ITHACA, N.Y. — Mayor Robert Cantelmo used his State of the City address to emphasize the city’s need to improve transparency and accountability as well as increasing housing affordability.

In addition to housing, he focused his remarks on Jan. 14 on sustainability, the city’s flood risks, economic development and one issue that has continued to embarrass city officials not long after he took office — Ithaca’s years-long backlog of financial audits.

“For some, the state of our city does not feel strong and I understand why,” Cantelmo said.

He said “trust must be rebuilt” but added that “strength is not the absence of problems.”

Cantelmo’s State of the City address comes after a productive but rough two years for Common Council. The city’s 11-member council saw significant turnover after every seat went up for election in 2023.

Then council experienced another big wave of turnover in 2026. On Jan. 7, Cantelmo swore in 5 new members to the council who were voted in during the 2025 elections.

Over the previous two years, the council became known for episodes of disruptive spats and concerns over professional conduct. And just before the turn of the new year,  the council requested former City Manager Deb Mohlenhoff resign.

Deputy City Manager Dominick Recckio stepped in to fill the position in an acting capacity. Cantelmo said Recckio has the council’s “full confidence” during this time.

As the city faces substantial changes in leadership, Cantelmo said that the administration is “not interested in symbolic change. We are interested in durable, measurable progress.”

He called housing the “defining challenge of our time,” doubling down on a commitment to increase the available stock and improving affordability.

One of Cantelmo’s keystone housing policy initiatives is a comprehensive revision of the city’s zoning code. It’s a project he has discussed for years and that planning staff are in the early stages of.

Retooling the city’s land use regulations will be aimed at removing barriers for new development. Cantelmo said he wanted to “modernize” the city’s regulations to allow for more multi-family dwellings, like triplexes and duplexes.

Cantelmo said he would announce the members of a Zoning Advisory Commission soon. It would include residents, housing professionals and community stakeholders to assist in the process. When a zoning draft becomes available, it will surely stoke debate throughout the city’s communities.

Turning to economic development, Cantelmo said advancing the city forward “is not about chasing headlines.”

As the city looks to support business development, particularly along the West Martin Luther King Jr. corridor, Cantelmo said he wants to see a community-drive approach.

He touted a $38 million state grant that will go toward supporting the development of SouthWorks, a community-scale project slated to reshape the city’s South Hill neighborhood and rehabilitate a derelict industrial site.

“As Ithaca grows, we are committed to ensuring that economic opportunity comes with basic standards of fairness, stability and respect for working people,” Cantelmo said.

The Ithaca Green New Deal still remains a major policy focus for Cantelmo.

It is increasingly unlikely that the city will succeed at decarbonizing the local economy by 2030, but Cantelmo said the city will continue “to lead on climate action. Not just in ambition, but in execution.”

The city has a community choice aggregation program that is expected to launch in 2026. When it comes into effect, city residents are expected to be able to buy renewable energy purchased in bulk.

Perhaps flood risks are the biggest intersectional issue the city faces. Housing, economic development and sustainability all come into focus when considering Ithaca’s increased flood risk under new federal flood maps.

“Addressing risks like flooding and being honest about our progress, depends on something  fundamental: strong, transparent governance,” Cantelmo said.

When the Federal Emergency Management Agency evaluated Ithaca’s flood risk, it greatly expanded the number of properties within flood zones. FEMA’s new Ithaca maps took effect in June 2025. Homes with federally-backed mortgages will now be required to carry flood insurance to remain in compliance with their loans, increasing costs for residents and developers in Ithaca.

City officials have planned for years to address the increased risk, but much is left to be done to mitigate the city’s flood risks and execute a plan that will successfully persuade FEMA to revise its map for Ithaca.

As Cantelmo promises transparency, there may be no greater demand for it than when it comes to Ithaca’s backlogged financial audits.

The most recent audit the city completed is for fiscal year 2021. The city began to fall behind on its financial reporting during the pandemic. Officials have said the severe delays remain as a result of staffing issues, inefficient accounting practices that have since been replaced and staff turnover in the controller’s office. Those explanations have done little to assuage public concern.

Cantelmo, whose duties as mayor do not include directly overseeing city operations, has pushed for city officials to complete the audits more quickly. He said city officials will begin regular public briefings on the progress of the city audits.

“The top operational priority of this administration is completing the City’s outstanding audits,” Cantelmo said.

Ithaca often gets praised — and criticized — for being a small city trying to execute big ideas. Cantelmo appears to have committed to the dream big mantra that Ithaca has been known.

As he neared closing his remarks, Cantelmo said, “Too often, we are told that cities like ours must choose between compassion and competence, between ambition and responsibility. I reject that framing.”

