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Elections board tosses problem signatures
A Cortlandt Manor woman who hoped to force a primary vote against Assembly Member Dana Levenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Philipstown, fell short this week after the state Board of Elections threw out many of the signatures on her nominating petition.
Sandy Galef, who held the seat in the Assembly for 30 years before retiring in 2022, and former Westchester County lawmaker Catherine Borgia filed a challenge with the state Board of Elections on April 5 to petitions submitted by Amanda Victoria Mintz, who had hoped to challenge the incumbent on June 25 for the Democratic ballot line. Levenberg is seeking a second, 2-year term.
Galef and Borgia objected to 515 of the 655 signatures submitted by Mintz, who needed 500 to force a primary.
Last week, joined by Levenberg, they also filed a lawsuit in Westchester County Supreme Court, saying they wanted to preserve the right to challenge the petitions if the Board of Elections ruled in Mintz's favor.
Attorney Robert Spolzino told Judge Charles Wood that the Board of Elections had scuttled the petitions by invalidating 150 signatories because they are not registered to vote or not enrolled as Democrats, and 23 because they live outside the 95th District.
The board found another 49 signatures invalid because of changes that had not been initialed by the signatories and one case in which a voter witnessed their own signature, Spolzino told Wood in a letter on Tuesday (April 23).
Spolzino said that statements this week by Mintz's attorney indicated she will not "oppose the relief requested in this proceeding." By Thursday (April 25), Mintz's campaign website identified her as a "former official Democratic Party candidate." The judge has not yet ruled in the case.
On her website, Mintz says she is a "social entrepreneur" who co-founded a canned-beverage company called Siponey Spritz. She filed to run on March 27.
A 2003 Carmel High School graduate, Mintz said she is "Latina, I have a Jewish family, and am disabled (bilaterally hearing-impaired), which is largely my motivation to represent the diverse voices and needs of our growing local population."
She does not detail why she challenged Levenberg but, in an April 18 news release called the lawsuit a "disgraceful use of taxpayer dollars, donations and endorsements. We deserve a fair race."
Levenberg is a former chief of staff for Galef. In 2022, she defeated Republican Stacy Halper in the general election with 59 percent of the vote.
In her lawsuit, Levenberg raised the same issues identified by the Board of Elections, as well as claiming some dates and signatures appeared to be altered, some people signed the petitions more than once and some addresses were "missing, incomplete or erroneous."
The validity of signatures on nominating petitions can be serious business. A member of the Peekskill Common Council was accused this month of falsifying documents after the Westchester County Board of Elections threw out 217 of the 531 signatures he submitted on his nominating petition for a county Legislature seat.
District Attorney Miriam Rocah told the Peekskill Herald that Rob Scott was charged with a felony count for allegedly filing petitions with forged signatures for the June 2023 Democratic primary. He will be arraigned on Tuesday (April 30).
Other than Mintz, one other candidate filed to run against Levenberg for her 95th District seat in the state Assembly: Michael Capalbo, a Republican from Yorktown Heights who registered on Feb. 26 and filed a "no activity" campaign finance report on March 13.
An online search did not return any results for a campaign website or information about Capalbo's background or positions, but in 2022 The Journal News reported that, before Capalbo ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Yorktown school board, he told the superintendent that he considered diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to be "Marxist indoctrination."

Weekly newspaper disappears
The former editor and publisher of The Putnam County News & Recorder says the 158-year-old newspaper has been sold but the identity of its new owners is a mystery and the Cold Spring weekly was not published on Wednesday (April 24).
Douglas Cunningham told readers on April 17 that he was retiring and had sold the newspaper. He did not identify the buyers and, when reached by email, declined further comment.
Cunningham purchased The PCNR and The Putnam County Courier in December 2016 from Roger Ailes, then chairman and CEO of Fox News, and his wife, Elizabeth, who owned a home in Philipstown. At the time, Cunningham was the editor and associate publisher. His wife, Sheila, became the majority owner. The Courier, which dates to 1841 and was published on Tuesdays, also did not appear this week.
