Alyssa Dellaripa: Firefighter for Life



Alyssa Dellaripa remembers growing up at the Lake Carmel FD headquarters as a small child. Now soon to be 22, Dellaripa, the daughter of Putnam Deputy Emergency Coordinator Cris Dellaripa and Barbara Reitz, returned home to Putnam County recently to participate in the fire department’s annual breakfast celebration. Two hundred men, women and children gathered at the firehouse for the […]

Gun Wielding Road Rage Incident Leads To Arrest



A Carmel man involved in a road rage incident in Southeast is facing charges of menacing for allegedly threatening another motorist with a handgun. The bizarre case took place last Thursday evening around 8:45 p.m. when the county’s 9-1-1 Dispatch Center received a report of a man with a gun at the Putnam Plaza Shopping Center in Carmel. Police units […]

Calamity Averted at Vista on the Lake



Carmel’s new Assistant Fire Chief Dave DiRienzo pulled up to the scene of an alarm last week at Vista-on-the-Lake and observed smoke. The chief requested an immediate response from his department and summoned mutual aid from the Croton Falls FD after observing flames inside the condominium’s recreation center, located adjacent to a community pool. Fire apparatus arrived minutes later to […]

Dignity For All Students Act Explained



New statewide legislation allowing children to attend school in a “safe, welcoming, considerate and caring environment” takes effect in New York on July 1. The Dignity for All Students Act was established with the legislative intent to provide a school environment free of discrimination and harassment. State Senator Greg Ball explained the merits of the new law before a group […]

Mom Charged With Leaving Tot, 2, in Car While Shopping



A Brewster woman is facing multiple charges for allegedly leaving her 2-year-old daughter locked in the family car while she and her girlfriend went shopping for President’s Day bargains. Danbury Police reported the arrests Monday of Totiana Taft, 25, and Ebony Smith, also 25, from Brewster on charges of risk of injury to a minor, leaving a child unsupervised in […]

Connecticut Woman Dies Following Southeast Crash



A 70-year-old Connecticut woman has died from injuries received in a twovehicle crash in Southeast. The Putnam Sheriff’s Department identified the victim last Friday evening as Kathleen Dugan of New Milford. Police said Dugan’s Mercury Marquis was broadsided by a Honda operated by Maria Diaz, 22, of Brewster at the intersection of Routes 6 and 121 shortly before noon-time after […]

George Washington: A Leader’s Diligence



George Washington was a reluctant leader. He was reluctant in 1775 to assume command of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. In 1787, he was reluctant to be a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, over which he was chosen to preside. In 1789, Washington was reluctant to become president of the United States of America. Once General Washington took […]

Mahopac’s ‘Indiana Jones’ Saves Big Cats



Alan Rabinowitz has been referred to as the “Indiana Jones of Wildlife Protection” by Time magazine. The Mahopac resident met with groups of freshman at Mahopac High School last week to discuss his adventures of tracking and studying some of the world’s greatest cats— jaguars, leopards and tigers—during his adventures in jungles worldwide. Rabinowitz kept the 9th graders riveted in […]

Young Driver Rolls Car, Lucky To Survive



An 18-year-old Mahopac youth is lucky to be alive, police said, following a single-car rollover crash on Washington Road in Mahopac. Carmel Police were summoned to the 8:12 a.m. mishap last Wednesday after Police Chief Michael Johnson said the driver, Brandon Galeno, lost control of his 2011 Subaru that was traveling at a high rate of speed before flipping over, […]

Letter to the Editor



To The Editor: I am the director of a local agency that services children with autism. One of the children we work with lives in Carmel, NY and is trying to become more socially integrated into her community. She is a child who is capable of carrying on conversations and engaging in play activities, but she doesn’t have many typical […]