Episodes

  • Bank Opposes Return of Route 9 Property

    Bank Opposes Return of Route 9 Property
    Mar 6 2026
    M&T disputes couple's claims of being conned
    M&T Bank is opposing an effort by the couple who lived and ran two businesses on Route 9 to regain the property amid claims they were scammed and bullied by an acquaintance now charged with grand larceny and fraud.
    In documents filed on Feb. 27, Valerie Breen, a senior vice president with M&T, and Seth Hibbert, an attorney for the bank, are challenging claims made by Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur in response to their eviction on Dec. 9 from 3154 Route 9. Kim and Oeur have petitioned Judge Gina Capone to vacate her approval in 2024 of M&T's foreclosure and sale of the property.
    From 1995 to early 2024, the property was owned by Kim through Mary Dawn Inc. and hosted her business, Nice & Neat Dry Cleaners; a residence she shared with Oeur; and a nail salon. The couple blames the loss of the property on Derek Keith Williams, whom they say convinced Kim that he had paid off a $570,000 loan secured by the property and transferred it to an entity he owned.
    The couple alleges that Williams hid the foreclosure by demanding that Kim "turn over any mail or paperwork relating to the property, Mary Dawn Inc., any court or any bank," and sign documents and submit filings without explaining what they were, said their attorney, Jacob Chen.
    Those claims are "entirely irrelevant" to M&T's right to collect on its debt, according to Breen, who said the bank became aware in 2019 that Kim was attempting to transfer the property to Williams. During the bank's "long and tortured history" with the property, it seemed "that Kim and Williams were working in concert to prevent and hinder the bank's recovery and collection efforts," she said.
    In his statement, Hibbert said "there did not appear to be any animosity between Kim and Williams" when they appeared in Philipstown Court in March 2025 to challenge the eviction. "My impression was the two were working in conjunction with each other, with each operating under their respective free wills," he said.

    Williams, a self-described "sovereign citizen," had been serving a six-month sentence in the county jail for driving an unregistered vehicle without a license when he was arraigned Feb. 25 on six felony counts: four for grand larceny and two for filing a false instrument with the intent to defraud. He pleaded not guilty before Judge Anthony Mole and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail, $200,000 insured bond or $200,000 partially insured bond. He is scheduled to return to court on April 8.
    Kim said in court documents that by the time she met Williams in 2019 — through his girlfriend, Mauny Bun, who used to run the nail salon — the loan she used to rebuild the property after a fire in 2005 had been taken over by M&T Bank.
    Bun "reminded me a lot of my daughter … and I put a lot of trust and faith in her," said Kim. She stopped making payments after deciding to accept Williams' offer to buy the property for $1.2 million and transfer it to an entity called DKW Trust, none of which happened.
    Although Kim guaranteed the loan, said Breen, she did not have the authority to transfer the property to Williams because Mary Dawn is the owner of record. The bank eventually sued Kim and Mary Dawn for defaulting on the loan and in 2021 won a judgment in Erie County, where the bank is based. M&T filed to foreclose in 2022, and Capone approved the bank's request in February 2024. Four months later, a bank subsidiary, Chesapeake Holdings, paid $620,200 for the property at an auction.
    Chen alleges that the court "never acquired personal jurisdiction" over Kim during the foreclosure because the process server handed the original documents to a "co-worker." Chen also said that Oeur should have been included as a party to the foreclosure proceeding because he lived at the property and managed the Khmer Art Gallery.
    After the bank filed for foreclosure in 2022, said Breen, "it is entirely unreasonable" to believe that Williams confiscated mail sent to Mary Dawn and Kim before Septe...
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    5 mins
  • Recycling Restaurant Scraps

    Recycling Restaurant Scraps
    Mar 6 2026
    New program will compost commercial food waste
    Commercial kitchens in Philipstown can now do what households have been doing for four years — recycle food waste rather than send it to landfills.
    Jeff Mikkelsen, the advocacy chair of the Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Philipstown Climate Smart Task Force, is spearheading a pilot initiative to fund food-scrap recycling for up to six businesses and organizations. Mikkelsen said 17 of 50 local kitchens surveyed expressed interest in the pilot.
    The program, the first of its kind in Putnam County, is being funded by the Williams College Community Climate Fund in conjunction with the Center for EcoTechnology (CET), a nonprofit that works with Rethink Food Waste New York, overseen by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
    The first four participants are the Garrison Institute (which uses Fresh Company to cater its events), Haldane Central School District, Marble Meat Shop and Cold Spring Farmers' Market, Mikkelsen said, with two more spots available for restaurants, caterers, nonprofits and other food services with commercial kitchens. The initial $6,000 grant will support the program for six months, he said.

