Episodios

  • Cost Overload
    Jul 4 2025
    Their comments range from angry to anguished, some typed in all caps and punctuated with exclamation points.
    An 80-year-old retiree who said his charges from Central Hudson are outpacing last year's 2.5 percent increase in his Social Security check is among the 182 people submitting comments in response to the utility's latest request to increase the rates it charges to deliver electricity to homes and businesses.
    A single mother who said she lived with two children in a 700-square-foot house while earning $1,400 a month bemoaned the surge in her monthly bill from $100 to more than $200. "If the rates keep going up, I will have to freeze to death together with my teenage sons," she wrote.
    For the homeowners, renters and business owners who have been railing against Central Hudson's rising costs online and in public hearings before the state Public Service Commission, the frustration goes beyond the company's latest request to raise rates. Its pending three-year plan is lower than the company's original request but would still add $18 per month during that period to the average customer's bill.
    Those customers, along with residents served by New York state's other utility companies, are paying the most in at least 25 years for electricity, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Utility bills statewide averaged 25 cents per kilowatt-hour in March, compared to 19 cents in March 2015. Nationwide, energy bills are forecast to continue rising through next year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
    "It's unbearable for customers," said Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon and other areas served by Central Hudson. "We get complaints all the time about their costs and their service."
    Extreme Weather Powers Demand
    Cooling, heating rises as aid disappears
    by Brian PJ Cronin
    The spikes in energy bills come as Americans feel the increasing effects of climate change, including more frequent "heat dome" events like the Highlands experienced last week when temperatures reached into the high 90s.
    Those events spur even greater electricity usage as residents crank up air conditioners and fans to sustain themselves.
    Don't expect a trade-off from warmer winters, however. Climate change is also manipulating the polar jet stream, pulling colder air from Canada south in the winter. This past winter, those polar-vortex events allowed freezing temperatures to blanket the Highlands, adding higher heating bills to the higher cooling costs residents faced during the summer.
    These bills aren't just a source of frustration and anxiety anymore. They're literally a matter of life and death. Between 1999 and 2023, 21,518 deaths recorded in the U.S. were attributed to heat as the underlying or a contributing factor, according to a study published in Aug. 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
    The total number of deaths nationwide doubled from 1,069 in 1999 to 2,325 in 2023, according to the study. In New York state, extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths, said the state Department of Environmental Conservation in a report published in June 2024.
    Shortly after taking office, the Trump administration fired the entire federal staff responsible for the Low Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps more than 6 million families avoid utility shut-offs. A representative from New York's Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance said that the state had already received its LIHEAP funding for the year, but next year is in doubt.
    Part of this year's funding is going toward the state's Cooling Assistance Program, which will help approximately 18,000 households purchase either an air conditioner or a fan. The application window for the program is closed, but New Yorkers who suffer from asthma may still be eligible. See dub.sh/cooling-help for more information.
    Customers face costs on two fronts: the rate utilities bi...
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    23 m
  • Beacon to Newburgh Ferry Scuttled
    Jul 4 2025
    Low ridership, cost drive MTA decision
    Commuter ferry service between Newburgh and Beacon will not return after being suspended since January, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said last week.
    NY Waterway has operated the Beacon-to-Newburgh ferry under contract with the MTA since 2005, but the company in March announced that its weekday rush-hour service was discontinued indefinitely due to damage at the Beacon dock.
    On June 23, Evan Zucarelli, the MTA's acting senior vice president of operations, said during a Metro-North committee meeting that the initial suspension of service was triggered by "typical river icing." However, subsequent assessments "revealed significant damage" to the floating ferry dock the MTA attaches to Beacon's pier, "requiring long-term solutions," he said.

    After reviewing ridership, which had been "steadily declining" prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the $2.1 million annual cost of the service, the ferry will not return, Zucarelli said. An average of 62 riders used the ferry each day in 2024, down from "approaching 250" per day at its peak in 2008, said Andrew Buder, Metro-North's director of government and community relations. Ridership usually doubles over the summer, but last fall did not rebound to match its numbers from a year earlier, Buder said.
