Highlands Current Audio Stories

State allows 5.15 percent tax-levy increase

The Beacon school district is considering taking advantage of the full 5.15 percent tax-levy increase it has been allowed for 2025-26 by New York State to raise more than $50 million in property taxes.

A state tax cap for public school districts and local governments limits annual increases to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. However, other factors in a complicated formula can push the allowable increase well beyond that. At Haldane, the cap for 2025-26 is 3.38 percent and at Garrison, 5.78 percent, although both districts will likely ask voters for less.

In Beacon's case, two factors in the formula raised the amount of property taxes the district can collect. First, it is the first budget to include debt service on a $50 million capital project approved by voters in 2024. Second, and more significantly, development added $1.2 million to the levy.

Beacon has had the highest tax-base growth in Dutchess County for at least five years. In 2024-25, new construction allowed the district to add $793,795 to its levy. In 2023-24, it added $721,620.

The administration has yet to propose its spending plan for 2025-26, but the district will spend $83.9 million in 2024-25. Its revenue this year includes $47.7 million in property taxes, or 3.91 percent more than 2023-24. The school board will continue a discussion of the 2025-26 budget at its March 24 meeting and vote on the plan on April 22. District voters will have their say on May 20.

If the budget is approved, worst-case scenario figures provided by the district estimate an average $122 annual tax increase for Beacon homeowners, $159 for district residents in Fishkill and $161 for those in the Town of Wappinger.

During the school board's meeting on Monday (March 10), some members questioned whether the district should seek the maximum allowable increase.

"It seems a little high at 5 [percent], but I know what we're trying to do," said Eric Schetter. "If we could get it below 5, I would be happier with that. I think it would 'sell' more" to voters.

However, Meredith Heuer, who joined the board in 2016, noted that "if we don't use what we can with our levy, we fall behind very quickly." The district chose not to seek the maximum allowable increase during one of her first years as a board member, she said, "and the next thing you know, you're negotiating for a teachers' contract, and there is no money."

Superintendent Matt Landahl said Monday that pushing the budget "to cap" would allow the district to potentially expand from eight- to nine-period days at Rombout Middle School, giving students receiving extra academic help more time for electives and expanding class topics beyond core subjects. That change, if implemented, would probably require the district to hire four full-time teachers, he said.

Additional reading and math teachers are needed at the elementary level, and the district hopes to expand a reading-support program offered in grades 3-5 to include grades K-2.

"This is a lot, and to be real, we probably cannot afford all of this," Landahl said. "But I want to create, at minimum, a two-year plan to get this done. We want to look at multi-year planning for these larger initiatives, to make them affordable, to make them sustainable."

Another factor for the board to consider is the unpredictable nature of its state and federal funding. Last year, the district received no increase in state funding, which typically accounts for a third of its revenue. That included foundation aid - state funding without spending restrictions - which was flat from 2023-24 to 2024-25, at about $21 million.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed 2 percent foundation aid increases for nearly every district in the state, including Beacon, for 2025-26, but "there's concern on our end, in terms of: How long is that going to be the case?" Landahl said.

Federal funding makes up far less of the district's budget - about 2 percent - but it pays fo...

Police say he embezzled at least $208,000

A Philipstown resident was arrested on Wednesday (March 12) and accused of stealing at least $208,000 from two local organizations for which he served as treasurer.

In a news release, Putnam County Sheriff Kevin McConville said Mark A. Kenny, 61, had served as a treasurer for the civic groups, which he did not name, saying they had been victims of a crime.

He said the agency's investigation began in December when one group reported that funds apparently had been stolen from its bank account over four years. An investigator learned Kenny was also treasurer of the second group and requested its records over the past five years.

After a review, the sheriff said the investigator found Kenny had used funds for personal expenses such as gas, cellphone charges, dental bills, pet supplies, cigars, liquor, automotive and lawn equipment, building materials, dumpster rentals and dining at restaurants and bars in Putnam, Dutchess, Westchester and Orange counties.

The sheriff said Kenny also made purchases from a restaurant distributor after he submitted a credit application in the name of one of the organizations, adding he and his wife as authorized users. The investigation uncovered cash withdrawals from ATM machines and bank branches.

The sheriff said Kenny appears to have stolen at least $118,000 from one organization and at least $90,000 from the other. He was arraigned in Philipstown Town Court on three felony counts of grand larceny and released until his next court date.

