Highlands Current Audio Stories

Customers again will be returned to Central Hudson

Philipstown residents and businesses receiving fixed-rate electricity through Hudson Valley Community Power will be transferred back to Central Hudson because the program administrator ran out of time to extend the contract.

In what is known as a community choice aggregation (CCA) program, municipalities contract with a third-party supplier to offer residents and businesses a fixed rate for electricity, although Central Hudson continues to provide delivery and billing.

Cold Spring, Nelsonville, Philipstown and nine other municipalities (not including Beacon) agreed to participate. Residents and businesses are added to the program automatically but can opt out.

Hudson Valley Community Power was negotiating to extend a contract that ends June 30. Mike Gordon, founder and chief strategy officer for the program administrator, Joule Assets, said in a letter to municipalities that "times are deeply uncertain at the moment and electricity prices rose quickly in response." Nelsonville Mayor Chris Winward read the letter at the April 21 Village Board meeting.

Although prices have fallen more recently, Gordon said Joule lacked enough time to meet new guidelines created by the state utility regulator, the Public Service Commission, to notify and educate customers about new pricing before June 30.

Because the "political and economic environment is so volatile," Joule does expect "opportunities to lock in some advantageous pricing" over the next two to three months. Joule will spend those months learning "how best to work through" the new PSC regulations, said Jessica Stromback, the company's CEO.

"The order is, let everybody go back to the utility and not scramble," she said on Wednesday (May 7). "That process is smooth; the utility understands it. There's no interruption in service."

Under the current contract, residents and businesses in the CCA pay a default rate of 12.24 cents per kilowatt hour for 100 percent renewable energy in Cold Spring and 11.24 cents per kilowatt-hour for 50 percent renewable energy in Nelsonville and Philipstown. Those customers will be charged Central Hudson's variable rate starting July 1.

As of April 10, Central Hudson's standard supply rate was 10.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. Last year's summer rates, when electricity demand is higher, averaged 9.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. (Central Hudson charges a separate rate for delivery.)

"[The CCA] pricing was high, but it was locked in and we knew what it would be," Winward said at last month's meeting. "We don't know what the volatility of Central Hudson's rates are going to bring us."

The July 1 transition will mark the second time residents and businesses enrolled in Hudson Valley Community Power have been sent back to Central Hudson. A former supplier, Columbia Utilities, defaulted on a contract to provide renewable energy at 6.6 cents per kilowatt-hour for residences and 7.1 cents for small businesses, including those in Beacon, Cold Spring and Philipstown. In April 2022, Columbia notified the PSC that it intended to return customers to Central Hudson.

A state judge on Dec. 5 approved a $1.5 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by the municipalities against Columbia Utilities. The company admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to a $1 million payment into a settlement fund and $50,000 monthly payments by June 1, 2025, to cover the balance. The Ulster County judge overseeing the case also approved $286,585 in attorney fees and up to $56,500 in administrative costs. Eligible customers began receiving checks for about $50 last month.

Residents question decision-making process

After hearing parents criticize its decision-making process, the Haldane school board voted unanimously on Tuesday (May 6) to reinstate the district's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy. It had suspended the policy on April 22, fearful of losing $450,000 in federal funding threatened by the Trump administration's opposition to DEI programs.

The board said it reversed course after federal judges in three jurisdictions on April 24 temporarily blocked the administration from cutting funding to schools that have what the White House characterizes as "illegal" practices.

Six residents who spoke at the meeting expressed gratitude for the board's decision to reinstate the policy but also voiced frustration with how the initial decision was made.

"I don't think the board is doing a good job of making those decision-making processes transparent to our community," said Paul Cummins, who has two children at Haldane.

After the meeting, Peggy Clements, president of the five-member board, said the decision to suspend the policy happened "at a really fast and furious pace and certainly didn't allow for the careful consideration and outreach that we would ordinarily engage in."

"This was nothing that any of us wanted to do," Clements said. "It did make us deeply uncomfortable. But we felt like the district was truly at risk of losing $450,000."

