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Project near Beacon border faces opposition

A Beacon developer proposing to build a self-storage facility on land between Interstate 84 and Van Ness Road has finalized its responses to concerns from city and Fishkill residents about aesthetics, traffic and safety.

In an environmental-impact statement submitted on April 10 to the Fishkill Planning Board, 1292 Route 9D LLC said its two story, 26,000-square-foot facility would be a low-visibility, low-traffic project and not "change or diminish" the character of the area or quality of life for people living south of the property, which sits across 9D from the Southern Dutchess Country Club.

The 30-foot-high structure would be set back 200 feet, or twice the required distance, from the highway and contain 333 self-storage units (ranging from 24 to 240 square feet), 26 parking spaces and a loading area.

The developer, based at 268 Main St. in Beacon, estimates that 37 vehicles (including two trucks) will enter the facility on weekdays and 42 (three trucks) on Saturdays. The vehicles must use a driveway just north of Van Ness Road and can only enter from northbound 9D and turn right when exiting.

That "right in/right out" requirement by the state Department of Transportation means southbound drivers visiting the facility will have to go past it and use one of Beacon's residential streets to turn around.

In comments submitted in October, Mayor Lee Kyriacou said the use of residential streets for through traffic is "inconsistent with best practice" and would harm the community character of Dutchess Terrace, Rock Hill Road and Verplanck Avenue. To avoid having to continue south to turn around, some drivers may attempt illegal left turns or dangerous U-turns, he said.

Fishkill residents living on streets north of Interstate 84, such as Dogwood Lane and Chiappardi Place, expressed concern that drivers exiting onto northbound 9D will use their streets as a turnaround to go south.

To prevent visitors from using those streets, 1292 Route 9D LLC said it would require the facility's operator to post online directions for entering and exiting, specifying routes that do not require use of the local streets. The developer also said it would petition GPS providers to dictate routes that avoid residential streets.

Because the property is in Fishkill's restricted-business zone, where self-storage facilities are not allowed, the developer needs a special permit from the Planning Board in addition to site-plan approval.

Granting a special permit requires a finding from the board, with input from the building inspector, that a project "is substantially similar" to other uses in the district and "consistent with the stated purposes of the district."

According to 1292 Route 9D LLC, its project "is consistent with the surrounding land uses and the built environment" because it will generate "minimal traffic, noise and air emissions" and be screened from the view of neighbors.

At the board's urging, 1292 Route 9D LLC assessed two alternative projects - a residence and a hotel. It concluded that a hotel would generate more traffic than the storage facility and require more tree clearing and parking spaces. A single-family home would not be "economically viable," according to the developer.

Liz Axelson, a senior planner with Clark Patterson Lee and the Planning Board's consultant, said in October that a restaurant, small hotel or bed-and-breakfast would be more appropriate. "The assertion that the proposed self-storage would complement any of the nearby uses is not well supported, in my opinion," she said.

According to Clark Patterson Lee, 11 self-storage facilities exist within 5 miles of the proposed site. The Fishkill Town Board in August 2023 approved a one-year moratorium on approvals for self-storage, citing concerns from residents about a flood of applications.

Board votes to override levy cap

The Nelsonville Village Board on Monday (April 21) approved a $377,540 spending plan for 2025-26 after voting to exceed the state's 2.77 percent cap on levy increases.

Expenses are projected to be 6.6 percent higher, and the adopted levy rises by 5.21 percent to $326,697. Taxes for the average property owner will increase by $68, said Mayor Chris Winward.

Anticipated legal spending will increase by 20 percent, to $15,000 annually; Keane & Beane has had to defend the village from multiple lawsuits while also reviewing contracts, Winward said. Electricity bills are expected to be 33 percent higher and Nelsonville allocated an increase of 13.6 percent, to $28,411, for insurance for its buildings (including the one leased by Putnam County for a sheriff station) and court actions against its elected and appointed officials.

An additional 9.42 percent was appropriated for employee benefits. The court and village clerk will receive 3 percent raises and the deputy village clerk will receive a 2.55 percent boost.

Winward's salary will remain at $4,500 annually and the trustees will continue to receive $2,650.

