Highlands Current Audio Stories

Saint Rita's opens in KuBe Art Center

Timothy Parsaca is a live-event producer who is now "captain of his own ship," says his wife, Kelly Ellenwood. The couple spent the last two months turning a raw space at KuBe Art Center in the former Beacon High School into Saint Rita's Music Room.

They hosted their first concert on July 19. Dressed in a kilt, Parsaca had a blast controlling the sound and lighting for Dick Griffin, former trombone player for free-jazz pioneer Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Griffin's quintet delivered a spirited set with comedic camping from drummer Tommy Campbell.

"We see this as an alternative and welcoming venue," says Parsaca. "It's hard to find places to put on drag shows or burlesque that aren't bars, so we want to serve the community that way, too."

Black floors and ceilings sandwich red walls. With plants, table seating, vintage couches in the back and "fandeliers" (chandeliers with ceiling fans), the vibe is fancy but unpretentious. It's easy to forget it's a former school band room.

Subtle details include the curtains, which look ornamental but improve the sound for the audience and musicians. Behind the performers, the back wall twinkles with white and blue lights to provide depth of field, says Parsaca.

The room hosted its first event on July 17 - a party for family and friends. The following night, it was the site of a sold-out performance of Broadway in Beacon. The couple's children, Rowan and Rhiannon, play pivotal roles.

On July 19, Griffin and his band opened with a furious flurry of cosmic chaos, then broke into the straight-ahead song "Blues for Sun Ra." Having some fun with his solo, Griffin tried to blow the lowest note possible. When not playing trombone, he tapped on percussion instruments retrieved from a nearby table.

On drums, Campbell hit hard and coaxed strange sounds from his cymbals, rubbing the tip of his stick into a groove and emitting a form of feedback. He also brushed a stick across the cymbal, creating another odd tone. He hit the kit with a folding fan and used the prop for slapstick gags. At one point, he did the hambone.

During the Latin vamp, he tapped the hi-hat cymbal with his foot, which sounded like he swatted them with his stick, freeing up his hands to create a more complex rhythm. Mimicking Jimi Hendrix playing guitar behind his head, Campbell crossed his arms behind his back and kept on hitting for a few beats, then delivered a furious solo with his snare muffled to provide a sound more attuned to Latin percussion.

The rest of the band also slammed. Pianist Alexis Marcelo channeled the herky-jerky style of Thelonious Monk on the Latin piece, but also delivered a feathery, cascading touch on the mellower songs.

Bass player Jeremiah Edwards provided solid support along with an upper register solo on the blues tune. Jordan Young on saxophone performed a call-and-response interlude with Griffin.

With table seating, Saint Rita's fits 99 patrons. For theatrical performances the space could accommodate up to 200. Though it will serve beer, wine and food, "this is not a bar or a restaurant," says Ellenwood. "It's a listening room."

Saint Rita's Music Room is located at 85 Eliza St. in Beacon. The Hudson Valley Flyers will perform honky tonk on Aug. 2 and Broadway in Beacon will host an open mic for singers ages 18 and younger on Aug. 3. See saintritasmusicroom.com.

Trump administration freezes $6 billion in grants

Update

From The Associated Press:

The Trump administration is releasing billions of dollars in withheld grants for schools, the Education Department said Friday (July 25), ending weeks of uncertainty for students, families and educators around the country who rely on the money for English language instruction, adult literacy and other programs. A week ago, the White House said it would release $1.3 billion for after-school programs that had been withheld.

President Donald Trump's administration had suspended more than $6 billion in funding on July 1, as part of a review to ensure spending aligned with the White House's priorities. The funding freeze had been challenged by several lawsuits as educators, Congress members from both parties and others called for the administration to release the money. Congress had appropriated the money in a bill signed this year by Trump.

A week prior, the Education Department said it would release $1.3 billion of the $6 billion for after-school and summer programming. Without the money, school districts and nonprofits such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club of America had said they would have to close or scale back educational offerings this fall.