During the meeting, Board Member Michelle Kupper said she regretted "not communicating more about the future of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy months before the vote. A lot of us in the school community knew that the current presidential administration takes issue with diversity, equity and inclusion, and we should have been talking about how to handle it."

Carl Albano, the interim superintendent, said the decision to suspend the policy on April 22 was rushed because of an April 24 deadline set by the Trump administration.

In early April, the U.S. Department of Education ordered states to gather signatures from local districts certifying their compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as rejection of what the Trump administration calls "illegal DEI practices."

The directive did not carry the force of law but threatened to use civil rights enforcement to rid schools of DEI practices. Schools were warned that continuing such practices "in violation of federal law" could lead to Justice Department litigation and the termination of federal grants and contracts. New York State responded that it would not comply.

Despite that, Albano said that on April 11 the district's law firm, Shaw, Perelson, May & Lambert, recommended that the board certify compliance with Title VI. Many other districts did the same. At the time "we didn't see an issue certifying, because, again, we believe we are in compliance," Albano said. "None of that raised concern for me or the board."

However, on April 18, "our attorney, after reviewing the DEI policy, had concerns about the diversity hiring provision," Albano said.

That provision states: "The district will strive to create a workforce that is not only diverse and inclusive, but one that recognizes and values the differences among people. As part of this effort, the district will seek to (a) recruit and retain a diverse workforce in all areas and at all levels [and] (b) provide staff with opportunities for professional development on cultural responsiveness."

Albano said that on April 22, just hours before the board was scheduled to meet, he gave members the attorney's recommended resolution to suspend the DEI policy because it "may, in part, be inconsistent" with the Department of Education's interpretation of Title VI. After suspending the DEI policy, the board certified compliance with Title VI.

The Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery district, which includes O'Neill High School, which Garrison district students can attend, also voted last month to suspend its DEI policy. Halfway into its April 10 ...

Budget and trustee elections in Philipstown, Beacon

Voters in the Highlands will go to the polls on Tuesday (May 20) to consider school district budgets for 2025-26 and elect board members. Here's a rundown.

Beacon

Beacon's $87.7 million budget proposal includes a 5.09 percent tax-levy increase, just under the maximum allowed for the district by New York State. The levy will generate more than $50 million in property taxes. At $31.6 million - an increase of $572,000 (1.9 percent), state aid makes up the bulk of the remaining revenue. The district expects to spend $2.5 million of its savings in 2025-26, an increase of $500,000 over this year.

Most of the discussion in recent board meetings has revolved around the tax levy, which stands to increase because of new development in Beacon - meaning the "pie" is divided into more pieces through the addition of taxpaying households - and debt service on a $50 million capital project approved last year by voters.

The capital improvements will begin in 2026 and include secure building entrances, creation of cooling centers in schools, air conditioning in up to 50 percent of elementary classrooms, infrastructure upgrades such as roofing, upgrades to the Beacon High School baseball and softball fields and renovations to the theater at the high school.

District officials say that, if approved, the budget will allow them to maintain improvements made in recent years, including smaller elementary class sizes, increased mental health support for students and a full-day pre-K program.

For the first time, the district plans to launch a summer workshop program for incoming high school students and create an in-school mental health clinic at Rombout Middle School. It will also add teachers for elementary students struggling in math and reading and hire a part-time elementary speech instructor.

While the proposed levy increase is more than 5 percent, the addition of new households to the tax rolls means homeowners' bills may not go up by the same percentage. The district estimates that the owner of a $420,200 home (the median value) in Beacon would see their taxes increase by $240 annually.

Meredith Heuer and Semra Ercin are running unopposed for re-election to the nine-member school board. Heuer will return for her fourth, 3-year term; Ercin is running for her first full term after being elected in 2023 to complete the final two years of a vacated seat. Alena Kush did not file for a second term and her seat will be filled by a newcomer, Catherine Buscemi, the owner of Belfry Historic Consultants, who is also running unopposed.