Court changes

The Nelsonville trustees voted to appoint Philipstown Justice Angela Thompson-Tinsley as the acting village justice in place of Stephen Tomann, who retired.

The board also renewed a $150-per-hour contract with Kevin Irwin, a Pawling attorney who prosecutes traffic tickets and other non-criminal violations for Nelsonville, and approved the use of a credit-card reader given to the village by the state's Unified Court System.

Melissa Harris, the village clerk, said she hopes the machine will increase revenues from fines. "A lot of the time, people will say, 'I only have a card; can I have a week to pay and mail it in?' And then they don't," she said.

New meeting day and time

The board voted to move its monthly workshop and regular meetings to the second and third Wednesday of each month, respectively. The meeting time will also change, beginning a half-hour earlier, at 7 p.m.

Mondays present a problem because many holidays fall on that day, and compiling information packets for trustees by Friday afternoons has proved difficult, said Winward. "This will give us a lot more time to be able to prepare for meetings," she said.

No parking

A sign prohibiting parking on Spring Street should be installed soon. Nelsonville approved a ban on Spring Street in December in response to drivers parking along the side of Blacksmith Wines, leaving only one lane.

Trustee Dave Moroney said the installation of a no-parking sign had to be postponed because of equipment problems. There are new no-parking signs on Secor Street. Winward said the village anticipates more hikers parking there to use Nelsonville Woods because Breakneck closed for two years starting April 21.

"It's only a matter of time until people figure out that they can just have the same view going up Bull Hill," she said

Cites support for NYC toll, interest in Lawler seat

A Philipstown resident who represents Putnam County on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board rejected a demand by the county executive that he resign because of his support for congestion pricing in lower Manhattan and his interest in the U.S. House seat held by Rep. Mike Lawler.

Neal Zuckerman, a Democrat who chairs the MTA board's Finance Committee, served on the Metro-North Commuter Council for six years before being appointed in 2016 to the MTA board with a recommendation from then-County Executive MaryEllen Odell, a Republican. He was reappointed, to a term that ends in 2026, by the state Senate in 2023 with a recommendation from Byrne, also a Republican.

Byrne, a former Assembly member elected as county executive in 2022, is an ally of Lawler and a critic of the MTA's 3-month-old congestion-pricing program, which launched on Jan. 5 with a $9 toll for passenger and small commercial vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street.

Zuckerman supports the toll, which is higher for buses and trucks, and raised $48 million in the first month while reducing traffic and travel times in lower Manhattan, according to the MTA.

In an April 3 letter, Byrne claimed that Zuckerman "conveyed a genuine desire to work across the aisles regardless of political differences" during a meeting in 2023 for his reappointment but had since "outright opposed the policy positions" of the county and "openly assailed several officials duly elected by the people of Putnam County." He called on Zuckerman to resign "in a manner which is dignified and appropriate."

Byrne also referenced news reports about Zuckerman's interest in seeking the 17th District congressional seat held by Lawler, a Republican in his second term. Philipstown is within the district's borders.

Those reports "make clear that you intend to present yourself as a candidate for public office and seem to be using your position in furtherance of that pursuit," said Byrne. "It is imperative that we have a representative on the board who is dedicated to the position."

Byrne copied his letter to President Donald Trump, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Gov. Kathy Hochul, both U.S. senators from New York, Lawler, four members of the state Legislature, the MTA board chair and the chair of the county Legislature.

Individual legislators were also asked to sign a separate letter from Bill Gouldman, who represents Putnam Valley, calling for Zuckerman's resignation.

Lawler said in a statement on Wednesday that Byrne's letter "speaks for itself. If Neal Zuckerman is not representing the interests of Putnam County residents on the MTA board, he should resign."

In a letter responding to Byrne, Zuckerman said that chairing the board's Finance Committee has enabled him to champion projects that benefit Putnam riders, who use both the Harlem and Hudson lines. Those projects include repairs at the Cold Spring and Garrison stations and funding in the 2025-29 capital plan to buttress the Hudson Line against flooding, he said.

