped at a train station south of Buffalo and hit her head, causing a fatal brain bleed. She was 41.]

According to a newspaper account, Mrs. Winthrop Sargent of Matteawan had for nine years operated a school for housekeepers from her home, which included a model kitchen garden. "The pupils do all the work, undertaking for a term of three weeks at a time the duties, now of one servant, now of another, until they thoroughly understand all," it said.

The Rev. J. McGrath of St. John's Church admonished his congregation during a sermon for not wearing hats to Mass. He also warned the men that they could not attend services dressed in then-fashionable "shirtwaists" that resembled blouses.

Marguerite Upton, 8, who lived in the Timothyville brickyard settlement, was shot in the arm, which had to be amputated. She said she had found a loaded .48-caliber revolver in a drawer. However, a week later, she confessed to a nurse that her cousin, Frank Kilpatrick, 17, had shot her accidentally after coming into the room and playfully telling her, "Throw up your hands!"

The Matteawan coroner identified remains found in an abandoned well at a farm near Stormville as Charles Brower, a laborer who had disappeared 14 years earlier. According to witnesses, he and Peter Austin, who owned the farm, left the Austin house together, but only Austin returned. A search party found nothing. In 1898 Austin sold the farm, and the new owner discovered the skeleton. Investigators learned that Austin owed Brower $300 [$11,500], and Mrs. Austin said she was "tricked" by police into admitting her husband had confessed to her.

Edward Selek, a Russian making his way to New York City, was struck...

Neighbors raised environmental concerns

A mining company won approval on Sept. 11 to build a cement plant on Route 9 just north of Philipstown, overcoming concerns from residents about noise, traffic and potential risks to Clove Creek and the aquifer beneath it, a source of drinking water to several municipalities.

After a nearly yearlong review, the Town of Fishkill Planning Board approved a plan by Century Aggregates to build an 8,050-square-foot plant at its 310-acre property at 107 Route 9, on a portion of the property once occupied by the Snow Valley Campground. The operation will draw 10,000 gallons of water daily from a new well, and require a new septic system, 12 parking spaces and six propane tanks.

Century Aggregates plans to operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 6 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, the firm said. Mixer trucks would enter the site through an entrance opposite Carol Lane and cross an existing bridge over Clove Creek, a protected waterway and tributary to Fishkill Creek that snakes through the property.

To address concerns about the environmental impact, Century Aggregates agreed to leave trees and vegetation in an 8.2-acre greenway that is at least 200 feet wide, includes Clove Creek and its shoreline and extends 500 feet north and 700 feet south of the bridge that crosses the waterway. Trees in the zone that "show signs of a material deterioration or tree cover thinning" will have to be replaced, according to Planning Board documents.

Ted Warren, public policy manager with the Hudson Highlands Land Trust, joined residents in expressing reservations to the Planning Board during a May 8 public hearing. Along with concerns about truck traffic, noise and dust, and endangered and threatened wildlife such as the timber rattlesnake, Warren said newly paved surfaces risk sending contaminated runoff into the creek, to the detriment of water quality and fish.

"Given the increase in extreme precipitation events that we are facing these days, and the fact that the proposed plan is located at the base of steep slopes, the potential for storms to overwhelm the proposed containment and drainage systems during heavy precipitation events should be closely examined," Warren said.

Century Aggregate's daily withdrawal of 10,000 gallons of water, which a lawyer for the company called "de minimis" compared to the amount used by homes and businesses, could also affect the creek and its underlying aquifer, said Warren.

The aquifer parallels Route 9 from East Mountain Road South to the town border with Fishkill. Its groundwater feeds private wells that supply residents and businesses along Route 9, the towns of Fishkill and Wappinger, the Village of Fishkill and Beacon.

"The dust and the pollution that's going to come from the operating of that plant is going to definitely have an impact on the environment, the creek and the living conditions of businesses and houses," Carlos Salcedo, a Philipstown resident whose property on Old Albany Post Road borders the creek, told the Planning Board in May.

According to a study based on readings taken at a concrete plant in Hudson, the loudest sounds will come from the blowers on the trucks used to transfer cement to the project's three storage silos, mixer trucks and the loading of the bins that hold the aggregate used in concrete manufacture.

The study estimated that "no excessive or unusually loud" sounds will impact neighbors or wildlife, and Century Aggregates agreed to measure noise levels when the plant is operating.

Includes information for renters, homeowners, seniors

The City of Beacon has added a Housing Resources page to its website with information on affordable housing and state and county agencies that assist renters and homeowners. See dub.sh/beacon-housing.

The page is divided into sections on tenants' rights, affordable housing, emergency housing, accessory dwelling units, short-term rentals and reports by agencies such as Dutchess County and Pattern for Progress. It also provides contacts for immigrant resources, legal assistance and homeownership assistance. The page is maintained by Ben Swanson, the secretary to Mayor Lee Kyriacou.