The post Cantelmo emphasizes housing, transparency in State of the City appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.

We post hundreds of commentary, announcements and other types of posts through each year. Here are a few of the stories that our readers found the most engaging in 2025, as well as a few of our favorites from the staff.

News

Photo share leads to angler being ticketed, 38 brown trout confiscated and donated

Though anglers are prohibited from catching more than five trout per day in Clifton, one man captured nearly 40. Read more

Rangers recover body of 20-year-old Whitehall man near Sugarloaf Mountain

Rangers found the body of the young Whitehall man at the bottom of a cliff by Sugarloaf Mountain. Read more

Bill to provide better protection to wolves in New York state

Legislation directs the state Department of Environmental Conservation to collect important genetic data on wolves and coyotes. Read more

History

Lake Champlain bridge—Debate over where to build

A look back at how long it took for the original bridge to be built, but before that started, the best place on the lake needed to be identified. Read more

Recreation

Killer view: A long hike to an astounding sight

Though they were advised against it, Randy and Mike turned a multi-day trip into a day hike. Fortunately, it was worth it. Read more

Commentary

Pataki: No place for big solar on prime Adirondack farmlands

Though former New York Gov. George Pataki understands the importance of renewable energy sources, he argues they have no place in the Adirondack Park. Read more

It’s debatable: Should the Chapel Pond project move forward?

Readers weigh in on plans to make this iconic spot more accessible. Read more

Staff favorites

Heroes in neighbor clothing: Newton Falls neighbors fight fire

The fire shattered the calm of night, but the neighborhood rallied together to keep each other, and their houses, safe. Read more

Loon rescue in Lake Placid

The loon dragged itself up into deep snow, making it in even greater need of assistance. Read more

We’re all heroes now

Adirondack Outlaw Dick Monroe tells a gripping tale based on a true story. Read more

Editor’s Note: Bucking national trends, Red Hook has become a rare place where women lead six of eight Christian congregations. In this six-part series, The Daily Catch explores not only how that happened but who these women are, tracing the life experiences, doubts, sacrifices, and moments of courage that brought them to ministry. Today, we examine the reasons for the shift. Subsequent stories will introduce each of the women ministers.

---

Four years ago, Pastor Alisha Riepma-Hosier was immersed in a training fellowship in the Catskills when a friend mentioned an intriguing job opening. The St. John’s Reformed Church in Upper Red Hook was looking for a new leader.

Riepma-Hosier was reluctant. On a map, it looked like Red Hook was in the middle of nowhere, and she did not want to move to an even more secluded location. But her friend convinced her to visit. As she drove around and noticed signs supporting Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ Pride, her opposition softened. In 2021, Riepma-Hosier became the first female pastor to lead St. John’s since its inception nearly 250 years ago.  

Riepma-Hosier is not the only female pastor to run a Red Hook church. Six out of the community’s eight places of worship are led by women, a transition that has occurred only in the past decade. That is almost six times the national average; less than 15% of American churches are led by women. This means that in a profession that remains dominated by men, Red Hook is a rare pocket of America where women rule the pulpits.

“There’s no doubt that this has been a profound change, which has occurred relatively quickly as deep social changes go,” said Dr. Bruce Chilton, Director of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College, as well as the former Bard chaplain for 30 years.

Chilton said this change partly reflects a broader trend: the liberalization of Red Hook and, more broadly, Dutchess County, over the past three decades. For example, Chilton recalled that, when he began as the rector of St. John the Evangelist in Barrytown in 1987, he struggled to convince the church’s board of trustees to approve a female congregant for ordination. Many objected to the appointment solely because of the woman’s gender. Fifteen years later, however, the board unanimously accepted another female congregant for ordination. 

The eight churches in Red Hook represent a range of Christian denominations. St. Christopher’s is the only Catholic Church, while three others are Episcopalian, and one each is Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, and Assembly of God. 

Overall, the number of female clergy has been growing nationally over the last 75 years, and the number of female church leaders in Red Hook echoes that trend. In 1960, for instance, only 2.4% of clergy nationally were female, but today that number is around 20%, according to a 2018 study by the Rev. Eileen Campbell-Reed, a Visiting Associate Professor at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan. In part, this growth occurred after many Protestant churches began ordaining women in the latter half of the 20th century. Catholics, Southern Baptists, Mormons, and Orthodox Christians do not allow women to be ordained. And, within the different branches of Protestantism, the share of women ministers varies. According to the same 2018 study, 37% of clergy in the Episcopal and Lutheran churches are women, compared to 29% in the Methodist Church and 23% in the Assembly of God.