He said his support for congestion pricing "should come as no surprise" since he had voted in 2019 for a capital plan that relied on it. "At recent board meetings, I have lamented the added burden of yet another fee on residents of our region," he wrote. But the program, enacted by state law in 2019, will help fund $15 billion (25 percent) of the MTA's capital plan for 2025-2029, which will "improve the system that is essential to the livelihoods of Putnam County commuters and, indeed, for the region's economy," said Zuckerman.

He said that 69 percent of Putnam residents who visit the congestion zone get there by train but will benefit from the toll collected from drivers.

If Zuckerman decides to pursue Lawler's seat, he could face at least four other Democrats declaring their candidacies: Beth Davidson, a Rockland County legislator; Jessica Reinmann, founder of the nonprofit 914Cares in Westchester County; Cait Conley,...

Cold Spring church operated day care for 57 years

The Community Nursery School and Learning Center operated by the First Presbyterian Church of Philipstown will close in June after 57 years, in large part because of the loss of 4-year-olds to prekindergarten programs launched by public schools with state aid.

Community Nursery opened in 1968 at the Cold Spring church on Academy Street as an "affordable alternative," the school said in a news release. It was directed for much of its history by Rosemary Rodino, whose 38-year tenure ended with her retirement in 2023.

"We are grateful for the rich history of the school and the efforts made by students, teachers, parents and church volunteers for helping the school to thrive for so long," the Rev. Brian Merritt, the pastor at First Presbyterian, said in a statement. "This was a very tough and emotional decision for us." The Sunday morning service on June 8 will be dedicated to the school.

Because of state regulations, Community Nursery operates for just under three hours in the mornings. It considered expanding to a full-day program but found it too expensive to comply with the licensing requirements, said Laura Reid, who serves on the oversight committee for the school. She said the school has 16 students enrolled but that 10 will turn 4 by Dec. 1, making them eligible for pre-K programs such as those newly offered by Haldane and Garrison.

"We're applauding the fact that Universal pre-K has come to the community, but unfortunately it means that the Community Nursery School is not viable," she said. "We would be losing most of our 4-year-olds."

St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Garrison has a preschool that has operated for 64 years, since 1960. Like the Community Nursery, it runs for just under three hours in the morning. It has 24 students but saw a dramatic drop in 4-year-olds when the Garrison School across the street launched a pre-K program two years ago, said Betsy Alberty, its director.

The school, which has space for 30 children, had 14 four-year-olds then and now has five. In response, St. Philip's began accepting more 2-year-olds. "We had to be flexible," Alberty said.

Ilana Friedman, the director of the preschool at the Beacon Hebrew Alliance, said pre-K has not had such a dramatic effect because all but one of its 13 students are 2 or 3 years old.

The rise of pre-K at public schools has impacted licensed day cares, as well. In years past at Stacy's House, a preschool operated by Stacy Labriola at her home in Philipstown, as many as half of the children were 4. Today, only two of 16 are that old. "It's free - you can't compete with that," she said of pre-K programs.

Benchmarks and awards increase as city renews certification

With Earth Day approaching, the City of Beacon announced this week that it has received nearly $900,000 in grants over the past year through the New York State Clean Energy Communities program.

The funding, awarded because of Beacon's "silver" certification as a Climate Smart community, is being used to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from municipal operations, including through the purchase of electric vehicles, installation of EV charging stations and energy-efficiency audits on city buildings. Beacon earned silver certification, the highest rating possible, in 2020.

Because the Trump administration is dismantling programs created to mitigate climate change, Mayor Lee Kyriacou said it is "more critical than ever for local governments to redouble our efforts to transition toward a clean-energy future."

Energy-efficiency studies are underway at three city-owned buildings: the Wastewater Treatment Plant's administrative building, the Veterans Memorial Building on Main Street and the Beacon Volunteer Ambulance Corps facility on Arquilla Drive. After collecting utility data, state funds will be used to upgrade insulation and convert the aging buildings from directly burning fossil fuels to electric heating and cooling.

Additionally, Clean Energy Communities grants helped the city purchase emissions-free electric vehicles for multiple departments, including police, recreation, building and administration. An electric Ford F-150 Lightning is on order for the Recreation Department. Electric vehicle charging stations will be installed at City Hall and the Recreation Center on West Center Street.