Climate change is supercharging the frequency and severity of storms and flooding. At the same time, the White House is gutting disaster management. Can the Highlands take care of itself?

Four years ago this month, the remnants of Hurricane Ida slammed into the Highlands, dumping 5½ inches of rain. Basements flooded, trains shut down and roads were washed out. Dry Brook on Mount Beacon overflowed, sending debris down the mountain and into Jessen Pond.

"That's the area off Violet Drive where Dry Brook comes down from the mountain, and all the cobble and the waste came pouring down and filled it in," said Beacon City Administrator Chris White. Ida came at the tail end of an especially wet summer in the Highlands; a month later a nor'easter dropped another 3 inches of water in two days.

If Jessen Pond hadn't been cleared before that storm, the neighborhood around it probably would have flooded. Fortunately, then-President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration in Dutchess and Putnam counties, making them eligible for funding and help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"We spent weeks cleaning out that pond," said White. "FEMA paid the bill," which was $60,000 to $70,000.

However, the next time a hurricane or nor'easter affects the Highlands, Beacon and Philipstown may be on their own.

FEMA was created in 1979 after years of governors complaining that the U.S. lacked a comprehensive emergency management policy and that some disasters were so costly and destructive that no state could recover from them alone. Like many federal agencies, it has found itself in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's effort to shrink the size of the government. FEMA's workforce, already short-staffed before this year, has been reduced by more than 10 percent since January, and Trump has spoken about eliminating the agency.

Last week the Government Accountability Office released a report warning that because of staffing cuts, FEMA no longer has the resources to respond to multiple disasters in a short period of time, such as in 2011 when Tropical Storm Lee hit the Hudson Valley weeks after Hurricane Irene. In response, the White House blamed Biden for making too many emergency declarations, "burning through FEMA's budget on so-called 'climate change' and DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] pet projects."

The turmoil at FEMA comes as the effects of climate change are being increasingly felt across the country, leading to costlier and deadlier disasters. New York State has spent at least $5 billion over the past five years on disaster recovery, and the number of disasters that cause at least $1 billion in damage is increasing. However, that may become harder to track. Recently, the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that "in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates and staffing changes," it would no longer be updating its database.

"Many states had already braced themselves for having to continue the fight against climate change, in terms of mitigation and adaptation, without help from the federal government when Trump was re-elected," said Amanda Stevens of the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA). "This is not an either/or situation. We do need to continue to reduce greenhouse gases. Reducing our emissions will reduce the severity of climate change and the severity of the impacts, but we will still experience impact."

With FEMA being diminished and possibly eliminated, municipalities in New York and the Highlands will have to shoulder the burden of those impacts.

"Who's going to respond to tornadoes and floods and heat emergencies and fires?" asked White. "People need help getting on their feet again. We don't have the capacity to do that as a city."

Bracing for impact

A report released last year by NYSERDA outlined how climate change may affect the Hudson Valley: more days above 90 degrees, more humidity, more droughts, more deluges and more ...

Drug World, Beacon Wellness to begin giving vaccine

Drug World's phones have been "ringing nonstop" with inquiries from Philipstown residents seeking COVID-19 shots, but owner Heidi Snyder only had one answer while awaiting the annual federal approval that had been routine until this year.

That approval is still pending, but the Cold Spring pharmacy will begin scheduling vaccinations as early as Monday (Sept. 15) because of an executive order issued Sept. 5 by Gov. Kathy Hochul, who declared an emergency "in the face of attacks on science and healthcare from the federal government."

The directive, which expires on Oct. 5, allows physicians and nurse practitioners to order COVID-19 shots for patients as young as 3 years old and expands pharmacists' authority to administer vaccines to children under 18, according to the governor. For the first time, she said, it permits pharmacists to prescribe the vaccines themselves. [Update: On Oct. 5, the governor extended the executive order another 30 days, to Nov. 5.]

Snyder said that Drug World and other pharmacies now have the "standing order" they need to give the shots to the broader public without a prescription - an approval usually given by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), whose membership has been gutted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Without ACIP approval, according to Hochul, many pharmacies in New York state began restricting the vaccines for children ages 3 to 17, pregnant people and adults under 65 without an underlying condition, at a time of year when infections typically begin rising as people spend more time indoors.

Two days before Hochul's executive order, Tim Lindner, a Cold Spring resident, said in an email to The Current that he visited Sam's Club in Fishkill for the COVID-19 booster shot he gets each September. Lindner, 74, said the pharmacist told him the company had just that day instituted a policy requiring a prescription for the shot.