    "Even with that, we don't see a drop in ridership on the [Metro-North] train correlating to the drop in ridership on the ferry," he said. "If those people are still using the train, they're just choosing to get there a different way."
    Bus service costing $1.75 per ride will continue ferrying commuters between the two cities on weekday mornings and afternoons for the rest of the year, after which it will become free. The MTA has been working with New York State to expand the frequency and coverage area of the service, Zucarelli said. When pressed by an MTA board member, he said the agency would consider implementing free bus service before 2026.
    Another factor in the decision, Zucarelli said, is that Beacon is "actively developing plans to activate its dock area for tourism," while in Newburgh, where the MTA had been using a temporary dock, city officials are preparing for similar growth in 2027 with the opening of the $14.3 million Newburgh Landing Pier.
    The MTA's license to attach its ferry dock in Beacon expired June 30, and the agency notified the city that it did not intend to renew the agreement, City Administrator Chris White said.
    Neal Zuckerman, a Philipstown resident who represents Putnam County on the MTA board, pushed back against the plans during the June 23 meeting. "It is counterintuitive to me that, at the same time you've mentioned that both Newburgh and Beacon are enhancing their waterfront, that we are finding that use of the waterfront is not valuable," he said.
    Zuckerman said that what's happening on the Newburgh waterfront is "shockingly nice," while Beacon is a "TOD [transit-oriented development] dream, because it was once a moribund, empty area." Then, when Dia Beacon arrived in 2003, "it created an extraordinary resurgence" in a community that, because of the MTA, was "an easy one to get to."
    Whether ferry service returns or not, restricted access to the dock has hindered the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, which would typically dock in Beacon for at least six weeks out of its April-to-November sailing season.
    Clearwater has had to reschedule school sails aboard the sloop to depart from either Cold Spring or Poughkeepsie, while some fee-based sails for private groups and pay-what-you-can community sails, which draw about 45 people per outing, have been canceled, said David Toman, the organization's executive director.
    "Our core - the idea of getting people out on the sloop, out on the water - provides a unique impact that you can't get otherwise," he said. "It is critically important to be in Beacon and be able to serve the community from that access point."
    Steve Chanks, an art director who lives in Newburgh, often ...
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    5 m
  • Residents Brace for Health Cuts
    Jul 4 2025
    Millions expected to lose coverage
    In addition to love, health insurance pushed Catherine Lisotta and her husband to marry.
    The Garrison resident's job in the magazine industry offered coverage after he lost his job. When Lisotta got laid off, the couple turned to New York's health exchange, an insurance marketplace where people without access to coverage from employers, and incomes too high for public insurance, can enroll in a private plan using tax credits that lower premium costs.
    She never considered going without health coverage. "It would worry me too much," said Lisotta, whose insurance is covering a recent hip replacement that would have cost her over $20,000. "It would be like tempting God."

    Lisotta and other people using exchanges in New York and other states are now facing changes to health care that are estimated to raise the number of uninsured people by 12 million. Those proposals, embedded in U.S. House and Senate versions of the One Big Beautiful Bill, will cost 7.8 million people coverage through Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office
    The bill was narrowly passed in the House on Thursday (July 3) after passing the Senate on Tuesday (July 1). President Trump signed it on Friday (July 4). New York's two Democratic senators - Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, voted against the legislation, as did Rep. Pat Ryan, a House Democrat representing the 18th Congressional District, which includes Beacon. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents the 17th District, which includes Philipstown, voted for the legislation.
    New York State predicts that 1.5 million statewide will lose insurance, including 38,400 in the 18th District and 31,200 in the 17th District. The bill's provisions would also affect the health care exchanges in New York and other states established when President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
    Among the changes, people will have to verify their eligibility before enrolling instead of being allowed temporary conditional eligibility. The bill also changes a provision that allows any immigrant who is legally in the country to be eligible for coverage and subsidies through the exchanges, largely limiting that benefit to green-card holders and barring enrollment for refugees and people seeking asylum.