Now, the Office of Management and Budget has completed its review of the remaining programs and will begin sending the money to states this week, the Education Department said.

School districts in the Highlands say they may lose a combined $140,000 this year under a Trump administration order to freeze over $6 billion in federal education grants.

The administration froze the funds this month pending a review to ensure that "taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the president's priorities."

In Beacon, the district expected to receive $62,000 for professional development, $32,000 for a range of programs such as social-emotional learning and curriculum mapping software, and $7,000 for English as a New Language services, said Superintendent Matt Landahl.

"We've relied on these funds for years," he said. Although the grants represent a small portion of the district's $87.7 million budget, "when we have to replace this with our own funding, we're having to make decisions about things we haven't had to make decisions about before."

"Under Review"

The Trump administration said it hasn't made any decision on how much funding it would release for six programs appropriated by Congress. At risk are the following programs and funding amounts, nationally:

$2.19 billion for Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants, which work to reduce class sizes and pay for professional development for educators

$1.33 billion for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which are before- and after-school programs that provide academic enrichment for students and are an important source of subsidized childcare for working parents

$1.38 billion for Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, a flexible funding stream that pays for services including mental health, accelerated learning and college counseling

$890 million for English Language Acquisition, used for English proficiency and language instruction

$376 million for Migrant Education, funding that supports the needs of migratory children such as those whose parents are seasonal and migrant farm workers

$715 million for Adult Basic Literacy Education State Grants, programs that support adult education and literacy

Source: The Associated Press

Landahl said that some of the funds defray the costs of August workshops, including a program to help rising freshmen prepare for high school and a program for juniors and seniors to prepare for college-level work. Those programs are scheduled for Aug. 12 to 14 and will go on, he said.

At Haldane, the district may lose $15,000 that pays part of the salary of a reading teacher, said Gail Duffy, the superintendent. She said the district also could lose $10,000 for professional development. She said the district would m...

House member says he will seek re-election

Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican whose House district includes Philipstown, said on Wednesday (July 23) that he has decided not to run for governor next year.

Another prominent House Republican, Rep. Elise Stefanik, has been considering a campaign in 2026 against Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat. She said in a statement Wednesday that she'll decide after the November election.

Lawler, in his second term representing District 17 after defeating incumbent Sean Patrick Maloney in 2022 and Mondaire Jones in 2024, weighed his options as President Donald Trump and the Republican Party attempts to retain control of the House in next year's midterm elections. Lawler told "Fox and Friends" on Wednesday that running for reelection was "the right thing to do for me and my family and my district. Keeping the House majority is critical if we are going to continue to move this economy in the right direction."

Lawler is one of few Republicans who won a seat in 2024 in a district that went to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. He is coming off a successful fight to raise the federal income tax deduction for state and local taxes, a significant pocketbook issue in New York state. The federal budget bill enacted by the president last month raised the cap to $40,000 for the next five years; it had been capped at $10,000 as part of Trump's first-term tax overhaul.

Lawler held a series of sometimes raucous town halls this year at a time when Republicans were being advised to skip the forums that were drawing angry questions about Trump's agenda. The president endorsed Lawler in May, calling him "a strong champion and highly effective representative" in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Hochul, a former lieutenant governor, assumed the governor's seat in 2021 after Andrew Cuomo resigned. She was elected in 2022. She also faces a challenge from her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.

Seven Democratic candidates have launched campaigns to unseat Lawler, and Axios reported earlier this month that Maloney is contemplating a return. The candidates are:

Peter Chatzky, a tech company founder and village trustee in Briarcliff Manor;

Cait Conley, a 2007 West Point graduate from Orange County who is former director of counterterrorism for the National Security Council;

Beth Davidson, a Rockland County legislator;

Effie Phillips-Staley, a Tarrytown trustee who is a nonprofit executive;

Jessica Reinmann, who founded the nonprofit 914Cares in Westchester County;

Mike Sacks, a lawyer and former TV journalist from Westchester; and

John Sullivan, a former FBI intelligence analyst who lives in Rockland County.