"We are retiring," wrote Cunningham, who lives in Beacon. "We have grandchildren now. We have appreciated your reading, your support and your encouragement. I hope you'll provide the same support to the new owners."
Eric Gross, who has been a reporter for The PCNR and The Courier for decades, said he planned to continue contributing to both papers. He said on Tuesday he did not know the identity of the new owners.
The PCNR's Facebook page has been taken down, and the most recent posts to its Twitter and Instagram accounts are from 2023.
The paper was founded in March 1866 as The Cold Spring Recorder by Charles Blanchard, who promised readers "a family journal devoted to the dissemination of general and local news, and the impartial discussion of questions of public interest."
He sold the paper in 1867 to a group of residents who appointed the village postmaster, Sylvester Beers Allis, as editor. Nearly 20 years later, in 1886, a county history reported that The Recorder, now owned by Allis, was "independent in politics, fearless in expression of opinion and has an extensive circulation."
In 1938, The Recorder merged with The Putnam County News, founded five years earlier, to form The Putnam County News & Recorder. In 1965 the paper adopted the motto - "We are 100 Years Old - But New Every Wednesday" - for its centennial.
Roger Ailes purchased The PCNR from Brian O'Donnell in 2008, and Elizabeth Ailes became publisher. In early 2009 the Ailes bought The Courier, which had stopped publishing six weeks earlier.

Voice concerns in letter to state parks
The mayors of Cold Spring and Nelsonville and the supervisor in Philipstown issued a letter on Wednesday (April 17) opposing plans to start the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail in Cold Spring.
The letter, signed by Kathleen Foley of Cold Spring, Chris Winward of Nelsonville and John Van Tassel of Philipstown and read aloud by Foley and Van Tassel at meetings, is addressed to Meagan Fitzgerald, the deputy commissioner of the state parks agency and Linda Cooper, the regional director.
State parks is partnering with Scenic Hudson, an environmental nonprofit based in Poughkeepsie, to construct the HHFT, which is proposed to run from Cold Spring to Beacon along the Hudson River. It is the lead agency in the environmental review of the project.
"Having the actual trail enter the Village of Cold Spring by any route would irreversibly change the landscape, viewshed and character of the village as well as the experience of all Philipstowners who consider Cold Spring the heart of our town," the three elected officials wrote. "The trail's necessary size, scale and construction requirements, particularly to meet the accessibility goal identified by the HHFT design team, would be outsized for our small residential village."
The officials asserted that creating a gateway to the trail in Cold Spring, especially a proposed route beginning at the state-owned Dockside Park, would itself become a tourist destination, creating "an unbearable, unsustainable increase in visitor volume that no number of trash cans and toilets will offset."
Instead, the letter advocates simple, "residentially scaled" paths and sidewalks from Cold Spring to an HHFT entrance north of the village, describing that approach as "far more appropriate to our historic, livable community."
Foley said the letter represents the views of the three officials but not necessarily of the Village Board. (Van Tassel said the same about the Town Board.) On Wednesday, Cold Spring Trustee Aaron Freimark remarked that he would have appreciated receiving a copy of the letter before the meeting.
"It is your right to act unilaterally," he said. "But as a courtesy, we're reminded that we work together as a board."
"I accept your good feedback," Foley responded. "At some point, we need to calendar this as a public discussion."
Foley also read comments into the record from an April 3 statement by members of the HHFT Data Committee, which includes two Cold Spring residents and Winward, that was critical of HHFT.
Thanking the Data Committee for its work, Foley said: "We picked people who know their fields and bring expertise ranging from data analysis to public administration to legal perspective; I wanted that to be part of our record."
In a statement on Thursday (April 18), MJ Martin, director of development and community engagement for HHFT, wrote: "HHFT, along with state parks, has been in continued conversation with municipal leadership on the project. Both the letter by the supervisor and mayors and the media statement by the Philipstown members of the Data Committee came abruptly, in the middle of an ongoing process meant to gather information and understand community members' priorities.
"It was surprising to learn municipal leadership is taking this stance, as local support for the Shoreline Trail is well documented in both a survey administered by HHFT and a recent independent survey by a Cold Spring resident. Philipstown, including the villages, is a community composed of diverse viewpoints. It is important that all voices be heard."