    The program will provide collection bins and liners and pay for hauling the waste, which can include vegetables, meats, dairy, cheese, fish, seafood and commercial and biodegradable packaging. The scraps are collected by Sustainable Materials Management in Cortlandt Manor, which was founded by the family that owns CRP Sanitation.
    Michael Fiumara, the sales manager there, said 100 cubic yards of food waste typically will produce the same volume of compost. Most of the material is purchased in bulk by landscapers, garden centers and municipalities, but retail customers can buy 1-cubic-foot bags.
    Recycling Food Scraps at Home
    Philipstown's Climate Smart Task Force initiated Putnam County's first household food scrap recycling program in 2022, establishing a Saturday collection station at the town recycling center on Lane Gate Road. About 100 families joined during the first year, and enrollment has more than tripled since. What began as an eight-month pilot is now funded annually.
    The Village of Cold Spring joined the program in 2024 and installed a collection station on Kemble Avenue for Tuesday drop-offs. "We consistently fill two 64-gallon totes — about 17 cubic feet of food waste per week," said Village Trustee Laura Bozzi, who serves on the Climate Smart Task Force. She said the village may expand the program by adding more bins or a second drop-off day.

    Karen Ertl, a volunteer who helped establish the household food-scrap program, said 323 families are enrolled. She said that as many as 1,600 pounds of scraps are collected each week at the two stations and processed into compost at Sustainable Materials Management in Cortlandt Manor.
    To participate, residents can register at Philipstown Town Hall on weekdays or at the Cold Spring Farmers' Market on Saturdays. An optional $20 starter kit includes a countertop pail, storage/transport bin and compostable bags. Food scraps can be dropped at the Recycling Center on Lane Gate Road between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturdays and at the Kemble Avenue site between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesdays.
    Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, dairy, bread, rice, pasta, raw and cooked food, bones and seafood shells can be recycled, as can cut flowers, napkins, paper towels, wax paper, pet food, tea bags, coffee grounds, Popsicle sticks and wine corks.
    In Beacon, residents can drop food waste in containers at the Beacon Recreation Center (23 W. Center St.), Memorial Park or the Churchill Street parking lot near Hudson Valley Brewery. The program does not accept "compostable plastics," such as bin liners, bags, utensils or containers, unless they are made of bamboo. For more information, see dub.sh/beacon-food-scraps.
    Community Compost Co. offers residential pickup in Beacon starting at $26 per month or $281 per year. The...
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    6 mins
  • Mixed Signals on Indian Point

    Mixed Signals on Indian Point
    Feb 27 2026
    Despite legal barriers, persistent talk about restart
    When the Indian Point nuclear power plant south of Philipstown shut down in 2021, its legal obligations were clear: It could not restart, nor could any new nuclear power be generated there, without the unanimous consent of the Village of Buchanan, the Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York State and the Hendrick Hudson School District.
    Despite that high bar, the insistence by county and state officials that they will never allow nuclear power to be generated at the site, and the fact that the plant is being dismantled, the possibility of Indian Point reopening continues to surface.
    The question came up again at the Feb. 19 meeting of the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board (DOB) after a video was posted online of a plant worker saying that the decommissioning of one part of the plant was on hold due to a possible restart.
    The video was shot by Andrew Walker, aka Radioactive Drew. On his YouTube channel, which has nearly 100,000 subscribers, Walker shares his documentaries about the world's most radioactive places. In a three-part video that premiered last month, Walker was given a tour of Indian Point by two longtime employees.
    When visiting the turbines at Reactor 3, Walker asks Brent Magurno, a radiation protection supervisor, "With the whole possible restart that's on the table of this place happening, no work has been done to take these out of service, right?"
    "Initially, yes," said Magurno. "But then we stopped once the question was asked about restarting, and so we're not proceeding until we get the final answer on that on this side of the plant."
    A few minutes later, decommissioning supervisor Brian Vangor noted that, because of an ongoing legal dispute over whether Holtec can discharge radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River, some equipment the plant could theoretically use if it were to reopen remains in place.
    "Many more things would be taken apart if the water in some of those pools I told you about was gone," he said. "New York State did us a little bit of a favor. Rare, but they did us a favor."

