Beacon Dispatch

School Budget Passes

22% Increase in Voter Turnout Makes the Difference

Tuesday's school budget vote saw 545 more voters turn out, which turned the tide for the district and resulted in a 57% to 43% approval of the new budget. While fewer voters rejected the budget this time around than they did in the May election—1399 in May compared to 1288 yesterday—that difference would not have been enough to pass the budget. The election was won by the more than 500 voters who turned out for this vote, all of whom, it appears, voted in favor of the budget. Pushing those in favor of the budget to a total of 1733 votes, or 656 more "yeas" than last month's 1077.

End of year schedules for Beacon schools

BEACON ACADEMY
➢     June 12: Last Day of Classes
➢    8th Graders follow Rombout’s End of Year & Exam Schedule

BEACON HIGH SCHOOL
➢    June 12……...Last day of classes
➢    School Exams………June  13th (all day) and 14th(a.m. only)
➢    Regents Exams……...June 14-22
➢    Graduation…………..Saturday, June 24 at 10:00 a.m. at Hammond Field

ROMBOUT MIDDLE SCHOOL
➢    June 15……… Advanced English (Gr.9) – a.m.
                              Advanced Math (Gr.9) – p.m.
                              Last full day of classes
➢    Exam schedule.…... Dismissal at 11:00 a.m. on the following days:
        June 16…………. English / Social Studies
        June 19…………. Foreign Language Proficiency ( Gr. 8 only)
        June 20…………. Math / Science
        June 21…………. Awards Celebration -  Grades 6 &7 only (last day)               
➢    June 22…Moving-Up Ceremony Practice/Awards-Gr. 8 only; 10:00 a.m. dismissal
                  …Moving-Up Ceremony at BHS – 6:00 p.m.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
➢    June 21, 22 & 23…….Dismissal at 12:10 p.m. each day
➢    Last day of  school…..June 23

BREAKFAST / LUNCH SCHEDULES FOR LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL : 6/16 – 6/24

Elementary Schools :          Breakfast & lunch served on 6/19 & 6/20;  Breakfast ONLY on 6/21,22 &23
Rombout Middle School:   Breakfast & lunch served on 6/15;  Breakfast ONLY on 6/16, 6/19 & 6/20
Beacon High School:          Breakfast & lunch served on 6/14; No food service after 6/14/06

Tear Down City Hall!

Or build around it if we have to, as long as we re-connect Main Street to the river. That was one of the suggestions heard at last night's "Visioning Workshop", one of a series of public meetings being held by the City of Beacon Comprehensive Planning Committee to discuss the city's "Master Plan," which has  not been seriously re-considered since 1974 (see below for meeting times and locations.) During the past 30 years more than half of Beacon's open space has been developed into residential housing. Without a better blueprint for Beacon's future, there's no way to predict how future development or population growth will be managed by the City. So it's a darn good idea to come out and share your opinion on what's important to you for the future of Beacon.

[If you can't make a meeting, the committee is sending out public opinion surveys to every household in Beacon starting today. You have until June 30 to fill out the survey and drop it off at City Hall or Howland Public Library.]

The public meetings consist of three parts: a slide-show introduction from the consultants who are helping manage the project, which walks you through some of the assets and opportunities Beacon has, such as existing green space, properties that are likely to be developed in the future (e.g. Hiddenbrooke), and accomodation for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The meeting then splits into small groups of 7-8 people to discuss a series of questions:

1. How would you describe your quality of life here? What is it like for you to live here?
2. What makes you proud of Beacon? Is there a place, a building, a feature, or an event that symbolizes Beacon for you? Name, location, description, why do you go there, and how often do you go there?
3. Imagine you are walking around Beacon. Which areas have gone bad? Which areas have a pattern or a feel that works well? What could be done to propagate the good elements to reflect the character of the community?
4. Name two concerns you have about each of the following: The downtown, housing, parks & open space, the riverfront, employment & commercial activities, the natural environment, the people, community character, streets & sidewalks, historic preservation & character
5. What three wishes or visions would you most like to see come true for Beacon? Who should take these on? What would you give up for these to happen? What do you want city government to focus on?

During the break-out sessions one member of the group takes notes on giant sticky notes and after about half an hour each group gets up to report on what they found. The information is then collected by the committee for use in drafting the new plan.

The committee expects to have all the data from the meetings and surveys distilled into a draft plan by October, at which point there will be another series of meetings to discuss the plan. A final draft will then be submitted to the City Council for approval in January. This is where "the rubber meets the road", as City Councilman Steve Gold put it. The City Council will act on the recommendations made in the plan by doing things like changing zoning laws and allocating funds to make the plans a reality.

But the fact is, the new Comprehensive Plan for Beacon will not take on a life of its own unless the people of Beacon get involved and hold our City Administration accountable for action. Whatever your opinion is about Beacon's future, now is the time to get involved and make your voice heard.