No further information was available; a Philipstown court clerk said the town does not release documents from any case unless a person is convicted or by special permission from Justices Camille Linson or Angela Thompson-Tinsley. Philipstown also does not upload its records to the state's electronic system.

Kenny's LinkedIn profile says he is a graduate of New York University and since August has been a manager for global product risk and control at Wells Fargo. In December 2023, according to court records, he was sued by Lending Club for a $4,702 debt it said had gone unpaid.

Beacon professor's quest led to publication

Thirty years ago, Adam McKible, a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina, stretched across a blanket outdoors to read The Letters of Davy Carr, a serialized novel published anonymously in 1925 and 1926 in a monthly magazine for Black writers and readers called The Messenger.

McKible, who today lives in Beacon and is an English professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he wasn't confident that the excerpts would contribute anything to a chapter in his dissertation devoted to the magazine.

But after finishing the pages he had printed from microfilm, he realized he had found a forgotten novel written during the Harlem Renaissance and filled with details about the daily lives of Blacks in Washington, D.C. Its narrator, Davey Carr, also commented on hot-button topics such as Blacks whose skin was light enough to "pass" for white.

"I realized it was a good novel, so the first thing I did was go to all my African-American literature professors and asked if they ever heard of it," McKible said. "Nobody had."

McKible set aside the pages to finish his degree and begin work as a professor. In 2001, he shared the excerpts with a Columbia graduate student who knew how to use a new technology called Google and was able to identify the author as Edward Christopher Williams, the first Black graduate of the New York State Library School in Albany. In 2004, after the serial was typed into a manuscript, HarperCollins published the novel as When Washington Was in Vogue.

To mark the 100th anniversary of When Washington Was in Vogue's publication in The Messenger, McKible will speak at 7 p.m. on Wednesday (March 18) at Stanza Books in Beacon. He will be joined by Eve Dunbar, an English professor at Vassar who will discuss another memorable novel published in 1925, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Born in Cleveland to a Black father and Irish mother, Edward Williams graduated from Case Western Reserve University before attending librarian school. Case Western hired him as its library director, a position he held until resigning in 1909 to become principal of Dunbar High School in Washington.

Between those jobs, Williams married the daughter of Charles W. Chestnut, one of the Harlem Renaissance's best-known writers. In 1916, he became head librarian and chaired the romance languages department at Howard University. He died in 1929.

Before HarperCollins published the book, McKible attempted to locate Williams' granddaughter by cold calling every Patricia Williams in Washington, D.C. After its publication, he received an email from Patricia's son in Georgia, who said she had died in 2000. He thanked McKible for the novel's publication.

"I was conscious that this was somebody else's book, and I felt that it was important that it get out in the world," McKible said.

As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was yesterday. Tree time and people time are different and in the decades of growth that an oak needs to reach its full size, humans age out or move on. That makes planting a hopeful cast for future generations to enjoy the benefits of a maple or white pine.

As the window closes to avert the worst effects of climate change, any day is a good day to plant a tree. Trees offer shade and cooling, clean the air and store a lot of carbon. They are critical parts of our ecosystems. Recognizing their role in mitigating global warming, the state's 25 Million Trees by 2033 initiative is part of New York's goal to be carbon neutral by 2050.

Using a tracker developed by the Department of Environmental Conservation, you can add your tree plantings to a statewide map at dub.sh/tree-tracker. There aren't any reports of new trees in Putnam County and only three reports for 18 trees around Beacon. But it's new! Give us time.

Annabel Gregg is the program coordinator at the DEC. Her job is to coordinate public and private efforts to fill gaps and get people excited about planting trees.

Why 25 million trees?

It begins with the Climate Action Plan of 2019. To reach carbon neutrality by 2050, the scoping plan sets out to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 85 percent and sequester 15 percent using trees and forests. To hit that goal, we need to establish 1.7 million acres of new forest by 2040. The reforestation plan is nearly final and Gov. [Kathy] Hochul wanted to get us started. That's why the 25 million trees by 2033 launched last year. We need to scale up and do it fast.

How does the tree tracker fit into this?

