Episodios

  • Cold Spring Avoids DEC Fines

    Cold Spring Avoids DEC Fines
    Dec 13 2025
    Village says sewage treatment issues rectified
    Cold Spring will not face financial penalties following four instances in which fecal coliform and biochemical oxygen demand discharges from the wastewater treatment plant on Fair Street exceeded acceptable levels.
    According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the discharges occurred between August 2024 and August 2025.
    The DEC issued a Notice of Violation in October that could have resulted in penalties of up to $37,500 per day. A state inspection of the plant in September identified three other infractions: an expired operating permit, an unlicensed assistant plant operator, and the use of an uncalibrated flow meter.
    At the Wednesday (Dec. 10) meeting of the Village Board, Mayor Kathleen Foley shared recent correspondence from the DEC stating that the agency was satisfied with the measures taken to address the violations and that no fines would be levied.
    Foley addressed what she described as "a lot of misunderstanding" about the violations. She noted that wastewater discharges and village drinking water are tested twice daily and that the village was not "caught" in the violations.
    "We reported our own violations" to the state and the Putnam County Health Department, she said, adding that municipalities are allowed up to four discharges that exceed acceptable levels before the DEC will inspect a plant.
    "At no point was raw sewage or untreated water discharged into the Hudson River; it was always treated," Foley said, explaining that the fecal coliform levels were immediately brought back to the acceptable range after bacteria levels in the plant's digesters had dropped.
    The village is paying tuition for Landon Wood, an employee of the water and wastewater department, to be trained as an assistant plant operator. He is expected to be licensed by June. In the interim, the village has contracted with a licensed operator as needed. Foley said the village began using a second licensed plant operator in 2022, but the employee later found work elsewhere. Following the state notice, the village also had the plant's flow meter calibrated and is updating its operating permit.
    In other business …
    The Village Board held its annual reorganization meeting. Foley, trustees Andrew Hall and Tony Bardes, and village justice Luke Hilpert, each of whom was elected in November, were sworn in. In addition, the board approved appointments to various boards and staff positions. The Poughkeepsie Journal was named the official newspaper for legal notices, while the Putnam County News & Recorder was dropped. The Highlands Current will continue to be used as an alternative. In most cases, a newspaper must have mostly paid circulation to be an official paper.
    The mayor was authorized to sign an intermunicipal agreement with Putnam County for the collection and distribution of sales tax. The nine county municipalities will collectively share 1 percent of the sales tax collected by the county, with a minimum of $50,000 annually. "It's a small victory - just the beginning," Foley said. "Now we press for more."
    An engineering inspection on the work on the pedestrian tunnel was scheduled for Monday (Dec. 15).
    Foley clarified why two crews have been working on trees in the village. Brothers Tree Service has been removing dead trees on village property, and Wright Tree Service is trimming trees near power lines for Central Hudson.
    The Cold Spring Police Department responded to 115 calls in November, including 27 assists to other agencies, nine traffic stops, eight motor vehicle accidents, eight alarms, eight assists to members of the public, two persons in crisis, two disputes and single calls for a domestic incident, fraud, harassment, lost property, menacing, noise and a missing adult.
    The Cold Spring Fire Co. answered 13 calls in November, including seven activated alarms, a confirmed carbon monoxide incident, two motor vehicle crashes with injuries and single calls for a mountain rescue,...
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    4 m
  • Looking Back in Philipstown

