* Winner: 10 Better Newspaper Contest Awards *New York Press Association, 2013 The Peekskill arts and restaurant scene ~ Page 7 FREE | FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2014 69 MAIN ST., COLD SPRING, N.Y. | www.philipstown.info Vassar Freeform Radio Plays On WVKR defines eclectic By Michael Turton f variety is the spice of life, then Poughkeepsie-based WVKR (91.3 IFM) must be the fully loaded spice rack of the airwaves. Its eclectic radio broadcasts involve maximum variety Left, Haldane Director of Facilities and and two local residents, veteran WVKR Transportation Michael Twardy outside disc jockeys, are at the center of the sta- one of two modular classrooms that will be tion’s freeform mix. demolished before school resumes. When Established in the early 1970s, WVKR the demolition takes place, workers will try is affiliated with Vassar College, whose to save the flower beds. Photos by M. Turton students run the station and make up its board. Even before the station was estab- lished, Vassar hosted radio broadcasts as Haldane Modular Classrooms Face Demolition early as the 1930s. School tax rate increase Unfortunately what he discovered was Twardy reported that an examination Music is a large part of the station’s 24- not good news. Significant problems at of a soft and sagging portion of the floor hour programming and features almost will be minimal the district office building and even more in one of the modular classrooms also everything imaginable. Genre-based By Michael Turton serious health and structural issues with turned up significant mold and moisture programs include rock, hip-hop, elec- two portable classrooms, discovered as problems when sections of the walls were tronic, jazz, blues, reggae, soul, world, t has been a summer of “discovery” part of routine summer maintenance, removed. After considering alternative post punk, polka and more. for Haldane’s Director of Facilities were discussed at the Haldane School solutions, including cleaning and repair- Iand Transportation Michael Twardy. Board’s Tuesday (Aug. 12) meeting. ing the portables (Continued on page 3) tracks. Graffiti was sprayed onto two Suspects Arrested in Graffiti Spree vents on the roof above the Ellen Hayden Public and private Downtown Gallery. A small sign was sto- len from the exterior of Bijou Galleries. property hit The pedestrian tunnel was hit, as was the bridge over the Metro-North tracks. By Michael Turton Near the approaches to the bridge, side- walks, a rock outcrop and a number of Sam Tallerico, right, and fellow DJ Owen old Spring Police have traffic signs were defaced. The conces- in the WVKR archive. Photo provided arrested three suspects sion building and picnic tables at May- in connection with an C or’s Park were also hit as was a car and Award winning news and outbreak of graffiti in several Foodtown. The Lone Ranger village locales late Saturday The station is far from being only about night (Aug. 9) and into Sun- Vandals may have left their music. The flagship of WVKR’s daytime day morning (Aug. 10). signature programming is Democracy Now, which Mayor’s Park was vandalized on Monday night (Aug. 11). On Monday (Aug. 11), The Paper spoke In a press release issued airs weekdays from 8 until 9 each morn- Photo by M. Turton with two contacts who asked not to be Wednesday (Aug. 13), CSPD ing. Hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan named. One said that the vandalism Officer-in-Charge George Gonzalez, the multi-award winning news is believed to be the work of persons Kane said that a 17-year-old A new level of vandalism? program is broadcast nationally on NPR, Graffiti has been a problem in Cold known for having painted graffiti within (male) has been charged with making PBS, Pacifica, satellite television and Spring for years, however the most re- the village in the past and that their per- a false written statement and making numerous community and college radio cent spray-can painting spree may have sonal “tags” are evident in the weekend graffiti. Two 16-year-olds (males) were stations. Its daily War and Peace Report crossed the line into a more serious and outbreak. The letters “SK” can be clearly also charged with making graffiti. Both offers a range of views on current issues far more extensive display of vandalism. seen in at least two of the weekend graf- charges are Class A misdemeanors. The using full-length interviews that feature Residents awoke Sunday morning to a fiti sites, including the rooftop. The suspects were arraigned and will appear voices seldom if ever heard in