At the same time, women who are ordained as priests continue to face barriers to becoming lead pastors of churches. According to a 2024 study by Dr. Young-joo Lee at the University of Indiana, approximately 13% of all Protestant churches in America have female head priests, even though they make up almost 40% of seminary enrollment. This means that many women are delegated to subsidiary positions such as children’s pastor or church music director. 

The Rev. Mary Grace Williams, who has served as rector of St. John’s the Evangelist for nine years, said she believes part of the reason Red Hook has welcomed more female pastors is that sexism is less prevalent in smaller churches like those that populate this community. “If you’re looking at large parishes, many times they’re run by men, and the women are assistants,” Williams said.

The same 2024 study supports Williams’ hypothesis. Comparing churches across the country, Lee found that for every 1% increase in the size of a church’s parishioners, the likelihood that the church has a female pastor decreases by 5%.

The growth in the number of female ministers in Red Hook also comes in the wake of consolidation. Across the country, attendance at religious services has declined by almost 30% over the last 20 years, according to a Gallup study, and Red Hook is no different. A number of churches in Red Hook have either closed or merged in the last 10 years due to dwindling membership. 

For example, in 2015, St. Sylvia’s Catholic Church in Tivoli was consolidated into St. Christopher’s in Red Hook due to declining attendance, and the Tivoli church was shuttered. And in 2024, St. Paul’s & Trinity Parish in Tivoli and Christ Church in Red Hook formed a partnership to share one pastor, who alternates preaching at each church every other week. Pastor Canon K. Jeanne Person currently occupies this role.

This consolidation trend has also inadvertently increased the share of female-led churches in Red Hook. With fewer Catholic churches, the number of male-led churches has, by definition, declined, giving more opportunities to women as a share of the total. In addition, the women pastors already in place in Red Hook or, more broadly, in Dutchess County have taken on additional pastoral duties when smaller churches seek to save money. The Rev. Caroline Berninger, for example, was ministering at two churches, in Elizaville and Pine Plains, when she was asked this year to pick up services at the Red Hook United Methodist Church and the Methodist church in Milan.

“The United Methodist Conference, as well as many other denominations, are really struggling to find clergy to serve local churches,” Berninger said. 

She added that shrinking parish sizes and rising church insurance costs have led to tighter budgets and lower wages. That and the steep costs of post-college education are likely factors in fewer people becoming pastors, Berninger suggests.

Chilton said the increasingly difficult financial situation facing smaller churches has created challenges that women pastors are often better equipped to handle. Because salaries at smaller parishes are frequently insufficient to live on, pastors often need supplemental income or savings from previous careers. Chilton added that, due to longstanding societal barriers that have made women’s paths to ordination less traditional than men’s, many women pastors have already been forced to work in other professions, leaving them better positioned to supplement their income or draw on past earnings.

“Churches that are in a position where they have trouble paying up the full salary of a priest will typically look to see whether there is someone who can take less because there’s some other job they could also do,” Chilton said. ”That kind of multitasking is found more readily among women than it is among men.”

In fact, none of the five women in Red Hook pursued a pastoral career as her first profession. They either did not intend to become a pastor or were rejected when they first tried and initially chose a different career path.

Person, for example, pursued a career in journalism and finance after being turned down by the Episcopal Church when she first put herself forward for ordination. Almost 10 years later, she tried again and was accepted to launch her studies.

Besides changing their careers, four of the five women in Red Hook also made decisions to leave the churches in which they were raised. For example, Williams is a direct descendant of one of the oldest Catholic families in the United States, the De Livers family. However, in her late 20s, Williams decided to leave her Catholic heritage behind and join the Episcopal Church because the Catholic Church would not ordain women.

“I would never have been allowed to do what I felt called to do because I was a woman,” Williams said.

Despite similarities among the five women, including the connection the majority have with the performing arts, each has forged a different path to reach Red Hook.

Tomorrow: Meet Alisha Riepma-Hosier, St. John’s Reformed Church

The post Why Women Now Lead 6 of 8 Pulpits in Red Hook, Defying a Male-Dominated National Trend (Part 1 of 6) first appeared on The Daily Catch.

As agricultural educators with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County (CCE Essex) visit classrooms throughout the county, they’re aware that what may seem commonplace to an adult has the potential to wow a second grader—and get them to think about nutrition, our food supply and the value of local farmers.

So Ellie Hoffman, local food educator, and Kate Graziano, Public Health Corps fellow, are using a Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY grant to spend time with classrooms in AuSable Valley, Boquet Valley and Ticonderoga. Through this “Rooted in Learning” grant, they are engaging elementary students in food-related discussions, tastings, farm visits and fun activities throughout the 2025-2026 school year.

