Turn the page, please

It’s a sad story that’s recently been written by County Executive William Steinhaus’ office — that $125,000 earmarked for Dutchess County libraries will not be coming through as anticipated. That means programs slated for the summer will be downscaled or, worse yet, canceled.

As summertime is always pivotal for young students who don’t have much reinforcement to keep their reading skills sharp without the discipline of regular class work, the prospect of cutting library programs is not a good one. This could mean fewer or no new books and reading initiatives, fewer or no new reading-related entertainment and fewer or no new social/educational programs. All of these summertime incentives are crucial to attracting young readers to their local libraries. Without the expected county funding, libraries will instead have to scrimp and save just to do the basics and maintain what programs they already offer.

As one county library director put it, there’s research proving library programs help prevent the “summer slide,� which is the learning loss that occurs during the summer when children are not at school. Our local libraries work very hard to fight such losses, and they can use all of the county’s support — fiscal and otherwise — to ensure success.

Yes, some programs will be left intact, thankfully, but not at full capacity. And others will be totally erased from the summer’s agenda. Our local libraries just can’t be expected to pick up the county’s tab when their budgets are already stretched so thin. We agree with Mid-Hudson Library System Director Josh Cohen, who said that when comparing the effect of the county’s cuts on its overall budget to the effect on area libraries, the reductions just don’t make sense.

“The amount they’re cutting will not make a significant difference to the county, but it’s big money to the libraries,� he said.

He’s right. Reneging on the $2,600 that was due to the Amenia Free Library, and slated to fund its summer program, makes a big difference in terms of what it can now offer to young readers. As Amenia Librarian Miriam Devine said, the library is “totally devastated� by the county’s cuts.

Our libraries provide important services, not only to our young but to people of all ages. They strengthen our communities and engage the public in thoughtful and insightful discussion. The money the county is saving by withholding the $125,000 for summer library programs is a small price to pay for the huge benefits Dutchess County residents would gain otherwise. The bottom line is that priority should have been given to the Mid-Hudson Library System. We would like to see this story’s end rewritten.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less