national rash of graffiti on both public and private contact provided the first names of two in Cold Spring Justice Court on Oct. 8. mainstream media. property that went well beyond the pedes- alleged offenders to The Paper, which in Their names cannot be released because At the other end of the spectrum, lis- trian tunnel and other locations that have turn gave them to the CSPD. The second they are minors. teners can tune into Radio Showtime been defaced numerous times in the past. contact said beer had been consumed and Kane commended CSPD Officers Greg with Bill Eberle every Sunday at 6 p.m. Much of the damage was centered a chair broken on his/her porch on the Walz, Ed Boulanger and Gary Marino for Eberle cues up old-time radio serials dat- near Main Street on both sides of the night of the (Continued on page 3) work that led to the arrests. ing back to the 1930s. The Lone Ranger and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon are two of the most popular shows. Other classics include The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Jack Benny Show and Fibber McGee and Molly. Other programming runs the gamut from news tailored to Vassar students, landscaping and gardening advice and a weekly discussion of disability issues, to a story hour, environmental news and a weekly look at Hudson Valley politics. The home of American Pie Marc Breslav is a Kent resident who es- Left, the letters “SK” are included in the graffiti on this vent atop the roof of the Ellen Hayden Downtown Gallery — and may be tablished his public relations and marketing the “tag” used by one of the vandals to identify his work. Center, part of the graffiti on the bridge over the Metro-North tracks. business in Cold Spring in 1987. He marked Right, a number of street signs were defaced. Photos by M. Turton his 20th anniversary as a (To page 5) 2 August 15, 2014 The Paper www.philipstown.info | Philipstown.info Mouths to Feed you heard a fact about a place or a likely to get a small cup Northern Darks people, and then, when you actually of lukewarm water with encountered it, been like, Whoa! I a sad little Lipton tea By Celia Barbour had no idea — even though you did? You bag lying on the sau- had exactly that: an idea. cer. At breakfast buf- he Finns drink a lot of coffee. Their I stopped drinking coffee 20 years ago, fets (which are AMAZ- per capita consumption — 1.8 cups while working on a book. My schedule re- ING over there, by the per day — is more than twice that T quired I wake up at 4:30 every morning way, and can fill your of the U.S., and the second highest in the in order to write as much as possible be- mornings with joy and world (the Dutch are number one). fore going to work. I quickly found I was sustain your body for I knew that. It’s the kind of informa- more effective on tea’s gentle, sustained an entire day), the tea tion you come across if you pay attention alertness than coffee’s eye-popping zing, urn will be so saturated to the little charts and factoids that com- so even after the book was printed and with the flavor of coffee, monly appear in the media. Long before published, I went on drinking tea — love- the urns having been my family and I set forth on a three-week ly, astringent, fragrant, plain black tea — switched around indif- trip around Finland, I was aware of the in the mornings. ferently for so long, that country’s predilection for coffee. I count on tea. And one aspect of the if you close your eyes But knowing something is not the same Finns’ coffeephilia I was not prepared for and sip the liquid issu- thing as experiencing it for yourself. was their consequent total incompetence ing forth you can almost Well, of course, that goes without at making tea. Tea in Finland sucks. If imagine you are drink- saying, right? But still: How often have Vegan coffee/mocha smoothie you order tea in a restaurant, you are ing hot water steeped in an old Dunkin’ Donuts cup that has been lying even lower in the Finns’ diets than tea. on the floor of your car for a week. In cer- Tea may be bad, but iced coffee does not tain fancy places, where they brew loose- exist. If you ask for it in a cafe, the server leaf tea in press pots, the so-called tea is will say, “You mean a cup of coffee and … flavored with dried berries. a cup … of … ice?!?” looking as perplexed Morning after morning, I sampled as if you’d just asked for a squirt of choco- these horrible teas then switched to cof- late syrup for your fish soup. fee. And the coffee was excellent: Strong, Hot coffee it was, then, morning and rich, dark, hot, flavorful.