The city is also preparing to solicit bids for a rooftop solar array at the Highway Garage with funding secured by Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon. The project is expected to add 223,000 kilowatt-hours annually to the electricity already being produced by a solar array on Dennings Avenue. That facility, opened in 2018 on a 20-acre former landfill site, generates about 70 percent of the electricity used in municipal buildings.

Finally, the city is participating in the Mid-Hudson Municipal Landfill Emissions Mitigation Project, funded by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The money pays for biofilters that will reduce methane emissions at 14 closed landfills.

Five years after its silver certification, Beacon is preparing to renew its status. "This isn't tinkering," said Faye Leone, the city's Climate Smart coordinator. To qualify for state grants, "we have to keep reducing our emissions by taking on bigger and bigger projects. The work gets harder and harder."

Leone said she expects the "next frontier" in sustainability to be the conversion of municipal buildings to clean energy. Citing the city's all-electric, geothermal, "super-insulated" central fire station that opened last year, she said it "sets a new bar for city buildings: zero or low emissions, cost-efficient and healthy and comfortable for those who work there."

Program would connect city with Newburgh

Two area residents have been awarded $100,000 by New York State to explore a bike-sharing program that would connect Beacon and Newburgh.

Thomas Wright, a Beacon resident and head of the city's Greenway Trail Committee, and Naomi Hersson-Ringskog, an urban planner who lives in Newburgh, were awarded the funding through a Clean Mobility program overseen by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). It aims to add zero-emission connections to public transportation in underserved communities.

The award is not to create a bike-share program but to plan how one could work. Wright, who works in Newburgh, and Hersson-Ringskog will be paired with WXY Architecture + Urban Design to develop a blueprint for a program similar to New York City's Citi Bike initiative. Wright and Hersson-Ringskog said they envision stations with eight to 10 bikes each, some electric, which users could check out for a fee or perhaps at no charge because of sponsors.

The duo foresee their plan leading to a public-private partnership like Citi Bike's, which partners with the New York City Department of Transportation and Lyft, the ridesharing company. A combination of private funding, sponsors and memberships support the program.

Officials on both sides of the Hudson River have indicated they're supportive of bikes for transportation, Hersson-Ringskog said. In Beacon, Mayor Lee Kyriacou has endorsed the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, a 7.5-mile linear park that Scenic Hudson is planning between Beacon and Cold Spring. The city is equally enthusiastic about a proposed Beacon-to-Hopewell rail trail. Both projects would significantly increase safe bike routes.

Beacon also has applied for funding from Dutchess County for a rehab of Beekman Street, which leads to the Metro-North station. The project, still several years away, could include bike lanes that would build on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's "first mile, last mile" initiative for environmentally friendly ways for passengers to connect to trains.

In Newburgh, Hersson-Ringskog's nonprofit, Dept of Small Interventions, in 2020 partnered with the city's Transportation Advisory Committee to create a community bike action plan, while monthly "critical mass" community rides take place from April to October. "You feel proud of your community that you're not starting from zero," Hersson-Ringskog said.

She and Wright are also working to create the "Regional Connector," a 1-mile path that would connect the Metro-North station in Beacon to the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. That effort, they say, could unify a growing network of trails. A bike-share program could accelerate the campaign, Wright said, "by providing a means of mobility which gives users much greater range. When you add in e-bikes, the options are further multiplied."

WXY plans to survey residents in both cities (see linktr.ee/newburgh.beacon.bike), while Wright and Hersson-Ringskog will make presentations to community groups. WXY will also help with data analysis, mapping and exploring partnerships for maintenance, operations and funding.

"We hope to uncover the voice of a broad cross-section of the communities that desires this," Hersson-Ringskog said. "Here you have a transportation system that could really unite Beacon and Newburgh. We're stronger together, essentially."

