Denise A. Schmidt, 64, died unexpectedly on Sept. 13, 2025, at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. She was born on June 14, 1961, in Mt. Kisco, NY, and received her Master's Degree from Marshall University in West Virginia. She went on to a nearly 40-year career at the Cary Institute in Millbrook, where she served as Director of Lab Facilities. Denise is survived by her mother, Evelyn Boudreau Schmidt; her siblings, Karen Macfarlane, Kenneth Schmidt, and Brian Schmidt; her long-time friend, Ray Winchcombe; and extended family and friends. Denise loved animals, and her home was always filled with dogs, whether her...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/denise-a-schmidt-cary-institute-lab-director-dies-at-64/

When Dan Aymar-Blair, now Dutchess County Comptroller, first told his mother he was running for the position, she responded: “I’m so proud of you, honey. What is that?” The anecdote got a laugh from a dozen residents gathered at a Hyde Park library town hall recently, but it also captures Democrat Aymar-Blair’s central challenge in winning reelection to a full term as comptroller: persuading voters to care about an office so little-understood that even his own mother needed an explanation. His Republican opponent, Will Truitt, the 30-year-old chair of the Dutchess County Legislature, faces a different challenge. To win the...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/high-stakes-for-a-low-profile-post-in-comptroller-race-dutchess-voters-weigh-democrat-aymar-blair-against-republican-truitt/

Julia (Julie) Lobotsky, born July 28, 1923, died on August 30, 2025. Julie was born and raised in Rhinebeck, growing up on the family farm, Wonderland, alongside her siblings Nettie (Lobotsky) Brehm, Walter Lobotsky, and John Lobotsky Jr., all of whom predeceased her. Life on the farm gave her a love of nature and family that never left her.  She graduated as valedictorian from Rhinebeck Central School in 1939. She went on to Keuka College, where she earned her B.S. in biology and chemistry, graduating magna cum laude as salutatorian in 1943. She continued her studies at the University of...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/julia-julie-lobotsky-biochemist-and-educator-dies-at-102/

Shirley Barbara (Wilson) Francis, age 91, a resident of Poughkeepsie, died at Vassar Brothers Hospital on Sept. 4, 2025, after a short illness. Shirley was born in Wappingers Falls in 1933. After graduating from Wappingers High School, Shirley worked for a short time at IBM alongside her father and grandfather, helping with the war effort. She worked in banking in Yorktown Heights and in Poughkeepsie, and in administration at Northern Dutchess Hospital and Ellis Hospital in Schenectady. Shirley had one daughter, Michelle, with her first husband. In 1975, she married Robert E. Francis, moved to Scotia, NY, and welcomed three stepsons,...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/shirley-francis-retired-hospital-administrator-dies-at-91/

Charles F. Hayes, 81, of Germantown, NY, died on Sept. 5, 2025, at home. Born on Sept. 26, 1943, in Brooklyn, Charles served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and returned to serve for twenty years as a United States Coast Guard reservist. Charles spent 20 years as a member of the New York City Police Department. After retiring from the NYPD, Charles continued his career in law enforcement on a United Nations International Police Task Force in Bosnia, where he served as a Commander. Charles married Marguerite Babich in New York in 1965. Marguerite predeceased Charles...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/charles-f-hayes-veteran-and-ny-and-international-police-officer-dies-at-81/

Red Hook High School will launch a new Journalism & Media Production elective this fall. The course, co-taught by English teacher Brendan Fix and Media and Fine Arts teacher Kristin Larson, will give students the opportunity to read and analyze news articles and contemporary nonfiction narratives while writing and publishing their own stories.  Enrollment has already reached about 40 students, more than half of them ninth and tenth graders, Fix told school board members during an August meeting. The large group of students will be split into two sections, according to district leaders. “It’s really a good course for students...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/red-hook-students-to-explore-news-storytelling-and-podcasts-in-new-elective/

For Kristy Koerner, owner of Red Hook’s Koerner Construction, this year’s 20th anniversary of the business she now runs is equal parts miracle and milestone, an unlikely saga of tears and triumph.  Kristy’s husband, Dale, who founded and ran the business for over a decade, died from cancer in 2019. Before his death, he asked Kristy to keep the firm alive in case their children wanted to take it on one day. With Dale’s death, Kristy found herself a single mom of two young children, running a company for the first time in a male-dominated industry.  Focusing on medium-sized jobs,...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/building-on-love-and-loss-the-female-executive-leading-koerner-construction-marks-20-years-with-pride/

At the most recent meeting of the Rhinebeck Village Board of Trustees on Aug. 12, between a conversation about a replacement swing at the Lions Club Mini Park and a presentation on the Village’s finances, came an unusual apology.  “I talk a lot about making sure that our dialogue builds bridges instead of destroying them. And at our meeting on June 10, I did not do that, and I regret it,” Board Trustee Lydia Slaby began. “My language was inappropriate and fell short of the standards I hold myself to. I’m sorry.” She added that she plans to “do better...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/rhinebeck-village-trustee-apologizes-for-using-inappropriate-language-but-debate-about-underlying-issue-of-occupancy-tax-continues/

The father of newly sentenced sex offender Tyler LeClerc, who is himself a convicted sex offender, said Thursday that his son must pay his debt to society. Robert LeClerc's first public statement since Tyler's arrest in February also revisited his statutory rape conviction and its aftermath. The senior LeClerc, whose statement comes more than 200 days after his son's arrest by State Police, also said he was not aware of his son's illegal actions while he worked for the LeClerc academies, one of which was located in Rhinebeck. "I will never excuse Tyler's actions," Robert LeClerc wrote on Facebook. "His...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/father-of-convicted-martial-arts-sex-offender-says-son-must-pay-debt-to-society/

A glance inside a Train Stop Jiu-Jitsu class reveals 19 barefoot students wrestling each other to the ground in a crowded, hot, and sweaty room. With all the hand fighting, leg grabbing, and grappling, it might be easy to miss the deeper story of community and resilience taking shape. The classes, offered twice a week in Tivoli, are the creation of Cody Christensen, a Jiu-Jitsu instructor on a mission. Christensen, who began his own training in Latham, N.Y. in 2008, wants his studio to be both a training opportunity and an incubator for community. Jiu-Jitsu, he says, offers people of...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/a-newly-minted-black-belt-brings-a-gentler-approach-and-philosophy-of-life-to-jiu-jitsu-in-tivoli/