Spending plan, capital project could mean dual tax increases
While the breakdown of state aid, property tax revenue and district funding will not be known until next week, the Beacon City School District has set its tax levy for its 2024-25 budget at $47.68 million. That's a 3.91 percent increase over what it collected for 2023-24 and would trigger a modest tax bump.
The levy increase is based on Beacon's tax-base growth factor (one of the highest in Dutchess County), the consumer price index and other factors and does not exceed a state-mandated cap. Voters will consider the proposed budget on May 21.
According to the district, the annual increase for a Beacon resident who owns a home worth $425,000, the median value in Dutchess, would be $88. For Town of Fishkill and Town of Wappinger residents in the district, the estimated increase would be $100 and $106, respectively.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a tentative budget agreement with lawmakers on Monday (April 15); once the plan is finalized, public school districts will know how much state aid they will receive for 2024-25. According to the governor, the budget will include $35.9 billion in school funding, including $24.9 billion in Foundation Aid, which considers factors such as a district's relative wealth and the number of students it serves.
On Monday, Superintendent Matt Landahl told the Beacon school board that he expects the district will receive about the same amount it did last year, which was $30.8 million.
"Everything that we're reading is that school districts in the 'save harmless' [no decrease] category, which Beacon is, should not be expecting an increase in Foundation Aid," he said. "That's been the messaging for the last several weeks."
Despite flat funding, Landahl said the district plans to maintain small class sizes, full-day pre-K, expanded extracurricular clubs, access to collegiate and advanced coursework, and salary increases and professional development opportunities for employees. A pilot program to support reading instruction for elementary students would also receive funding.
"It may not be a budget where we have a laundry list of things we're adding next year, but it's a budget where we're really proud to be keeping these wonderful things in place that we've fought hard to get," Landahl said.
The district intends to implement a "position-control" policy to determine, case-by-case, whether to replace staff members who resign or retire. The policy isn't meant to cause panic, the superintendent said, but administrators will look "at every single aspect of the district" in trying to save money through attrition.
Positions funded by federal American Rescue Plan funds will be reviewed, along with contracts, most of which are for services provided by the Dutchess Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES).
In addition to the budget and three board seats, the May 21 ballot will include two propositions related to student transportation and one to allow the district to borrow money for a proposed $49 million capital project.
The first proposition would allow the district to purchase a second electric school bus. Voters approved buying one electric bus last year but it has yet to be purchased. The district has received conditional approval from New York State for vouchers providing $257,250 for each bus, which, including a charger, sells for $495,000.
The second proposition would permit the district to spend $485,000 to buy three 72-passenger, gas-powered buses.
(State law requires that school buses purchased after 2027 run on electricity; all 50,000 gas-powered buses in New York must be replaced by 2035.)
The third proposition asks voters to approve an initiative for capital improvements across all six district school buildings. It would include heating, ventilation and energy-efficiency upgrades, new roofs on some buildings, secure visitor entrances and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, among many other repairs.
Many classrooms will re

Says feds should have final say on discharge
The company decommissioning the Indian Point nuclear power plant south of the Highlands sued New York State in federal court on Thursday (April 18), asking a judge to overturn a law that bans the discharge of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River.
Citing the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, its filing claims the 2023 law is a "blatant infringement on the federal government's exclusive right to regulate the discharge of radioactive materials from nuclear power plants."
"The failure of New York State to respect federal law and follow the facts and science of the issue left us no other means for remedy," it said.
The state Assembly and Senate approved the law after Holtec announced last year that it planned to discharge more than 1 million gallons of radioactive wastewater from spent fuel pools. Holtec noted that radioactive water had been routinely discharged into the river during the 50 years the plant operated.
Although the water would be filtered, that process would not remove tritium, a radioactive isotope. According to the lawsuit, "Holtec's plan to treat and dispose of the tritiated wastewater in the Hudson River from Indian Point fully satisfies NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] regulations and is well within federal limits on radiological discharges."