The bike-share grant was one of 29 - totaling $2.9 million - that NYSERDA announced in March. Projects elsewhere in the state will explore the feasibility of charging hubs, scooter-share programs and electric-vehicle car shares. Ten of the 29 are in the Hudson Valley, including in Kingston, Poughkeepsie and New Paltz. With "transformational" developments being considered in the region, Wright said he believes "multi-modal systems" that can alleviate congestion without polluting the environment "are so important to think about."

Endorses revenue sharing with towns, villages

Putnam Executive Kevin Byrne this week vetoed a sales-tax reduction passed by the county Legislature and announced a long-discussed plan to share revenue with towns and villages if the rate remains unchanged.

In a memo sent Monday (April 14) to the Legislature, Byrne called on lawmakers to convene an emergency meeting to rescind their 5-4 vote requesting the state allow Putnam to lower the county's portion of the tax on purchases from 4 percent to 3.75 percent. The reduction would cost the county an estimated $5.3 million annually.

The higher rate has been in place since 2007, when the state enacted a law allowing Putnam to increase its sales tax from 3 percent to 4 percent. A series of extensions have kept the higher rate in place, but the most recent one expires on Nov. 30, requiring passage of another bill before state lawmakers end their 2025 session on June 12.

Consumers in Putnam County pay 8.375 percent sales tax, which includes 4 percent for the state and 0.375 percent for the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District. With the reduction, the total tax would fall to 8.125 percent.

Preserving the rate will allow the county to continue reducing property taxes and fund capital projects, Byrne wrote in his memo.

Flanked by officials from Philipstown, Cold Spring, Nelsonville and Putnam's other towns and villages, Byrne also announced outside Kent Town Hall on Tuesday that if county legislators renew the extra 1 percent, one-ninth of its revenue would be distributed annually to municipalities for infrastructure and capital projects.

If sales-tax sharing had been in place in 2024, Putnam would have distributed $2.4 million to the county's six towns and three villages on a per capita basis, said Byrne during a news conference. Each would be guaranteed at least $50,000.

With the move, Putnam would join 50 of New York's 62 counties that share sales tax revenue with their municipalities, according to the state Comptroller's Office. Dutchess' 2025 budget includes $46 million in sales-tax distributions, with an estimated $6.1 million for Beacon.

Extending the current rate will also help fund a $1 million reduction in the property-tax levy that Byrne says he will propose for the 2026 budget. The reduction would be the largest in county history, he said.

Addressing the Legislature on April 1, Cold Spring Mayor Kathleen Foley accused legislators of "hoarding" money because Putnam has accumulated $134 million in savings. Speaking at the news conference, Foley said the village has stormwater impacts it needs to address and that extra revenue could also help the village manage tourism.

Dan Birmingham, the legislator who initially proposed a reduction to 3.5 percent, said the size of Putnam's savings, or fund balance, justified giving residents a break. During his first stint as a legislator, from 2004 to 2012, Birmingham supported the 2007 increase to 4 percent to cover county losses attributed to the Great Recession.

Now, Putnam is "sitting on top of the largest fund balance-to-budget ratio this county has ever seen," he said.

When Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of the Putnam Valley, predicted before the April 1 vote that Byrne would veto the lower sales tax, Birmingham said that unless the Legislature has six votes to override a veto, "you return to the status quo" after Nov. 30 - the 3 percent rate that existed before 2007.

Byrne said on Tuesday that sacrificing the full 1 percent "would not help the towns; it would hurt this county" because the annual revenue loss would total about $20 million.

In 2022, the Legislature unanimously agreed to pass along sales tax that exceeded what the county collected the previous year. In what turned out to be a one-time distribution, it shared $5 million, sending $369,670 to Philipstown, $101,671 to Cold Spring and $31,945 to Nelsonville, which used its portion to study the feasibility of building a sewer system.

Nelsonvil...

Apartments, retail proposed for Beekman Street in Beacon

In some ways, a public hearing held Tuesday (April 8) on a proposal to construct two 4-story buildings with 64 apartments along Beekman Street at Route 9D in Beacon resembled a revolving door.

One by one, residents opposed to the 45 Beekman St. project registered complaints with the Planning Board, which has been reviewing the application since December 2023. As the speakers finished, Taylor Palmer, the applicant's attorney, approached the podium to challenge the complaints.