The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Beacon residents vote at the high school at 101 Matteawan Road; Fishkill and Wappinger residents vote at Glenham Elementary School, 20 Chase Drive.

Haldane

Haldane's $30.2 million proposal translates to a 2.8 percent tax-levy increase.

Using the state's tax-cap formula, the district could have asked for a 3.38 levy increase. School board members debated this spring whether to go "to cap" but opted to forgo about $132,000 in revenue after voters last year approved an increase of 6.95 percent over three years to pay for $28.4 million in capital improvements. State aid for 2025-26 will be $4.55 million, an increase of $73,000 (1.6 percent).

The budget includes funding for a science-of-reading curriculum; software to improve student outcomes; a new pre-K program; special education funding for out-of-district placements; increased field trip spending; a softball field dugout; classroom air conditioners to comply with New York state's maximum temperature requirement; auditorium stage and performing arts equipment; and a transportation system analysis.

The district estimates that taxes on a home valued at $500,000 will rise by $197 annually.

Board members Sean McNall and Ezra Clementson are running unopposed to retain their seats on the five-member school board. Clementson will seek his second, 3-year term and McNall his third term.

...

Philipstown artist mounts first solo show

When Lisa Diebboll needs inspiration for her landscape paintings, she walks next door from her Philipstown home to a town park that has a meadow and pond. "It's like a laboratory" for creativity, she says.

The artist's first solo show, Between Observation and Abstraction, continues through May 31 at the Buster Levi Gallery in Cold Spring.

The Rhode Island School of Design graduate says the abstract and formal work together to make a landscape come alive - "all of sudden everything makes sense when you look at it." But, she says, she has little interest in abstraction alone. "I need reality."

"I'm looking for certain juxtapositions of shapes and colors, and I use them as my jumping off point," adds Diebboll, who co-owns The Highland Studio, a fine art printmaking business off Route 9 that she established 28 years ago with her husband, Joe.

She studied painting and printmaking at RISD (where she met Joe, also a graduate of the school). "I love printmaking and the process," she says. "I love that way of thinking about images and imagery." The business "turned into a way for us to stay in the art world and have a career that could support a family."

Lately, Diebboll has taken a step back from the printing business. "In the past five years I've been working to get back to my first love, which is painting, and it's where I'm happiest," she says. To reach that goal, Diebboll reclaimed a home bedroom as a studio.

The Buster Levi show includes 15 oil paintings, as well as prints and sketches. A few paintings are framed conventionally, but Diebboll otherwise used a light aluminum support onto which she affixes her works on linen. The aluminum is attached to wood that can be suspended from the gallery's hooks. The result: a strong, light panel that is easier to store than the usual stretched canvas and can be displayed with or without a frame.

"Chartreuse and Ultramarine Violet Receding" (2025)

"Quarry - Fractured, Askew" (2024)

"Squirrel Island Assemblage" (2025)

"Tree Figures" (2025)

In the works, Diebboll's greens and blues are in dialogue with salmons and pinks; some are energized by yellow and orange. In one small piece, a modest house peeks through trees; hills inject diagonal verve into others. Diebboll says it gives her satisfaction to explore the interplays.

Growing up, her family leaned into science more than art, but her father was an accomplished painter in pastels. She remembers being transfixed by her parents' oversized art books, which she would spread open on the floor to gaze at the images. "I always wanted to put marks on paper and draw or paint what I saw," she recalls.

Spying her young daughter's interest, Diebboll's mother enrolled her in oil painting lessons; she continued with the same teacher through high school. Diebboll's own two daughters studied art but did not pursue artistic careers. One works in biological and environmental science and the other in the food industry.

The opening of her show on May 3 was "a perfectly lovely evening," Diebboll says. She sold several paintings. "My biggest goal now is not to lose the thread and to keep going with the path that I've established."

The Buster Levi Gallery, at 121 Main St. in Cold Spring, is open from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, or by appointment. See busterlevigallery.com.

