Small-Town Characters

The Race for District 17

Five Democrats compete to face Lawler A lot has changed since the November 2024 general election, when Republican Mike Lawler defeated Democrat Mondaire Jones to win a second, 2-year term representing U.S. House District 17, which includes Philipstown. The Democratic president, Joe Biden, was unpopular, a regular gallon of gas in New York state averaged $3.09, inflation stood at 2.7 percent and 39,000 people were being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nearly two-thirds of them arrested at the borders with Canada and Mexico. Less than two years later, Republican Donald Trump is the unpopular president, a regular gallon of gas averages $4.38, inflation hit 4.2 percent and 60,000 people were being held by ICE as of April, 85 percent of them arrested at their homes and workplaces, on the street and during routine check-ins with the agency. A Marist poll released in May found that more than half of 1,322 adults surveyed rated their cost of living as "not very affordable" (44 percent) or "not affordable at all" (12 percent); 63 percent did not believe the economy benefited them; and 81 percent felt either a "major" strain on their household budget (33 percent) or a "minor" one (48 percent). Trump's unpopularity, higher gas prices and other costs, and the unpopularity of the conflict with Iran and the president's immigration crackdown are some of the factors bolstering five Democrats competing in a June 23 primary to take on Lawler in November. The district is one of the most scrutinized in the country amid the Democratic Party's efforts to flip the House to its control. The Republicans have a 218-212 majority, with four seats vacant and one independent. Cait Conley has received high-profile endorsements and raised the most campaign funds. A graduate of West Point who earned master's degrees from Harvard and MIT, she spent 16 years on active duty in the U.S. Army before directing counterterrorism for the National Security Council and joining the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Both the Dutchess and Putnam Democratic Committees have endorsed her. Beth Davidson has also received notable endorsements, including from the Rockland Democratic Committee, where she is a county Legislator. Davidson, whose fundraising totals are only bested by Conley's, spent two years on the Nyack school board and has held board seats on local organizations such as Leadership Rockland and the Children's Shakespeare Theatre. A third candidate, Effie Phillips-Staley, is serving her third term as a Tarrytown village trustee. She has also held roles as vice president of strategic advancement at the Hispanic Federation in New York City, where she led a fundraising effort that netted more than $30 million for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria; executive director of the Foundation for the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns; and director of capital and institutional advancement for The Kitchen, an art space in the city. Questions for Candidates Ahead of the Democratic primary on June 23, we gave each candidate 500 words to answer three questions. Their responses are posted at highlandscurrent.org/house-primary-17. John Cappello and Mike Sacks are the final two candidates. Cappello is an Air Force Academy graduate and bomber pilot who retired from the service and is president of the Halyard Mission Foundation, which commemorates the rescue of more than 500 U.S. airmen from Serbia during World War II. Sacks is a lawyer and journalist who covered law and politics for the MeidasTouch media network and Fox 5 in New York City, where he won an Emmy for his coverage of the protests following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. There have been four polls, but each was commissioned by a candidate or supporter, surveyed a relatively small sample and found large swaths of likely voters undecided. VoteVets, a political action committee backing Conley, commissioned a poll of 500 people in May showing he...

The Race for District 39

Three hopefuls vie for Democratic line Beacon and Philipstown have not been represented by a Democratic state senator since 2015, and the party hopes this year to flip the seat, held by Rob Rolison, a Republican seeking his third 2-year term. First, there will be a primary on June 23 to decide which of three Democratic candidates will challenge him in November: Lisa Kaul, a Dutchess County legislator; Gay Lee, a former City of Newburgh council member; or Evan Menist, a member of the Poughkeepsie Common Council. Sue Serino, now the Dutchess County executive, represented Beacon and Philipstown in the state Senate for three terms. She took office in 2015 after defeating Terry Gipson, a Democrat who served one term. Rolison won the seat in 2022, defeating Julie Shiroishi, a Beacon resident who was then chief of staff to Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, whose district includes Beacon. In 2024, Rolison defeated Dutchess County Legislator Yvette Valdés Smith, whose district includes part of Beacon. She now chairs the Legislature after Democrats flipped the majority in 2025. Kaul is a native of India and Rhodes Scholar who moved to the U.S. in 2004. She spent five years as an administrator at Vassar College and served on the Arlington school board before defeating Republican Marc Pfeifer in 2023 to win a seat in the Legislature representing part of the Town of Poughkeepsie. She ran unopposed in 2025 for her second term and chairs the Environment Committee. Lee served for four years on the Newburgh City Council. She is a longtime clinical social worker and therapist with a private practice whose career includes stints with nonprofits that provide services to people who are homeless and have mental illnesses. She previously ran for the state Senate seat in 2014. Questions for Candidates Ahead of the Democratic primary on June 23, we gave each candidate 500 words to answer three questions. The responses are posted at highlandscurrent.org/senate-primary-39. Menist holds a master's degree in public administration from Marist University, where he played on and coached the men's rugby team. His resume includes working as a planner and researcher for Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, a policy organization based in the City of Newburgh, as a staffer for former state Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick and as assistant deputy county executive for Ulster County. He first won election to the Common Council in 2019 and is now in his fourth 2-year term. He also works as co-executive director of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, which produces fruits and vegetables for purchase and donation and educates farmers. Kaul has earned endorsements from the Dutchess County and Beacon Democratic Committees, and Menist from the Working Families Party. The Putnam Democratic Committee did not endorse a candidate; Jennifer Colamonico, its chair said the representatives from the two towns in District 39, including Philipstown, considered both Kaul and Menist to be "outstanding candidates." As of May 29, Kaul had $227,000 on hand and Menist, $133,000. Lee has not filed campaign finance reports. Rolison reported having $7,000 on hand. As of Wednesday (June 10), Kaul has received $268,479 from the state's Public Campaign Finance Board, which matches small donations, and Menist, $234,017. Rolison has received $160,219.

