Episodes

  • What's in the 2026 State Budget Fiscal Education Social Services Child Care Housing Criminal Justice Climate and Environment Immigration New York City Car Insurance

    What's in the 2026 State Budget Fiscal Education Social Services Child Care Housing Criminal Justice Climate and Environment Immigration New York City Car Insurance
    May 29 2026
    A searchable database of the most consequential decisions
    This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for its newsletter here.
    It's two months late, but it's finally here: New York state's $269 billion budget.
    The big story of this year's budget was the face-off between Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who made "tax the rich" a rallying cry of his campaign. Even as she stumped for Mamdani last fall, Hochul was adamant that she would not raise taxes on the wealthy.
    In the end, they split the baby. Mamdani didn't get what he most wanted: a tax hike on New York's top earners. But he did get billions of dollars from the state to plug a hole in the city's budget, new funding for child care, and a tax on luxury second homes in New York City, giving him something to burnish his socialist cred.
    Hochul and Mamdani also had to contend with major federal cuts and threats from President Donald Trump about more pain to come. The governor and mayor have managed to stay on good terms. As the budget neared completion, Mamdani said in a statement that they had "partnered through every step of the process."
    The budget contains hundreds of new programs and laws. Some of the most important: limits on police collaboration with ICE, a significant weakening of the state's landmark climate law, and removal of a major barrier to new housing statewide.
    We've pored over thousands of pages of budget documents to make this guide, which will tell you about several dozen of the most important decisions lawmakers made this budget cycle. In the chart below, you can see where each party stood and what made it into the final deal. Below that, you can find written descriptions using the drop-down menus. Happy reading!
    Total spend: The total sum the state expects to spend over the next year is $269 billion. That's more than what the governor ($260 billion) and Assembly ($266 billion) proposed spending, and nearly what the Senate proposed ($270 billion).
    Tax the rich? The budget does not hike personal income taxes or corporate taxes, despite a push by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and both legislative chambers. It does extend a pandemic-era corporate tax hike by three years — maintaining the current 7.25 percent rate through 2029.
    Rainy day fund: While an exact figure for how much money is in the state's rainy day fund isn't public yet, Budget Division spokesperson Tim Ruffinen said it's about $15 billion, roughly the same as when the budget process started.
    Public pensions: The state's major public sector unions won significant boosts to their workers' pension plans. Public school teachers will now be able to retire at 58 with full pensions. Many public employees will have their pension payments boosted, and their required contributions to the state pension fund lowered.
    The Department of Budget has estimated that this change will cost $557 million per year. Most of that cost is expected to fall on local governments and school districts, which generally had opposed the change.
    Foundation Aid: Lawmakers were successful in their push to revise the state's complicated school funding formula to better address the needs of vulnerable student populations.
    While Governor Kathy Hochul's executive proposal left the Foundation Aid formula unchanged, the final budget adds a new weight for students who are homeless or in foster care and increases funding for English language learners. Districts will also receive a funding boost of at least 2 percent over last year, bringing the total Foundation Aid allocation to $27.4 billion.
    CUNY funding: Funding for the City University of New York system will stay roughly the same as last year, at $6.7 billion, including over $650 million to support capital projects and infrastructure improvements. Hochul's budget would have allocated $6.4 billion to the system, while the Senate proposed $8.3 billion and the Assembly $15.1 bill...
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    22 mins
  • Big Visions, Limited Resources