Theater and art gallery opens in Beacon

Vet/Rep, the theater company that moved from Cornwall to Beacon last year and is transforming the former bank building at 139 Main St. into a showcase for talented veterans and their family members, has been rechristened Savage Wonder.

This weekend (May 9-10) kicks off the institution's inaugural season of productions in The Parlor, a 50-seat room. Most of the staged readings will be presented every Saturday for a month, although exceptions include the sold-out debut tonight (May 9) of The Bald Soprano, by Eugene Ionesco, three future dates and a six-week run of World War II veteran Noel Coward's scandalous 1920s comedy, Fallen Angels.

All the performers are members of the Actors' Equity union, which includes Broadway-caliber professional actors and stage managers.

On Saturday (May 10), Savage Wonder will unveil Savage Wonderground, a 4,000-square-foot basement art gallery, and The Grape Rebellion, a wine and dessert bar. The first exhibit is Radical Fun, curated by gallery director Jeannie Freilich, who commutes from New York City. It runs through July 6.

A 60-seat theater, named The Kristofferson (after Kris, who turned down a position teaching literature at West Point, spurned the Army to write country songs and earned the wrath of his military family) is scheduled to open next year. A second bar and another main stage with 125 seats is planned for 2027.

"One reason for the rebranding is that every time I spoke to groups about Vet/Rep, I had to make it clear that we're not providing art therapy - we rarely do war stories and not everyone onstage is a veteran," says Chris Meyer, founder and artistic director. "We're also going beyond theater by adding the art center and wine component."

Meyer came up with Savage Wonder during a deployment in New Mexico (he served in the Army for 14 years after 9-11): "It's where the warrior and artist intersect." The revamped logo, which resembles a paint, wine or blood splotch, is a Rorschach test. "Our brand's spirit animal is the octopus, which encapsulates what the Savage Wonder thought experiment is about: intimate, absurd, whimsical and jarring."

To expand the talent pool and repertoire, immediate family members of veterans may act onstage, direct a play or contribute a script. The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde (coming in June), makes the cut because the playwright's son served in the British military.

Beyond the veteran thread, many of the season's themes convey a farcical sensibility. The absurdist Bald Soprano, from 1950, contains several exchanges with nonsensical dialogue. Nicolay Gogol's Inspector General, scheduled for October, premiered in 1836 and satirizes Russian bureaucracy.

The son of actors, Meyers' flair for the dramatic enhances the staged readings. At the launch party on May 3, a hubbub interrupted his presentation and startled the audience. It turned out to be two actors shaking things up with a short performance set in a VA hospital waiting room to nowhere.

"We're not sitting around or using music stands, we can stage the hell out of our readings," says Meyer. "We've had five-minute fight scenes; people enter through a window or trip and fall into the wall. Anything can happen."

Savage Wonder is located at 139 Main St. in Beacon. The Bald Soprano will be performed at 7 p.m. on May 17, May 24 and May 31; tickets are $25 at savagewonder.org. Radical Fun will open at The Savage Wonderground on Saturday (May 10) from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Inspired by feminist anthem, Beacon Rising marches on

Lisa Andretta loves singing in the car but never figured she could be a real vocalist. After joining the Beacon Rising Choir, she found her voice.

"When I went to my first rehearsal, I instantly fell in love," she says. "I had no idea something like this existed."

The chorus, which started in 2017 with 13 members, now has 70, says founder Gina Samardge. Its next concert is May 18 at Beacon High School.

Beacon Rising is a "resistance choir," Samardge says, open to women and nonbinary singers. A feminist anthem from the 2017 women's march in Washington, D.C., "Quiet," by Milck, inspired the choir's formation. The song includes the lyric, "I can't keep quiet for anyone anymore. … Let it out now."

Cellphone videos of flash mobs performing to the song went viral and Samardge responded. "I needed to sing it with other women," she says.

Her activist roots are reflected in the choir's repertoire, with songs that preach love, acceptance and a fight-the-power attitude such as "The Hymn of Acxiom," by Vienna Teng; "Refugee," by Moira Smiley; "On Children," by Ysaye Barnwell (with lyrics by Khalil Gibran); and "People Have the Power," by Patti Smith.