Better than Perfect

Haldane weighs how students are ranked Will future Haldane classes have more than one valedictorian? That's one question raised by a change to the school's grading system, which will be implemented this fall with the incoming ninth-grade class. Haldane, like Beacon and many high schools, gives bonuses when calculating grade-point averages for schedules that include rigorous courses, such as Advanced Placement, honors and college-level classes. At Haldane, AP courses get a 1.1 multiplier, meaning that 100 becomes 110 when calculating a student's four-year GPA. The top grade in an honors course is 105. "We had a few students with over 100 percent GPAs this year," said Julia Sniffen, the Haldane High School principal. At Beacon High School, 15 to 20 seniors crack 100 each year, said Principal Corey Dwyer. Max Sanders, the valedictorian of the 2026 Haldane class, which is scheduled to graduate today (June 12), said he has a GPA of about 101. At Beacon High School, the valedictorian, Oscar McKible, said he finished with around 105 to lead his class, which will graduate on June 24. Starting with Haldane's Class of 2030, Sniffen said the district is going to cap GPAs at 100. Rigorous courses will remain weighted, she said, but "you can't be better than perfect." She said administrators are still discussing how to award valedictorian and salutatorian in 2030 if several students have perfect GPAs. "Does this impact who speaks at graduation?" she said. It's not unheard of to have multiple valedictorians. This year, Jericho High School on Long Island has 21, shattering its previous record of 15. The district does not weight its courses, so any student who receives an A+ in every class over four years is honored. Rather than giving speeches, the valedictorians lead the procession, wear sashes and are featured in a video honoring their accomplishments. The Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington, Virginia, has a variation on the theme. It names any student with an A+ average as valedictorian and often has 100 or more. But only the student with the absolute highest GPA, including weighted classes, speaks at graduation. By contrast, the Cherry Creek School District near Denver, which serves 53,000 students, stopped recognizing valedictorians at its nine high schools this year. The district called naming a valedictorian "outdated" and inconsistent with its "core values of teaching all students, rather than ranking and sorting them." At Haldane, Sniffen said that capping the four-year GPA at 100 encourages a more well-rounded high school experience. "We want to focus on the whole child, a balanced experience through high school," she said. "They should take courses they're interested in and don't look at it like 'I'm being penalized if I want to stay in band for four years.' " Sniffen added that the change won't impact how universities evaluate student transcripts. She said colleges ignore weighting anyway and have their own processes for evaluating academic performance. Amanda Cotchen, a guidance counselor at Haldane, said some students do seem to select classes for the bonus points. "I have been asked, 'What's the weighting on each of these classes?' My reply is usually, 'Are you interested in the course?' " Sanders said he chose his courses not because of weighting but based on rigor. "I just asked, 'What classes do I want to fill my schedule with? For me, it happened to be APs." In retrospect, he wished he'd found time for Discrete Mathematics, an unweighted elective. "I was doing AP Calculus, and that was very involved," he said, so he took a study period instead. McKible said he scheduled difficult classes to keep his GPA at 100 or better. But he doesn't think he missed anything. The only thing he changed was dropping a study period and lunch "to take more heavy classes," he said. The senior successfully lobbied the administration to add weight to a science research class offered through the University at Albany. "I thought that w...