    Looking Back in Philipstown
    Dec 13 2025

    250 Years Ago (December 1775)
    The royal governor in New York, William Tyron, took 25 folio volumes of records of the Colony of New York to a British ship anchored in the harbor, HMS Duchess of Gordon, for "safekeeping."
    The New York Provincial Congress, in reply to a Tyron appeal for peace, said the revolt was not due to "a desire to become independent of the British crown" nor a lack of devotion to the king, but only because of the "oppressive acts of the British parliament."
    The Continental Congress passed the Naval Construction Act of 1775, which authorized the fitting of 13 gunships, including two stationed in New York.
    The Provincial Congress ordered 1,000 copies of the proceedings of the Continental Congress translated into Dutch and German.
    150 Years Ago (December 1875)
    The company running the Sunk Mine in Putnam Valley ordered the operation shut down, throwing about 100 miners and 50 drivers out of work. Many of the teamsters had spent hundreds of dollars to get their horses and wagons fit for the winter, and several grocers had extended considerable credit.
    Constable James McAndrew presented a bill to the Putnam County Legislature for $50 [about $1,500 today] for his services, but a motion was passed to strike $4.75 in line items for tea and horse feed.
    William Foster shot and killed "a fine dog" owned by John Brewer for humane reasons, according to The Cold Spring Recorder. The dog was being pelted with snowballs by a group of boys when it ran under the No. 5 train to escape, losing a leg and becoming valueless.
    Five shirts were taken from Michael McCormick's clothesline.
    The steamer New Champion made its last delivery to the wharf before being retired; even with the lower rates for river transport, the tariff was $450 [$13,000].
    William Wood, 24, was severely burned on the head and face while filling an alcohol lamp in Samuel Owen's home.
    Seth Secor brought two tubs of lard from the depot to his store on a Wednesday afternoon, rolled one inside and left the other on the porch. Two hours later, the second tub had disappeared. A search was conducted among the itinerants at Sandy Landing, where the tub was found hidden in leaves with most of the lard removed.
    Caleb Mekeel returned from Florida with a carpet bag full of oranges.
    Gangland Cold Spring
    On Dec. 18, 1875, The New York Times published a lengthy front-page story about the fall of the Highland Brigands, a gang of thieves whose leader and fence both lived in Cold Spring. For the previous two years, the gang had been a menace, burglarizing freight cars for whatever they could, including a shipment of corsets.
    The Times story was based on the testimony of a detective who had posed as a thief and won the confidence of the fence, Isaac Levy, who had moved to Cold Spring with his wife after the Civil War and owned two Main Street businesses: a cigar store/barbershop and a clothing store/oyster bar. Mrs. Levy grew suspicious of this new friend, but Levy vouched for him.
    The gang's leader was William "Bill" Conroy, who was in jail in Oneida County after being charged in a home invasion there. His sisters and mother also lived in Cold Spring, which he considered his hometown.
    Levy confided much to the undercover detective about crimes committed and planned. For example, he said he'd heard the wife of a railroad flagman who lived in a shanty south of the Garrison station was observed hiding $8,000 [$235,000] in her Bible. Levy alerted his gang, but another gang from the Bowery arrived first, tied up the couple and stole their gold, but couldn't find the cash.
    Levy also told the detective that Isaac Delanoy, the night watchman at the Cold Spring station, and Mr. Ferris, the village justice, were making it "hot" for the gang and may need to be "fixed." Levy said after the men were dead, he would summon 20 gangsters from the city to burn down the wood-framed village, which had no fire company or water works.
    Meanwhile, Conroy, sitting in jail in Rome, New York, had aske...
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    13 m
  • Special Report: Microproblems

    Special Report: Microproblems
    Dec 12 2025
    Plastic pollution is turning up in surprising places, for surprising reasons
    No matter how dedicated you are to Leave No Trace principles while enjoying the Highlands, you may be leaving something behind.
    In 2023, researchers Tim Keyes and Joe Dadey led an expedition of high school students down the Hudson River. They began at the source at Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks and proceeded to paddle and hike to New York Harbor. Along the way, they took water samples to measure for microplastics.
    As The Current reported in 2019, scientists have found microscopic fragments in the deepest ocean trenches, nearly 7 miles down. They've found them in the most desolate parts of the Arctic, in the rain over the mountains, in the fish, in the water. And they've found them in human poop, because we inhale and consume tens of thousands of pieces each year, which is probably a gross underestimation because scientists haven't yet inventoried every animal or food that absorbs them.
    Keyes even found microplastics in samples taken last year at Mount Denali in Alaska. "It was a very low measurement, but it wasn't zero," he said.
    Microplastics are defined as particles that measure 5 millimeters or smaller. They are created when plastic items, such as water bottles, are broken down by sunlight or the rocking of waves.