“One of the main ideas behind this program is that there’s a disconnect between the food on your plate and where the food actually comes from,” Hoffman said. “So we’re trying to address that in different sorts of ways.”

The program patches in to national and state initiatives that feature a “harvest of the month,” an opportunity for kids to taste something that might be new to them. “And since CCE is so focused on local foods, we really try to bring those into Essex County schools specifically,” Hoffman said.

For example, taste tests featuring different varieties of apples relied on fruit from Northern Orchards in Peru. That opens up the possibility of a future field trip to the orchard so kids can actually see where those apples came from.

Each kid has a different level of knowledge about farms, food and nutrition. There are a lot of foods many haven’t tried, like tomatoes. Other foods, like apples, they might know more about, so the program introduces kids to new varieties of apples and ways of thinking about their place in the food system. Some activities, such as churning butter, engage kids in preparing their own taste test.

“The butter lesson was a lot of fun, because a lot of the kids knew a little bit about the process of making butter, but they were so excited to see it happen in real time,” Graziano said. “I can tell that the kids are really excited to learn and cook with local food as much as they can. I have found it really interesting to see the different knowledge levels that the kids have going into the program, and I am looking forward to building on what they have learned in the past through similar experiences at home and at school.”

The lessons are 45 minutes once a month, but are designed so that teachers can use the lesson concepts to teach other subjects through the lens of agriculture. This can mean activities such as measuring the circumference of a pumpkin while studying geometry, writing about different parts of an apple during spelling and vocabulary lessons and discussing local fruits and vegetables when learning about the life cycle of a plant.

And while one class a month might not seem like much, it’s surprising how much of an impression even just one lesson can make. Part of that is because it’s so different from other things kids are learning in school. And that imprinting allows educators to build on the lessons in ensuing years. Making butter one year can lead to a discussion of how dairies work the next.

Hoffman says progress is measured by evaluations before and after the instructional year, but also by judging the students’ level of engagement. “When I’m teaching, I really try to tune in to how much the kids are paying attention and participating in the activities,” she said. “If I say something and they ask questions about it, that tells me I’m on the right track.”

Of course, kids being kids, they aren’t always thrilled about trying something new, especially a vegetable. No one forces them to try it, but they are encouraged to use other senses, like touching and smelling, to engage. If they smell it and it’s not too bad, they may end up taking a nibble. Then if they see that same food in the cafeteria, they’re less likely to reject it out of hand.

And what’s really magical is when the kids can grow the food themselves. When they plant microgreens in the classroom, for instance, they learn about a new food, but also about what goes into its production. They’re delighted to see the seeds they plant unveil their stems and leaves—miniature produce that becomes a snack time harvest.

Children gather around desks to look at a paper that outlines different apple varieties.

“I’ve seen the same reaction in an apple orchard,” Hoffman said. “You know that’s where apples come from, but I really think there is a sense of wonder from actually seeing it on the tree and picking it.”

Food, then, becomes not just something to eat, but something to experience and learn from. That makes it valuable, not just from a nutritional standpoint, but from being a part of the economy, a part of society and a part of the neighborhood.

“There’s a connection to the community, to the farmers, to the land, to the place, along with nature and the environment,” Hoffman said. “These connections all come together, and they’re not just theoretical. They’re something you can go out and see, and that’s really cool.”

You might say, revolutionary.

For more information on POP Club and the Farm to School program, please contact Ellie Hoffman at emh257@cornell.edu or 518-962-4810 ext. 405.

This story was originally published on Adirondack Harvest.

In Hamilton County, population 5,100, only 83 people are looking for work — but even that’s a little misleading, and not in a good way. Hamilton, one of only two counties entirely within the Adirondacks, is the third largest in the state by area, meaning that there is only one person who is job hunting for every 22 square miles.

And when one local government hires a new employee, making its own situation slightly better, chances are the worker was plucked from another local jurisdiction, making that town’s situation slightly worse.

“We go after the same group of people, that’s what we do; we steal from the county, the county steals from the town, other towns steal from us, and that’s what happens,” said Morehouse Supervisor Anthony “Butch” Fernandez. “I have 92 people living in my town. So hiring has to be really outside the borders. And then when you’re outside the borders, those towns like Arietta or Poland, they’re also hiring. Lake Pleasant’s hiring. And you’re in a competition of who can pay more, who’s got better benefits.”

As things stand now, come the first of the year, the Morehouse Highway Department will have two people on staff, including the superintendent. Other public services in the county are at risk as well, from volunteer ambulance companies to Hamilton County’s lone Department of Motor Vehicles in Lake Pleasant.