"The 2016 election spawned a lot of choirs," Samardge says. "Singers always tell me that this is a healing force in their lives."

A trained music educator and curious musician who lights up when speaking about playing clawhammer banjo, Samardge conducts the choir and arranges some songs. She came to Beacon in 2010 after getting priced out of Brooklyn.

"I grew up in a small town in Ohio [Marion] and there is such a stronger community feeling here," she says. Samardge and her husband, musician Andy Reinhardt, who assembles the band that accompanies the choir, are childless by choice.

Yet she's touched the lives of many youngsters in Beacon and beyond through Compass Arts, a grassroots organization she founded that runs programs in the schools and from the First Presbyterian Church on Liberty Street.

Compass Arts initially rented a 1,000-square-foot space at Beacon Music Factory, then expanded to the church's Fellowship Hall, which features a stage, kitchen and new flooring installed by the nonprofit.

In 2023, when the Beacon City School District called with an arts emergency - the middle school drama club had no teacher - she arranged for three visiting artists to structure a 10-week afterschool program teaching dance and choreography, improv and theater games and a glee club-style singing and movement class.

"I remember being 18 years old and saying to my mother, 'I only want grandchildren,' and she said, 'Well, that's not how it works,'" Samardge says. "But I was at an event and some teenagers waved to me, and it turned out that they had attended a bunch of [Compass Arts] programs. I realized that somehow, someway, I got my wish. These kids are my temporary grandchildren."

Beacon High School is located at 101 Matteawan Road. Tickets to the May 18 concert start at $20 ($10 seniors, teens; $5 ages 6-12; free ages 5 and younger); see compassarts.org/beacon-rising. The doors open at 1 p.m. for a free event with community organizations, a raffle and bake sale, followed by the concert at 2 p.m.

Student short-form festival begins May 16

Of the many grassroots, community-based organizations in Beacon, only one turns the city into a mini-Hollywood for a few months.

Next week, 80 two-minute shorts produced by some 200 school-age filmmakers and their assistants will be screened at the high school auditorium and the Beacon Movie Theater on Main Street.

Volunteers at the Foundation for Beacon Schools are pulling all-nighters to ensure accuracy and quality control, says Anna Sullivan, the foundation's first president, who stepped down in 2023 but remains active with the organization.

"We're taking the extra time to increase production value across the board and edit the program, line up the title cards with accuracy and make sure the students' names correspond with their school," she says. "We want to value and honor these films, which are so creative; people are going to be amazed."

Founded in March 2020, the nonprofit launched the festival in 2022 and receives cooperation and participation from students, teachers, administrators and local filmmakers, including Ophir Ariel, Lucas Millard and Rob Featherstone.

Beyond stimulating creativity and bringing people together, the festival raises money for teacher grants and other enrichment programs. "We're trying to foster innovation in education and the primary function is to help teachers and administrators get classroom equipment and enhance their skills," says Jean Huang, a board member.

"T Rex Vs...," by Enzo

"Pizza 2," by Jack

"Glasses," by Richie

"Attack of the Clones," by Liam

"The Grey Disk," by Braden

"Best Friend Scare," by Perry and Jourdan

"Lego Dimension," by Logan

"Talk with a Lost Heart," by Jayson

"Coyote Stories," by Zora

Since its creation, the foundation has distributed more than $60,000 in grants, supporting the high school's Breaking Beacon newspaper, supplying waders for elementary students to walk in the Hudson River and sending seventh and eighth graders to the Italian and English play Caccia al Tesoro in White Plains.

The film festival originated because "we were looking to do one event each year that could bring the community together and we heard about the PS 187 festival [in New York City], went down there and it checked all the boxes," says Sullivan.

In addition to promoting the arts, the foundation supports projects like History of the Bell, a short film about the JV Forrestal Elementary school's cherished chime that students ring at graduation, and Lines of Demarcation, an oral history of Black residents' experience in Beacon during the 20th century.