    Big Visions, Limited Resources
    May 29 2026
    Beacon considers five years of capital outlays
    The Beacon City Council will continue its review on Monday (June 1) of the city's five-year capital plan. Spending for 2027 purchases and projects must be approved before July 31.
    The city updates its five-year schedule annually; expenditures for the following year are approved, and estimates are calculated for future projects. A public hearing on the 2027 plan will be held on June 15.
    Next year's plan includes nearly $10 million in capital work and equipment purchases, although not all of it will be the city's responsibility. The most expensive project will be a $3.6 million rehabilitation of Beekman Street funded by grants. The street leading toward the Metro-North station will be repaved; sidewalks will be repaired and installed where there are gaps; and a bike lane will be added on the uphill side of the road.
    The next-highest expenditure is $1.9 million to construct a water-storage tank at the Mount Beacon Reservoir. The council approved $1.6 million for the project last year; the additional funding for 2027 will complete the work.
    The city plans to spend $500,000 in each of the next five years to mill and pave streets and install curb ramps to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Similarly, $400,000 is allotted in each of the next three years for improvements to the southwest corner of Memorial Park that tentatively will add pickleball courts, updated lighting and a second public restroom.
    In 2028, $3.3 million is budgeted for upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant, although Deputy City Administrator Ben Swanson and Finance Director Susan Tucker stressed during the council's May 18 meeting that prices can change. A ladder truck for the Fire Department, authorized as a $1.7 million expenditure in 2025, is now more than $1.9 million, Tucker noted.
    Two proposed expenditures drew a lot of attention: $5.4 million in 2028 for a 3.3-mile rail trail from the waterfront to the Town of Fishkill and, in 2031, $5.3 million to create a community center. Many residents have advocated for a community center for years, but the idea has never moved from the final year of the rolling five-year plan, a pattern that irked Council Member Lastar Gorton.
    "Why is that not a priority when this is what the community has been continuously asking for?" Gorton said, calling the rail trail a project for tourists. Mayor Lee Kyriacou disagreed, saying the trail "has nothing to do with tourism" but will be a recreational asset for residents.
    Gorton argued that "many, many, many, many" community members have called for a community center, including the Beacon Community Collective, a nonprofit that says it is fundraising for such a facility.
    The organization says its mission is to help establish something in the spirit of the Martin Luther King Cultural Center, which operated on South Avenue from 1969 to 2011, and the Beacon Community Resource Center, which was located for decades in what is now the Recreation Department building on West Center Street.
    Kyriacou noted that recreation funding has grown from $304,000 in 2014 to $1.15 million this year, allowing the department to run its after-school program, Camp at the Camp and partnerships with Green Teen Beacon, among other initiatives. The programmatic funds, combined with $15 million in capital improvements to public parks over five years, are "far more important than any building," he said.
    Kyriacou said he is pitching funders on the rail trail and hopes the project "will be largely funded by other people's money." Conversely, funding for a community center would come from borrowing or taxes, he said. The city must "make choices as to what's most important and in what order we should be doing things," he said.
    "But most important to who?" Gorton asked. Council Member Carolyn Bennett Glauda added, "Seeing the community center all the way at the end really feels like we kicked it down the curb."
    The $5.3 million estimate for the project is...
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    5 mins
  • Meet E. Jean

    Meet E. Jean
    May 29 2026
    Philipstown filmmaker profiles Trump accuser
    Ivy Meeropol, who lives in Philipstown, directed her first documentary, Heir to an Execution, about her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 as Communist spies. In the 22 years since, Meeropol has made films about Red-baiting lawyer Roy Cohn, the Indian Point nuclear power plant and a surge of seals and great white sharks on Cape Cod.
    Her latest film, Ask E. Jean, tells the story of E. Jean Carroll, a women's magazine advice columnist, writer and New York City personality who, in 2019, accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her 25 years earlier in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. She appeared that year on the cover of New York magazine in the dress she said she had been wearing. She sued Trump for defamation and battery, and in 2023 was awarded $83.3 million in damages.

    The following year, after the former president denied the allegations and called Carroll a "wack job" whom he did not know, a jury awarded her another $5 million. Trump has appealed the $5 million judgment to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Wednesday (May 27), CNN reported that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into whether Carroll committed perjury.
    Meeropol grew up with the legacy of her grandparents, whose federal espionage trials were a defining moment of the Cold War, sparking anti-Communist hysteria and a global debate over civil liberties. The world was similarly divided by competing political visions when Meeropol spent time with Carroll and her lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, during their preparations for the 2023 lawsuit.
    "I feel that I have been a witness to history — like I had a front row seat to incredible events," Meeropol says. Both her grandparents' and Carroll's stories drew her in "because of who I am, because I grew up with being fully aware and always curious about what was going on behind the news — stories that are not censored but just not fully told.
    "I always want to humanize the people involved in these epic stories, because they end up being owned by the public or judged in a certain way, and it's limited," she says. "With my grandparents' case, it was that they're totally evil, or they were these pure, perfect martyrs who people revered. There was something else in there that was the truth."