We launched it a month ago, so we're still adding data from 2024. We can use the tracker to measure progress. With Arbor Day coming on April 25, it's a great time to celebrate trees. There will be a lot of planting events. By this time next year, we can tell how well the tracker has integrated into what people are doing and make this part of the norm.

How is tree loss accounted for?

New York is 62 percent forested. The U.S. Forest Service conducts an inventory every five to seven years. New York state lost 1 percent of its forest cover between 2017 and 2022, the year of the most recent survey. [Pamela's note: The inventory lists Putnam County with 76 percent cover and Dutchess County with 53 percent. Throughout the state, 73 percent of forested land is in private hands. See dub.sh/forest-inventory.]

Are there new approaches to reach the goal? I'm wondering about the dense plantings pioneered by Japanese forest ecologist Akira Miyawaki.

We're setting up the first pilot project of a Miyawaki forest at the Five Rivers Education Center in Delmar [near Albany]. We're hoping that kids who come to the project will see all these species in a small space. We're studying the best reforestation and afforestation [planting where there has been no recent covering] strategies and there are programs like Regenerate New York for landowners to support things like slash walls [made of logs to protect young trees from deer].

Sources for trees

The Tree Tracker explains how to plant trees and has a calendar of tree-planting events. Until Saturday (March 15), the Butterfield library in Cold Spring and the Desmond-Fish library in Garrison are offering free seedlings to children. Sign up at their websites. Beacon residents can purchase any of six species through the city at a discount. See dub.sh/beacon-trees.

The deadline to order discounted seedlings from the DEC is May 14. For example, it offers 25 red-oak seedlings for $30. If you can't plant them all, consider sharing an order with friends or donating some. But act quickly because many varieties are already sold out. See dub.sh/DEC-trees.

Artist league's Beacon exhibit guaranteed authentic

The art world's AI problem stretches beyond the frame because the abuse of Photoshop is difficult to determine and software that mimics the act of painting is becoming more sophisticated.

In November, The American Artists Professional League discovered that a piece in its 96th Grand National Exhibition in Manhattan consisted of too many pixels and not enough paint.

In response, the League deployed detection software to ensure that none of the 85 small works on display at its Realism on the Hudson exhibit at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon is tainted by algorithms. The show, which includes pieces by artists in 28 states, represents a master class in composition and technique.

The Howland partnership came about after Westchester County resident and League president Aki Kano displayed two watercolors at the Bannerman Island Gallery on Main Street in April 2023. She asked Laurie Clark of the gallery if the League could exhibit at the space. Clark, a Beacon mainstay, steered her to the larger cultural center.

This is the League's third show in Beacon and the plan is to make it an annual event. The subjects include nudes, portraits, landscapes, still lifes, water scenes, nature studies and plenty of flowers. Some of the detail is hyper-realistic, such as the squirrel in Karla Mann's "Snack Time," hair curls in "Blue Fragment" by Gabrielle Tito and lace in Eileen Nistler's "Pretty Please."

"Still Life with Aged Cheese," by Victor Mordasov, and Zhi Li's stunning table study, "Daisy Flower w Lemon," convey exquisite texture. In "Summer Lovers," Karen Israel's painting of two dogs frolicking in water, the fur looks wet.

"Angel's Light" by Katherine Irish features excellent cloud work, as does the sunset in "Cuttyhunk's Tranquility," by Desiree Rose Zaslow. The standout drawing, "Which Way" by Jeff R. Edwards, depicts a meadow pathway leading to a forest. Other notable black-and-white images include Mike Denny's "Secrets" and "Lure of the Sea," by John Calabrese.

In the vivid painting "Autumn Fire," Keith Willis plays with the reflection of a colorful grove of trees in a river, one of several pieces that renders water with skill. Other notable depictions include Jess Bell's shimmering "Luminate" and "Echoes of Rust and Tide," by Barbara Leger, one of seven award winners in the show. Jodie Klein's painting ". . . and the boat makes three" channels Winslow Homer.

"Echoes of Rust and Tide" by Barbara Leger

"Exeunt" by Anna Toberman

"Homeless in Lisbon" by Don Taylor

"Hummer at Feeder II" by Kelly Best Bourgeois

"Sweet Rain" by Fang Sullivan

"Teal" by Chantal Sulkow

"That Tree" by Jessie Rasche

The League, a New York City nonprofit founded in 1928, has 600 members and organizes six exhibits each year. Artists are vetted for quality and professionalism - and now, for digital assists.

