Beacon Dispatch

Thai restaurant to open in Beacon

A new Thai restaurant, Sukhothai, will be open in Beacon in the next couple of weeks. Serving "authentic" Thai food (Tom Kha Gai, Phad Thai, etc.) the new eatery will be located at 516-518 Main St, and will be open 7 days a week, from 11:30am - 9:30pm (10:30 Friday and Saturday.) Their menu and 'Help Wanted' sign are currently posted in their front window. With Totis Gourmet located just up the street, will this soon be a local version of 'Restaurant Row'?

Beacon Fire Department goes online

According to their webmaster, Jason Fisch (who is also the department's newest firefighter), the purpose of the new City of Beacon Fire Department Web site is to provide "total knowledge" of the fire department. And I have to say, it's one of the best city government information sites I've ever seen, with shots of the BFD in action, historical photos, volunteer information, and even how many runs the BFD is making each month, broken down by truck (rescue, marine, ladder) and by type (fires, vehicle accidents, false alarms.) Below are just a few of the great pictures you can find on the site. It's well worth checking it out...

The 2005 American LaFrance Eagle pumper truck -- the latest addition to the BFD family.

'Hot Apple Cider' series continues

Press Release

Hudson Valley Outfitters and World’s End Books continue to bring interesting and informative guests to their Hot Apple Cider Series;  a fun, free educational series highlighting the history, wildlife, geography and future of our Hudson River & Valley.

Their next guest features the Hudson River Valley Greenway talking about The Great Hudson River Paddle, Saturday February 26^th, from 2-4 pm. The event is free and hot apple cider is served to all who attend.

This 10 day camping/paddling adventure, along the beautiful Hudson River, starts in Albany and finishes in New York City. The GHRP is open to all paddlers and this is your opportunity to talk to the organizers about how to participate.

Hudson Valley Outfitters and World’s End Books is located at 474   Main Street, in Beacon. Call 845.831.1760 for more information.

Area photographers to discuss work

Press Release

On Thursday, February 24 at 7pm, the chThonic Clash Coffee House is hosting a presentation by four area photographers:

• Cali Gourevic, a sculptor and fine art photographer who works in black and white
• Dmitri Kasterine, a commercial photographer and portraitist who began his career at age eleven by photographing birds and cows in the field
• Mark Mackinnon, a minimalist landscape photographer who works in a panoramic format
• Angelika Rinnhofer, who incorporates the ambiance of Renaissance paintings in her contemporary portraits

Admission is free. For more information, contact Chthonic Clash Coffeehouse at 831-0359 or visit www.chthonicclash.com.

Citizen journalism meets the old gray lady

Sorry I haven't been very active here for the past few days. The company I work for during the day, About.com, was just acquired by the New York Times. Could the Beacon Dispatch be far behind? ;-)

Old-timers vs Newbies: Can't we all just get along?

I've noticed a trend on the Dispatch site in recent months. We'll post about something topical or newsy that is happening in Beacon, and old-timers and newbies will then proceed to shout at each other down in the Comments area. Old-timers accuse newbies of driving up property taxes, and newbies accuse old-timers of ignoring the problem, whatever it may be.  What to do? Start our own version of Crossfire or Hannity and Colmes on the local public access station?  Are these two sides really that different?

Beacon has handle on sewer pipes?

In today's  Poughkeepsie Journal Dan Shapley covers the recent discovery of city storm drains connected to sewage pipes in Beacon:

Beacon's sewer overflow problem is common to many older communities, especially in the Northeast where infrastructure is often a century old or more. Storm water is not supposed to flow into sewers because pipes and treatment plants in many cases lack the capacity to handle the excess flow.

In November, Beacon tried to correct the problem temporarily by clamping down the manhole covers that overflowed. That backfired in January when pipe pressure built during a storm and sewage backed up into (George) Mansfield's home and onto another nearby property.

You can find more background on this issue here, here, here, and here, on the Dispatch site.

Update on the Master Plan

by Sara Pasti

Two master planning information forums were held in Beacon in December 2004 and January 2005 to set the stage for community involvement in Beacon’s upcoming Master Planning process. The impact of recent developments such as the DIA:Beacon Museum, the announcement of the Rivers & Estuaries Center to be located on Dennings Point, a large influx of new homeowners to the city and increased residential development all point to the need for a strategic plan for the future of the city. It is also important to remember and focus on the many strategic benefits Beacon has at its disposal. County planner John Clarke described Beacon as being “regionally blessed,” both ecologically, in terms of its geographic location at the crossroads of the Hudson River and Hudson Highlands, and economically, by virtue of its location at the intersection of Route 84, the NYS Thruway and Stewart Airport, across the river. He indicated the importance that Beacon will have as a regional railroad hub, connecting Metro-North Railroad passengers to other forms of transportation and to communities in all directions.

Pressing the Question

South Avenue Journalists Create Their Own Publication

By: Nate Morgan

Have you read the South Avenue News? This local newspaper, published by the students of South Avenue Elementary School, asks questions and offers information to South Avenue School students on a variety of topics. The newspaper provides these students with information on subjects ranging from jigsaw puzzles and the flu to pandas and political issues. While the articles are all written in a similar style, the topics seem to reflect the interests of each individual student journalist. Posing questions and then quickly getting to the meat of their article, the students have created a fun read.

Art, Nature, History

Forrestal Elementary School Students Create a Habitat for Learning and Link to a Vision From the Past

By: Gina Masullo

J.V. Forrestal Elementary School on Beacon’s Liberty Street is the kind of place where a student walking down any of its narrow, low-ceilinged hallways will be greeted by each teacher she passes. It’s the kind of place where the principal wanders out of his office to check on the goings-on several times a day; where, in the teacher’s lounge, staff sits together and talks about ideas for next quarter.

It’s this kind of close-knit feeling that fostered the school’s ambitious, ongoing project, The Habitat at J.V. Forrestal. With the help of local artist Thom Joyce, the entire fourth grade last year embarked on a year-long mission to research, design and create a series of bronze plaques that will be placed along pathways on the school’s extensive grounds.