Issues for a Comprehensive Master Plan Update

A Partial List of Needs and Ideas
(Not solutions, but starting points for discussion)

by Lee Kyriacou, City Councilman (At-large)

I am thrilled that the city has finally agreed on a formal comprehensive master plan update.  I apologize if I have been a “broken record” on this subject, having called since 1993 for a comprehensive (vs. piecemeal) update of our 1974 Master Plan.  But as a planner by profession, I cannot think of anything more important than a community putting together its blueprint for future development.

You have a very important role:  to do the groundwork, debate the issues and assemble a draft master plan.  You are in excellent hands with our professional city planner, who I am sure will establish a sound process – asking all the right questions, providing lots of support, getting extensive community involvement, and encouraging community consensus.

Help influence the future of Beacon

This week three workshops are being held around town to get public input into the Comprehensive Plan for Beacon. If you care about the future development of Beacon, take some time to attend one of these meetings. Doors will open to the public early for coffee and snacks and for viewing maps and the Beacon Basic Studies Report. You can also find a summary of the Basic Studies document here. Below are the time and locations of the meetings:

Wednesday, June 7
7-9 pm
South Avenue School
69 South Avenue

Thursday, June 8
7-9 pm
Sargent Avenue School
29 Education Drive

Wednesday, June 14
7-9 pm
Forrestal Avenue School
125 Liberty Street

Saturday, June 17
9-11 am
12-2 pm (Spanish-only)
VFW Memorial Bldg
413 Main St.

Editorial: A 4% Solution

Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that May’s school budget proposal didn’t pass. Not because it wasn’t a reasonable budget, but because last year’s expected increase in taxes was a far cry from the actual increase in taxes: while a number somewhere near 8% was thrown around, what taxpayer’s actually ended up seeing on their tax bills was somewhere nearer to 20%. The difference in these numbers was the difference between the school district’s year-to-year budget increase (8%) and the increase in the tax levy (20%). The tax levy is what you actually see, or more precisely, feel when you pay your tax bill.

Editorial: Two Years, Volunteers, and a Love for this Town

With the publication of this issue—our 22^nd—the Beacon Dispatch marks the completion of two years in print. During these two years we’ve grown from a small newsletter with our first issue to a full tabloid-sized newspaper from our second issue on. All the while our intent has been to provide the City of Beacon and its residents with a paper they could call their own. A paper that sees the City as the jewel it is and that recognizes and documents Beacon’s strengths and weaknesses.

Beacon Summer Camps

by Karen Maserjian Shan

Last summer Belinda Leon learned how to make salsa. She also planted and transplanted vegetables and took a course in culinary cutting skills while earning money, thanks to the Green Teen youth summer program she participated in through Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County.

As a student at Beacon Academy, the 18-year-old knew of the Green Teen program through her participation in the group’s weekly activities at the school. Leon wanted to stay with Green Teen through the summer because she was interested in its activities and she’d be paid for her participation. So, she filled out an application, interviewed for a summer position and got it, along with seven other candidates in the Beacon and eight in Poughkeepsie.   

A River of Words

Capturing the Oral History of Hudson River Fishermen

by Kate Fraher

“For much of human history, work and energy have linked humans and rivers, humans and nature. But today…. the link between our work and nature has weakened. We no longer understand the world through labor. Once the energy of [a river] was felt in human bones and sinews; human beings knew the river through the work the river demanded of them…. Not just muscle power, but knowledge and art.” Richard White

In his book, The Organic Machine, Richard White laments losing the knowledge and culture of a community that had lived and worked on the Columbia River during the Nineteenth Century. Here on the Hudson, The Beacon Institute (formerly The Rivers and Estuaries Center) is preserving the culture of a vanishing community of our own through an oral history project: Preserving the History of Commercial Fishermen of the Hudson River Valley. The project honors and celebrates the Hudson River Valley, but it is fueled by more than simple nostalgic interest. A community’s oral history, which details the human relationship to the land, is a valuable tool in the assessment of a region and the formation of its environmental policy. 

Beacon Voices: Dan Fisherman, “Grease Monkey”

by Michael Daecher

With gas prices hovering around $3 per gallon, many people are wondering how they can save money at the pump. Dan Fisherman, computer programmer and teacher of math and science at the Randolph School, has found an interesting way to get around that. He converted his car engine to run on vegetable oil instead traditional gasoline. That’s right, the next time you eat at the Sukhothai Restaurant, the waste oil used to cook your food will soon be used to power Dan’s 1982 Mercedes-Benz.

Using vegetable oil to power diesel engines is not a new idea. In fact, at the 1900 World’s Fair, Rudolph Diesel used peanut oil when demonstrating his new engine, and encouraged farmers to grow their own energy source. Now “grease cars”, vehicles that have been converted to run on straight vegetable oil, are becoming more common.

Dan, his wife Jenn Clapp, 9-year-old son Noam, and 5-year-old daughter Eva moved to the Mid Hudson Valley in 2002. After a year living in Wappingers, they moved to Beacon, where they currently reside. Originally from New York City, Dan is not a gear head. In fact, he knew very little about car engines before he decided to embark on this adventure. I recently sat down with him to talk about how it all works.