Cold Spring Tragedy Averted Putnam Open
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Reader-Supported News for Philipstown and Beacon Married at Manitou Page 11 AUGUST 14, 2020 Celebrating 10 Years! Support us at highlandscurrent.org/join BLACK VOTES MATTER — Oliver King (at left) portrayed Frederick Douglass on Tuesday (Aug. 11) during the unveiling in Newburgh of a mural by Vernon Byron that honors the former slave and abolitionist. Douglass spoke in the city on Aug. 11, 1870, as part of a lecture tour to push for the passage of the 15th Amendment, which extended voting rights to African-Americans. For more info, see bit.ly/douglass-newburgh. Photos by Ross Corsair Schools Can Cold Spring Tragedy Averted Putnam Open. That’s Carbon monoxide causes On Aug. 4, Tropical Storm Isaias left Says ‘No’ to the village without power. That night, Ed the Easy Part. early morning evacuation Currelley, who lives in and manages the five- Human Rights By Michael Turton unit building, was awakened at about 1 a.m. Haldane, Garrison, by an alarm in his second-floor apartment. Commission Beacon work on the details loud banging at your front door Because Currelley had the week before in the middle of the night doesn’t replaced the battery-powered carbon Legislators say it’s not By Jeff Simms A usually mean good news. But for monoxide alarms in the building, as well residents of the apartment building at 1 as the batteries in the smoke detectors, needed; Montgomery ov. Andrew Cuomo on Aug. 7 gave Market St. in Cold Spring, the knock in he said his first thought was that his CO decries ‘stonewalling’ public schools the green light to the early morning hours of Aug. 5 may detector must not have reset properly, G reopen next month and his office have been a lifesaver. (Continued on Page 3) By Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong last week approved plans submitted by hundreds of districts, including Beacon, utnam legislators on Aug. 7 rejected Haldane and Garrison, to do so as safely a proposal to create a human rights as possible amid the COVID-19 pandemic. P commission, saying the county has Cuomo said he would allow schools to too few problems to justify it and that it reopen as long as their region had an infec- would duplicate state anti-bias efforts. tion rate below 5 percent on a 14-day aver- The 9-3 vote came during a meeting age. The rate in the Mid-Hudson Region, held by audio connection that had been which includes Putnam and Dutchess coun- rescheduled from earlier in the week ties, has hovered around 1 percent. Infec- due to power outages caused by Tropical tion rates also have been relatively low in Storm Isaias. Dutchess (which tested 1,362 people on The proposal was endorsed by County Wednesday [Aug. 12] and had nine positives, Executive MaryEllen Odell, a Republican, or 0.7 percent) and Putnam (which tested and championed by Nancy Montgomery, 360 and had five positives, or 1.4 percent). the only Democrat on the Legislature, Cuomo last month asked every district who represents Philipstown. The commis- to submit detailed reopening plans to his sion would be asked to “inquire into inci- office for in-person, virtual and hybrid dents of tension and conflict among or instruction. All schools will be closed in between various racial, religious and a region if its infection rate rises above 9 nationality groups” and recommend percent, using a seven-day average, the solutions, according to the resolution governor said. presented to the Legislature. (Continued on Page 15) The apartment building at 1 Market St. Photo by M. Turton (Continued on Page 7) 2 AUGUST 14, 2020 The Highlands Current highlandscurrent.org FIVE QUESTIONS: GINNY FIGLIA By Leonard Sparks By Michael Turton inny Figlia last month marked her 30th year as a librarian at the G Howland Public Library in Beacon. What’s your favorite place by the water on How did you become a librarian? When I was younger, I never in a million a hot summer day? years thought this would be my career. I wanted to study art, maybe become an art teacher. But I was looking for part-time work [in 1986] when my son was young, and where I lived [in Westchester County], there The Amalfi Coast, Italy. was an opening for a library assistant in The water is so blue the children’s room. That’s how I got into a and clear and peaceful. library. Eventually, after I came to Beacon, I got my master’s degree in information science from the University at Albany. they had performers come in and they did a and races and religions. Parents are much summer reading program. But now librar- more open to teaching their children about What hooked you on the job? ies do more