One Station, More Firefighters Divestment Tougher Sell Than Fracking Elected Officials Find Less Support for Latest Appeal
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[FREE] Serving Philipstown and Beacon Saving Cold Spring’s Riverfront Page 5 FEBRUARY 15, 2019 ISSUE 350 161 MAIN ST., COLD SPRING, N.Y. | highlandscurrent.org One Station, More Firefighters Divestment Tougher Sell than Fracking Elected officials find less support for latest appeal By Brian PJ Cronin ast month a group called Elected Officials to Protect New York sent L a letter to Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli urging him to divest the state’s $209 billion pension fund from energy companies that process and sell oil, gas Beacon chief and other fossil fuels which, when burned, Images by release carbon into the atmosphere that outlines his wish list Beacon contributes to global warming. Historical The letter has been signed by 221 offi- Society on duty at all times. The city has had cials who live in 50 of the state’s 62 coun- By Jeff Simms three firefighters on duty around the income families and people commuting, ties, including four Dutchess County leg- clock for more than 100 years, he said. volunteer numbers and their availability islators. But in contrast to a letter sent by eacon’s fire chief is clear about one The chief recalled that five years ago, are both concerns. “You can have the num- the group in 2012 to Andrew Cuomo urg- thing: he needs more firefighters. the City Council asked how long the de- bers, you can have the qualifications, but ing the governor to extend a moratorium B But where they’ll be stationed re- partment could function with its current are you available to go to calls?” he asked. on fracking that was signed by nearly 1,000 mains up in the air. staffing. “We were just getting by back The city plans to apply by a March 22 officials from all 62 counties, no elected -of Chief Gary Van Voorhis asked the City then,” the chief recalled, and “we’re defi- deadline for a federal grant that would ficials from Beacon or anywhere in Putnam Council on Monday (Feb. 11) for three more nitely below that [now].” The number of help pay the nearly $97,000 annual per- (Continued on Page 8) full-time (“career”) firefighters in addition to volunteers has dwindled, too. In 2002, person cost of hiring new firefighters for the one included in the city’s 2019 budget. the department had 70 volunteers, he a three-year period. But the program only If those four were added, he said, the said; it now has 24, just six of whom are funds 75 percent of a firefighter’s salary Mayor Faces city would have 17 full-time firefighters, qualified to go into burning structures. for two years and 35 percent for the third including the chief, and could have four Van Voorhis said that with more two- (Continued on Page 7) Challenger Nelsonville seats contested By Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong elsonville Mayor Bill O’Neill will face a challenger on March 19 when N he seeks re-election to his second term. Three candidates will also vie for two open seats on the five-person Village Board. Trustee Chris Caccamise, who was ap- pointed to the board in August to replace Thomas Robertson, who resigned, filed a petition by the Wednesday (Feb. 13) dead- line to run for mayor. O’Neill, who ran unopposed in 2017, also filed. Trustee Alan Potts will seek a second, two-year term, and Dove Pedlosky and Lisa Mechaley will campaign to join the board. Caccamise, 43, an artist and teacher, teaches at the Allen-Stevenson School, a private boys’ school in New York City. WHERE TO BEGIN? — John Rodak of Rodak’s Auto Repair in Garrison seems a man alone as he contemplates how to get an overturned van with three of its four wheels detached onto his tow truck. The Continental Village Fire Department, Peekskill Pedlosky is an associate director for ex- Volunteer Ambulance Corp and state police responded to the accident, which occurred on Monday morning (Feb. 11) on Bear ternal affairs at New York University, while Mountain Bridge Road. Photo by Bob Rimm/CVFD Mechaley is an educator with the Chil- dren’s Environmental Literacy Foundation. 