The kerfuffle in November led the organization to adopt a policy regarding the role of computers in the creation of art. "We sent hundreds of emails back and forth exploring the issue," Kano says. "This is not like using ChatGPT to help write a memo; a well-respected organization almost bought [the work]."

To maintain the integrity of its exhibitions, the League only "accepts art made from scratch," says Kano. "We are sounding the alarm for galleries, museums and other institutions that this is going on. There's a need to value creativity done the old-fashioned way."

The Howland Cultural Center, at 477 Main St. in Beacon, is open Saturdays and most Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. The exhibit continues through April 13. On March 22, from 1 to 3 p.m., Brian McClear will paint a large still life in oils.

150 Years Ago (March 1875)

Three of the four children in the James Robinson family of Garrison - John (16), Willie (10) and Jennie (19) - died of diphtheria over 10 days. Shortly before she died, Jennie asked for James Meade, her Sunday School teacher: "Tell my young friends to seek the Lord, while he may be found, and meet me in heaven."

After a storm, a classified ad appeared in The Cold Spring Recorder offering a reward for a Smith & Wesson seven-shooter with plated barrel and rosewood stock lost in the snow, probably on Main Street between West and Church.

Because of the snow, Garden Street was reduced to a single lane, forcing Charley Warren to load one side of his wagon with bystanders to turn around, "like a sailor does the windward gunwale in a gale," according to The Recorder.

Mr. VanWinkle complained that a transcript of his lecture on Egypt and the Nile, reprinted in The Recorder, contained many errors, including "some of words altered to others that were not dreamed of when writing."

After poultry went missing, Theodore Adams, his father and his brother-in-law found the dead birds buried near the Fishkill line. They set a steel trap and returned to find it gone. They followed the path of bushes where the trap had snagged and branches chewed off to release it. At Kings' Chest Cave, by smoke and bullets and dogs, they drew out and killed a 33-pound wildcat with the trap around its foot. The men had it stuffed and brought it to the village.

A burglar broke into the slaughterhouse of Charles Miller and stole $5 [about $150 today] worth of pork, beef and veal.

Burglars stole $50 [$1,450] worth of liquor and cigars from Tevan's basement saloon by breaking a window. To add insult to injury, the culprits uncorked and spilled the demijohns and smashed the glass bar backing.

The Rock Street door of Baxter's Hardware was jimmied and the money drawer relieved of $4 [$115] in change.

In a letter to The Recorder, a resident called for $500 of the $1,000 [$29,000] allocated by the Cold Spring Village Board for streets instead be spent to install kerosene lampposts on every corner to "keep our stores from being plundered night after night."

Milton Lawrence's hay and William Odell's red cow were seized for back taxes.

A young man who raised alarms when he walked down Main Street at 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday with a bandaged head and bloody clothes said he had been injured working at Miller's slaughterhouse.

The Library Association hosted a discussion of the question: "Will the centennial of a republican form of government be celebrated by the United States, as a unit, more than once?" The Glee Club also sang.

P. Nichols of Parrott Street said his 17 hens produced 118 eggs in 12 days.

Thomas Richards was killed at Croft's Mine in Putnam Valley when he drilled into an unexploded ordnance.

A year after Michael O'Brien broke his arm in a fight near the depot, he was finally able to return to his job at the foundry, where a hoist rope broke and a casting crushed his arm.

A police officer from Orange County came to Cold Spring to arrest John Wyant on a charge of bastardy. Wyant returned home after posting a $1,000 [$29,000] bail.

In Nelsonville, Charles Van Voorhis sold 50 chances at $1 [$30] each to win a scene he crafted with stuffed birds and squirrels.

Elijah Warren of North Highlands, at 70, took his first train ride, from Cold Spring to Garrison. He said his daughter told him to keep his head inside the window. "Dear Lord, how we did sail!" he said. "After I got settled, I could have rode clean to [New] York."

125 Years Ago (March 1900)

Michael Pendergrast, 48, the brother of George Pendergrast of Cold Spring, was killed in the railroad tunnel south of Anthony's Nose. He was clearing the ceiling of hanging ice when he was struck by a southbound express. Pendergrast had been employed by the railroad for 25 years and left a widow and eight children.

Iona Island, the popular picnic resort, was purchased by the federal government to us...