    She says that Carroll was vilified in the press, "with Trump leading the charge, to make her out to be a Democratic operative, a wack job, a kook, a weirdo who would 'go up in the dressing room with a man.' It was important to me that we get to hear her story and see what she went through. It still amazes me that a lot of people don't even know that he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation by two juries. They just don't know."
    The problem was, Carroll wasn't interested in participating in a film. But a friend recognized Meeropol's name; Carroll liked her films. Even then, there was reluctance. "Numerous times along the way, she said, 'Oh, people don't need to hear … They won't want to hear this story.' Yeah, they do. They will!"
    Carroll was crowned Miss Indiana University in 1963 and Miss Cheerleader USA in 1964. "She was the cheerleader, a beauty queen, a sorority sister and then a television talent," Meeropol says. "Her contradictions were so interesting to me. She was telling women, 'You don't need to be married. Go to college!' but at the same time accommodating men's horrible behavior and making excuses for it, and saying that women should be tougher."
    Meeropol believes that young women, including her 17-year-old daughter, need to learn about E. Jean's life. "For young people, especially young women, to see this and have empathy and understanding for what she went through and then be inspired by where she is now is important."

    The film made its New York City debut on May 22 at the IFC Center. "For the audience seeing this together in a theater, it is electric," Meeropol says. "Watching it together is important, because t...
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    6 mins
  • Nellie at The Chapel

    Nellie at The Chapel
    May 29 2026
    Eclectic jazz performer coming to Cold Spring
    Modest but accomplished actor and musician Nellie McKay is reticent when asked to discuss her work and style. She's more animated on political passions, like feminism and animal rights, and more talkative onstage.
    McKay (pronounced "McKye"), who will perform a sold-out show on June 6 at the Chapel Restoration in Cold Spring for its Jazz at the Chapel series, is comfortable enough there to reveal many personal details, like the story about why she mispronounced her guitarist's name after a 2011 appearance at NPR's Tiny Desk: "I was stoned when I met him."
    Three years ago, while a guest on a radio show in North Carolina, her face brightened when she heard that Sierra Nevada sponsored the segment. "Brought to you by a beer? I love that; it's about time." The host replied, "It's that time sometime" — i.e., 5 o'clock somewhere. Responding with a coy smile, she said, "All the time."
    The show is broadcast from the campus of Isothermal Community College in the state's Appalachian west: "I feel like I'm going to school again; I want to get some supplies," she said, not in reference to textbooks or pens.
    Then she launched into "The Drinking Song," a melancholy number about drowning sorrows after the death of a loved one, vowing to "drink, drink, drink" and "dream, dream, dream" when sleeping off the binge.

    McKay's musical knowledge is vast. She's hip to the Hawaiian music craze that brought the ukulele to the mainland in the 1920s and 1930s. As a pianist, she recorded a tribute album to music, movie and television icon Doris Day, who broke out in the mid-1940s and promoted animal rights.
    When the topic of World War I came up in conversation, McKay immediately referenced Death of the Liberal Class, by Chris Hedges, which focuses on the Committee on Public Information, a federal agency that created and spread propaganda. "That's where the war economy and the misinformation in the mass media started," she says. "I have to be political — we're such pawns."
    To escape, she tries to avoid the noise. "It's so good to unplug," she says. "Silence is my favorite music, but it can be hard to find."
    McKay is a seasoned actor and writer of themed musicals that cover obscure historical figures, like Barbara Graham, the third woman in California to die in a gas chamber (at San Quentin).
    She also encapsulates the life of Billy Tipton (born Dorothy) in a "Girl Named Bill," a play on Johnny Cash's biggest hit, "A Boy Named Sue." Tipton, who kicked off a career as a jazz pianist and bandleader in the 1930s, passed as a man for her entire life. Paramedics who responded to her death in 1989 discovered the truth.
    McKay lives on the road, with no fixed address. "Sometimes venues put me up, but I just travel," she says. "I'm a trucker."
    The Chapel Restoration is located at 45 Market St. in Cold Spring. McKay's performance, which begins at 7 p.m., is sold out, but tickets may be available at the door. To download music, see nelliemckay.com.
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    3 mins
  • Year of the Libertarians