In addition to one- and two-bedroom apartments, the project at one of the gateways to Beacon (Interstate 84 is a few blocks away) is set to include 15,000 square feet of commercial space. Renderings show brick buildings with metal trim, although metal components may not be allowed in the city's linkage district, which connects the waterfront and Main Street. The building inspector will make a determination.

Streetscape elements would include benches, bicycle racks and a public area at the 9D intersection with sculptures and seating. A parking lot behind the buildings would sit close to the backyards of a half-dozen properties on High Street and Tompkins Avenue.

Some neighbors feel the proposal is out of scale with its surroundings and will detract from the 12 multicolored Victorian homes on High Street, part of Beacon's protected historic district. They also say trees the developer intends to plant at the site will not adequately screen their views.

Project officials contend that the linkage zone is meant for high-density, mixed-use development and say the proposal is in line with nearby developments such as The View and West End Lofts, and civic buildings such as City Hall and the recently completed central fire station.

However, "the fire station requires multiple vehicles exceeding 25 feet and weighing 12 tons to park inside," said Jim Zellinger, a West Church Street resident, on Tuesday. "Showing these buildings as comparable only demonstrates the oversized scale of the proposal."

Palmer countered, saying the linkage district was created to encourage residential development that will support Main Street businesses. "The comprehensive plan and its [2017] update explicitly call for this type of mixed-use development along Beekman Street," he said.

Palmer shared a letter from the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) indicating the agency did not believe the project would adversely affect the High Street-to-Tompkins Avenue neighborhood, which the agency said is eligible for the state and national Registers of Historic Places.

OPRHP conditioned its statement on the developer submitting a "construction protection plan" for historical resources within 90 feet and revising the rooftop design of the building closest to High Street.

Later in the hearing, Maryellen Case, a High Street resident, disputed the finding, even with its caveats. Case said she had called the state official who wrote the letter, and "she explained that the office is inundated with these types of evaluations. She also didn't realize that there was any public opposition, particularly from High Street residents."

Jill Reynolds, a former Planning Board member, also spoke, noting that the board's review of the application is likely nearing its end. "I don't know how you can stop that ocean liner before it hits the iceberg," she said. "I just want to keep Beacon from becoming downtown White Plains."

The project has been on the agenda for 14 meetings, Palmer said, and issues raised Tuesday "are important, but they're comments that the board considered throughout the review process."

The Planning Board typically holds public hearings on multiple elements of a project, such as environmental impacts or for site-plan approval, although speakers rarely distinguish their comments. It will continue the hearing on 45 Beekman next month while opening another on the subdivision of parcels at the site. "There's stil...

Administration promotes benefits for students, teachers

Beacon school board members will vote April 22 on the district's 2025-26 budget proposal, which includes $87.7 million in spending and a 5.09 percent tax levy increase, just under the maximum allowed under a complicated state formula.

The board will hold a public hearing during its May 6 meeting, and district voters will be asked to approve the plan on May 20.

With the levy increase, the district could collect about $50 million in property taxes. The remainder of its revenue comes mostly from state and federal aid. Although state legislators had not approved a budget as of Thursday (April 10), Beacon is expected to receive about $31.5 million from Albany, including $21.7 in unrestricted foundation aid, a 2 percent increase.

Direct federal aid accounts for about 2 percent of the Beacon district's budget, or $1.7 million. The Trump administration has threatened to cut funding to states and local districts that do not eliminate what the White House considers to be diversity, equity and inclusion programs, although New York State says it will resist.

Beacon administrators plan to use the increased funding to implement summer workshops for incoming Beacon High School students and increased mental health support for students at the high school and Rombout Middle School. Math and reading teachers for struggling elementary students will be hired, as well as a part-time speech instructor at the elementary level. Teacher training would focus on "the science of reading" - a research field that investigates how children develop reading and writing skills.

More than 75 percent of the budget will be spent on salaries and benefits for the district's 682 teachers, administrators and other staff.

The proposed levy increase is larger than in years past due primarily to two factors: (1) debt service (about 8 percent of expected expenditures) on a $50 million capital project approved by voters last year and (2) increased residential development in Beacon.