In April, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it would focus on 35 House districts held by Republicans nationally in 2026 in an attempt to regain control of the House. The only New York district on its list is Lawler's.

Investigation turned over to state police

A retired Beacon police officer is being held without bail on a murder charge after a shooting late Monday (July 21) at 86 Rombout Ave.

According to the New York State Police, Edison Irizarry, 52, of Beacon, was arrested at 11:26 p.m. and charged with murder in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and criminal possession of a firearm, all felonies. He pleaded not guilty during a Beacon City Court appearance on July 22 and is scheduled to return to court Aug. 6 for a preliminary hearing.

The police identified the victim as Casey Cuddy, 58, of Beacon, who they said was found dead at the scene. Cuddy was a psychiatric mental health nurse and actor who performed for the County Players in Wappingers Falls. According to a program biography, the Finger Lakes native moved to the Hudson Valley in September 2022 after living in Los Angeles and Oregon. In November 2022, Cuddy placed a classified ad in The Current seeking a roommate to share his first-floor Beacon apartment.

A July 2021 Facebook post by the Beacon police officers' union congratulated Irizarry on his recent retirement from the Police Department. Irizarry, a Marine veteran, served as an officer at Beacon for 17 years, according to the post, including as a field training officer and detective.

Beacon Police Chief Tom Figlia said in a news release on Tuesday that officers received a call Monday night from an individual who said he had shot his roommate. Upon arrival, "it was determined that one of the individuals involved was a retired Beacon police officer," the release said. It said that, "to maintain the highest integrity, the entire investigation was turned over to the New York State Police."

The Beacon department will cooperate "fully and completely" with the investigation, Figlia said.

Could a utility owned by the public, rather than Central Hudson, deliver lower electricity costs?

Many people believe it would, and last year, two state legislators introduced a proposal to make it happen by creating the Hudson Valley Power Authority. The bill outlines the process by which the state would create a "democratically governed" nonprofit corporation that would provide "low rates, reliable service, correct and easy to understand bills, clean energy, community benefits and environmental justice." The goal would be to keep residential electric bills from exceeding 6 percent of household income.

It would not be the first public utility, even in New York. Along with the state-owned New York Power Authority and the Long Island Power Authority, there are at least 50 municipal utilities in New York, mostly in rural areas. For the rest of the state, the delivery of electricity is monopolized by six investor-owned utilities such as Central Hudson, which has been owned since 2013 by Fortis, a Canadian holding company. In return for their monopolies, these utilities are regulated by the Public Service Commission, which must approve rate hikes and capital projects.

Establishing the Hudson Valley Power Authority would not only lower rates but coordinate with the state's long-term climate goals while protecting Central Hudson's 1,130 employees, according to the two Democratic legislators who introduced the proposal, Sen. Michelle Hinchey (whose district includes parts of Dutchess and Putnam counties) and Assembly Member Sarahana Shrestha (whose district includes the northwest corner of Dutchess). "I don't think the role of government is to empower the private sector," Shrestha said. "This would put public goods back in the hands of the public."

How it could happen

Shrestha and Hinchey's legislation calls for the Hudson Valley Power Authority to purchase Central Hudson and take control of a system with 315,000 electric customers and 90,000 natural gas customers in parts of nine counties, including Dutchess and Putnam. If Central Hudson refused to sell, the legislation suggests authorities could use a legal process called eminent domain to compel a sale.

Tom Konrad, a chartered financial analyst who is the chair of the Marbletown Environmental Conservation Commission, is leading a plan in the Ulster County town - the Hudson Valley's first - to transition to 100 percent renewable energy. He estimates that it would cost between $2.2 billion and $3.6 billion to acquire Central Hudson, including its $1.4 billion in debt.

The Hudson Valley Power Authority (HVPA) would be overseen by a nine-member board appointed by the governor and the Legislature, which would also include the business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 320, the union representing about 700 Central Hudson employees.

