The Highlands Current is a nonprofit weekly newspaper and daily website that covers Beacon, Cold Spring, Garrison, Nelsonville and Philipstown, New York, in the Hudson Highlands. This podcast includes select stories read aloud.
Highlands Current Audio Stories
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957 episodes
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51
Podcast Authority
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Podcast Overview
The Highlands Current is a nonprofit weekly newspaper and daily website that covers Beacon, Cold Spring, Garrison, Nelsonville and Philipstown, New York, in the Hudson Highlands. This podcast includes select stories read aloud.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
1/5/2024
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Recent Episodes
August 7, 2026
Troubled Beacon Project Tries to Move Forward
Condo development had been set for foreclosure sale<br> A housing development twice halted by the city and ordered by a state judge to be sold to pay down debt is back on the Beacon Planning Board agenda.<br> Eliza Street LLC, the owner of The Mews at Beacon, has hired a Newburgh architecture firm to see the project at 53 Eliza St. to completion, according to materials submitted for the board's Tuesday (Aug. 11) meeting. If that happens, it will be a remarkable turnaround for a project that appeared doomed.<br> In February 2025, a lender, Insula Capital Group, filed a lawsuit in Dutchess County court demanding repayment of nearly $4.63 million from Qele "Charlie" Qelaj, whose project calls for nine loft-like condominiums two blocks from Main Street. The proposal received Planning Board approval in 2019, as well as variances to construct multi-family housing in a single-family zone and to construct nine units on a parcel where six were allowed.<br> But by 2023, construction had stalled as Qelaj sought new financing. In its suit, Insula asked the court to force the sale of the property to pay the debt.<br> There were additional money problems. In April 2025, the Building Department issued the first of two stop-work orders at the site when it said Qelaj could not renew a work permit because of unpaid property taxes. In the months that followed, Building Inspector Bryan Murphy said he allowed windows and doors to be installed to protect the property from the elements, but when further work commenced in April 2026, he issued a second order.<br> Qelaj paid $175,000 in delinquent taxes earlier this year, city officials said.<br> <br> On the legal front, Judge Maria Rosa granted Insula's request for summary judgment in August 2025 and appointed an attorney who determined that Qelaj owed Insula $5.97 million plus costs and interest. The Mews were scheduled to be auctioned in March at the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie, but the sale did not take place. Instead, in an April 21 letter to Rosa, Insula attorneys said the sides had agreed to stay the sale.<br> The agreement was not filed with the court, but the attorneys said the sale will be rescheduled if Qelaj defaults. Otherwise, upon compliance, Insula will drop the suit.<br> In his letter to the Planning Board, Chris Berg of Fifth Street Architecture said he hopes to "see this project stabilized, completed and occupied by residents." But he acknowledged another setback. While authorizing a new work permit, Berg and Murphy — who was not the building inspector when the project was approved in 2019 — discovered that site drawings were never endorsed by the board after its approval. The project "should never have been issued a work permit, let alone subsequent renewals," Berg wrote.<br> Qelaj, who is not the original applicant, is returning to the board seeking endorsement of the 2019 approval so he can proceed with construction, Berg said. He said that Qelaj will work with Murphy to "correct any deviations that have been noted from the original approval."<br> Finally, Berg added that Fifth Street was not involved "in the initial planning or permitting of any portion of the project at 53 Eliza Street — we are simply assisting in getting this project back on track to completion."
August 7, 2026
Passing Through
A few moments with Appalachian hikers<br> Daniel Farris and his wife, Raychel Pepperman, began hiking the Appalachian Trail on Feb. 22 at Springer Mountain in Georgia, the starting point.<br> By the time they reached Philipstown two weeks ago, they had trekked 1,400 miles and resolved a marital dispute: Farris was walking too fast. "I understand that you're frustrated, but I can't go any faster," Pepperman said she told her husband.<br> Farris slowed down. "The trail has been helpful for our communication skills," said Pepperman, a therapist in Chattanooga. "If one of us gets upset with the other, you have time to think about it while you're hiking, instead of just reacting."<br> <br> The couple is among the many hikers who stop this time of year at the Appalachian Market at Route 9 and Route 403, where they often occupy the picnic tables. About 10 miles of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail meanders through Putnam County, much of it inside Fahnestock State Park. About 3,000 people each year attempt to hike the entire 2,197.9-mile route through 14 states to Mount Katahdin in Maine, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and about a third succeed. Millions of others hike segments.<br> <br> When they stopped at the Appalachian Market in late July, Farris and Pepperman hoped to cover the final 800 miles by mid-September to attend a wedding in Nashville. To fellow hikers, Pepperman, 29, is known as "Chapstick" because of the lip balm she needed on the trail in February. Farris, 31, who sells outdoor gear, goes by "Mossman" because he likes to photograph moss.<br> The market was also a refueling stop for Diver, 26, from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He declined to give his legal name but said his trail name was bestowed after he was seen dumpster diving near a shelter in Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia. He said he was retrieving his hiking cap, which had been thrown away, along with dozens of empty pizza boxes.