A further complication of a small labor pool is avoiding nepotism, which can run afoul of the county ethics panel — technically the panel is correct, supervisors say, but they wonder which is worse, having a public employee hiring a family member, or having no one to serve the public at all?

Rural roads at risk

At its November meeting, supervisors worried where new employees will come from to perform basic public services that residents depend on, including snow plowing, which is historically the one service by which Adirondack governments are judged.

If current trends continue, officials worry, round-the-clock snow plowing may not be possible. 

“We are extremely unique in this county in the fact that we are not big, and we don’t have big resources where we can bring personnel from other parts of the state to help clear roads and all this kind of stuff,” said Tracy Eldridge, superintendent of the Hamilton County Department of Public Works. “But it’s a conversation that I think we need to have. The state of New York, plus the nine towns and the village (Speculator), are all dealing with the same pool of employees — we’re not getting new people in, because there’s no place to live.” 

Along with the sparse population and lack of worker housing, demographics are not favorable, as more and more residents are reaching retirement age. According to the Cornell Program of Applied Demographics, the number of residents age 65 and over will have grown by 600 by the end of the decade.

Eldridge said his highway division has 27 employees and is fully staffed for the first time in several years. But about half of those are in their 50s and some are pushing 70. “Eventually, some of these people just won’t want to do it any longer,” he said.

State law allows for highway shifts up to 16 hours, but for plow drivers, Eldridge said that’s too much — plowing is stressful business, with poor road conditions, limited visibility and impatient motorists — so he prefers to cap shifts at 12 hours.

To help ease the burden, the county contracts with towns for road work, but with the towns hurting too, some of those contracts may be at risk.

“The county and towns already share services— we’re very, very good at that, and we have been for a long time,” Eldridge said. “But I’m not sure, to be honest, what the answer is. It’s going to take a lot of thought and creative thinking. I believe I can foresee, I don’t know how many years it’ll be, dark hours where you’re not going to see anybody out maintaining the road at certain times, just because people can only work so many hours.”

Fernandez said he can also see a time when highway departments have to consolidate, not just because of a lack of workers, but because of the escalating price of equipment. A new snowplow can cost over $400,000, which is beyond the means of small Adirondack towns.

But with no one to drive a snowplow or an ambulance, the price tag is immaterial. Fernandez said he moved to the Adirondacks to find peace after a career with a New Jersey police force. He was able to find a place to live only because the person who owned the house before him had to move closer to medical professionals. 

Fernandez said the lack of medical professionals is a universal concern in his town.

Ambulances have to come to Morehouse from Poland, which is outside the park, and then backtrack to the closest hospital in Utica, 45 minutes away. In extreme cases, a private car could be driven south to meet the ambulance half way.

“I love the area,” Fernandez said. “But that’s how serious it is.”

A new ROOST study suggests Essex County could support 200 new year-round homes annually over the next five years—homes for teachers, healthcare workers, tradespeople, and hospitality staff who currently earn too much for subsidized housing but too little to afford market-rate prices.

The study also found that more than seven in 10 Essex County households have just one or two people, yet builders continue to favor larger seasonal homes. Meanwhile, entire communities like Lake Placid and Wilmington have watched residents leave because they couldn’t find affordable places to live.

ROOST is now taking this data to developers, hoping to attract investment in year-round housing. But questions remain: Where should this housing go? Should we focus on smaller units in existing hamlets, or moderate-density development in towns? How do we build for year-round residents while the region remains attractive for vacation homes?

We want to hear from you: What types of housing solutions do you think would work best for your community? What concerns do you have about new developments in your county? And what role should local residents play in shaping what gets built and where?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

ITHACA, N.Y. — A week after canceling local U.S. citizen naturalization ceremonies in upstate New York and moving them to federal buildings outside Tompkins County indefinitely, the federal government has reportedly reversed course and reinstated the local ceremonies. 

According to reporting Thursday in the Albany Times-Union and area NPR-affiliate WSKG, U.S. Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents the 22nd Congressional District of New York, announced Thursday evening in a statement that officials from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had agreed to reinstate the ceremonies. 

Tompkins County Executive Deputy Clerk Rachel Graham said her office had seen those reports, but had not heard directly from federal immigration officials as of Friday morning. USCIS officials did not state a reason for their decision to cancel the local ceremonies last week. The government shutdown, which had already ended by the time the announcement was made, was mentioned as a factor. 

The decision to end local citizenship ceremonies drew confusion and condemnation from local officials, including New York State Assemblywoman Anna Kelles and State Senator Lea Webb, both of whose districts include Tompkins County. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, also objected to the new policy in a statement this week. 