    There is also concern that Congress will not extend the more-robust tax credits, and expanded eligibility, approved under the administration of President Joe Biden and expiring at the end of the year. Letting them expire would cost 4.2 million people insurance, according to the CBO. Premiums could more than double in both Lawler and Ryan's districts without the extension, according to KFF, a health policy organization.
    Christine Ortiz, who owns Oh! Designs Interiors in Cold Spring, is among the insured who has been receiving text messages from the state warning that "federal rules may change your health insurance." She not only uses the exchange, but so do a son and daughter. One of them is also self-employed.
    "The only reason that we can be self-employed is because of health care," she said. "I have a studio in the village, trying to build my business, and having to not have to worry about health insurance has been such a blessing."
    Sun River Health, whose 40 locations include one in Beacon, estimates that 20,000 of its patients will lose Medicaid, said Ernest Klepeis, its chief of government affairs and advocacy.
    As the OBBB has worked its way through Congress, Klepeis has been urging senators and representatives to reject the Medicaid cuts, which include stronger work requirements for childless adults between 19 and 64, and a new requirement that recipients recertify their eligibility every six months instead of yearly.
    While Republicans say that the changes will only impact people who refuse to work, advocates say that most of the people who lost coverage from more stringent work requirements imposed in Arkansas and Georgia were actually eligible for Medicaid.
    ...
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    6 m
  • Prentice, Rauch Win Democratic Lines
    Jun 28 2025
    Maasik out; Cheah withdraws as independent candidate
    Nat Prentice and Ned Rauch won the two Democratic lines on Tuesday (June 24) for the Philipstown Town Board.
    Rauch, who was endorsed by the Philipstown Democratic Committee, will appear on the Democratic and independent Philipstown Focus lines. He edged John Maasik by 24 votes for the Democratic line.
    Ben Cheah, the other candidate endorsed by the Democratic Committee, would have appeared on the November ballot on the Philipstown Focus line but on Friday filed with the Putnam County Board of Elections to have his name removed.
    In a statement on Facebook, Cheah wrote that, before the primary vote, "there was a lot of speculation that Ned and I would continue on to the November election on an independent line, regardless of the primary outcome. For me, that was never the plan." He said he withdrew because "this is the healthiest choice for both the Philipstown Democratic Party and my own career" and endorsed Rauch and Prentice.
    Voters had to be among the 3,597 residents in Philipstown registered with the Putnam County Board of Elections as Democrats. Turnout was 31 percent. The Board of Elections said some votes remain to be counted, such as affidavit ballots filed at the two polling sites and absentee ballots postmarked by June 24 that arrive by Tuesday (July 1). The results below are unofficial until certified.
    Democratic
    Nat Prentice 631 (29%)
    Ned Rauch 543 (25%)
    John Maasik 519 (24%)
    Ben Cheah 467 (22%)
    In a statement on Wednesday, the Philipstown Democratic Committee congratulated Prentice and Rauch, thanked all four candidates and said it looked forward "to supporting our candidates in doing the good work." It added that, "as a committee, we are disappointed that our candidate Ben Cheah was not selected yesterday; we thank him for the passion, hard work and thoughtfulness for service to the town he put into this campaign." It will vote at its July meeting whether to endorse Prentice.
    In a statement on Wednesday, Maasik said, "I'm proud that the non-endorsed candidates combined for the majority of the votes and gave the town a choice in this election." He added: "The community deserved to have an opportunity to see all four candidates at one forum to better understand our similarities and differences, and I wish we could have made that happen."
    Two Cold Spring residents invited all four candidates to a June 18 forum at their home, but Rauch declined the invitation on behalf of himself and Cheah, telling Marianne Sutton and David Watson that "Ben and I are unavailable on the 18th. With just two weeks remaining until the primary, our schedule is already packed." Watson said about 25 people attended to hear Prentice and Maasik.
    Jason Angell and Megan Cotter, Democrats elected to the Town Board in 2021, did not seek second terms. John Van Tassel, who is running unopposed for his third term as supervisor, will appear in November on the Democratic and Philipstown Focus lines.
    Because of a new state law that pushes most town and village elections to even-numbered years, the winners of the two open seats will serve until 2028, or three years, rather than four. At the same time, the supervisor position, usually a two-year term, will be on the ballot again next year.