    Holtec International, the company responsible for decommissioning, has said it has no plans to reopen Indian Point. When DOB chair Tom Congdon asked Holtec's Matt Johnson at the Feb. 19 meeting if the video meant its plans had changed, he replied that Magurno's comment was "categorically false and incorrect."
    "We have not started work on the turbines based on our schedule and our resources," Johnson said. "My opinion is that it was somebody who was excited and showing our plant and maybe got a little ahead of himself and used a poor choice of words, so that is not what Holtec intends to put out there."
    Johnson said that he did not know when the turbines were scheduled for removal, but that it would not be in the next year.
    "We don't have any plans to restart at this time," he said. "If for some reason that came about, obviously there would be major changes to decommissioning, because we wouldn't be able to do that with funds from the decommissioning trust fund."
    Dana Levenberg, a state Assembly Member who sits on the board and whose district includes Philipstown, said that "this kind of stuff obviously makes the community trust you less."
    "You tell us one thing at the DOB meeting, and then we hear something else in a video, and people go crazy," she said. "We don't need that. We need reassurances and assurances and proof on paper, in writing, signed documents that says what your plan is, when you're going to do this, when you're going to do that, and you need to stick to it."

    In September, Kelly Trice, the president of Holtec International, said that Indian Point could be restarted in four years for $8 billion to $10 billion. At a DOB meeting a few weeks later, Holtec's Patrick O'Brien said that Trice was speaking theoretically because the federal Department of Energy had asked all shuttered nuclear plants for estimates of what it would take ...
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    7 mins
  • Beacon Schools Can Raise Levy by 4.47%

    Beacon Schools Can Raise Levy by 4.47%
    Feb 27 2026
    Debt, new construction, inflation figure into calculation
    The Beacon City School District will be able to increase its property tax levy by as much as 4.47 percent, or $2.24 million, for the 2026-27 academic year under a state-mandated tax cap.
    District voters last year approved an $87.7 million budget with a $50.1 million levy, a 5.09 percent increase over the year before. There are three main factors that affect the levy, which is the amount the district can raise through property taxes. The first two — "allowable" and "tax-base" growth factors — are outside of the district's control.
    Since New York State established a tax cap in 2012, the allowable growth factor has permitted public school districts to raise their levies each year by 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. For 2026-27, it's 2 percent.
    A second factor measures the district's tax base, allowing schools to add revenue for new development. Beacon's tax-base growth factor has been the highest in Dutchess County in recent years and, while, at 1.7 percent, or $841,715, "it's still higher than the other school districts" in the county, "it is a little bit lower than it has been," said Deputy Superintendent Ann Marie Quartironi, who explained the formula to the school board on Feb. 19.
    The third factor that allows a district to increase its levy is debt on capital projects. This is under the district's control, and in 2026-27 state law will permit Beacon to collect an additional $1.83 million to absorb debt in its spending plan.
    The district last year applied debt for the first time on a $50 million capital project approved by voters in 2024. "That was the first step," Quartironi said. "The second step is trying to increase the debt every year in your budget," which allows the district to collect more taxes under the state formula to pay it down.
    The capital project will kick off this summer with the installation of secure entryways at five of six schools (one is already secure) and upgrades of the Beacon High School theater and athletic fields. The debt will be spread over the next three fiscal years, Quartironi said.
    Last year, the district did not include a proposition on the May ballot for school buses, but this year it will ask voters to approve the purchase (financed over five years) of one diesel bus and four vans, including two accessible for wheelchairs.School board members must approve the budget by the end of April. Administrators plan to share estimated tax bills with the board and community before voters make the final decision on May 19.
    The district anticipates receiving more than $500,000 in added funding from New York State in 2026-27 through Gov. Kathy Hochul's universal pre-K initiative. Beacon has offered a pre-K program at its four elementary schools since 2023, and this year contributed $450,000 that can now "go to other things in the general fund," Quartironi said. "The financial impact is huge for us."
    Ten percent of the state funding must be distributed to community partners. The announcement of the increased funding prompted Quartironi to issue a request for proposals last year for agencies within district boundaries to administer the program. The district, which serves about 120 pre-K students, partners with the Rose Hill Manor Day School, which is under Planning Board review to convert its preschool to a hotel, and New Covenant Learning Center.
    Mirbeau Inn & Spa, scheduled to open this spring, is not expected to receive its final certificate of occupancy from the city before Sunday (March 1), so it will likely remain on the tax rolls for 2025-26. Once up and running, Mirbeau will submit payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, which will be distributed to the school district, the city, the county and the Howland Public Library.
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    4 mins
  • Charges Filed in Route 9 Eviction