Citizenship ceremonies are one of the final steps for someone to become a naturalized citizen. Last week’s announcement stated they would not be held in most communities, so long-running local sites for citizenship ceremonies, like the Tompkins County Courthouse or Cornell University, would no longer be used. Instead, the ceremonies would only be held in federal administrative buildings, of which the closest one to Ithaca is in Syracuse. 

Lawler’s statement only specifically mentions the counties in his district, but he added that the reversal applies to all counties in New York State. At least seven counties had received notices last week that their respective upcoming naturalization ceremonies would be canceled. 

“After raising this issue directly with USCIS and speaking to [USCIS Director Joseph Edlow], I’m pleased to share that the agency will reverse its decision and allow naturalization ceremonies in Rockland and Westchester [Counties] to resume immediately,” Lawler said in a statement, according to the Times-Union. “Our communities are strengthened by the contributions of new citizens every single day.”

The post Local naturalization ceremonies reinstated by federal government after backlash appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.

When Saranac Lake Village Trustee Aurora White proposed a resolution in February, she said it was in response to a concern she had not seen before: immigrants living in her community were suddenly afraid to leave their homes.

She said some residents told her they were being harassed by other locals—sometimes falsely—about their immigration status. Even those with legal status or work visas, she said, feared what might happen if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ever carried out a raid in the village.

“These are members of our community who have lived here for years,” White said. “We’ve never asked them about their citizenship status. We’ve never had cause to. They’re contributing members of our community, and they were afraid to do normal day-to-day activities.”

Those concerns set off months of debate over how the village should handle immigration enforcement—and what role, if any, local police should play.

A proposal meets resistance

White first introduced a resolution called “Safeguarding Our Residents and Our Financial Resources” to the Saranac Lake Village Board in February. The original bill explicitly outlined a set of policies that would have barred the village police department from using officers or money to assist federal immigration enforcement. Since village police do not currently coordinate with ICE, White said the measure was meant to proactively block future cooperation and keep local policing focused on local needs.

“It was not a political ploy,” White said, “but [I was] really just worried about our community and the funds that we allocate to the police force.”

At a village board meeting where White proposed the resolution, it drew immediate pushback. Mayor Jimmy Williams and other critics argued that Saranac Lake should not wade into national political debates.

“While we do have a tumultuous political picture outside Saranac Lake,” Williams said at the meeting, “my responsibility, and everybody on this board, is to Saranac Lake.”

Williams also warned that the legislation could put the village’s federal grant funding at risk. He did not respond to interview requests for this story.

Federal spending records show that Saranac Lake and local institutions have received millions of dollars in federal grants over the past five years, largely for infrastructure projects. Last year, the village secured a $4.5 million federal grant for its proposed emergency services building, a project estimated to cost close to $30 million.

A scaled-back version passes

White’s original proposal failed in a 3-2 vote. Trustees spent the spring and summer negotiating revisions, ultimately settling on a pared-down version that removed all references to limiting cooperation with ICE.

The resolution that passed in September states that the village opposes hate and discrimination and affirms equal access to public safety regardless of immigration status.

White, who voted against the final resolution alongside Mayor Williams, said it no longer resembled what she had set out to do.

“It’s essentially empty words,” she said.

Police: Not our role

Saranac Lake Police Chief Darin Perrotte said the final resolution largely reiterates policies already in place.

“Many people would be surprised to know that there are already policies in place that dictate that we’re going to provide fair and unbiased policing,” Perrotte said. “So this is not a new concept at all.”

Perrotte, who met with White in the early drafting process, said he recognizes the public’s desire for the village to take a stronger stance to reassure immigrant residents, but he also understands why some felt the proposal could paint a target on Saranac Lake with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Perrotte, who has served as police chief since 2022, said immigration enforcement is not part of his department’s responsibilities.

“On an everyday basis, we’re not questioning people about their immigration status,” he said. “It just doesn’t pertain to our enforcement of the penal law.”

ICE is not required to notify local jurisdictions of planned operations. When the agency raided a wood mill in Tupper Lake earlier this year, Perrotte said local police had no role in the operation.

If ICE ever did ask for the village’s assistance, he said, officers would offer the same limited support they provide any outside agency—confirming an address or responding to a report of violence. Perrotte said he does not expect that request to come and wants his department focused on local work.

“We’re tasked with patrolling and serving the citizens of the village of Saranac Lake,” he said. “We’re plenty busy doing that.”