    Putnam Valley
    Jacqueline Annabi, the Putnam Valley supervisor, fought off a challenge for the Republican line from Stephanie Waters. Annabi will face Alison Jolicoeur, the Democratic candidate, in November.
    Republican
    Jacqueline Annabi 301 (54%)
    Stephanie Waters 258 (46%)
    Putnam County
    There will be three open seats on the nine-member Legislature, which has eight Republicans and one Democrat (Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley). Each member serves a three-year term.
    In District 5, which includes the hamlet of Carmel and eastern Lake Carmel, Jake D'Angelo, 23, defeated incumbent Greg Ellner for the Republican line. Brett Yarris will appear on the Democratic and For the People lines...
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    6 m
  • Beyond the Grid
    Jun 27 2025
    Who's to blame for these skyrocketing electricity bills? The causes are many: aging infrastructure, economic uncertainty, tariffs, wars, red tape, the failure to build enough renewable energy, inefficient construction, rising demand, the responsibility of investor-owned utilities to generate profits for shareholders and rapidly changing climates, both atmospheric and political.
    Over the next few weeks, we'll examine some of these causes and innovative solutions being proposed. But to understand utility prices, you first must understand how the largest machine in the world works - one so ubiquitous that although we use it every minute of every day, we hardly notice it.
    New York's power grid consists of 11,000 miles of transmission lines that can supply up to 41,000 megawatts of electricity. The problem is that the grid is losing power faster than it can be replaced. Fossil-fuel plants are aging out of service. Since 2019, New York has added 2,274 megawatts while deactivating 4,315 megawatts.
    "It's an old system," said Rich Dewey, president of the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the nonprofit tasked with running the grid, on an episode of its podcast, Power Trends. "The expectation that it's going to continue to perform at the same high level that it has, say, for the last couple of decades, is just not reasonable. We're going to need to replace those megawatts" to maintain a reliable transmission system.
    The state has undertaken several initiatives to boost the energy flowing through the grid. Six years ago, the state Legislature passed an ambitious law that stipulates that New York must be powered by 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 and 100 percent zero-emission electricity by 2040. Last year, 48 percent of the energy produced by the state was zero-emission; nearly all that energy is produced upstate, where solar and hydropower are abundant.
    The $6 billion Champlain Hudson Power Express, which will carry 1,250 megawatts of renewable energy from Quebec to New York City, and passes by the Highlands buried beneath the Hudson River, is expected to go online in 2026. This week, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced her intention, citing the Build Public Renewables Act of 2023, to construct nuclear plants that will produce at least 1 gigawatt.
    The site or sites for those plants are expected to be in less-populated areas upstate or in western New York, which would make them subject to the same problem that prevents solar and hydropower from reaching downstate, including the Highlands: a bottleneck where the upstate and downstate grids meet.
    The $2 billion question
    If Jeffrey Seidman, a Vassar College professor, sounds philosophical when discussing climate change, it's to be expected. Seidman is an associate professor of philosophy.
    A few years ago, he began having second thoughts about his chosen field of study. "Watching the world visibly burning, I began to doubt that continuing to teach philosophy was morally defensible at this moment," he said.
    A career change seemed out of the question - Seidman had just turned 50 - but Vassar's Environmental Studies department is interdisciplinary. So he developed a class called Climate Solutions & Climate Careers.

    Lately, he has been taking his lectures outside the classroom to clear up misinformation for lawmakers. Renewable energy faces strong headwinds these days, as President Donald Trump's executive orders and proposed legislation demonstrate that he intends to make it more difficult to build wind and solar projects. Before relenting, the federal government briefly halted an offshore wind project that was under construction off Long Island.
    At a June 3 meeting of Dutchess County mayors and supervisors, Seidman explained the potential of battery energy storage systems (BESS) to facilitate the transfer of renewable energy from upstate to the Hudson Valley. Jennifer Manierre of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) discussed how the state can help ...