    Because the Hudson River flows through heavily populated, industrialized areas, the researchers were not surprised to find microplastics in the water. But they also presumed that samples from Lake Tear, in the high peaks of the "forever wild" Adirondacks, accessible only by trails, would have relatively low amounts.
    That was not the case. The most polluted sample measured 28.94 particles per milliliter at Glens Falls. The least polluted was 2.12 particles/ml at the City of Hudson. Lake Tear measured 9.45 particles/ml.
    The Lake Tear sample seemed to defy belief. The researchers theorized that its source was airborne pollution. There was precedent: In the 1970s, the Adirondacks experienced a wave of tree and fish die-offs because of acid rain polluted by coal-burning power plants in Ohio. Some alpine lakes still haven't recovered.
    This past summer, the researchers returned to Lake Tear for more samples, including from the even more isolated Moss Pond, about a quarter-mile away. Unlike Lake Tear, there's no hiking trail to the pond, only a dense and uninviting bushwack, and it's not a source for the Hudson.
    The most recent samples from Lake Tear measured 16.54 particles/ml, nearly twice the amount taken a few years earlier, although Keyes thinks that this summer's lack of rain compared to 2023 may have played a role. However, the Moss Pond samples showed barely any contamination.
    That ruled out the airborne pollution hypothesis. And it led the researchers to an uncomfortable conclusion.
    "It's coming off the trail," said Keyes. "It's our clothing, our packs and our shoes."
    Plastics everywhere
    "Microplastics are a foreign object in your body," said Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency who co-wrote a new book, The Problem with Plastic. "You're breathing them in, you're swallowing them."

    It was at the EPA that the scope of the plastics problem came on her radar; she's since founded an advocacy group, Beyond Plastics.
    "It's not just the plastic," she said. "It's the chemicals used to make plastic that hitchhike on the microplastics. You excrete some of it, but not all of it, and we don't know what the chemical mixture is of the plastic additive, or what is in your body, because they could be made from 16,000 different chemicals."
    Enck said that early research has suggested links between microplastics and heart attacks, strokes and neurological disorders. "The microplastics are crossing the blood-brain barrier," she said.
    Plastics have changed the world, from lightweight implants that save lives to packaging that keeps food fresh. Outdoor gear has also benefited; synthetic fabrics l...
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    12 m
  • Route 9 Dry Cleaner Evicted

    Route 9 Dry Cleaner Evicted
    Dec 12 2025
    Owner says she was duped by acquaintance
    The owner of a Philipstown dry cleaner who was evicted on Tuesday (Dec. 9) after a bank foreclosed on her business and home says an acquaintance convinced her he had paid off the mortgage.
    Sokhara Kim is an immigrant from Cambodia and a longtime Philipstown resident who owns Nice 'N Neat Dry Cleaning. She said that Derek Keith Williams convinced her he had bought her building at 3154 Route 9, which she had owned since 2017, for $1.2 million.
    During an interview Tuesday in the parking lot of Philipstown Plaza, with her car stuffed with belongings, Kim said that Williams - the boyfriend of a woman who worked for her - offered in 2019 to buy her business and building. She consulted with her children, who told her to take the offer, pay off the $600,000 mortgage at M&T Bank and retire.
    Kim said that Williams then launched an elaborate ruse that played on her fear of losing the property. She said he showed her a check for $1.2 million but said he would need access to her M&T Bank account to deposit it. She said they visited the bank, where his name was added.
    She said he then told her that it would be better, for tax purposes, to deposit the check with an entity he had created, DKW Trust.
    Kim made 21 mortgage payments to M&T. "I was never late," she said. But once Williams convinced her that DKW Trust owned the property - Kim says he showed her a receipt from M&T indicating the mortgage had been paid off - he told Kim she didn't need to make payments. According to Kim, Williams said she could live and work at 3154 Route 9 at no charge as its "attendant."
    Carmen Chuchuca, a native of Ecuador who owned Bella's Salon, which occupied one of three storefronts in the building, said Williams began collecting $2,500 per month in "rent" from her, saying he owned the property, which Kim confirmed to her. (Chuchuca moved out on Dec. 6 ahead of being evicted by the Putnam County sheriff and plans to reopen elsewhere.) Kim said she also provided Williams with regular payments for "expenses" totaling thousands of dollars per month.
    In September 2023, Williams moved into the storefront between the two businesses that had been an art studio for Kim's husband, Chakra Oeur, saying he needed a place for a few weeks to complete the paperwork for the sale, Kim said. He brought his seven dogs, she said.
    Those few weeks became more than two years.