In addition, an independent "observatory" modeled after the Paris Water Authority and composed of elected representatives and members of academic institutions would help the board with "community participation, transparency, research and accountability," Shrestha said.

The newly formed utility would retain Central Hudson employees represented by labor unions and assume those agreements, including retirement benefits. After buying Central Hudson, the HVPA would be obligated to bargain "in good faith" with union representatives.

The bill also aligns the HVPA with the goals of the state's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, directing the utility to procure 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and 100 percent renewable electricity by 2040, provided the supply is available.

At least 35 percent of the benefits of clean energy and efficiency programs, such as reduced pollution through the phasing out of fossil fuel-burning plants, would be allocated to disadvantaged communities within the service area.

Shrestha doesn't expect either Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins or Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie ...

Dozens benefit from workforce program

Denise Lahey's roots in Beacon are decades deep.

Her grandfather, Dennis Lahey, served 62 years with the Beacon Fire Department; her father, Dennis Lahey Jr., is the assistant chief and her sister, Kari, became the city's first full-time female firefighter in 2020.

However, those ties to the city were no match for the rental prices Lahey faced in 2019, when a relationship ended, along with half the rent for the two-bedroom unit she shared at Hudson View with her then-boyfriend and son.

There were plenty of good reasons to stay in Beacon, she said: keeping her son in the city's schools and staying close to her family and job as a mail carrier in White Plains rather than moving farther away to Poughkeepsie or Wappingers.

"I was stuck," said Lahey. "Luckily, this happened."

What happened: a $1,400-a-month one-bedroom found through Beacon's Workforce Housing Program, which has rescued dozens of residents from rental purgatory: They earn what are generally considered to be decent salaries, but too little to comfortably afford rents that have skyrocketed in Beacon, particularly since the pandemic fomented a wave of transplants from New York City.

Adopted by the City Council in 2017 as a revision to Beacon's affordable housing law, the program requires new housing developments with 10 or more rental units to set aside 10 percent at below-market rates for households earning up to 90 percent of the Dutchess County median household income, which is about $97,000 annually. For condos and townhouses for sale, it's up to 110 percent of the median income.

Priority is given to volunteer emergency responders who have served five years or longer, as well as municipal and school district employees. Hudson River Housing manages the list of people who have been approved for the program, which so far has created 46 units for rent and nine condos and townhouses that have been purchased, said Chris White, Beacon's city administrator.

Rents range from $1,412 to $2,809 depending on the complex, the size of the household and the number of bedrooms. Lahey's apartment at the Beacon HIP Lofts, where a studio starts at $2,100, has "made everything easier," she said. Her son, now a teenager, has the upstairs and its dedicated bathroom as his domain and Lahey has a bedroom and bathroom downstairs.

Amanda Caputo, Beacon's clerk, pays $1,350 for a one-bedroom apartment at The Beacon at 445 Main St., which houses the Beacon Theater along with the rental units. The apartment is a launching pad for walks to work, the riverfront and Mount Beacon, or strolls along Main Street, where friends work.

"It's helped me grow in my position and stay in the community," she said.

Caputo and Lahey's rents were calculated, based on Beacon's guidelines and the area median income for Dutchess County, by Lashonda Denson, the director of homeownership and education for Hudson River Housing.

When units become available, Denson consults the list of people who have expressed interest and met the income guidelines. If the units are available, the applicants contact the property managers or landlords directly, she said.

People call Hudson River Housing daily looking for Beacon housing through the program, said Denson. "This is one of the few programs that offers some kind of reduction in the rent," she said. "Some people have been waiting for a couple of years, and then it happens."

White described the program as "critical to ensuring that new construction provides opportunities for those who cannot afford the escalating rental costs." In addition to the HIP Lofts, and The Beacon, units exist at 7 Creek Drive, 344 Main, 121 Rombout Ave., The Arno beside Fishkill Creek and the Edgewater complex on the city's waterfront.