The capital project will fund sweeping improvements at all six district schools and is the first such effort to trigger a tax increase in at least 15 years. In addition, Beacon's tax base has also grown more than any other district in Dutchess County in the past five years. That growth is one of the factors in the complex state tax formula that determines how much a district can increase its levy; in Beacon it will allow the schools to add $1.2 million to the taxes collected for 2025-26.

Superintendent Matt Landahl told school board members during their April 7 meeting that the district is creating individualized data sheets on budget impacts for each school. "This year is really important to give people as much information as they can have walking into their polling place," he said.

While the levy is increasing, individual homeowners' tax bills may not go up by the same percentage. Development in Beacon adds taxpaying households, while assessments also impact what a homeowner owes.

The district estimates that the owner of a home assessed at the median value in Beacon ($304,700) will pay $3,127 annually in school taxes - still considerably less than other Dutchess districts (see chart). "In my mind, this is an argument to go to the tax cap," Landahl said. "In our hiring and retaining employees, these are some of our closest-competing districts."

If you expand the comparison regionwide, "that number just grows, if we're talking about Orange County, Putnam County and obviously Westchester County," he said. "That school tax estimate just gets bigger and bigger, compared to what we're paying here."

Program spurred by federal cuts

Hudson Valley farmers reeling from cuts and freezes to federal funding will get some help from one of their own as the growing season gets underway.

On Tuesday (April 8), the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in Philipstown announced it is accepting applications for private aid designed to buoy operations as the U.S. Department of Agriculture cancels grants, produce purchases for food pantries and schools and funding for other farming initiatives.

Describing its Hudson Valley Farm Relief Fund as a "time-limited emergency response," Glynwood hopes to raise as much as $1.5 million to distribute to farmers in Dutchess, Putnam and nine other counties who have lost funding from nearly 20 federal programs.

Applications are open through April 21 at dub.sh/HV-farm-aid. Recipients can use the funds "in the most impactful way for their business," according to Glynwood.

The funding freezes and contract cancellations began after Brooke Rollins took the oath as the USDA's secretary on Feb. 13. A week later, Rollins said the agency's programs "are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers, not DEIA [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility] programs or far-left climate programs."

Some of the frozen contracts were for the USDA's Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities program, which awarded grants to the Hudson Valley and three other regions to improve the ability of farmers to adapt to drought, extreme heat and other threats from climate change.

Glynwood, which oversees the program, hired Zach Wolf of EZ Farms in Columbia County to develop plans for eight farms. The practices included planting cover crops, as well as integrating more trees to act as a windbreak, improving soil, water and air quality and providing perennial crops in the form of fruit.

"We have partners who received letters out of the blue telling them that their government contracts - contracts that have been signed and that they were already doing work toward - have been canceled," said Megan Larmer, the senior director of programs at Glynwood.

On Wednesday (April 9), U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, lambasted cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program, through which the USDA purchases locally grown farm products for food banks to distribute to hospitals, pantries, schools, senior centers and soup kitchens.

Some of the local beneficiaries, such as the Philipstown Food Pantry, receive TEFAP-purchased food through the Regional Food Bank in Montgomery, which said it expects the cuts to cost it 200 tractor-trailer shipments delivering an estimated 8 million pounds of food from farmers.

"I had to read this five times before I believed it," said Ryan of the canceled shipments. "We're all already feeling the crunch of the affordability crisis, which is made immeasurably worse by Trump's tariffs. Now he's ripping food away from hungry children - it's absolutely disgusting."

Hudson Valley farmers who benefited from the federal Local Food Purchase Assistance funding are among those eligible for Glynwood's emergency aid. Along with another program facing cuts, Local Foods for Schools, LFPA funding allows food banks, schools and childcare programs to buy food from farmers.

Using LFPA funding, the state's Food for New York Families program awarded $2 million in 2023 to the Regional Food Bank and $2 million to Cornell Cooperative Extension Putnam County, which has bought and distributed 290,000 pounds of farm products via pantries and a truck whose stops include the county senior center and Chestnut Ridge in Cold Spring and the Brookside mobile home park in Philipstown.