Issue #041 · LatestSunday, October 25, 2026 · Carmel · Cold Spring · Mahopac · Nelsonville
The Great Swamp gets its first DEC study in more than 25 years, Route 6 line painting jammed Friday traffic, and a Grappler stopped a 30-minute pursuit in Patterson
Free local email · written by Catherine Rosado · 4-minute read
Early voting opened Saturday and Putnam showed up. The county's two early voting sites, the Board of Elections office on Old Route 6 in Carmel and the American Legion Hall on Cedar Street in Cold Spring, took 1,775 ballots on day one. For scale, Mid Hudson News reports last year drew 4,700 early voters across the entire nine-day run. The county record came in 2024, when 24,210 people voted early during the presidential election.
The schedule is the useful part. Early voting runs daily through Sunday, November 1, with evening hours until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday the 27th and Thursday the 29th, and any registered county voter can use either site. The one rule to remember is that voting early means you cannot vote again on Election Day, November 3. Elections Commissioner Cathy Croft says early voting results are canvassed and reported after 9 p.m. that night.
The questions Putnam searches this week, answer first, source after.
Where is Maggie, the cow roaming Carmel and Kent?
Maggie is the 700-pound Highland cow that arrived recently at Little Cabins Farm and decided to tour her new neighborhood instead. She has been spotted along Route 301 in Carmel and Kent and near Routes 6 and 52, and as of Saturday she was still out there despite repeated attempts to bring her in. The farm notes she is easily frightened and not trained to follow feed or a lead, so staff even drove to Massachusetts to fetch her calf, hoping the baby coaxes her home. If you spot her, the farm asks you to slow down, keep your distance and report the sighting rather than chase her; Carmel and Kent police, Sheriff's deputies, State Troopers and DEC police are all watching.
Two Putnam wins made the news this week. A Putnam Valley woman on an overnight trip to Mohegan Sun with her sister won $1,025,913 playing the Dragon Link slot game, a win the resort reported Saturday. Closer to home, the Route 22 Convenience Store at 876 Route 22 in Brewster sold one of the two top-prize tickets in the most recent TAKE 5 evening drawing, worth $15,320.50 according to the New York Lottery. The clerk told Mid Hudson News, 'My only regret is that I wish it was me holding the ticket.'
What did the Hudson Valley Shakespeare architect award mean for Putnam?
Hillary Clinton presented architect Jeanne Gang an award at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare gala for designing the Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center, the LEED platinum theater rising on the 98-acre former Garrison golf course that Christopher Davis donated. The gala also recognized Davis for the land gift. Two years after the groundbreaking, construction continues on the first purpose-built LEED platinum theater in the United States, and the gala put Putnam's project in front of the kind of names that draw attention to it.
AI Corner: one plain-English AI thing, every issue
This week: ask an assistant to explain a ballot measure in plain English, using the county charter question as the practice case.
On Thursday, October 29, the county executive holds public hearings at 3:30 and 5:00 p.m. in Room 102 at 40 Gleneida Avenue in Carmel on Reso #262, a proposed Putnam County Charter amendment. Overriding the county executive's veto of a budget item takes a two-thirds vote of the legislature today. The amendment would lower that to a simple majority, but only for items the legislature already voted to strike or reduce from the tentative budget, and the county's notice says the question goes to voters for final approval.
To practice before the hearings, pull the Reso #262 notice from putnamcountyny.gov/notices-laws, paste the text into any assistant, and ask what changes for taxpayers. The catch is that assistants summarize legal text loosely, and this one is headed for a ballot, so check any answer against the suggested proposition wording printed in the notice itself before you repeat it or vote on it.
Reply with questions; they become future AI Corners.
The Dates-Ahead Calendar
Today: early voting opens, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and it is also 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
Today: early voting runs 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., day two of nine, and 1,775 neighbors voted across both sites on day one
Board of Elections, 25 Old Route 6, Carmel, or American Legion, 10 Cedar St., Cold Spring · boe.putnamcountyny.gov
Early voting runs 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; after 5:00 the County Legislature holds its public hearing on the 2027 tentative budget at 7:00 p.m. in the Historic Courthouse
Early voting: Board of Elections, Carmel, or American Legion, Cold Spring · Hearing: Historic Courthouse, Gleneida Avenue, Carmel · putnamcountyny.gov
Early voting shifts to evening hours, noon to 8:00 p.m., the first of 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.; the county executive also holds public hearings at 3:30 and 5:00 p.m. on the proposed charter change about the vote needed to override budget vetoes (Reso #262); written comments can go to the Legislature, Room 318, 40 Gleneida Ave., or fax (845) 808-1901