Residents remain uneasy

Without a comprehensive immigration policy on the books, some residents say the scaled-back resolution leaves fears unaddressed for immigrants living in the village. Though immigrants make up less than one percent of Saranac Lake’s population, their work under seasonal federal visas drives the hospitality industry around the region.

Village resident Steve Erman said stepped-up immigration enforcement could disrupt that workforce.

“If people are afraid to show up for jobs, or people are on jobs and they end up being swept up, they’re detained, taken in, possibly for deportation,” he said. “And what pain that can cause for those families, but also the pain that can cause for entrepreneurs.”

Others worry the climate of fear could jeopardize public safety by deterring people from calling for help. Rich Loeber, who supported White’s original proposal, said some immigrants already hesitate to contact emergency services.

“If they had a fire in their house, they would be hesitant to call the fire department,” he said. “If there was a burglary, they would be hesitant to call the police department. That situation exists now in the village, and it shouldn’t be that way.”

For White, the well-being of all residents remains her top-line concern. She said trust between the community and local law enforcement is fragile and that immigrant residents deserve clarity about how the village intends to protect them.

“I think they deserve to know that we’re committed to each other,” she said. “And that the Saranac Lake Village Police Department can be trusted, just like they always have.”

David Escobar is a Report For America Corps Member. He reports on diversity issues in the Adirondacks through a partnership between North Country Public Radio and Adirondack Explorer.

A Single Bite, the Sullivan County nonprofit focused on feeding families, says food insecurity has surged dramatically in recent months—even as federal SNAP benefits resume following the end of the government shutdown.

Executive Director Audrey Garro said the organization has seen demand double since early fall.

“Since September, we were feeding 625 people, families out there in the community with prepared food,” Garrow said. “Today, 1,200 people. So that’s double.”

Garro said some of the increase is due to heightened public awareness during the SNAP crisis, but the underlying need runs much deeper.

“These individuals are not going to call us tomorrow and say, ‘I have my SNAP benefits back. I don’t want your healthy prepared food anymore,’” she said. “My kids are still getting enough nutrition. That’s just not going to happen.”

She noted that even families with restored benefits remain behind on basic expenses. “They’ve already spent their rent money on food or their medicine money on food because kids and people need to eat every day,” she said.

Cynthia “Sam” Bugna, Manager of Programs, Projects, People, said those realities are clear on the ground.

“I have a family that’s been in temporary housing for quite a while,” he said. “The place has now been condemned… but she has a stove for the first time. She told me she hasn’t cooked a baked potato in years and she was so excited to have a potato and to have real food.”

A Single Bite provides prepared meals three days a week, delivered by volunteers from Long Eddy to Wurtsboro. Garro said the ready-to-eat meals remain vital for families who lack time, transportation, kitchen facilities, or the ability to prepare bulk food from pantries.

“During COVID, we learned that families struggle with time, working two jobs,” she said. “Do they have enough energy to have a propane stove? Is their stove working? There are many, many families living in temporary housing in this community.”

Both Garro and Bugna said the return of SNAP benefits has not eased the long-term fears families face.

“These are families that are living at or below the poverty level, period,” Garro said. “Catching up is not possible with the resources they have.”

Bugna said many residents only sought help when the shutdown pushed them past their limits. “Maybe they were really fighting and said, ‘We got this,’” he said. “But then the shutdown—that was when they hit the wall.”

As the holidays approach, Garro said A Single Bite will continue providing weekly shared meals, along with special Thanksgiving and Christmas dishes. But winter brings new challenges.

“We’ve received a lot of donated produce over the harvest time and that is going to subside,” she said. “We need to start purchasing fresh food… and make sure the highest-quality, most nutritious food ends up on people’s plates.”

Bugna said the public often doesn’t grasp the scale of need:

“The rest of us are going to bed, our bellies are full, our kids’ bellies are full. And there’s people out there that every day their kids’ bellies are not full when they go to bed.”

Garro encouraged residents to volunteer, donate, or simply learn more about the organization. “It’s not easy to ask for help,” she said. “And we respectfully provide that support every week.”

A Single Bite recently received a boost from Homestead School students, who grew pumpkins for their annual project. The pumpkins were turned into soup for families, and the students presented the nonprofit with a $3,000 check.

A full list of food pantries across the region is available at wjffradio.org.

Note: A Single Bite was founded by Sims & Kirsten Foster, owners of Foster Supply Hospitality. Foster Supply Hospitality is a financial supporter of Radio Catskill. 

Image Credit: A Single Bite

The post Shutdown Ends but Food Insecurity Persists: A Single Bite Sees Demand Surge in Sullivan County appeared first on Radio Catskill.