<br> Diver said he is hiking the trail because "I wanted to spend as much time outside as possible." He just completed five years in the U.S. Air Force sitting at a computer doing "logistics and stuff." He loves drinking from the springs he encounters. "It's the best water you'll ever get," he said. "It's so cold coming right out of the mountains."<br> <br> Also resting at the Appalachian Market was "Sidequest McMurphy," who said his "government name" is Seth Harper. He's a 23-year-old Eagle Scout who just graduated from the University of Tennessee.<br> When he left Springer Mountain on March 9, Harper's trail name was McMurphy because, according to his former scoutmaster, he resembles the rebellious R.P. McMurphy in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Harper added Sidequest because "I tend to get sucked into lots of sidequests," such as several days in the reading room at Elmer's Sunnybank Inn in Hot Springs, North Carolina. "Every room has a copy of Leaves of Grass and the Tau Te Ching," said Harper, who plans to attend graduate school and teach history.<br> Harper said he is hiking for the same reason that Henry David Thoreau went to live by Walden Pond: "because I wanted to live deliberately." Hiking across Route 9 on his way to Fahnestock, he said he was listening to the audio version of Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow, which runs 36 hours.<br> <br> Resting at a picnic table, Amanda Edwards, 21, said the last time she did any real travel was in eighth grade, when her class visited Washington, D.C. "Since we passed Maryland, every step I take is the furthest north I've ever been," she said.<br> After graduating in December from Georgia Southern University, Edwards said, "I wanted to do something hard, something I wasn't sure I could finish."<br> Her trail name, "Jukebox," comes from her singing. Climbing Kuwohi Mountain in the Smokies, she sang songs from Sweeney Todd. Also known as Clingmans Dome, the 6,644-foot peak is the highest point on the trail. A few miles before reaching the Appalachian Market, Edwards crossed the lowest point, the Bear Mountain Br...
August 7, 2026
Democrats Target Rolison in State Senate Race
National group to aid challenger Lisa Kaul<br> A national Democratic Party organization seeking to restore the New York Senate's veto-proof majority has made it a priority to oust Rob Rolison, the incumbent Republican whose district includes Philipstown and Beacon.<br> The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which formed in 1992 to elect party members to state legislatures, this month named the District 39 campaign as one of six races it will support before the November election. The group is chaired by Andrea Stewart-Cousins, majority leader of the New York Senate.<br> Lisa Kaul, who represents part of the Town of Poughkeepsie on the Dutchess County Legislature, won a three-candidate primary in June to face Rolison, a former Poughkeepsie mayor who is seeking a third, 2-year term.<br> Democrats outnumber Republicans 41 to 22 in the Senate, but one more seat would restore a two-thirds supermajority that the party lost in the 2024 election. Combined with the supermajority in the Assembly, where Democrats hold 103 of the 150 seats, the party could override gubernatorial vetoes without Republican support.<br> <br> As of July 15, the Kaul campaign said it had $37,511 on hand, while the Rolison campaign reported $8,847. Funding from the DLCC will help "reach more voters across the Hudson Valley, have more conversations about the issues that matter to people and share my vision for finding solutions and delivering results in Albany," Kaul said on Tuesday (Aug. 4).<br> Rolison defeated Julie Shiroishi, then chief of staff to Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, with 53 percent of the vote in 2022. Two years later, his victory over Yvette Valdés Smith, a Dutchess legislator who represents parts of Beacon and Fishkill, was much closer, at 50.7 percent to 49.3 percent.<br> The DLCC last contributed money to New York state candidates in 2020, when it spent a total of $53,100 on five Senate races, according to the state Board of Elections. The recipients included Stewart-Cousins and state Sen. Pete Harckham, whose district includes part of eastern Putnam County. Harckham is one of three Democratic incumbents named among the DLCC's six priority races in 2026. The two other candidates are, like Kaul, challenging incumbent Republicans.<br> <br> Heather Williams, the DLCC's president, said that supermajorities in both the Senate and Assembly "will help Democrats continue to go on offense on redistricting and keep delivering for families."<br> The Rolison campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<br> 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. She ran unopposed in 2025 for a second term and chairs the Environment Committee.<br> In June, Kaul easily won the Democratic primary, garnering 62 percent of the vote to defeat Evan Menist, a member of the Poughkeepsie Common Council (30 percent) and Gay Lee, a former City of Newburgh council member (7 percent).<br> "A strong Democratic majority means progress on affordability, healthcare, housing, reproductive freedom and climate resilience," said Kaul, adding that being a member of that majority means she could "bring state resources home to improve public transportation, build housing our families can afford, invest in infrastructure to keep our water clean and lower utility costs."
957 total episodes available
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Evan Zucarelli
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Catherine Lisotta
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Rich Dewey
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Mickey Dwyer
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Ryan Quinn
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James Hartford
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Nat Prentice
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