    Kim said Williams kept the subterfuge going by controlling the rural mailbox outside the dry-cleaning business. He would always retrieve the mail. If any document needed to be signed, she said he would tell her, "If you don't sign, you're going to lose your property."
    "That's what controlled me," she said. "I was afraid to lose my property. He said everything was under his name."
    Williams has been in the Putnam County jail since last month. According to Robert Tendy, the district attorney, a Philipstown jury convicted him of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. When he did not return to court for sentencing, a warrant was issued, resulting in his arrest on Nov. 1 by sheriff's deputies.
    Three days later, a deputy visited 3154 Route 9 and handed Kim an eviction notice. She said she learned from the Sheriff's Office that M&T Bank had foreclosed on the property more than a year earlier.
    Kim said she had received an eviction notice in April, but Williams told her it was a mistake by the bank. When she heard nothing more over the summer, she said Williams cited this as evidence that he had resolved the matter.
    Williams, meanwhile, was filing spurious motions to fight the foreclosure and eviction. In July, he attempted twice to add his name to the deed at the Putnam County Clerk's Office, according to receipts submitted in court. A complaint Williams filed in August in federal court asked a judge to award $150 million in damages to himself and Kim from M&T Bank, the county, the state and the Federal Reserve Board.
    Most recently, in a handwritten motion on a j...
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    8 m
  • Second Beacon Firehouse to be Sold

    Second Beacon Firehouse to be Sold
    Dec 12 2025
    Buyer plans to convert station into residence
    The Beacon City Council is expected to vote on Monday (Dec. 15) to authorize the sale of the former Beacon Engine Co. fire station on East Main Street, the second of two surplus stations to be sold by the city.
    The contract should be signed in the next week, said City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis. As was the case with the sale in June of the former Mase Hook & Ladder station at 425 Main St., city officials said they would not reveal the buyer or sale price until the contract is finalized.
    "Similar to a private deal, you don't negotiate in public, especially on the financial terms," Ward-Willis told the council in May.
    On Monday (Dec. 8), Ward-Willis said the buyer lives out of state in a building on the National Register of Historic Places. What attracted them to the 1889 Beacon Engine station at 57 East Main St., which is also on the National Register, "is the ability to restore this and turn it into a new use," he said.

    The buyer intends to convert the 6,052-square-foot structure into a single-family home. "They're excited to move to the city," Ward-Willis said. "They have connections to the city and are ready to try to close pretty quickly on this."
    A single-family home is permitted in the R1 zoning district, so Planning Board approval will not be required for the conversion. However, the building is in Beacon's protected historic district, so substantial exterior changes would require a "certificate of appropriateness" from the board.
    In May, a real-estate agency hired by the city listed Mase for $1.95 million and the Beacon Engine firehouse for $1.75 million. The Beacon Engine listing is still active at $1.595 million. Both properties, former headquarters for volunteer companies that served the city for more than a century, became surplus after a $14.7 million centralized fire station opened near City Hall in 2024.
    The ownership of the Beacon Engine station was disputed by a group of retired volunteer firefighters who served there. The volunteers continued to use the building after the station closed in 2021 for social gatherings and to coordinate charitable campaigns. They fought eviction, arguing that - as had long been believed - the volunteer company owned the original structure, while the city owned the engine bay added in 1924.
    City officials conducted a title search in 2023 that they said revealed municipal ownership of the entire site, and a state judge in July dismissed four requests from the retired volunteers, declaring the City of Beacon as the sole owner.
    The council's vote on Monday will acknowledge that an ownership transfer would not negatively impact the environment and authorize City Administrator Chris White to move forward with the sale.
    Mase Hook & Ladder
    The former Mase station was purchased by Michael Bensimon, a Westchester County resident who owns commercial buildings at 475 Main and 508 Main. It is being converted to have a ground-level retail space occupied by Stanza Books, which is now at 508 Main St., and four apartments on the upper two floors.

    Stanza has asked the Planning Board for permission to construct a partially enclosed patio as a barrier between the store and the parking lot. On nice days, a rear door will be open, and the patio will protect children who come outside, co-owner Mark Harris told the board on Tuesday (Dec. 9). A public hearing on Stanza's application will be held in January.
    The Planning Board issued a certificate of appropriateness to the developer in October for minor exterior modifications, including the installation of ornamental sconces along the facade. A residential entrance will be added to the eastern side of the structure, and insulated glass doors will provide access to two of the apartments. Bensimon also plans to replace some windows and repair and/or repaint deteriorated areas of the facade, trim and door panels with matching materials.
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    4 m
  • Beacon Leg of Rail Trail to Move Forward

    Beacon Leg of Rail Trail to Move Forward
    Dec 12 2025
    Council expected to hire consulting firm
    Beacon is wasting no time getting started on the first leg of a proposed 13-mile rail trail from the city to Hopewell Junction.
    The City Council is expected to vote on Monday (Dec. 15) to approve spending $350,000 to hire a Westchester County firm to design a 3.3-mile section from the Beacon waterfront to the Town of Fishkill line. The trail could eventually connect to the planned Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail and, in Hopewell, the Dutchess Rail Trail and 750-mile Empire State Trail.
    If the council approves the request, City Administrator Chris White said that Barton & Loguidice, which conducted a feasibility study on the trail for the Dutchess County Transportation Council, could begin design and engineering work as early as January.
    The city's goal is to put the project out to bid by November and construct the 12- to 14-foot-wide multi-use segment in 2027. "What we've been doing in the last couple of months is figuring out how we can start our piece and accelerate it and go forward," Mayor Lee Kyriacou said during the council's Monday (Dec. 8) meeting.