If you’ve ever done a double take at your bird feeder, wondering, what on earth is that patchy bird, you’re not alone. It happened to me on a crisp October morning when I spotted a bird that looked like a faded watercolor version of a Purple Finch. I blinked. I checked my bird app. Was this a new species? Some exotic visitor blown off course? Nope, it was just one of my usual backyard guests, caught in the middle of a messy, magnificent transformation. Molting season had arrived.

Meet the Purple Finch—or what’s left of it. The Purple Finch is usually a stunner. Males, in particular, flaunt a vibrant raspberry wash over their head, chest and back, blending into streaky browns and whites below. They’re like the red wine of songbirds—bold, rich and unmistakable. But during molting, that confident color gets interrupted. Feathers fall out. Patterns become jumbled. Bald spots may appear. The once-glorious plumage turns into a confusing patchwork that makes even seasoned birders pause and say, ‘Wait… what bird is that?’

The photo above is a perfect example. This Purple Finch is deep in the throes of a molt. You can still see flashes of its true colors—literally—but the rest of it looks like it went through a bird-sized spin cycle. Pink feathers peek through faded patches. Dark spots sit where fresh feathers are just starting to emerge. The overall effect? A creature in flux, a feathered Frankenstein’s monster piecing itself back together.

Why birds molt

Why do birds molt anyway? Molting is nature’s way of giving birds a wardrobe refresh. Feathers wear out from sun, wind and day-to-day life. They’re not alive like hair or fur; once grown, a feather can’t repair itself. So instead of mending old ones, birds replace them entirely—usually once or twice a year, depending on the species. For Purple Finches, molting typically happens after the breeding season, around late summer into fall. It’s a gradual process, replacing feathers in a specific sequence so they can still fly, forage and escape predators. But the trade-off? Their looks take a temporary nosedive.  Imagine trying to impress someone while wearing only half a suit. Or going to a party with your haircut stuck halfway between shaggy and buzzed. That’s the molting experience.

Bird lovers know this phase is just part of the finch’s story. Molting isn’t a mistake—it’s a natural, vital process. But the way it transforms these birds is pretty mind-blowing. During the height of molt, a male Purple Finch can look like a hybrid: part house finch, part juvenile, part who-knows-what. I’ve seen people mistake them for entirely different species, and honestly, it’s easy to understand why. That broken-up coloration and irregular feather coverage throws off all the typical field markers we rely on. But then—almost like magic—it all comes back together. New feathers grow in. Colors deepen. That unmistakable rose-red plumage returns. And just like that, the bird is whole again, like nothing ever happened.

Nature doesn’t need Photoshop. It builds the drama right into the design. It’s tempting to think of molting birds as less attractive versions of their usual selves. But if you’re a true bird enthusiast, this is one of the coolest times to observe them. You’re witnessing a live transition. A biological reboot. It’s like seeing the caterpillar become the butterfly—except here, it’s finches ditching last season’s feathers for a new, sleeker model. I’ve grown to love this ragged phase. There’s something raw and real about a bird in the middle of change. They’re not picture-perfect, but they’re alive, adapting and in motion. Watching a Purple Finch go from patchy and awkward to polished and brilliant again reminds me how resilient nature is. Let’s be honest—it’s kind of fun to play “guess that bird” when a half-molted finch shows up looking like it belongs in a bird-themed mystery novel.

What to look for

If you’re a backyard birder like me, fall is the perfect time to keep an eye out for molting Purple Finches. Look for:  patchy plumage, irregular color patterns, especially around the head and back. Feather spikes or “pins,” new feathers still encased in their sheath. They look like tiny quills and will eventually unfurl. Awkward behavior; some birds might scratch more or preen excessively as new feathers grow in. That’s normal. And don’t worry—molting isn’t painful for birds. It can be a bit uncomfortable and energy-intensive, but it’s completely natural. If anything, it’s a sign the bird is healthy and going through a normal life stage.

Beauty in the process

There’s something deeply reassuring about the rhythm of molt. It’s a reminder that change doesn’t always look pretty in the middle—but it’s necessary. Even the most radiant creatures need to fall apart a little before they come back stronger. Seeing this ragtag Purple Finch on my feeder, looking like a bird-shaped jigsaw puzzle, reminded me that beauty isn’t always about polish. Sometimes, it’s about process. About watching something wild and wonderful slowly become itself again. So, the next time you spot a weird-looking bird that seems like it’s been through a storm—pause. Take a closer look. It might just be a Purple Finch, reinventing itself one feather at a time.

For fellow birders: snap a photo, take notes, and enjoy the transformation. There’s nothing quite like witnessing nature’s makeover in real time. That messy little bird? It’s not lost. It’s in progress. Just like the rest of us.