The Beacon Wellness Pharmacy just received one of the two Moderna vaccines this week, according to Lee Williams, a pharmacy technician. Drug World's "hands were tied until Gov. Hochul issued her executive order," said Snyder, who expects to have one of the two Moderna vaccines and the Pfizer shot available on Monday.

If ACIP does not approve those vaccines and the one from Novavax when it meets Sept. 18, "I don't know what will happen," said Snyder. "I have to hope that her [Hochul's] executive order is going to hold."

Insurers typically base their vaccine coverage decisions on the recommendations of ACIP, a panel of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but some say they will also look to medical professional groups, including the American Medical Association.

Earlier this year, Kennedy replaced the entire CDC panel, naming several doctors and researchers who have repeatedly questioned the safety of commonly used vaccines and ingredients.

In a social media post on Aug. 27, Kennedy said the shots will be "available for all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors." But Americans are likely to confront logistical hurdles.

U.S. regulators approved updated COVID-19 shots on Aug. 27 but limited their use for many Americans - and removed one of the two vaccines available for young children.

The new shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are approved for all seniors 65 and older. But the Food and Drug Administration narrowed their use for younger adults and children to those with at least one high-risk health condition, such as asthma or obesity. That presents new barriers to access for millions of Americans who would have to prove their risk - and millions more who may want to get vaccinated and suddenly no longer qualify.

Drug World will not ask for proof, said Snyder, but "if you're 64 or younger, you're going to need to attest that you have a pre-existing condition," she said. "We have to make sure that we cross our T's and dot our I's and make ...

Beacon studio hosts Night of Authenticity

The principals of Silica Studio 845 are waist-deep in running a business, but eight months ago, they decided to host a Night of Authenticity designed for locals.

"This gives people who live here something to do during the week and helps build community," says co-partner Daniela Rzepnicki. "We love the tourists, but on the weekends, you can't find your friends. And there are a lot of people who moved here in recent years, so we also want to welcome them."

On the third Thursday of every other month (next up: Sept. 18), working with singer Leah Valentine, they transform the pottery studio into a salon. Around 70 people attended in July. The suggested admission is $10, and beer, spiked seltzer and mixed drinks (especially the spicy margaritas) flowed freely. Vendors plied wares, people swapped clothes and a tattoo artist worked on Rzepnicki's ankle.

Only a few of the seven pottery wheels overseen by the other Silica Studio partner, Rachel "Ranch" Miller, got a workout. MJ DiMartino, 27, threw for the first time. "I feel creative and happy," he said. "It's a cool spot, and it's nice to make new connections. I came for the music but got so much more out of it."

When the mood lighting clicks in, Valentine grabs the mic. A couple of months ago, singer-guitarist Jessica Simkovic headlined and sang an ode to cannabis, along with the whimsical ditty "Dennis Kucinich Slept in My Bed." Before the set concluded, friends joined in and delivered three-part harmony on a Gillian Welch song.

Accompanied by bass ace Nate Allen, Juliet Strong showcased original tunes on keyboard, some of which conveyed an Irish lilt. During the performance, she praised the "listening room environment," likening it to a jazz club where people pay attention to the music.

For this month's gathering, it's Strong's turn to headline and recruit an opening act (Lea Serras, who will be the next headliner and choose her opener). Strong praised the "warm vibe" of the July gig: "I come from the folk music tradition, and it felt so intimate, like a house concert."

The location, Silica Studio's third-landing spot, opened last summer and occupies the pottery room of the old Beacon High School, now the KuBe Art Center. The space, much larger than their previous place, is spic-and-span because inhaling pottery dust (the silica) can be harmful.

Along with a well-organized wall panel holding implements for making clay sculptures or vessels from the wheel, another one hidden in a corner contains power drills and other hand tools. The partners built out the interior and are "always fixing or constructing things," says Rzepnicki, 28. "We have a pro account at Home Depot."

She created and designed the studio's logo, a "bleeding blossom that represents the dark side of femininity," she says, rendered in a twisted white neon light that is the centerpiece of a mural on the studio's long wall that features flowers and homages to ancient Japanese water waves.

Beyond seeking ways to expand their enterprise, the duo pursues individual artistic directions. Rzepnicki, a glassblower, is constructing a birdbath so large that she had to break down the kiln and rebuild it around the piece to fire it up. Besides her ceramic work, Miller is an illustrator.

"Dani and Ranch are cool young whippersnappers," says Strong. "I like being one of the old people in the room. It's great to see earnest artists and entrepreneurs going about their business without airs and making it happen."

Silica Studio 845, in Studio 109 of the KuBe Art Center at 211 Fishkill Ave. in Beacon, is open daily except Tuesday. See silicastudio845.com. For tickets to the "Night of Authenticity" on Sept. 18, see dub.sh/silica-sept-18.