    Year of the Libertarians
    May 29 2026
    Putnam Republicans seize November party line
    Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne failed to get the support of the Putnam & Westchester Libertarian Party but succeeded in becoming its candidate.
    On Tuesday (May 26), Byrne and three other Republican incumbents — Clerk Michael Bartolotti and coroners John Bourges and Michael Nesheiwat — submitted petitions to the county Board of Elections with about 2,500 signatures, 1,000 more than needed to appear as Libertarian candidates on the November ballot.
    Unless someone successfully challenges the validity of their petitions before today's (May 29) deadline, they will be the first Putnam candidates to carry the Libertarian line since 2020. They will do so over the objections of the party, which said it endorsed Byrne's Democratic opponent, Brett Yarris, and never met with Bartolotti, Bourges or Nesheiwat.
    For Byrne, the benefit is clear. He earned an endorsement from Putnam's Conservative Party when he first ran for county executive in 2022. But this year, the party nominated its chair, William Spain, leaving Byrne with the prospect of appearing solely on the Republican line.
    In a triumphant Facebook post on Tuesday, he declared "broad support" from "Libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives and unaffiliated voters all coming together around a positive vision for Putnam County."

    In 2020, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo enacted a law restricting the ballot to parties whose candidate for president or governor received at least 2 percent (or 130,000, whichever is greater) of votes cast in the preceding election. That change cost the Libertarian and Green parties their guaranteed place on the ballot.
    Today, only four parties qualify: Conservative, Democratic, Republican and Working Families . Their candidates often file nominating petitions for independent parties, so they will appear on more than one line on the ballot, believing this will win votes from people registered with that minor party or those unhappy with the two major parties.
    Six years ago, Putnam Judge Anthony Mole, Carmel Justice Daniel Miller and then-Justice Camille Linson of Philipstown were the most recent local candidates to run as Libertarians. That year, the state reported 155 active Libertarian voters in Putnam, the last time it collected registration data for non-major parties.
    Byrne isn't a Libertarian, the Putnam/Westchester chapter said in a statement on May 18, adding that Bartolotti, Bourges and Nesheiwat had not asked for the party's endorsement. Yarris won the endorsement because "he's way more libertarian, and seems to be a straight shooter," according to the party, but did not file a nominating petition to appear on its ballot line. Instead, he will appear on the Democratic, Working Families and For the People lines.
    The Libertarian chapter's vice-chair, Bill O'Donnell, called Byrne's petitioning "despicable" in a post at Hudson Valley Digger, a Substack newsletter by David McKay Wilson. "He's trying to imply that he is Libertarian," said O'Donnell, who lives in Philipstown. "He's not at all a Libertarian. He is trying to trade on our name. It's very underhanded."
    But another Libertarian, Jeffrey Chang of Carmel, said in a letter circulated to news organizations that he backed Byrne. As a party that supports small government, Yarris' "big government ideas turn true Libertarians, such as myself, off," said Chang. "If someone wants the Libertarian Party line on the ballot, and the support of the party, you do the work to earn it. Byrne did it, and his tax-cutting record backs it up."
    Several other Republicans in Putnam filed petitions to run as Libertarians: Christian Russo, who hopes to replace Bill Gouldman as the District 2 legislator representing most of Putnam Valley; Gouldman, who is seeking the Putnam Valley supervisor seat; and Robert Nachamie, who is running for Putnam Valley town justice.
    Several Democratic candidates also beat the Tuesday deadline to submit nominating petitions for an independe...
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    5 mins
  • Cold Spring's 'Branch Manager' Steps Down

    Cold Spring's 'Branch Manager' Steps Down
    May 29 2026
    For 11 years, she navigated village forestry
    Jennifer Zwarich has had a thing for trees for a long time.
    "I've always been a tree person, although I'm not a tree hugger, exactly," she said. "I was a tree climber as a kid and trees always made me feel small in a good way."
    On Arbor Day (April 25), Zwarich stepped down as chair of the Cold Spring Tree Advisory Board, a role she took on before the panel was created 11 years ago.
    In 2012, a handful of volunteers formed the Shady Lane Campaign to tend to village-owned trees. A year later, the Village Board appointed an ad hoc committee to investigate whether a tree board and local tree law were needed.
    When Zwarich wrote Mary Saari, then the village clerk, to volunteer, Saari replied, "Would you like to chair the committee?"
    Zwarich soon learned that even tree care can become political. What was supposed to be four quick meetings and a recommendation to the Village Board became much more. A session at Butterfield library drew a passionate crowd. Some vehemently opposed forming a committee. "It was baffling to me," Zwarich recalled.