afterschool programs and the differences and likenesses of all of us. I assumed being a librarian would be to programs that aren’t centered on books. have your nose in a book and archiving and We’ve developed STEM or STEAM [Science, Have kids you’ve met returned with cataloging and not seeing people. I never Technology, Engineering, Art, Math] activi- their own children? knew it could be this much fun. I love ties. We include art and we have included a The first time that happened, it was working with all different ages; I’m not in lot more technology. like, “Boy, do I feel old.” But it’s one of the a classroom with one group. I love meeting nicest things about my job — that some- families. I can be creative. I am able to do In what ways have children’s books body remembers the library so fondly that all kinds of arts and crafts. changed? they want to bring their own children. I Children’s writing and authorship and keep in touch with quite a few kids who ~ Tina Barile, Cold Spring How has programming changed? illustrations have become a much larger field are adults now, which is such a satisfying When I started, libraries had story times, than when I started, just by adding cultures part of the job. Rocky Beach, Falmouth, Maine. It never gets hot there, and the water is cold. ~ Hannah Sultan, visiting Garrison Selling organic Capers Island, South produce every Carolina. The most interesting island I’ve seen, Saturday at the from pristine white sand to Cold Spring pure untouched swampland. Farmers Market. Now accepting online WHOLEIntroducing: ANIMAL Online ShoppingBUTCHER preorders for safe and LOCALLYCURBSIDE SOURCED PICKUP/ SINCE 2014 easy market shopping. ForFARMSTEAD Same Day CHEESE Curbside • CHARCUTERIE Pickup Order online and PREPAREDPRE-ORDER FOODS • SANDWICHES pickup at market. ONLYmarbledmarket.comSPECIALTY WED-SAT GROCERY 10:00A.M. • CATERING – 5:00P.M. [email protected] US 9, COLD SPRING, NY 10516 | •(845) (845)265-2830 265-2830 fourwindsfarmny.com marbledmeatshop.com ~ Parker Elbe, Beacon highlandscurrent.org The Highlands Current AUGUST 14, 2020 3 The mayor said the board decided it Wanted: Artist with a Thing for Trees needed “someone that can respond a little more quickly” and work directly with Village Also, Village Board Ten to 12 feet of the tree, which has a Clerk Jeff Vidakovich. The mayor said he diameter of about 30 inches, will be kept wanted to hire Mountain in October but her appoints code enforcer intact as the foundation for whatever art contract in Mamaroneck prevented her from working elsewhere. Her situation is more By Michael Turton project is chosen. (Email jzwarich.cstab@ gmail.com for more information.) flexible now, he said. Merandy met with think that I shall never see / A sculp- “It’s carte blanche for someone with a Mountain on Aug. 2 and the board inter- ture as lovely as this dead tree.” creative idea,” Zwarich said. “I envision it viewed her in executive session before the “I The Tree Advisory Board of the as being community-centered. Sculpture Aug. 5 meeting. Merandy said there will be Village of Cold Spring may be hoping resi- would be the coolest, but it could also be a period of overlap while Wunner completes dents and visitors paraphrase Joyce Kilm- painted.” current permit applications and Mountain er’s poem if their creative aspirations for a The advisory board intends to advertise becomes familiar with Cold Spring’s needs. large dead tree near the pedestrian tunnel the project soon with a goal of seeing the work out as planned. project underway this fall. ¢ The village will use the state bidding Jennifer Zwarich, who chairs the board, Zwarich hopes it will get the commu- system to purchase a new garbage truck. Its received approval from the village on Aug. 5 nity involved in a conversation about the procurement policy does not allow it to seek to seek proposals from artists with a vision advisory board’s other work. It received a bids on its own for equipment purchases of for transforming the doomed Norway $50,000 urban forestry grant from the state more than $20,000. The cost of the truck Maple. Department of Environmental Conserva- Jennifer Zwarich with Archie and the tree has been estimated to be much as $134,000. “We’ve been watching this tree for a long tion last year. Phase 1 helped fund metal Photo by M. Turton time,” she said. “It didn’t make it through tree guards and pervious pavers along ¢ Trustee Fran Murphy said the village is last winter.” Main Street, while Phase 2 will include dent Charlotte Mountain as a part-time code still waiting for information from its insur- Zwarich said if the tree were removed, extensive pruning of village-owned trees.