The Wednesday (Sept. 10) meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board opened on a somber note. "Today we had a political assassination [of Charlie Kirk] and another school shooting [in Colorado]," said Mayor Kathleen Foley. "I'd like a moment of silence for everyone we've lost to gun violence." The mayor also asked that everyone remember those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.

Trustee Laura Bozzi introduced the Flood Resilience Reconnaissance Study submitted to the village in June by Fuss and O'Neill, an engineering firm. The study focuses on the Back Brook watershed, the 160-acre drainage area that sends stormwater from as far upstream as Bull Hill to culverts beneath Fair Street before it empties into the Hudson River. The Fair Street drain collapsed during a severe storm in July 2023. The study recommends improvements to the upstream drainage system, which dates to the late 19th century. Bozzi said that once feedback is received from Nelsonville, Haldane, state parks and other partners, a strategy and timeline will be developed.

The board accepted the low bid of $60,098 from PCC Contracting of Schenectady to repair damage to the pedestrian tunnel from the 2023 flooding. Six bids were received; the highest was $177,180. The contractor will inject material into the tunnel walls to make them watertight, and doors will be added later so it can be closed off during flooding.

Superintendent of Water and Sewer Matt Krug is investigating why the fecal coliform count in treated wastewater entering the Hudson River from the sewage treatment plant exceeded limits set by the state. Kroog also said that, with less than two inches of rain in August, the reservoirs have fallen to 80 percent capacity.

The village will establish its fourth public electric-vehicle charging station at McConville Park. Central Hudson will pay 90 percent of the cost, and the village the remainder, about $3,000. The units will be paid for with a state grant.

The Highway Department began installing sidewalk ramps at key intersections that will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The board voted to increase the hourly wage for school crossing guards from $15.50 to $20 an hour. The village is short one guard but had no response to its advertisements.

The Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing for Sept. 25 regarding an application for a change of use from retail to bakery at 37 Main St., adjacent to the pedestrian tunnel.

As it did last year, the board authorized the Police Department to suspend on-street parking all day on Fair Street and Northern Avenue on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and to divert traffic as needed through November.

CSPD handled 123 calls in August, including 18 traffic stops that resulted in 10 tickets. There were also 27 assists to other first responders, nine alarms, six vehicle crashes, five suspicious incidents, three noise complaints, two domestic incidents, and incidents of burglary, harassment, person in crisis and a dispute.

Cold Spring Fire Co. volunteers answered 17 calls in August, including six activated alarms, four medical assists, two brush fires and calls for a mountain rescue, mutual aid to Garrison Fire Co., Metro-North elevator rescue, outdoor smoke investigation and propane odor. CSFC was one of four Putnam County fire departments to take part in the first training session at the county's new $1.6 million Fire & EMS Training Center in Kent.

Two longtime members recently resigned

The Beacon school board will leave two vacancies open, opting to stay at seven members until the election in May.

In a straw poll, board members unanimously chose to wait, rather than appoint members to replace Anthony White and Kristan Flynn, who resigned last month.

The board had four options: leave the seats open until the election in May; make appointments to fill the seats until the election; ask Jodi DeLucia, the superintendent of the Dutchess Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), to make appointments until the election; or call a special election.

However, only two options - leaving the seats open or appointing members - seemed practical, since a special election would cost the district at least $10,000, and DeLucia and other BOCES administrators may not know the Beacon community well enough to make informed choices.

The board has taken both paths in recent years. Flynn was appointed in 2016 to fill a vacancy, while the seat held by John Galloway Jr., who was appointed in 2020, was left open after his 2023 resignation.

"There are times when appointments feel very necessary," President Flora Stadler said during the board's Monday (Sept. 8) meeting. But "there's a big difference between appointments to the board and actually running, having to go out and collect signatures and speak to 100 people in your community."

She asked her six colleagues to weigh the need for a full, nine-member board versus the value of someone choosing to run for a seat.

While everyone said they favored leaving the seats open, Chris Lewine asked whether the board should use the opportunity to revisit another question that has come up in recent years: Should it shrink?

According to the New York State School Boards Association, board membership ranges from three to 13 people in public school districts statewide, with seven members the most common size. If the Beacon board were to recommend shrinking, district voters would have to approve a proposition making the change during a May budget vote. The smaller board size would go into effect the following year.

The board would need to notify district officials of its intention by March of a given year to get a proposition on the ballot two months later, Superintendent Matt Landahl said.

Vice President Meredith Heuer said Monday that she is neutral after having previously advocated a smaller board. Her mind changed "because our committees have become so much more robust and there is a lot of work to do," she said.

Stadler noted that keeping membership at nine "allows for a broader range of ideas and experiences" among the group. She added that, in the state's eyes, Beacon still has a nine-member board, so a five-person quorum will be required for future meetings.

The next several months will give the board a chance to test-run having seven members, Lewine said.