    A subsequent meeting at Village Hall also got boisterous. "About 30 people fought for almost an hour over whether to call it a board, a committee or a commission," Zwarich said. (She says now that "board" was the right choice because it carries weight and helped her secure nearly $100,000 in grants.)
    Looking back, she feels some who opposed the committee felt it would be another layer of government, taking money from the budget. There was also concern that a tree law could infringe on private property rights, although the board only deals with village-owned trees.
    After the dust settled in 2015, the board added "Chapter 122: Trees" to the Village Code, and a Tree Advisory Board was established, with Zwarich as chair.
    An initial survey found the village owned about 500 trees, she said. "Our goal was to plant many more trees than we were losing," she said. Since the board was created, volunteers and Highway Department staff have planted about 230 trees, and 592 have been inventoried by species (72) and condition.
    Zwarich said that while residents seem to love them or hate them, the Main Street tree pits were her favorite project. "They have improved the health of a lot of trees," she said, although some need weeding. She views that as "an invitation for volunteer-minded people and businesses to get involved."

    Village-Owned Trees
    Norway maple (50)*
    Callery pear (48)
    Black oak (32)
    Red maple (32)
    Honey locust (30)
    Zelkova (22)
    Cherry (21)
    Serviceberry (20)
    Black gum (19)
    Oak (16)
    Pin oak (16)
    Black locust (15)*
    Sugar maple (15)
    Plum (14)
    Gingko (13)
    Linden (13)
    Japanese tree (12)
    Silver maple (11)
    Sweetgum (11)
    Eastern red (10)
    London (10)
    *New York invasive species
    Urban forestry can be challenging. "The sidewalk strip is not a place for trees; they're growing in awful conditions most of the time and getting peed on," she said. In addition, many side streets lack tree cover because there's no space to plant on village property. "The oldest trees are all on private property, where they have more rooting space," she said.
    Zwarich noted that in some places, such as Rhinebeck, the municipality donates and maintains trees near sidewalks that are on private property. "I don't know if it would fly here, but that's the next frontier," she said.
    She believes most people know trees are good for the environment, giving off oxygen, taking in carbon dioxide and reducing pollution. But she said the economic benefits are overlooked. "Shading your house can reduce your summer electrical bill, and the increase in property values by having trees around your house or in your neighborhood is huge."
    She said that when the tree committee was created, the village forest lacked diversity, including an overabundance of Norway maples, which grow fast. "They ended up being a real problem," Zwarich said. "They're weak-wooded and brittle and shed branches during storms," creating ...
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    6 mins
  • The Cafeteria is Open

    The Cafeteria is Open
    May 29 2026
    Latest Beacon venue hosts its first shows
    Around 25 years ago, as gentrification creeped in, stickers and graffiti emerged in Texas urging people to "Keep Austin Weird."
    Going for a punk aesthetic, an early version of the poster promoting the triple bill on Saturday (May 30) at The Cafeteria, a new venue in Beacon, shows a singer with a mohawk wearing a Dead Boys shirt.
    Two slogans adorn the bottom quadrant: "Keep Beacon Weird" echoes the call in Austin and "Hot Lunch Lives" nods to the space's former role as a high school cafeteria. It's now occupied by Clutter Gallery, which manufactures collectible designer toys and recently moved from Main Street.
    The old high school is home to the KuBe Art Center, and the event is homegrown. Happy Valley Arcade Bar brings food and drink. Gavin Hecker booked the bands under the new Prophecy Lab brand that differentiates his live music arm from Prophecy Hall, the former church on the west side of town.

    The Cafeteria holds 150 people and will host music shows twice a month, says Clutter co-owner Josh Kimberg. On May 30, alt-rock combo Monski opens for guitarist Jeffrey Lewis, coming from New York City. A veteran of the Austin music scene, he crossed paths with Ed Hamell, who is playing at Lucky Dog in Beacon today (May 29). The troubadours convey clever lyrics with simple but emphatic chords.
    Lewis also hobnobbed with Daniel Johnston, an influential Austin musician who received a modicum of fame after someone photographed Kurt Cobain wearing a shirt depicting the cover of his 1983 album Hi, How Are You. It featured an abstract drawing of a frog, dubbed Jeremiah the Innocent.