    Charges Filed in Route 9 Eviction
    Feb 27 2026
    Former tenant accused of grand larceny, fraud
    A Philipstown man accused of causing the popular owners of a dry cleaner and Cambodian restaurant on Route 9 to lose their property to foreclosure has been indicted in Putnam County on grand larceny and fraud charges.
    Derek Keith Williams, a self-described "sovereign citizen" who has been serving a six-month sentence in the county jail for driving an unregistered vehicle without a license, was arraigned Wednesday (Feb. 25) on six felony counts: four for grand larceny and two for filing a false instrument with the intent to defraud.
    Williams pleaded not guilty before Judge Anthony Mole and was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail, $200,000 insured bond and $200,000 partially insured bond. He is due back in court on April 8.

    Before the indictment, Williams had been accused of convincing Sokhara Kim and Chakra Oeur that he paid off the mortgage on 3154 Route 9, where the couple ran Nice & Neat Dry Cleaners and sold Cambodian food in a landscaped garden along Clove Creek. Kim and Oeur also lived in a residence at the property, rented space to a nail salon and showcased Oeur's artwork in a gallery.
    A meeting with Williams, whose girlfriend used to run the nail salon, upended that existence, leading to the couple's eviction on Dec. 9. In a lawsuit they filed to reclaim the property, Kim said a personal loan she used to rebuild the property after a fire in 2005 had been taken over by M&T Bank when she met Williams through the girlfriend, Mauny Bun, in 2019.
    Kim said that Bun, whose mother she had known for over 30 years, "reminded me a lot of my daughter … and I put a lot of trust and faith in her." She decided to accept Williams' offer to buy the property for $1.2 million and transfer it to an entity called DKW Trust, none of which happened.
    That decision triggered a 17-month foreclosure process that began in August 2022 after Kim stopped making payments on her $570,000 mortgage. Judge Gina Capone ordered the foreclosure in February 2024. Four months later, an M&T subsidiary, Chesapeake Holdings, paid $620,200 for the property at an auction.
    Williams hid the foreclosure by demanding that Kim "turn over any mail or paperwork" and "treated questions as disobedience … responding with rage, profanity and intimidation," according to court documents.
    Their loss of the property is a "deeply tragic — and profoundly avoidable — result" of the actions of "an unhinged and dangerous criminal who exercised coercive control over them," said Jacob Chen, their attorney. He is asking Capone to vacate the foreclosure and give Kim and Oeur a chance to regain the property.
    Williams has described himself as a sovereign citizen, a fringe movement whose members broadly believe they are exempt from laws and reject documents such as Social Security cards and driver's licenses, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that tracks extremists.
    One standard tactic is "paper terrorism" — bombarding clerks' offices and courts with phony and often indecipherable filings that can exceed 100 pages and are filled with grandiose language, references to treaties and patents and widespread use of capital letters and the copyright and trademark symbols.
    Williams spent more than $5,000 on nearly 30 filings with the Putnam County Clerk's Office. Many of them were fruitless attempts to prevent M&T Bank from evicting Kim and Oeur from 3154 Route 9, where Williams had taken over the art gallery as a living space.
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    4 mins
  • Snow Daze

    Snow Daze
    Feb 27 2026
    Roads crews, first responders log long hours after bruising storms
    After the late January snowstorm dumped up to 18 inches on parts of the Highlands, Highway and Water Department staff in Beacon worked 993 hours of overtime clearing snow from roads, sidewalks and parking lots.
    That's not 993 for the season — that's 993 hours of overtime for one storm. By the time the snow was (mostly) cleared, the city was on the hook for nearly $70,000 in overtime pay. Superintendent Michael Manzi and the 19-person highway crew worked around the clock, and the Water Department added 10 more bodies.
    "It's all hands on deck," Manzi said this week. "Whether it's 3 inches or 20 inches, we attack it the same way."
    No winter around here is normal, he said, and this one has been anything but. The second big storm of 2026 — this one designated a blizzard by meteorologists because of its high winds — brought 10 to 14 more inches from Sunday (Feb. 22) into Monday. Until recently, repeated surges of Arctic air had also prolonged one of the region's deepest freezes in decades.