Dozens of units are awaiting Planning Board approval or completing construction, said White. Such projects "help to ensure that the city remains home to people of all incomes and backgrounds," he said.

Caputo, a SUNY New Paltz gra...

'Folk opera' in Beacon examines early conflict

A taut thread connects Jean-Marc Superville Sovak's prolific artistic output and prodigious advocacy work: exposing hidden histories.

"I closely identify with past events that are erased or suppressed," he says. "And it's no coincidence that is often the case with people of African descent."

A sculptor, visual artist and activist, Superville Sovak is bringing There Are NO Black Shakers: A Contemporary Folk Opera to The Yard in Beacon on Thursday (July 24) for the work's second staging following its premiere in September at the Shaker Heritage Society in Albany.

After writing the libretto, he took hymns from the radical religious commune to Beacon violinist Gwen Laster, asking if it would be possible to "bluesify them," he says. "She said, 'Anything can be bluesified.'"

Other Beacon residents performing the work, which is punctuated with spoken-word interludes, include Damon Banks on bass, vocalist Melvin Tunstall III and Patrick Jones on banjo and guitar. Superville Sovak lived in the city for 11 years before moving to Plattekill in 2020.

The story centers on a strange and obscure legal case from 1810 that he discovered while visiting a friend's art exhibit at the Shaker Heritage Society. When he asked director Johanna Batman if the group ever had Black members, "she harrumphed and showed me a picture of Phebe Lane as an elderly woman," he says. "The whole story about her sister Betty is well-known among Shakers, but they don't like to advertise or talk about it."

That's surprising because the event makes the religious commune, which stood against slavery and claimed to uphold egalitarian values, look pretty good. The opera's title refers to the community's ideal, which viewed Black and women members as peers first, and everything else second, he says, so they adhered to their creed in many ways.

Controversial upon their transplantation from England in the late 1700s, the Shaker movement reached its peak in the mid-1800s, with more than a dozen self-contained compounds, some of which are now museums. One practitioner hangs on at Sabbathday Shaker Village in Maine.

The Shakers are the "longest-lasting, self-sustaining religious or utopian society in American history," says Superville Sovak.

Beyond their anti-slavery stance, the Shaking Quakers, named for their fervid mode of worship, put the covenant above everything. "Once you signed that document, you handed over all your property and lost your identity," he says. "They opposed private property and the nuclear family, so their value system questioned what made America, America."

The backstory of the court case dates to 1802, when Prime Lane, father of Betty and Phebe, relocated his family to a Shaker village at Watervliet, across the river from Albany. He left the fold eight years later, but the daughters, ages 25 and 23, decided to stay.

Prime sued the Shakers to return Betty, referring to her as his slave. Under New York law at the time, children born to an enslaved woman inherited the condition of bondage, and anyone harboring someone else's human property had an obligation to return the person or be fined.

Betty somewhat fit the bill. Phebe did not, because Prime had emancipated her mother, Hannah, before Phebe was born.

Why the father left the commune and initiated a lawsuit remains a mystery, says Superville Sovak. Eventually, the court ruled in favor of the religious order, and the daughters stayed with them for the rest of their lives.

Lane v. Shakers "busts binaries when we think of history, which is so nuanced," he says. "It helps us look at things in a way that is not simplistic and is a truer version of what the messy past is really like."

The Yard is located at 4 Hanna Lane in Beacon; tickets are $25 at dub.sh/black-shakers. The actors for the July 24 performance, which begins at 7 p.m., are Aviva Jaye (Phebe), Onome (Betty) and Melvin Tunstall III (Prime). Superville Sovak and Alison McNulty are the narrators,...

Owner seeks more time for approvals

The long-awaited demolition and reconstruction of the dilapidated Dutchess Mall building along Route 9 in Fishkill will have to wait at least six more months.

On July 10, the Fishkill Planning Board approved two new 90-day extensions requested by Hudson Properties LLC as it works to meet conditions imposed more than two years ago, in February 2023, in the board's preliminary approval of the project. Hudson Properties would like to demolish the mall's remnants and construct a 350,000-square-foot distribution facility.

