Beacon Dispatch

Editorial: Vote “Yes” On New Library

Howland Library is too small and dilapidated for Beacon’s needs, and should be replaced by the new building put forth by the library board. Voting “yes” on September 13 will put the wheels in motion to build a community center that has long been needed in Beacon.

Editorial: Vote “NO” On New Library

There is no question that the City of Beacon needs a new library, but what’s presently being offered to the voters and taxpayers of the Beacon City School District is not that library.

Beacon Voices: Buddha Heroes

by Michael Daecher

If you’re a regular shopper at Beacon’s Key Foods, you’ve undoubtedly met Alex Campone, the congenial cashier with tattooed arms and a shaggy mop of black hair. He started working part-time at the grocery store while a student at Beacon High   School. Now that he’s graduated, he’s starting his first year at Dutchess Community College and working to support his passion, playing in the local punk band Buddha Heroes.

Alex and his buddies Mark and Rob are the core of the Buddha Heroes, a band whose sound some compare to the Southern California punk scene of the early 1980’s. Listening to their demo, you can certainly hear early Social Distortion or Agent Orange, but the Buddha Heroes are not interested in comparisons.

Download the Buddha Heroes' MP3 "Wavin in the Sun"

I learned about Alex’s alter ego after seeing him behind the wheel of his multi-colored van, a 1987 Chevy with about 150,000 miles on the engine. Like something from a psychedelic A-Team episode, the van will be the band’s home as they tour the Northeast and beyond to build their audience one club at a time. The Buddha Heroes just came off consecutive shows at Club Crannell Street in Poughkeepsie and the Continental in Manhattan. I was able to catch up with Alex C., Mark P., Rob C., and their good friend Derrick at Mark’s parents’ house here in Beacon late one weekday night in late August (bass player Clark E. couldn’t make the interview.)

Letter to the Editor: Understanding Library Referendum Requires a Well-informed Electorate

I would like to thank the voters in the Beacon City School District for their past support of the Howland Public Library’s mission in the community.  As the library building referendum approaches, it is most important that voters be well informed.  A new Howland Public Library has been in the works for over seven years.  Public input has been sought; people have been informed of, and asked to attend, board and special meetings.   After reading this letter, anyone who still has questions about the project should contact those in the know – Howland Public Library (831-1134) – for answers.

Highland Wanderer: Bannerman Castle Kayak Tour from the Beacon Sloop Club

The Hudson River Valley is filled with kayaking possibilities, but none quite as enticing as the hardhat tours that let you view the ruins of Bannerman Castle and walk the garden trails of Pollepel Island.

Pollepel (also known as Bannerman) Island has a storied history. It was considered haunted by Native Americans, drunken sailors were dropped off on the island to sober up, it has links to the American Revolution, and in the early 1900’s it became home to Francis Bannerman’s army surplus business. Bannerman Castle, which used to be the warehouse, is the most prominent structure on the island—for first-time travelers on Metro North’s Hudson Line, it’s a wonderful surprise —but the island is also covered with once luxuriant gardens, walking paths, and, on the south side of the island, the former Bannerman home.

Hiddenbrooke: Is Time On Our Side?

by Jack Sine

It’s all about the water. Well, it’s also about the lack of water, and limited sewage, and too much traffic, and overcrowded schools, and the spiritual nature of the place…and, oh yeah, it’s also about making a buck.

The story begins here: a fellow from Westchester named Larry Kalkstein and his group purchased 123 acres of the Hiddenbrooke property on DePuyster Avenue excluding the monastery and its related buildings. His goal is to build upscale housing on the property. But there are a bunch of problems about building on that property and the biggest one is water.

Excerpt: Peggy's Spirit

A Beacon family walks in memory of their mother and in hope for the future

“The cure will be found. I know it's going to happen, and I'm going to be there to see it—God willing.”—Mike McElduff

Peggy McElduff was born in 1925, the youngest of 10 siblings. Her daughter Kathleen Lyons describes her as “always full of life—a wonderful aunt, a special friend, a loving wife, a giving sister, a devoted grandmother and an incredible mom to 11 children.” Peggy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1968 and survived for 11 years, “which allowed her time to be with all those she loved and leave a little piece of herself for us to cherish and share in our everyday lives.”

No wonder, then, that though Peggy died in 1979, “Peggy’s Spirit” is very much alive. It is embodied in a team of her children, their cousins, and close friends who have devoted untold hours and many thousands of dollars to the fight against breast cancer, a fight they say they will continue until a cure is found.

Don Nice Brings The Hudson Home

An artist’s love affair with the natural world swims into Beacon

by Jeffery Battersby

Don Nice—whose latest show "Hudson River Fish" is on display at the Rivers & Estuaries Center —is an outdoorsman; a man whose artwork is informed and infused by the world around him.

Growing up in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where his father was in the citrus business, he worked as a ranch hand and then as a mule packer taking campers into the Sierra. To this day he has the rugged, handsome look of a at home on the back of a horse. It was also these years that influenced the way he looks at the world, his love of the outdoors, and fuels his desire to capture everything he sees in his artwork.