    Although less intense than the January snowfall, cleanup for the Sunday-to-Monday storm will push Beacon over the $90,000 it budgets each year for storm-related overtime. The City Council will consider a budget amendment to move funding around. "It's not catastrophic" to absorb, said City Administrator Chris White said, "but we do all hope it will stop snowing at this point."
    Another issue has been where to put the snow. Beacon workers have established "glaciers" near the wastewater treatment plant on Dennings Avenue and at Memorial Park. More snow is stored at the highway garage on Camp Beacon Road. "We probably moved several hundred truckloads of snow that would still be on Main Street, parking lots or at the end of cul-de-sacs," White said.
    A few miles down Route 9D, clearing the roads in Philipstown "went pretty smoothly," said Adam Hotaling, the town highway superintendent. Some roads were still "a little narrow" because of snow piled along the sides, but "we're working to widen them," he said. Snow cleared by Philipstown's crews gets piled at the highway department yard on Fishkill Road or the former town landfill on Lane Gate Road.
    Dutchess and Putnam counties enacted travel bans during both heavy storms. Area first responders reported a handful of issues, none of them serious. "We increased staffing levels for each storm to ensure adequate coverage," said Beacon Fire Chief Tom Lucchesi. "There were no significant snow-related accidents, rescues or incidents requiring unusual or operations."
    Cold Spring Fire Co. Chief Matt Steltz said the volunteer agency was well prepared for the storm and he was surprised when no calls came in, storm-related or otherwise. As a precaution, CSFC outfitted its all-wheel drive utility vehicle with firefighting capabilities including a water cannon and self-contained breathing apparatus and stationed it at 2nd Lt. Aaron Leonard's home.

    Capt. Nicholas Falcone of the Philipstown Volunteer Ambulance Corps said attendants for both ambulances were on duty at the Cedar Steet station during the storm and responded to two calls. "Roads were very slippery even for our four-wheel drive vehicle," he said, adding that the Philipstown Highway Department was on call for the duration in case PVAC or the Garrison Volunteer Ambulance Corp needed assistance.
    Falcone said that at midnight on Tuesday, the PVAC assisted the North Highlands Fire Department in the rescue of a hiker who had been lost for eight hours in deep snow in the woods at Lake Surprise. The hiker was taken to a hospital to be treated for hypothermia.
    Officer-in-Charge Matt Jackson said the Cold Spring Police Department received few calls during the storm although one resident claimed that a snow removal company had damaged their property. Jackson also reported that on Tuesday morning a resident alerted an officer to an injured woodchuck lying in a snowbank near Lunn Terrace. The officer tra...
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    6 mins
  • Blizzard Warning Issued for Highlands