After getting a 90-day extension in March, Hudson Properties completed the requirements of the board's conditional approval to subdivide the property, said Christopher Fisher, an attorney for the project, in a June 25 letter to the board.

With that extension expiring on July 28, the company had not completed a set of conditions from its site plan, including a stormwater-management agreement with the town and a letter of credit for $15 million in site work, such as grading, erosion control and sidewalks.

Hudson Properties, which initially had until February 2024 to obtain a building permit, has been "working diligently" on the remaining conditions, said Fisher.

"We look forward to getting that project underway," Jonathan Kanter, the Planning Board chair, said on July 10 after its members approved the latest extension.

As approved, Hudson Properties' plan called for partnering with commercial developer Crow Holdings Industrial to build the warehouse on 28.9 acres of a 39.3-acre parcel along the south side of Home Depot. The facility would include 209 standard parking spaces, 78 loading docks and parking for 30 tractor-trailers. Under the partnership, Hudson Properties would retain ownership of the remaining 10.4-acre lot, which fronts the property on Route 9.

The board required that Hudson Properties, by August 2023, obtain approvals from the state Department of Transportation for a new entrance and other upgrades along Route 9; the Dutchess County Department of Health for sewer and water upgrades; and the state Department of Environmental Conservation to build near wetlands. As that date approached, Hudson Properties notified the board that Crow Holdings had backed out and requested the first of what would become multiple extensions.

Redeveloping the property has been a priority for the town. Dutchess Mall opened in 1974 as the county's first indoor shopping center. Tenants included Jamesway, Lucky Platt and Mays department stores, RadioShack and Waldenbooks. But the opening of the Poughkeepsie Galleria and other retail centers along Route 9 siphoned customers, and the mall closed in 2001.

Home Depot opened in 2006. Seven years later, Dutchess Marketplace, an indoor/outdoor flea market, opened in the former department store space north of Home Depot but shut down in 2019. Two years later, Dutchess Community College opened its Fishkill campus in the building.

Beacon-based group wants more control for creators

Many video game developers and players believe the industry nickel-and-dimes its customers and creates too many buggy, lackluster products.

Valley Arcade Games, affiliated with Happy Valley Arcade Bar at 296 Main St. in Beacon, hopes to carve out its own ecosystem on Web3, shorthand for the next evolution of the internet. A group of rebels has been meeting at the arcade this summer to hash out the details. The first gathering in May drew four people but about 20 showed up in June.

"Gaming is fun, but we've lost our way," says Johnny Coughlin, who co-owns Happy Valley and co-founded its Web3 venture. "We're including a practical component as we experiment with the future and try to right the ship."

Here is the vision: In the next iteration of online interaction, the internet will fragment into fiefdoms that reject the marketing and surveillance juggernaut that the social media-driven Web 2.0 has become.

Blockchain security, cryptocurrency democratization and the open-source programming language Linux make this alternative network possible. As players compete, high scorers accrue digital purses they can take into the real world if the folks behind the venture build enough critical mass.

"At the core, we're minting money," says Jeff Werner, a strategic advisor with The Field Group, who lives in Philipstown. "If people recognize its value, we win. If not, we disappear."

Coughlin and his partners have developed a prototype, the Valley Web3 Arcade Cabinet, one of which stands near a bend in the bar at Happy Valley. It contains eight games developed by Coughlin's company and its partners with names like Flutter, Mine All Mine, Spinfire, Mole Patrol and Death by Darkness (see valley-arcade.com/games).

Coughlin's brother, Billy, composes soundtracks with virtual MIDI, instruments and "crazy vocals," Coughlin says. "The music is too weird for a band, but it's usually just right for a game."

Cabinet players earn rewards at a rate 5.3 times higher than they could receive on their computers or cellphones, he said. Four more cabinets will be installed around the New York City metropolitan area later this summer. They retail for $5,500.