    Johnston, who died in 2019, was a friend of Ron English, another local designer-toy artist. Kimberg is working with Johnston's estate to create works related to the figure.
    Also on the Saturday bill is Nick Yulman and the Bricolo Mechanical Band, housed in his basement at the foot of Mount Beacon. Active in the automated music circuit, he's played gigs at the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

    Composer Angelica Negron has written several pieces that incorporate his contraptions for the Sö Percussion ensemble, which has performed twice for the Howland Chamber Music Circle.
    Yulman's works are heavy on thuds, chimes and disembodied vocals. Sounds emanating from a modified keyboard — along with an analog vibraphone and percussion instruments — are triggered by a computer program that operates jury-rigged solenoids (valves with plungers).
    One rig can play every key on his modified reed organ; other controllers manipulate drumsticks and pedals on command.
    At the show, Yulman will sing and play guitar to accompany the robots. The set-up includes wooden boxes that he hangs around the room, adding an element "that alters the sound depending on where you stand," he says. "You can mix your own experience by moving around."
    Tracks are layered so thick that he laughs when asked how many a typical composition contains. Onscreen, the MIDI keyboard's programming panel looks like the paper rolls with cutouts from player pianos of the early 1900s.
    "Mechanical music isn't new," he says. "But triggering weird sounds on my laptop didn't move me. This is a lot more fun."
    The Cafeteria is located at the Clutter Gallery, 20 Kent St., in Beacon. Tickets for the May 30 show are $20 ($25 door). See dub.sh/cafeteria-5-30.
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    4 mins
  • Nelsonville Drafts New Property Code Legal contracts

    Nelsonville Drafts New Property Code Legal contracts
    May 29 2026
    Changes cover debris, snow removal, vegetation
    The Nelsonville Board of Trustees, which is rewriting the Village Code, on May 20 reviewed rules governing how residents must maintain their properties.
    At the monthly meeting, Trustees Alan Potts and Maria Zhynovitch summarized proposed revisions that combine sections on exterior maintenance; litter, snow and ice removal; and vegetation upkeep into a single chapter. "That was part of the goal — to put them all in one area you could easily find and reference," said Potts.
    The height of grass, brush and weeds would still be limited to 10 inches, but the draft code exempts crops, flowers, native plantings, ornamental grasses, pollinator gardens and other "lawfully cultivated" gardens. In those cases, residents will be prohibited from allowing vegetation to spread to public rights-of-way or neighboring properties, or obstruct the view for motorists and pedestrians, especially at intersections.
    Snow and ice removal from gutters and sidewalks, which is currently required in a "reasonable time" after a storm, would have to take place within 24 hours under the new regulations. The revised code also mandates that property owners create sidewalk paths that are at least 36 inches wide without discarding snow onto sidewalks and streets or blocking drains and fire hydrants.
    Properties must be free of "litter, debris, garbage, refuse, rubbish, combustible materials or other waste materials," but compost, mulch, manure and materials used for agriculture, gardening and landscaping are exempted.
    "We're trying to bring a lot of clarity and avoid situations where, let's say, someone has a bunch of lumber in front of their yard because they're doing an addition," said Zhynovitch. "It's not going to be done in a day, but if it's there for a couple of months, they're technically in violation."
    Mayor Chris Winward recommended that fines be capped at $250. As drafted, a property owner could be penalized up to $250 for a first offense, up to $500 for a second offense within a year and up to $1,000 for a third violation within a year.
    "They're a little high," said Winward. "In addition to the fine, depending on whether the village had to act and remedy the situation ourselves, there's also a reimbursement for that remedy."
    Zhynovitch said she will review Cold Spring and Philipstown's rules for boat and vehicle storage before crafting similar guidelines for the property-maintenance code, and look into adding a section on the removal of garbage cans from sidewalks after trash pickup.
    The code rewrite began with revised guidelines for animals, including bees and chickens. All the changes will remain in draft form until they are voted on, which Winward said she hopes will happen in December.
    The board voted to renew a contract with its village attorney, Keane & Beane. The contract runs from June 1 through May 31, 2027, and will pay the firm $230 per hour for general services such as preparing resolutions, providing legal opinions and advising the trustees and the planning and zoning boards.
    A separate contract approved May 20 retains Kevin Irwin as the village prosecutor for violations and misdemeanors under state vehicle and traffic laws. Irwin's contract pays him $150 an hour and continues through May 15, 2027.
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    4 mins