    Blizzard Warning Issued for Highlands
    Feb 24 2026
    Snow and wind expected on Sunday and overnight
    The National Weather Service is predicting blizzard conditions in the Highlands on Sunday (Feb. 22) and overnight into Monday.
    A blizzard warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for Putnam County from 1 p.m. Sunday until 6 p.m. Monday and for Dutchess from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. Monday. Forecasters expect winds of up to 45 mph to be accompanied by falling and/or blowing snow, resulting in reduced visibility. The NWS defines a blizzard as a storm that contains large amounts of snow or blowing snow, with winds in excess of 35 mph and visibility of less than a quarter-mile for at least three hours.
    Putnam is expected to receive 14 to 22 inches of snow, with rates reaching 2 inches per hour. Dutchess is expected to receive 10 to 20 inches. Temperatures will drop to feel as low as 14 degrees. Wind gusts could reach 45 mph, it said, and the wind and the weight of snow may bring down trees and power lines.
    Dutchess County has issued travel restrictions for all non-essential personnel starting at 9 p.m. Sunday at 9 p.m. through 4 p.m. Monday. County and Beacon city offices will open at 11 a.m. on Monday. Putnam County also restricted all non-essential travel from 9 p.m. Sunday to 10 a.m. Monday.
    Metro-North will operate on an hourly service schedule on Monday, with weekend schedules in place on the branch lines. The Hudson Rail Link connecting bus will be suspended.
    On Saturday, Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in 20 counties, including Putnam and Dutchess. Beginning Sunday, 100 members of the New York National Guard with 25 vehicles will be staged across the lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island to assist first responders, and the State Emergency Operations Center activated Sunday morning.
    The Village of Cold Spring has restricted parking from 5 p.m. Sunday until 7 a.m. Tuesday. Alternative parking is available at the American Legion lot on Cedar Street (south end only; do not use the Ambulance Corps spaces); the Haldane ballfields lot on Route 9D (no permit is required during snow emergencies); the village lots on Kemble Avenue, The Boulevard and New Street; and the Fair Street municipal lot. For updates, call 845-747-7669.
    [Update: On Tuesday, temporary no parking signs will be placed throughout the village to allow crews to remove snow.]
    The Village of Nelsonville announced parking restrictions from noon Sunday through 4 p.m. Monday. Parking will be prohibited on village streets, including on Main Street/Route 301. Designated winter parking spots are available on Adams Avenue and the west side of the Secor Street lot.
    In Beacon, after the accumulation of 2 inches of snow, vehicles cannot be parked on public streets between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Vehicles can be moved to any city public parking lot, but vehicles must be moved from the lots 24 hours after the snow stops falling.
    See our online calendar for cancelations. For updates, see our Storm Resource Page.
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    4 mins
  • Eleanor Thompson (1946-2026)

    Eleanor Thompson (1946-2026)
    Feb 24 2026
    Eleanor Thompson, 79, the first Black member elected to the Beacon City Council, died Jan. 17.

    She was born April 23, 1946, the daughter of Rosalee Thompson, who in 1962 moved from Charleston, South Carolina, to New York City to provide opportunities for her daughters, Eleanor and Vera. Rosalee died in 2019.
    Eleanor earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Lehman College and, in 2000, a master's degree in education from Columbia University. She was a schoolteacher in New York City before moving to Beacon. After selling real estate for 18 years, she retired to Texas in 2010.
    Eleanor was elected as a Democrat in November 2001 to represent Ward 2, when she was 55, defeating Don Gallo, the Republican incumbent, 391-321. It was standing-room-only at her swearing-in, and the other officials sworn in that day, including Member-At-Large (and current mayor) Lee Kyriacou, all used the Thompson family bible. Eleanor was re-elected in 2003, then elected to an at-large seat in 2005 and 2007. She also ran for the state Assembly in 2006 but lost to incumbent Thomas Kirwan.
    In 2007, as a board member at the Howland Cultural Center, Eleanor envisioned a program that would connect communities through music. "When it comes to cultural diversity, we're all students," she said. Her advocacy led to the creation of the Gospel Cafe, according to HCC.
    Eleanor began painting, drawing and taking photographs at age 9. In an interview with the Poughkeepsie Journal in 2000, she recalled visiting her aunt and cousin in Newburgh and painting pictures of the Hudson River, of men and boys fishing on the banks and of the ferry. (She described herself as "a water person.") She said she had recently thrown herself into sculpture after taking a class at Columbia. "It was the best thing that happened to me," she said. She focused on female figures. "My whole thing is I want to give my sisters out there some recognition — the brown ones, the black ones, the white ones, the yellow ones — we are fantastic."
    With the support of longtime HCC director Florence Northcutt, Eleanor expanded the focus of art exhibits to include more women and artists of color. She contributed to shows such as Women Artists of the Hudson Valley in 2000 and A Celebration of Women of Color in the Arts in 2006. In 2019, she returned to Beacon with her grandson, Bobby, for The 25th Anniversary of African-American Artists in the Hudson Valley.
    In addition to her civic service, Eleanor co-founded the Young Artists' Mentoring Project; served as program director at the Martin Luther King Community Center; established a curriculum for the Partnership with Schools and Businesses; and was a dedicated member of the Beacon Light Tabernacle Seventh-day Adventist Church.
    Among her awards: the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs' Community Award (2004), the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Award (2005), the Shirley Chisholm Legacy Award (2005) and the inaugural Beacon Community Award presented by Beacon City Concerned Citizens.
    A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday (March 1) at Beacon Light Tabernacle, 1568 Route 9D, in Wappingers Falls. Memorial donations may be made to the Howland Cultural Center (dub.sh/thompson-hcc).
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    4 mins