No commitments yet as feasibility study continues

Although it's not yet known if Dutchess County will commit to a 13-mile rail trail connecting Beacon and Hopewell Junction, a planning firm it hired told the City Council on Monday (March 3) that it has found no major roadblocks.

"This is all buildable," Tom Baird, an engineer from Barton & Loguidice, the Albany firm conducting a feasibility study with the county, told the council. "There aren't big obstacles, there aren't major environmental concerns. We don't have any real hazardous materials to worry about, either."

Dutchess County released a report on conditions along the Beacon Line, an abandoned rail spur, in November. A final report, with detailed concepts, cost estimates and phasing recommendations, should be finished by the summer. The Monday presentation to the City Council can be viewed at highlandscurrent.org/rail-trail-deck.

The proposed trail would begin at the Beacon Metro-North station, a stone's throw from the Hudson River, then wind for 4 miles around the city's southern perimeter before running parallel with Tioronda Avenue and the east end of Main Street. Major crossings would include Churchill Street and East Main Street (at the dummy light). The trail would run underneath Route 9D (at Tioronda Avenue) and hug northbound Route 52 (Fishkill Avenue) to the city line.

The trail would connect with the proposed Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail near the bridge at Madam Brett Park, where the planners said a trailhead could be located. Scenic Hudson, which is building the Fjord Trail between Beacon and Cold Spring, is a member of the Beacon-to-Hopewell Trail Advisory Committee.

Once the rail trail leaves the city, it would veer back and forth over Fishkill Creek on its way through the Village of Fishkill and the towns of Fishkill and East Fishkill. At Hopewell, it would connect with the Dutchess Rail Trail, the Maybrook Trailway and, overlaying both, the 750-mile Empire State Trail.

The abandoned rail line is owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. A year ago, Metro-North, an agency of the MTA, "railbanked" the line, reserving the right to revive service, although an agency representative told The Current in February 2024 that it had no plans to do so.

The important takeaway from the conditions study is that "the majority of the corridor is in really good condition," said Chris Hannett, another Barton & Loguidice engineer, on Monday.

There are two options for constructing a trail, although one would be a much heavier lift. A "rail-with-trail" conversion, in which the tracks remain in place, would present many challenges, including a 20- to 25-foot buffer required between the tracks and any trail. Bridges in the corridor, which are no longer safe for trains, would have to be rebuilt, adding significant cost and environmental impacts, and right-of-way acquisitions would be required.

The second option, a "rail to trail," would permit the reuse of bridges and ballast stones, the rocks used to stabilize the tracks, but the rails would be removed. A rail to trail would minimize environmental impacts, with little and possibly no rights-of-way needed.

When the study began, Metro-North's abandonment of the line had not been approved by the federal Surface Transportation Board, so the engineers studied both options. The final report will include both but won't recommend either, instead letting "the engineering and the cost speak for itself, as well as the environmental impacts," Baird said.

The planners anticipate a 12-foot-wide path made with a crushed-stone mix or asphalt, depending on the location. It would likely be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and could be lighted because of its proximity to dense urban areas.

Baird said the county is conducting the study because funders often consider projects "and some will scratch their heads [and say], 'Can they really do that?' " With a report analyzing environmental impacts and other factors, "it...

Axed program designed to help with climate change

Local farmers, racing to figure out how to adapt to a rapidly changing climate that has buoyed pests and led to both droughts and flooding, thought help was on the way from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But a major source of funding looks like it is about to disappear.

The Hudson Valley is one of four regions in the country to receive a Climate Smart Commodities Grant through a USDA pilot program to make farms more resilient while improving air and water quality. Contracts had been signed, and planning was underway on eight local farms when the program was cut following the re-election of President Donald Trump.

"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 of the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in Philipstown, which was overseeing the program. "Your government contract should be the most secure type of funding you could have."

The Climate Smart Commodities Grant is one of many sources of funding for local farms that has been frozen or canceled in the past six weeks. Rocksteady Farms in Millerton had over $400,000 cut for projects such as farmer training, food access and water mitigation. A $2.5 million grant from the USDA to help Rocksteady and a dozen other farms build a food hub with barns and processing facilities is on hold.