Life and Wisdom at 100

From the Depression to the iPhone When Mary Williams forgets something important about one of her countless life stories, it isn't a problem: She consults her laptop. Born on May 13, 1926, she's been writing detailed accounts of her life for at least 80 years, from surviving hurricanes and losing her hair on a drill press, to working as an operator for AT&T ("Ma Bell") and traveling the world. She moved to Cold Spring 10 years ago to be closer to her daughter, Galelyn Williams, who lives in the village. She grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, during the Depression and remembers the era vividly. "I was kind of a naughty child," she said, recalling that she started smoking at age 11. "No one had any money, but it was OK because families were more tribal, people were more connected and helped each other out," she recalled. "There wasn't a lot of envy, because no one had anything. Everybody was about the same." Jobs were scarce. Her father worked for the Works Progress Administration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's employment and infrastructure program. Her mother was unable to work but volunteered at Pawtucket City Hall. "We ate hot dogs and whatever we could get ahold of," Williams said, adding that her mom "wasn't much of a cook" but did occasionally prepare a leg of lamb, which at 10 to 15 cents a pound was cheaper than beef or pork. "Everybody was poor — some were dirt poor — but we managed," she said. Their rent was covered by a form of welfare. In 1936, a hurricane devastated the area, killing 600 people, especially close to shore. "It was a bugger; there were no warnings back then," Williams said. "On one little island, the waves wiped all the houses right off the map." She attended a strict Catholic grade school, "an education of thou shall nots." As a teen, she moved to nearby Oakland Beach, where roller skating was the popular entertainment. She and her friends sometimes scraped barnacles off the bottom of rowboats to earn enough to cover the 30-cent entrance fee. "We stayed friends all our lives," she said. Williams remembers skating to her favorite song, the Glenn Miller Orchestra performing "In the Mood." "There was so much good music, couples always had 'their song,' " she said. "It was romantic, gentle music and easy to skate to." She had her first date, at age 15, at the roller rink, with a guy named Louie. "It was the first time a guy kissed me," she said, adding that Louie was quite upset when she told him she didn't like him. She quit school in 10th grade after her father fell ill to work and help her mother raise her younger brother. "My first job was at Sammy Salk's General Store," she said. "I worked six days a week for a total of $15. I could buy enough food with that." She knew many young men who went off to fight in World War II, not all of whom returned. "So many, so many," she recalled. The war meant factory work. "I had a bunch of jobs, including working on a drill press," she said. She once lost half of her hair when it caught in the press. She also worked in a shipyard and took on a second job at a soda fountain. While it was a difficult time to be a teenager, she remembers how the nation unified. "We were together as a country during World War II," she said. "But we've done nothing but fight wars since. That's all we do now, bomb people." Not one to mince words, she said she has "lived through 17 U.S. presidents and one stupid SOB." In 1946, she bought a 1938 Cadillac and a trailer and headed to the West Coast with a friend. "It was a pimp car, and it took us 13 days," she said with a laugh. She kept detailed notes along the 2,448 miles of Route 66 and described California as "America's best kept secret" at the time. Williams was working for AT&T in Rhode Island and transferred to California, staying with the company for 35 years as a telephone operator. She said operators sometimes listened in while couples engaged in phone sex. "We would listen, but if you were caught, the company would fir...

Small-Town Characters

Filmmaker drew inspiration from Philipstown Lily Weisberg, a 26-year-old filmmaker from New York City, has been directing and producing films in Philipstown since she was a student at Yale. Rare Birds, her most recent short film, was inspired by the natural beauty and "inherent intimacy" of rural Putnam County, she says. She spent many summers in Garrison, riding Metro-North from the city to attend camps at The Depot Theater. Her parents moved to Philipstown while she was in college. Weisberg's 10-minute film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 5 and will be shown again today (June 12) and Saturday. "It's a festival I've dreamed about having a movie in as long as I've been making movies," she said. In the film, a serial klutz named Jerry (Tony Macht) risks losing his job at a local antique store. "He's like a bull in a China shop," Weisberg said, with a laugh. "He obviously should not be working in an antique store." Jerry is also a camp counselor, and one of the campers, 12-year-old Candice (Zoe Ziegler), is a frequent visitor. She is determined to get Jerry fired so the friends can spend more time together. Their relationship, says Weisberg, is "the kind that can only really exist in a small town. They're both these oddball characters, but they're united because they are similar and from the same place." The film was shot at Bowen Barn, a shop in Stanfordville, but Weisberg and her team scouted antique stores in and near Philipstown and Beacon. "We used what we saw in our set design," she said. "I liked the idea of creating this sort of cocoon for them —a cozy, dark antique store where everything's fragile, but it's kind of desolate." Weisberg directed two previous short films, Studio 210 (2021) and Working Summer (2024), at her parents' home. Her mother's studio and gardens served as inspiration for the former, in which an aspiring artist spends a summer at his friend's mother's studio. "I wanted to make something that used all of this beauty that she'd created," said Weisberg of her mother, Deborah Needleman, a basketmaker. Achieving small-town authenticity has its challenges. Child labor laws limited how long Ziegler could be on set, and the Bowen Barn contains many fragile items that required caution when moving cameras and lights. On the plus side, "the energy is just so good with a crew that lives and works in the Hudson Valley," said Weisberg. "People are happy because they're surrounded by nature and beauty. "The fact of just loving a place comes through in a movie," she says. "I want to work in places that I love and have a relationship to." Rare Birds will be screened in New York City today (June 12) at 8:30 p.m. at Spring Studios (50 Varick St.) and on Saturday at 2:15 p.m. at AMC 19th St. East 6 (890 Broadway). See tribecafilm.com/films/rare-birds-2026. For Weisberg's earlier films, see dub.sh/weisberg-films.