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    16 m
  • ICE Conducts Raid in Beacon
    Jun 27 2025
    City says it was not notified or involved
    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided a residence on North Elm Street in Beacon on the morning of Friday (June 20), according to a statement issued by Mayor Lee Kyriacou.
    City officials said they do not know who ICE detained. It is unclear whether a judicial warrant was presented or the nature of any charges. ICE did not respond to a request from The Current for information.
    "I want to make clear that at no time leading up to this incident did city staff, including our Police Department, have any notice of or involvement in ICE operations," Kyriacou said. "As a city, we remain committed to our safe, inclusive community policy, to preserving rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and to avoiding any policies which engender fear among law-abiding families."
    The mayor said his office had been informed about the raid by residents and that Police Chief Tom Figlia confirmed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation that an ICE operation had occurred. Figlia said this week that ICE returned the following day (June 21), but he did not know if anyone was detained.
    Mayor's Statement
    Earlier today, my office was informed by several residents of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in the City of Beacon.
    I want to make clear that at no time leading up to this incident did city staff, including our Police Department, have any notice of or involvement in ICE operations. As a city, we remain committed to our safe, inclusive community policy, to preserving rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and to avoiding any policies which engender fear among law-abiding families.
    Our city's police chief was able to confirm with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after the fact, that an ICE operation occurred in Beacon earlier this morning. At this time, the city has no information as to the identity of the individual who was arrested or detained, the nature of the charges, or whether a judicial warrant was presented or not. The City of Beacon also has no information as to the current location of the person who was arrested or detained. Our Police Department is actively seeking further information regarding the situation at this time.
    Lee Kyriacou, Mayor, City of Beacon
    Andrew Canaday, a Beacon resident, wrote in a comment posted below that he witnessed the raid. "ICE, the FBI and what appeared to be one police officer (not from the City of Beacon) staked out the house, parked at different locations along the street around 6 a.m., presumably to apprehend him on his morning commute," he wrote. The federal agents were armed and wearing body armor, Canaday wrote. He declined further comment.
    Once news of the action circulated, hundreds of residents in Beacon and surrounding areas created an "unofficial neighborhood watch," according to one participant who asked not to be identified. They are concerned that ICE is "confronting and taking our community members from their homes without due process," the person said.
    Volunteers have circulated pocket-sized cards with phrases such as "I do not give you permission to enter my home" and "I choose to exercise my constitutional rights" in English and Spanish. A second card offers tips for bystanders, such as how to observe safely, when to speak up and how to document what they see if witnessing a person being detained.
    Joseph Lavetsky, an immigration attorney in Beacon, said that people who have been in the U.S. for less than two years, or who don't have proof that they've been in the country for more than two years, are the most at risk because they could be subject to expedited removal.
    If a person is detained, they will be held pending a bond hearing in an immigration court, he said, which would not take place in Beacon. The nonprofit New York Legal Assistance Group has created Designation of Standby Guardian forms for at-risk immigrants who have children to file in Surrogate Court or Family Court.
    Lavetsky noted that D...
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    7 m
  • Putnam Weighs Golf Course Payoff
    Jun 27 2025
    Finance chief says loan hobbles contractor
    Putnam's finance commissioner is recommending that the county spend $4.7 million to pay off the loan used to acquire its golf course in 2003 and rebid the contract to run the operation.
    Michael Lewis told the Legislature's Audit Committee on Monday (June 23) that the county would save $477,000 in interest with the early payoff of the tax-exempt bonds whose proceeds were used to buy the former Lake MacGregor Golf Course in Mahopac. He also presented an alternative in which the county would use $1.7 million to pay off a portion of the bonds, saving $175,198 in interest, when they are eligible for redemption on Jan. 15.
    In addition to saving on interest, retiring the bonds would release the county from IRS rules that have proved "restrictive" for Homestyle Caterers & Food Services of Yorktown Heights, the company hired to provide beverage and food service for golfers and events. Those rules mean that Homestyle cannot "claim ownership, claim depreciation and/or amortization deductions, investment tax credits or deduct for any payment" related to the golf course, according to Lewis.