2 FEBRUARY 15, 2019 The Highlands Current highlandscurrent.org FIVE QUESTIONS: JOEL SCHLEMOWITZ By Alison Rooney oel Schlemowitz is a filmmaker and author who, on Saturday, Feb. 23, at J Boscobel in Garrison, will demon- By Michael Turton strate an early image projector known as a magic lantern. What are your three What is a magic lantern? It illuminates glass slides. The earli- desert-island discs? est versions in the 1600s used candles as a light source, sometimes with multiple wicks. Then came oil lamps, then lime- light [created by applying a gas flame Radio Head’s OK to a piece of lime], which made it bright enough to use in theaters. At the same Computer, Tame time, German toy manufacturers were Impala’s Currents and creating little kerosene lamps for home Porches’ Water. use. At Boscobel I’ll be using a magic lan- tern from the 1930s refitted with L.E.D. lights — a combination of older equip- ment and new technology which is exactly in the spirit of the magic lantern. It has been adapted through time, never stuck Joel Schlemowitz sets up a magic lantern while Dawn Elliott examines one of the glass in its own era. slides. Photo by Rose Callahan So these were like early movies? In a sense it’s a precursor to cinema, What should the audience expect at and the ghostly figures get larger and although there’s not one moment in time Boscobel? larger and fill the space. In the 19th centu- when images started moving on screen. In We’ll be doing a couple of different in- ry, magic lanterns started being used for the beginning, it was about having them carnations. The first, phantasmagoria, is scientific demonstrations such as making be more dynamic than the equivalent of an example of how, in the 18th century, it appear that the planets were revolving ~ Luisa Uribe, Beacon a modern PowerPoint. In the first half of magic lantern shows were full of specta- around the stage. the 18th century people were already cre- cle, comparable to today’s haunted hous- Are people surprised by the magic ating diagrams for multipanel glass slides es. The lantern can be moved toward and lantern? designed to produce movement. away from the screen, like a zoom lens, I think the general expectation is that Any albums by it will be less impressive than it is. In Re- Van Halen, Led membrance of Things Past, Proust talks Zeppelin and about seeing magic lantern images pro- Jethro Tull. jected in his bedroom and compares it to stained glass in a cathedral. It has such a luminescent, glowing quality. People have heard the phrase magic lantern and might understand what it is, but it’s a revelation to experience it. You’re stepping into an- other time — the images are a cultural win- dow into the thoughts, preoccupations and conceits of the Victorians. It’s interesting to see what they found uproarious. You belong to the Magic Lantern Society, which has 150 members. Is there a typical lantern enthusiast? Lantern enthusiasts, simply by defini- ~ Dean Catalano, Beacon tion, are all atypical! The Band’s The Last Waltz, The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street and Pearl Jam’s Ten. The Importance of Being Ernest By Oscar Wilde Directed by Carin Jean-White March 1-17 TICKETS AT www.philipstowndepottheatre.org ~ Rebecca Garrison, Cold Spring highlandscurrent.org The Highlands Current FEBRUARY 15, 2019 3 ‘Opportunity Zones’ Hope to Spur Development Investors would receive tax breaks for Beacon projects By Jeff Simms have profited through the sale of stocks or other assets. To defer taxes on those capital he federal government has desig- gains, an investor can sink his or her money nated more than 500 “opportunity into “qualified opportunity funds.” T zones” in New York state, including If the money remains in the fund for at two in Beacon, where investors can receive least five years, the taxes are deferred and tax breaks, especially for long-term projects. cut by 10 percent. After 10 years, the taxes The zones were added to the federal are cut by 15 percent and only paid on the tax code by the Tax Cuts and Job Act in initial investment, not on any profits real- December 2017 and are designed to spur ized through opportunity zone projects. economic development and job creation “Investors who have earnings in the in distressed communities. There are stock market will find that if they find the four zones in Dutchess County, including right opportunity zone investment and two in Poughkeepsie. Newburgh has two then leave their money there, they will zones. There are none in Putnam County. achieve a much better tax outcome than The first Beacon zone encompasses a 1.3- if they had just paid taxes on their capital mile tract north of Main Street and west of gains,” noted Drapkin. and including Route 52. It has 4,700 resi- Anyone can create an opportunity fund, dents, 17 percent of whom live at or below the the IRS says, as long as it invests in an eligi- federal poverty level, which is $25,000 annu- ble property in one of the nearly 9,000 des- ally for a family of four. The people who live ignated zones in the U.S. and its territories. in the zone earn 72 percent of the area medi- Drapkin said that, on the Beacon tracts, an income.