Farming is, by nature, a famously unpredictable undertaking, even without climate change. But financial cuts and freezes at the beginning of the growing season have added another layer of uncertainty, leading farmers to downgrade their plans and projections. It's also giving younger farmers second thoughts about the profession.

"The fact that all this is sowing fear amongst all these organizations that are dedicated to the public good is psychologically damaging, and the repercussions of it are going to be felt for a long time," said Larmer.

Among those affected is Jackie Matza, a Hudson Valley native who was living in Germany and graduated from Kiel University with a degree in sustainability. Speaking with her classmates from around the world made her realize how much her talents were needed back home.

"The U.S. needs to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of climate change planning, resiliency planning, protecting land and protecting Indigenous communities," she said. "All of these things are routine in a lot of European countries. They have such a clear plan. Even the general public takes things like 'reduce, reuse, recycle' very seriously. Americans don't. It was a wake-up call for me to come back to my own country and be a part of actual change for the people who need it."

Matza was hired in the fall to help administer the Climate Smart Commodities Grant at Glynwood as part of the Working Lands Climate Corps, a Biden-era program partly inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps that helped build parks, plant trees and restore farms in the 1920s and '30s. After the November election, the program changed its name to the Working Lands Conservation Corps because of a Trump directive to eliminate any program with the word climate in it.

That didn't help. The program has been canceled and Matza is out of a job that she traveled thousands of miles to take. Finding a new one will be difficult. "Anything similar to what I was doing here has either been cut or has thousands of other government employees who were just fired applying for it," she said. "The competition is quite fierce."

Zach Wolf of EZ Farms in Columbia County is also out of a gig. He was helping to develop plans for the eight local farms taking part in the Climate Smart Commodities Grant, including his own. "It's a lot of things that farmers would like to do but just don't have the money," he said. The practices included planting cover crops, as well as integrating more trees to act as a...

Some people happy with life in pieces

Tessie Monck designed her Cold Spring kitchen with jigsaw puzzles in mind.

"This counter had to be one slab with no seams where I could do my puzzle," says Monck, a retiree who typically starts a 1,000-piece puzzle every Friday. "It's like my Friday night date. Opening a puzzle is like Christmas morning. I'm full of joy."

Along with being fun, jigsaws provide "meditation and peace for my brain," says Monck, who started puzzling about 20 years ago, around the time her husband died and she was dealing with her own health issues.

A recent jigsaw boom began during the pandemic, when some manufacturers saw their orders quadruple. "Jigsaw puzzles saved my business," says Fran Farnorotto, who owns The Gift Hut on Main Street in Cold Spring. "I didn't sell anything else, but I sold puzzles."

During the shutdown, Farnorotto accepted orders online, then "drove around Philipstown and dropped them off on people's porches." She opened her shop 14 years ago with her late husband, Jim, after working in retail merchandising for JCPenney.

Farnorotto stocks about 100 jigsaws, many featuring covers from The New Yorker. As a lifelong puzzler, she understands the joy. "There's something satisfying about that moment when you put the piece in place and you know it's the right piece," she says.

In Beacon, about 40 people participated in the Howland Public Library's inaugural puzzle swap in January, says Michelle Rivas, the adult services and community engagement librarian. Rivas expects to have another later this year. The Desmond-Fish library in Garrison and the Butterfield library in Cold Spring also have held swaps.

At the Howland event, Maria Hernandez grabbed a puzzle made by Bgraamiens (the name scrambles the letters from brain and games), a brand that specializes in puzzles with complex designs. This one had a kaleidoscope of colorful, swirling squares. The brand's puzzles are so difficult that the backs of the pieces are numbered, as a cheat code.

Hernandez doesn't cheat. She has her own system for tough puzzles. "I have little bowls and put the same shapes together," she says.

The Beacon resident fell in love with jigsaws growing up in Puerto Rico. She returned to them in recent years in part to deal with chronic depression. "It distracts me - I don't have to think," she says.

As Hernandez has learned, there is evidence that puzzles provide mental health benefits such as improving mood, cognitive function, problem-solving, patience and relieving loneliness.

At the Friendship Center for seniors in Beacon there is always a jigsaw in progress. Felicita Pinto, 76, is usually there, poring over the pieces with her one good eye. "It helps keep her mind clear," says her daughter and translator, Jenny Ayala. Her mom also does puzzles at home. "That way she's not just watching TV," she says.