That failed to mollify many residents, elected officials and environmentalists, who argued that, even if the effects were negligible, the perception of a "radioactive river" could harm the local economy and property values.
In the spring of 2023, Assembly Member Dana Levenberg and state Sen. Pete Harckham, Democrats whose districts include Indian Point, introduced the legislation to prohibit discharges. It passed both houses with bipartisan support.
Holtec's lawsuit notes that the initial version of the bill cited "the protection of drinking water and health and safety," while the final version only mentioned economic concerns.
Victoria Leung, a staff attorney for the environmental organization Riverkeeper, said that while the federal law preempts state regulation in the field of nuclear health and safety, "it does allow for states to regulate its own interests, such as economic interests."
"So we don't think it comes in conflict with federal law," she said. "We maintain that this law is an appropriate exercise of state power as it seeks to regulate the state of New York state's economic interest, not nuclear safety."
In a statement on Thursday (April 18), Harckham said: "Holtec's litigation does not change these facts: The New York State Senate unanimously approved legislation to stop the dumping of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson, and the governor signed it into law because most residents want to protect this vital waterway, as well as the economic activity generated by the river."
The next meeting of the Indian Point Decommissioning Oversight Board is scheduled for Thursday (April 25). In a statement, the board said that it did not plan to discuss the lawsuit but would continue presentations on alternative methods of wastewater removal.

First national standards for local drinking water
The Environmental Protection Agency last week issued the first national standards for a class of chemicals that shut down the drinking water supply in Newburgh and have been detected at lower levels in Beacon and Cold Spring.
The EPA standards issued on April 10 cap at 4 parts per trillion the legal limit for PFOA and PFOS, two types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). They have been called "forever chemicals" because of their duration in the environment, and the human body.
The new maximum for PFOA and PFOS is more stringent than New York State's 10 parts per trillion. In addition, the EPA set limits of 10 parts per trillion for three other PFAS chemicals and declared that no level of PFOA and PFOS in drinking water is without risk.
PFAS chemicals, used for decades in nonstick cookware, water-repellant clothing and other consumer products, as well as firefighting foams, have been linked to various health problems, including cancer, low-infant birthweights and high cholesterol.
The operators of as many as 10 percent of the 66,000 drinking-water systems covered by the standards nationwide may have to take action because their PFAS levels exceed the revised guidelines, according to the EPA. Based on recent tests, Beacon and Cold Spring have not reached the threshold where action is required.
According to the most recent report available, the level of PFOS measured in Beacon's water supply topped out at 2.4 parts per trillion in 2022, and PFOA levels were measured at 1.88 ppt.
The most recent report for Cold Spring, provided by the Putnam County Health Department, shows PFOA levels of 1.59 parts per trillion in the fourth quarter of 2021. Neither PFOA nor PFOS was detected in any other test that year.
Newburgh's primary water supply, Washington Lake, was shut down in May 2016 because of high levels of PFOS (140 parts per trillion); the city began buying water from New York City. Authorities said the contamination came from runoff from Stewart Air National Guard Base that contained the residue of firefighting foams.
More recently, the Putnam Valley Central School District installed a filtration system in a well that supplies its elementary school after tests showed levels of 38.3 parts per trillion for PFOS and 23.3 ppt for PFOA. The district traced the problem to the Putnam Valley Fire Department's use of foams at its firehouses.
Jonathan Jacobson, whose state Assembly district includes Beacon, is a longtime Newburgh resident who consumed the city's contaminated water before it closed Washington Lake. "The need for these new standards is not just theoretical," he said. "It is personal to me and my neighbors."
Newburgh, Putnam Valley and Dutchess County are among the municipalities suing 3M, DuPont and other companies that manufactured and used the chemicals.
3M, which said in December 2022 that it would cease making PFAS by the end of 2025, announced last year that it would pay $10.3 billion over 13 years so operators of public systems can treat contaminated water and test for the chemicals. Twenty days earlier, Chemours, DuPont and Corteva said they would pay a combined $1.2 billion into a fund to settle claims.
In addition, the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted in 2021 includes $1 billion for public water systems and the owners of private wells to test their water for PFAS and treat contamination.