The content is plugged into the web and began livestreaming in June at twitch.tv/valleyarcade. So far this year, its games have been played nearly 190,000 times, mostly by users in North America and Southeast Asia. The blockchain assures verification of high scores and the global leaderboard's integrity, Coughlin said.

"It's the world's first Web3 professional cabinet, and it cannot be manipulated," he says. "In some games, you can buy a stronger sword than other players and gain an unfair advantage. We want a level playing field for everyone, and that's going to be a big selling point."

Another plus is that individuals and independent gaming firms can publish on the platform and receive royalties. Onboarding is seamless compared to other portals that require complicated 15-character passwords, says Coughlin.

The ambitious goal is to be one of the first dominoes that topple giants such as Amazon and Google, bringing "power to the people" by designing networks that will run even if Amazon Web Services (AWS) goes down, says Werner.

"A key question for Web3 is, who owns the content?" asks Kyn Chaturvedi, a business advisor visiting from Estonia. "In our world, users and developers do."

Beyond combating corporate and individual greed and seceding from the mainstream internet, the principals and their partners are trying to create a sticky, lucrative online community with creative tools available to everyone.

So prevalent is game designing that it's a form of pop art, says developer Joe Lang, who is creating a game called Alien Influencer for the cabinet. "It's an open canvas, but we're not using paint and brushes," he says. "Inventing a game takes skill."

Jennifer Menjivar, another developer and high-performing gamer, chimed in to note that "the best games ...

Help sought for Cortlandt Lake bacteria

Philipstown Supervisor John Van Tassel agreed on July 10 to help arrange a meeting with Cortlandt and Putnam Valley officials over the fecal coliform levels that have forced the closure of the beach at Cortlandt Lake in Continental Village.

Putnam County announced last month the closure of beaches at Cortlandt Lake and 13 other water bodies due to the presence of bacteria and harmful algal blooms. Most of Cortlandt Lake is located in Philipstown and Cortlandt, with a small section in Putnam Valley.

Jesse Lubbers, a member of the Continental Village Park District board, told the Town Board that the Putnam Department of Health, during testing before Memorial Day, found fecal coliform levels at 30 times the limit considered safe for recreational use.

Water discharging into Cortlandt Lake from Canopus Creek and Spy Pond also tested high for fecal coliform, at 10 times the limit, but the contamination "was concentrated at the beach where people go," said Lubbers.

Health officials believe that Cortlandt Lake's bacteria levels are caused by failing septic systems at homes around the lake, said Lubbers. Many of those homes were built as summer cottages but are now used year-round, he said.

"I have been soliciting advice from the Hudson Highlands Land Trust and others to see if we can get in a room" to discuss the source of the contamination and how it can be fixed, he said.

Hudson Highlands Reserve

The Town Board held off on giving its consent to the Hudson Highlands Reserve Sewage Works Corp., a private entity created to operate the sewer system serving 23 residences and a community space at the development off Route 9.

Philipstown's consent is required under state law. Van Tassel said he wanted the town engineer, Ron Gainer, to review the plans. The town attorney, Steve Gaba, noted that private systems are often "set up to fail and the town winds up having to go in and take over a water system or a sewer system. That's an expensive and difficult proposition."

Horton Road LLC, the developer, received Planning Board approval in March to construct homes on a 210-acre property located between Horton Road and East Mountain Road North, with 79 percent of the land set aside as open space. The homes will be clustered on 31 acres, along with two existing residences, and will be accessed from a new road.

Route 9D sidewalks

Van Tassel said he met with state and local officials about adding sidewalks to Route 9D between the Village of Cold Spring line and Little Stony Point Park. He noted the blacktop that begins north of Haldane's tennis courts is in "rough shape."

One of the agencies represented at the meeting, the state Department of Transportation, said it lacks funding, and Van Tassel said the response from a state parks representative "disappointed" him. The Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail was invited but no one attended, he said. "We did get some ideas for grants, but solutions are a long way off," he said.