    Because of the restrictions, Putnam also owns the drink, food and pro shop inventory and is responsible for the cash-handling, said John Tully, the commissioner of general services. Without those rules, a company holding the golf course contract would own the inventory and simply pay Putnam a share of the revenue from the course.
    In addition to Homestyle, Putnam contracts with Troon Golf to run and maintain the golf course and its pro shop, and a third company hired "to protect our interests and make sure that those two other contractors are playing nice in the sandbox, and that they're coordinating events and all things together," said Tully.
    "There would be a benefit to the county to only have one person or one entity to deal with, and that entity could be one of the three operators that are there today or somebody new," he said.
    Putnam spent $11.35 million in 2003 to purchase a 375-acre property, which included the money-losing golf course and its banquet facility, the former Mahopac airport and Hill-Agor Farm. The county took the money from $40 million it received under a watershed agreement signed with New York City but later had to repay $5 million to the fund.
    Since the purchase, the county has spent millions more on upgrades, ranging from repaving the parking lot to renovating the clubhouse. The upgrades included making the facility accessible to people with disabilities to settle a lawsuit filed in 2016 by Westchester Disabled on the Move Inc.
    Homestyle has also faced accusations. A 2018 report by the Journal News centered on catering contracts that appeared to show that the campaign of then-County Executive MaryEllen Odell and a nonprofit founded by Legislator Amy Sayegh and directed by an Odell assistant were charged less than other groups for events at the course. Odell's campaign denied the accusation. Sayegh is now the Legislature's chair.
    In 2022, the Legislature voted to use $400,000 of Putnam's $19.1 million in federal pandemic relief funds to renovate the golf course's restaurant, despite a $272,000 profit the year before. Putnam reallocated the money after being told the golf course project did not meet eligibility guidelines.
    Legislator Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, has repeatedly called for more disclosure about the golf course finances. "I like the idea of saving money," she said on Monday. "But I think, for the public's interest, we need to review everything from the inception of the golf course."
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    4 m
  • Free Meals Coming to Haldane
    Jun 27 2025
    State will provide funds for breakfast, lunch
    Haldane students will receive free breakfast and lunch at school in 2025-26 thanks to a newly created state program funded largely by the federal government.
    The Universal Free Meals program, included in the state's 2025-26 budget, will provide breakfast and lunch at no charge beginning in the fall, said Carl Albano, the interim superintendent. About half of the district's 800 students in kindergarten through 12th grade buy meals in the cafeteria, and about 150 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
    In Garrison, meanwhile, the district included funding in its 2025-26 budget to offer lunch to its 200 students in kindergarten through eighth grade but has encountered obstacles. Garrison students bring their lunches except on Friday, when they can purchase pizza provided by the eighth-grade class as a fundraiser. The district budgeted $150,000 to pay for upgrades to its kitchen and for staff to launch a pilot lunch program in the fall but has had trouble finding another district to partner with.
    Because Garrison's kitchen is not currently equipped to provide meals, the district hoped to have Hendrick Hudson in Montrose send lunches from its high school cafeteria, said Superintendent Greg Stowell. The plan was to sell meals for about $6 on weekdays except Friday, when the pizza fundraiser would continue.
    About two weeks ago, he said, the plan fell apart when Hendrick Hudson High School joined the Universal Free Meals program, which has requirements that complicate partnerships. Hendrick Hudson is also going through personnel changes among its food-service supervisors.
    Stowell said Garrison is trying to determine how much it would cost to partner with another district and provide Garrison students with free lunches, a decision that would need to be made by the end of July. If the district becomes subject to the regulations of the Universal Free Meals program, it would have to serve meals five days a week and could not have the Friday pizza fundraisers, which last year raised $8,000 for eighth-grade programs, including a class trip.
    The Beacon school district has provided free breakfast and lunch for all its students since January 2024 through a different state program called Community Eligibility Provision, said Anthony Rollins, its lunch director. To be eligible, a district must show that 25 percent of its students would qualify for free or reduced lunch under the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, which were established in 1946. Rollins said the Beacon district, which has 2,600 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, serves 900 breakfasts and 1,700 lunches a day.
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    3 m