The foundation is a descendant of the longstanding Beacon Arts and Education Foundation, which disbanded amicably in 2020. Several of the group's board members helped get the new organization off the ground, which explains their initial focus on the arts. Now, they've branched out to cover the wider curriculum, says Sullivan.

Beyond raising money and building community, there is another practical element to the festival. "There's also a vocational component," says Sullivan. "Every industry values people who can communicate ideas visually, so knowledge of editing and telling stories clearly and thoughtfully is another wrench in the toolbox for our students."

The fourth annual Beacon Student Film Festival opens at 6:30 p.m. on May 16 at Beacon High School, 101 Matteawan Road, with screenings of films by elementary students. It continues May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Beacon Movie Theater, 445 Main St., with screenings of films by middle and high school students. Tickets are $8 or $4 for students for either screening, or $12 and $6 for both. See forbeaconschools.org/film-festival. The Current is among the sponsors of the event.

College student's 1982 photos revisited by modern pros

For his 1982 senior project at SUNY New Paltz, Patrick Prosser toted a camera around the streets of Beacon, his hometown. In May, about the time he received his bachelor of fine arts, Prosser exhibited 20 photos at what is now the Howland Cultural Center.

When Prosser, who grew up at 14 Miller St., died from pancreatic cancer in 2023 at age 64, his widow, Kathy, donated the 1982 shots to the Beacon Historical Society.

Theresa Kraft, president of the Howland Cultural Center, read about the gift in the society's newsletter and arranged to display excerpts from the collection. A team that included photographers Tony Cenicola, Michael Goldfarb, Pierce Johnston and Willam Loeb winnowed the selections to 38 photos before three of the curators fanned out to revisit some of the locations.

The exhibit's title, Work in Decay, borrows from Prosser's 1982 exhibit. His subtitle had been "The City of Beacon, New York"; the new one is "The Renaissance of Beacon - Then and Now."

In 1982, Prosser captured mostly decay. Nearly every pane of glass in the abandoned factories and weatherbeaten buildings on and near Main Street is broken or boarded up, including the picture windows at Mozekos Market by the dummy light. In one photo, a crossing guard stands in front of the door.

Prosser combed ruins from the inside. In the factory that became the Roundhouse, he was enamored with the bathroom stalls: "The shape of the toilets and the simple arithmetic of the walls give this great feeling for the working man's environment in Beacon," he wrote. He also took interior shots of the abandoned Highland Hospital and a junk-filled apartment.

One photo shows Cisco, a white dog sitting in the decrepit doorway of Certified TV Sales & Service. Goldfarb's photo of what is now the Maria Lago Studio captures a life-size sculpture depicting a human figure in anguish.

Enticed by structures, Prosser climbed vantage points like the Beacon Theatre and the firehouse that is now home to Hudson Beach Glass. Though he took a well-situated shot of the Mount Beacon Incline Railway gear-house, the photos of people could be Prosser's apex. In "High Noon at Richie's Bar," a grizzled bartender plays cards with a patron wearing a dapper hat. Regulars scratched scrawl onto a 24 beam at the bar's edge, along with the panel below, including the jab, "$100 fine to write here."

(Pierce Johnston's modern reply, "A Day at Melzingah Tap House," focuses on a relaxed young bartender polishing a pint glass, flanked by two fancy, backlit cases with high-end hooch. In the background, the shelves are stocked with swag.)

One of Prosser's favorite photos captured the owners of Beacon Auto Salvage, which once filled the Churchill Street parking lot with heavy machinery, car parts and mud. The father makes no attempt to smile while the son's half-cocked grin hints at a brighter future, although he may just be resigned to his lot. "The whole history of Beacon can be told by their faces," Prosser wrote.

The Howland Cultural Center, at 477 Main St., is open from 1 to 5 p.m. on most Saturdays and Sundays. "Work in Decay" continues through July 21.