    In October, the Barton & Loguidice report recommended a "rail-to-trail" conversion of the abandoned line, which begins at the Hudson River. The line, which has not been active for 30 years, runs through Beacon and along the east end of Main Street before crossing back and forth over Fishkill Creek on its way through the Village of Fishkill and the towns of Fishkill and East Fishkill.
    The line is owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In 2024, Metro-North, an MTA agency, "railbanked" the tracks, reserving its right to revive service, although an agency representative said it had no plans to do so.
    The Dutchess Transportation report estimated that it would cost $46 million to $56 million to construct the entire trail; Beacon officials anticipate the first segment will be $4.5 million. There are two bridges (near Dennings Avenue and at South and Tioronda avenues) and an overpass at Wolcott Avenue, but otherwise, the paved trail will be "basically a road project," White said.
    The city has requested a "sizeable" grant from the governor's office to link the project to a proposed development at the Beacon train station that is part of Gov. Kathy Hochul's housing agenda. It is also seeking funds from Dutchess County and two private organizations.
    In other business scheduled for Monday:
    The council is expected to vote on an update to the city's fee schedule. Beacon charges fees for dozens of services, including dog licenses, building inspections, record searches and permits for backyard chickens. Not all fees are increasing, and some that are no longer applicable, such as for junk dealers and amusement parks, will be removed. Some fees have not changed since 2010, White said.
    Council members will consider a request from the developer of the Edgewater apartment complex for a two-year extension to the special-use permit issued for the project in 2018. Phase 2 of the 246-unit development is underway; three of seven residential buildings have been completed.
    Ben Swanson, the mayor's assistant, will be appointed Beacon's deputy city administrator, a new position. Since he was hired in 2021, Swanson's duties "went from being primarily clerical to really being supervisory and much more executive," White said. His new responsibilities will include coordinating housing and food resources and filling in if White is unavailable.
    The council will vote on a 10-year renewal of the city's franchise agreement with Optimum, aka Cablevision of Wappingers Falls. The non-exclusive agreement allows Optimum to provide cable and internet service in Beacon in exchange for a franchise fee equal to 5 percent of its gross revenue from the previous year. In 2024, Optimum paid the city $172,393.
    As in years past, the council will consider $10,000 spending proposals from students in the Participation in Government class at Beacon High School. Emilio Guerra an...
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    5 m
  • Dance Atop the Mountain

    Dance Atop the Mountain
    Dec 12 2025
    Cold Spring company looks to expand
    With five ballet programs in the can, two more in the works and a troupe of professional dancers that gel well, the Cold Spring Dance Company is entering an ambitious phase since incorporating as a nonprofit in 2019.
    Last weekend at her studio, artistic director Cally Kordaris debuted The Greek Ballet: Resurrection, which combines classical ballet, contemporary movement and Greek folk dances. At one point, the four female dancers struck poses resembling images found on ancient vases.
    "I like to call it 'expressive ballet,' " says Kordaris, who nurtured the piece in her imagination for decades.

    To spread her love of dance, she built a professional studio three years ago at the top of a Philipstown mountain where she has lived since 2014. Her handpicked group of dancers, which ranges from six to 10, depending on the piece, come from prominent companies in the city, including Martha Graham, Twyla Tharp and Dance Theater of Harlem.
    In these troupes, cast members learn a few vignettes and rehearse them for months. For The Greek Ballet, Kordaris put eight dancers in an Airbnb for four days and, after learning the steps, they presented two performances.
    "One challenge is that not all of us have danced together before," says Kara Walsh, who freelances. "We enjoy coming up here so much, but we call it a 'work retreat' because we're at it nonstop to make this happen."

