Issue #039 · LatestFriday, October 23, 2026 · Carmel · Cold Spring · Mahopac · Nelsonville
Carmel High closes its gym floor for repairs, the town and New York City settle a decade of watershed tax suits, and Brewster library funding goes on the ballot
Free local email · written by Catherine Rosado · 4-minute read
The gym at Carmel High School is closed, and the reason is bigger than a damaged floor. Water got into the gymnasium floor earlier this month, and Superintendent Michael Plotkin said Thursday that preliminary assessments suggest the problem may be more widespread than first understood, and may involve water beneath or around the building. The district cannot pin down the cause until the damaged floor is removed and the ground beneath it is examined.
That matters if your household uses the gym. Competitive play stays off until the floor is fully evaluated and repaired, which reaches student-athletes, physical education classes, and the school and community groups that book the space. Plotkin said the district wants to fix the current damage and put preventive measures in place so the problem does not come back. As of Thursday there is no cost estimate and no reopening date, and the honest answer to when is that the district does not know yet.
The questions Putnam searches this week, answer first, source after.
Why did Carmel and New York City settle their property tax lawsuits?
Years of fighting over assessments on city-owned watershed land ended in an agreement the Town Board approved this week. New York City owns reservoir land and water-supply property around Carmel and Mahopac, and state law still requires those parcels to pay local property taxes. The town and the city disagreed about what that land was worth across multiple tax years, and the lawsuits ran through Putnam County State Supreme Court. The settlement sets revised assessments for the affected properties, and the board authorized its legal counsel to execute the documents. The dollar amount was not disclosed, and that is the part to plan around: the lost revenue is likely to reach Carmel taxpayers in their 2027-28 bills.
What is the Brewster library proposition on the November ballot?
A yes-or-no vote on the Town of Southeast's annual contribution to the Brewster Public Library operating budget. The wording asks whether that contribution should be approved at five hundred fifty thousand dollars, $550,000, annually. Southeast voters will see it on the November 3 ballot, which means early voters in Southeast can vote on it starting Saturday. The Board of Elections posts a sample ballot for every election district, so you can read the full proposition at home before any ballot goes in a machine.
When does early voting start, and what deadline can I still catch?
Early voting starts tomorrow, Saturday, October 24, at two sites: the Board of Elections at 25 Old Route 6 in Carmel and the American Legion at 10 Cedar St. in Cold Spring. Any registered county voter can use either site. Most days run 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with two evening sessions, noon to 8:00 p.m., on Tuesday, October 27 and Thursday, October 29, and the last day is Sunday, November 1. The deadline you can still catch is the same day: Saturday is also the last day to register for this election, so an unregistered voter starts with a registration form, not a ballot. Vote early and you are done, because early voters do not vote again on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at your regular polling place.
AI Corner: one plain-English AI thing, every issue
This week: let a sample ballot tell you what you are voting on before Saturday.
The Board of Elections posts a sample ballot for every election district, and the candidate and proposition list on the same site lays every race out as plain text. That matters this year because the ballot carries more than countywide races like coroner: Southeast voters will also see the Brewster library proposition, and proposition wording is easier to judge at home than in the booth.
To use it, open the Board of Elections site, pull your district's sample ballot, and paste the text into any AI assistant with a question like "explain this ballot in plain language." The catch is that an assistant can misread a race or skip a line, so check anything surprising against the county's own list before you rely on it, and call the Board of Elections at (845) 808-1300 when something still looks wrong.
Reply with questions; they become future AI Corners.
The Dates-Ahead Calendar
First day of early voting, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the last day to register to vote in the November 3 general election; both sites take any registered county voter
Board of Elections, 25 Old Route 6, Carmel, or American Legion, 10 Cedar St., Cold Spring · boe.putnamcountyny.gov
Early voting continues, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at both county sites
Board of Elections, Carmel, or American Legion, Cold Spring · boe.putnamcountyny.gov
Putnam County Legislature public hearing on the 2027 tentative budget, 7:00 p.m.
Early voting runs noon to 8:00 p.m. today, the first of the two evening sessions this week
Board of Elections, Carmel, or American Legion, Cold Spring · boe.putnamcountyny.gov
Early voting runs noon to 8:00 p.m. today; the county executive also holds public hearings at 3:30 and 5:00 p.m. on a proposed charter change about the vote needed to override budget vetoes (Reso #262)