Infections nationwide top 1,000; most in Texas

The U.S. surpassed 1,000 measles cases on Friday (May 9), including three cases reported this week in Orange County.

Texas still accounts for most cases, with 709 confirmed in an outbreak that has spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas. Two unvaccinated elementary school children died in West Texas, along with unvaccinated adult in New Mexico.

Other states with outbreaks - which the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as three or more related cases - include Indiana, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. New York has confirmed seven cases, including three in New York City, one on Long Island and the three in Orange County.

The state Department of Health said the Orange County cases involve children younger than 5 years old who recently traveled internationally. No exposures outside immediate family members are known, it said.

Orange County Deputy Health Commissioner Lisa Lahiff told the Times Union that because the cases were reported to the local health department in close succession, "we believe this is not indicative of local transmission." Officials declined to say whether the children were vaccinated, citing patient privacy.

Earlier this year, the state Department of Health reported that Orange County has the lowest first-dose measles vaccination rate among 2-year-olds in the region, at 64.9 percent. A rate of at least 95 percent is needed to provide "herd immunity." The Putnam County rate is 86.6 percent and the Dutchess rate is 83.1 percent.

The first of two vaccine shots is recommended between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that's airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs.

As the virus takes hold in U.S. communities with low vaccination rates, health experts fear that spread could stretch on for a year. In 2019, the U.S. had 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles.

Getting another MMR shot as an adult is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says. People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don't need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective vaccine made from "killed" virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said.

People who have documentation that they had measles are immune, and those born before 1957 generally don't need the shots because so many children got measles back then that they have "presumptive immunity."

Measles infects the respiratory tract, then spreads through the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash. The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees, according to the CDC.

Most children will recover, but the infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death. There's no specific treatment, so doctors try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.

Guidelines cover residential, commercial panels

The Philipstown Town Board will hold a public hearing June 5 on a proposed law that would establish zoning guidelines for the installation of solar panels and commercial solar farms.

A Climate Smart Task Force committee crafted the rules with five goals: (1) to establish a siting process; (2) lessen the cost of electricity; (3) mitigate the impact of solar systems on the environment and wildlife; (4) support the town goal of carbon neutrality; and (5) regulate the decommissioning of commercial solar projects.

The conservation and planning boards, the building department and the town engineer and attorney each reviewed the proposal, said Jason Angell, a member of the Town Board and the task force, during a May 1 meeting. "All of that process is probably what took some time but made it a lot stronger," he said.

Under the draft guidelines, property owners who want to install roof- or ground-mounted systems for personal use would be allowed to do so in any zoning district. They would follow the same regulatory process required for adding accessory structures, such as garages.

Philipstown would limit the height of panels on pitched roofs to 8 inches, flat roofs to 2 feet or the height of parapets and ground-mounted solar systems to 12 feet. Panels must have anti-reflective coating and ground-mounted systems cannot be larger than 5,000 square feet and must be shielded from neighbors.

The law would allow commercial solar farms in all zoning districts except for the Ridgeline Protection District and only in the Scenic Overlay District with a special permit. The draft specifies that solar farms, "to the greatest extent possible," be installed on industrial properties; Superfund sites that have undergone environmental cleanup; mining sites; abandoned parcels; landfills; parking lots; and the roofs of commercial buildings.

Removing trees larger than 6 inches in diameter "should be minimized," according to the draft law. If more than 10 trees need to be removed for a ground-mounted system, applicants would need to propose mitigation measures such as planting an equal number of trees or replacing invasive plants with native ones.

In addition, solar farms capable of generating up to 5 megawatts of electricity would need 7-foot-high fencing with a self-locking gate to secure the mechanical equipment. Systems over 1 megawatt would need a decommissioning plan. Applicants would have to deposit cash or post a bond or security equal to 115 percent of the cost of removal and site restoration.

Companies building community solar projects, which allow residents to buy shares of the electricity they generate, would have to target Philipstown residents for subscriptions, particularly low- and moderate-income households. Requests for variances could be made to the Zoning Board of Appeals.