    They pick up the complicated steps quickly because "the brain transfers the muscle memory to the body in a way that's hard to explain," says David Wright, a member of Dance Theater of Harlem. "Repetition also helps."
    The company presents work twice a year when professional seasons end. An hour after the final performance on Dec. 7, the dancers hustled off to the train station and Nutcracker gigs.
    The troupe appreciates the studio's sprung floor, which gives a little and reduces wear and tear on their legs, says Wright. After leaping like basketball players, the male dancers landed with gentle thuds.
    Kordaris' 45-minute ballet animates 2,500 years of Greek history, "something we absolutely revere," she says. "As Greeks, we take it so seriously it's almost like a religion in itself."

    The professional production, with a light show and voiceovers, recounts many dramatic moments throughout the ages. Of the seven movements, four are set to Greek music.
    Despite the demanding athletic choreography, which sometimes resembled gymnastics and ice-skating twirls, the dancers moved with amazing grace, even when holding a partner over a shoulder before dropping them to the ground like feathers.
    Ramona Kelley made a sit-up look fluid and elegant. In another segment, after using the entire stage and expending the equivalent time of someone dribbling a soccer ball the length of a pitch and back, Micah Bullard kept his breathing under control as his chest barely moved after the lights went down.
    Now that the company is building momentum, Kordaris wants to bring her work to a broader audience in Putnam County or Beacon and plans to pitch producers and impresarios in New York City and beyond.
    "I've been in a cocoon the last few years, and now that we have five cohesive pieces and a solid core of dancers, it's time to make some moves," she says.
    For more information, see coldspringdance.org.
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    4 m
  • Dutchess Legislature Approves $654M Budget

    Dutchess Legislature Approves $654M Budget
    Dec 12 2025
    Spending plan passes without Democratic support
    Dutchess County lawmakers on Monday (Dec. 8) approved a $653.6 million budget for next year along party lines, with Democrats uniting against the spending plan as they prepare to take control of the Legislature next month.
    All 15 Republicans voted for the amended version of a draft budget that County Executive Sue Serino, also a Republican, presented in November. It anticipates $268 million in revenue from sales taxes, $107 million from property taxes and the use of $34 million in general-fund reserves, or savings - $7 million more than Serino initially proposed.
    The tax levy stays below a state-mandated cap, and the rate assessed on property owners will fall slightly, from $2.17 to $2.10 per $1,000 of assessed value. The budget also eliminates 10 vacant jobs and leaves 17 unfilled.
    Legislators rejected a proposal by Serino to end an exemption from the county's 3.75 percent sales tax on clothing and shoes costing less than $110. (Dutchess consumers pay a total 8.125 percent sales tax, which includes 4 percent for the state and 0.375 percent for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.)
    Letting the exemption expire as scheduled on March 1 would have yielded $5.4 million in additional revenue, including $133,000 for Beacon under a revenue-sharing agreement, according to Serino. Beacon's share of sales tax collections, which was $6.1 million in 2025, will still rise from 2.35 percent to 2.45 percent in 2026, or about $268,000.
    Serino, who said the changes create "a very large budget gap," now must decide whether to sign or veto the budget, or to reject individual amendments. But Democrats, who will soon take control, have already rendered their verdict. Nine of the 10 Democrats (one was absent) voted against the plan, even though it contains several amendments they proposed.
    One increases spending for a trust fund for affordable housing from $1 million to $2 million and another allocates $200,000 for grants of up to $25,000 to municipalities for initiatives to combat homelessness.
    Nevertheless, said Yvette Valdés Smith, whose district includes Ward 4 in Beacon and part of Fishkill, the budget "does not adequately address the affordability crisis that our residents are facing."
    The Legislature also approved proposals to add $711,000 to the district attorney's office for five full-time positions and $750,000 to the budget for safety and security improvements at municipal buildings.
    In her budget presentation in November, Serino highlighted $2.5 million for youth programs and $2 million for supplemental ambulance services. Buttressing the county's shorthanded EMS services has been a priority.
    The budget also funds two school resource officers, a Drone as First Responder Program for the Real-Time Crime Center and a new Elder Justice Task Force. The latter, a collaboration with the Office for the Aging and the district attorney and sheriff's offices, "will investigate, identify, pursue and prosecute those who exploit older adults through abuse, fraud or neglect," said Serino.
    After Jan. 1, Serino will have to work with a Legislature led by Democrats, who defeated five Republican incumbents in the November election to flip the 15-10 majority. Smith, who had been the minority leader, is expected to succeed Will Truitt as majority leader.
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