For more than two months, residents of Red Hook and beyond have been meeting at the Four Corners in the center of the Village of Red Hook to protest. The protests, which occur on Saturdays at noon, do not support any one cause, party, slogan, or organization. Instead, residents bring homemade signs with an array of messages.  The events have grown, with more community members joining each week. On Saturday, April 5, the village protest is apt to be smaller, organizers say, as participants opt to attend the larger rally, part of a nationwide plan, that is taking place in...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/the-growing-red-hook-village-saturday-protests-a-photo-gallery/

Jeanne P. Campbell of Red Hook died on March 30, 2025, at the Hudson Valley Hospice House in Hyde Park, NY. She was born on Aug. 22, 1940, in Oceanside, NY, where she grew up.  Jeanne earned her Master's degree in Education from Hofstra University and dedicated 33 years to teaching. Her career spanned the New York City School System, Patchogue, NY, and ultimately Red Hook's Mill Road School, where she found great joy teaching 5th grade. On August 14, 1971, Jeanne married Leonard E. Campbell in Valley Stream, NY. Together, they built a home in Red Hook, where Lenny...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/jeanne-p-campbell-mill-road-fifth-grade-teacher-dies-at-84/

Asked to direct Romeo & Juliet at the CENTER for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, Peter Risafi knew he would not focus solely on the warring factions that frame Shakespeare’s tale of forbidden love. Instead, he has sought resonance in the quieter tensions—what he calls “the desperate, tragic bubbles” that form around the young couple, inevitably leading them down the road to a devastating finality. “Many productions focus on the blood feud between the Capulets and Montagues as partisan enemies,” Risafi says. “I didn’t feel, in the space we’re in in the country right now, that that would be helpful to...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/when-love-is-the-only-point-a-bold-contemporary-romeo-juliet-debuts-at-the-rhinebeck-center/

As dusk falls, James Stevenson carries his 20-pound telescope into his backyard. While this March evening he won’t leave the bright yellow home he shares with his wife, Rhinebeck Town Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia, and their four cats, he’ll nonetheless travel 27 million light years to Messier 63, known as the Sunflower, a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici. He hopes to emerge from this journey with a polished portrait of his galactic destination. Stevenson, 61, an art major turned software developer, first cultivated the hobby of astrophotography as a boy. It appeals to his meticulous nature, his love...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/we-are-stardust-and-rhinebecks-james-stevenson-has-the-pictures-to-prove-it/

The coalition of residents who live near Red Hook’s wastewater treatment plant on Tuesday sent a letter with a new set of requests to Village Mayor Karen Smythe that includes tax credits for continued distress, more transparent communication to the wider Red Hook community, and the funding of independent air-quality testing near their homes. The letter expresses an erosion of public trust in the mayor and her colleagues. “We hope you can appreciate the frustration of our members with hearing more promises about things to come down the road,” states the letter, which was sent to the mayor, Deputy Mayor...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/decrying-breakdown-of-public-trust-over-sewage-plant-coalition-issues-new-letter-to-mayor-requesting-tax-credits-air-testing-and-more-transparency/

Less than two months after the Town Board restricted private marinas, an attorney for the Town of Red Hook has contacted the Red Hook Boat Club in Barrytown about a potential acquisition or public-private partnership there, The Daily Catch has learned. The outreach, which occurred Monday, comes a few weeks after the boat club filed an Article 78 lawsuit challenging the town’s sweeping zoning overhaul earlier this year. News of the attorney outreach immediately angered the boat club’s leadership and members as it raised concerns that the club's nearly eight-decade presence on the Hudson River may be at risk. The...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/from-zoning-to-owning-town-of-red-hook-makes-first-move-to-acquire-private-boat-club-in-barrytown/

Rita Marie (Stewart) Dee, 69, died at home in Bennington, VT, on Feb. 27, 2025. She was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 8, 1955, and loved horses all her life. She and her sisters spent hours with them in the barn and riding through the countryside of Charlton, NY. In high school, she met the love of her life, Tom Dee. They spent their young married life raising their family in the Hudson Valley and later settled in Bennington, VT, where each of their five children moved to be together.Rita, a nationally acclaimed artist, created larger-than-life driftwood horses. She sourced...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/rita-marie-dee-sculptor-of-driftwood-horses-dies-at-69/

Cherie T. Zietz, 62, a longtime resident of Rhinebeck, died at home on March 25, 2025. She was born in Passaic, NJ, on Sept. 9, 1962.  Cherie is remembered as a rambunctious rock and roller with a knack for mischief in her youth and a kind and giving heart. She frequented the Rhinebeck Tavern, where she met her husband, Terry. She felt that their two children were her greatest accomplishment. Cherie was the receptionist at the Astor home in Rhinebeck for twenty years. She was known there for her love of pranks, sweet tooth, and ever-present bag of Twizzlers. Cherie...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/cherie-zietz-astor-home-receptionist-dies-at-62/

Alan H. Friedman, 86, died on Friday, March 21, 2025, after a brief stay at the Eleanor Nursing Home in Hyde Park. Born on June 25, 1938, in Brooklyn, Alan graduated from Dartmouth College and received a law degree from NYU School of Law. He first practiced law privately with his father in Manhattan and subsequently was General Counsel for Robert Hall and Senior Attorney for JCP Realty. When JCP moved to Texas, Alan and his wife Joan stayed in New York and owned and operated A Choice Nanny placement service for 25 years. They were married for 43 years, lived...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/alan-friedman-lawyer-and-business-owner-dies-at-86/

On the heels of an angry letter from a coalition of local citizens demanding answers to years of foul odors and recent reports of contamination of a tributary of the Saw Kill creek near their homes, the Red Hook Village Board has ended its contract with C3ND Environmental Consulting, the firm that has managed Red Hook’s wastewater treatment plant since the sewer project was finished in late 2022.  The board will instead use Albany-based Delaware Engineering, D.P.C. as the new operator starting on Monday. Mayor Karen Smythe said she has directed Delaware to conduct a full review of the operations...

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/red-hook-village-dismisses-sewer-contractor-hires-new-firm-to-fix-failing-wastewater-plant/