Pinto always tackles a puzzle on the annual trip to Puerto Rico at Christmas to visit family. Last year it was a picture of Snoopy. "Everybody in the family has to contribute," says Ayala. "You have to put in at least one piece. That's the rule."

Fran Pergamo says her first jigsaw was a map of the U.S. that she put together repeatedly. That was 60 years ago, before she could read. As it happened, she had the map upside down; she still tends to imagine the U.S. with Florida in the northwest corner.

At her Cold Spring home, she is working on a puzzle obtained from a "friend of a friend" she met at a dinner party. When they discovered a mutual love for jigsaws, they arranged a swap. "She opened her trunk, and I picked out a couple of ones I wanted."

Pergamo prefers new jigsaws because secondhand puzzles sometimes have missing pieces. She always has a puzzle going and has 80 stacked on basement shelves.

When she finishes a puzzle, she doesn't linger. "I smooth it out and look at it," she says. "Then I drag it apart so I can move on to the next one."

But is it smarter to ask for the maximum hike?

While the Haldane school board debated on Tuesday (March 4) whether to take advantage of the full property-tax increase allowed by the state for 2025-26, the Garrison district said on Wednesday it would ask for 2.2 percent less.

In either case, voters will decide on May 20 whether to approve the budgets, which as of this week were $30.2 million at Haldane and $14.5 million at Garrison.

At Haldane, the budget proposed by interim Superintendent Carl Albano would translate to a 2.8 percent tax increase, the same approved last year. But the district's maximum allowable for 2025-26 under a complicated state tax-cap formula is 3.38 percent. If the district asked voters for the maximum, it would mean another $132,000 for the bottom line.

Albano said that he believes Haldane can go with the lower increase, especially after voters last year approved an increase of 6.95 percent over three years to pay for a $28.4 million capital project. "We are mindful that the community supported a pretty significant tax increase," he said. "Therefore, we are doing our best to be efficient with the operating budget."

In response, Trustee Ezra Clementson wondered if failing to take advantage of the full cap was shortsighted. "I want to make sure that what we're doing is not unduly causing a problem down the road," he said.

Clementson noted that failing to budget $132,000 for 2025-26 translates to a reduction of more than $600,000 over five years, a financial decision that the board could come to regret, especially with higher inflation.

"When you're short, you have to pierce the cap, which is not easy to do," said Clementson. Under state law, a district can raise taxes over the cap only if 60 percent of voters approve, rather than a simple majority.

"Our No. 1 role is to provide opportunities for children," said Clementson. "By making budgets that go to the cap, you're doing the most financially sound thing you can possibly do with regular majority votes."

Maggie Valentine, the vice president, said she was concerned about raising taxes on top of the capital spending. "There are so many people on fixed incomes," she said. "Not everybody has a dual income. There are people really stressed out about" the tax hike.

Like Clementson, Sean McNall and Michelle Kupper wondered about the long-term impact of not raising taxes to the max. Peggy Clements, the president, noted the district has not, during her 10-year tenure, ever proposed a budget under the cap, which New York State enacted in 2012.

Following the discussion, Albano said he would bring a more detailed spending plan with the maximum cap to the March 18 meeting. He said "there's a long list of things that we could do" with another $132,000, such as replacing fluorescent lights in classrooms with more-efficient LEDs.

The draft budget presented on Tuesday includes funding for a science-of-reading curriculum ($50,000); software to improve student outcomes ($10,000); a new pre-K program ($100,000); special education funding for out-of-district placements ($200,000); increased field trip spending ($20,000); a softball field dugout ($20,000); classroom air conditioners to comply with new state maximum temperature requirement ($30,000); auditorium stage and performing arts equipment ($30,000); and a transportation system analysis ($20,000).

The Haldane budget anticipates that the district will receive $4.4 million in expense-based state aid, a reduction of $161,000 from 2024-25, and an additional $58,000 in Foundation Aid.

Garrison district

At the Garrison school board meeting on Wednesday, Superintendent Greg Stowell proposed a budget that includes a 3.58 percent tax increase, or 2.2 percent less than the 5.78 percent cap set by the state for the district for 2025-26. Last year, Garrison raised taxes by 4.44 percent, the maximum.

The proposed 3.58 percent increase "is reflective of what we need, is respectful to the taxpayer and continues to promote the high...