At the February 24 meeting of the Beacon City Council, Mayor Lee Kyriakou announced the formation of a new ad hoc (non-permanent) committee to, in his words,

Develop a holistic plan for sustainable Main St parking, traffic, public transportation, pedestrian and no-vehicular use. It means all the pieces.

Not explicitly listed, but part of the charter is green space, like pocket parks, as well.

I’m glad to say I am a member of the committee, as noted in the March 4 edition of the Beacon Free Press. However, the article did not mention my earlier involvement in related Beacon initiatives. I was a member of the Fishkill Creek Heritage and Recreational Trail committee and worked actively in the development and promotion of the master plan for the development of the trail, which is now in force. I also led, with my friend Mark Wildonger, a grant application and IndieGogo campaign to raise funds to have the bicycle sharrows painted on Main Street (see Main Street Sharrows Project Funding Approved!). That initiative was run in collaboration with BeaconArts. (Note that we had to raise funds when then-Mayor Randy Casale rejected our request to have the City paint the sharrows.)

All members of the committee:

• Sara Pasti is a former City Council member, and former co-chair of the Comprehensive Planning Committee, will be serving as co-chair of the Main St Initiative. Another co-chair is planned.

• Andrew Burke is a lifelong resident of Beacon

• Stowe Boyd, writer, futurist, activist

• Emily Burke of Utensils

• J.C. Calderon of Calderon Architecture & Design

• Kelly Campbell is a real estate associate broker with Century 21 Alliance Realty in Wappingers Falls

• Harvey Kaplan is co-owner of Max’s

• Joshua Kogan is a civil engineer

• Theresa Kraft does design and construction

• Maria Lago is an artist and owner of Maria Lago Studio 502

• Paulette Myers-Rich of Traffic Street Press

• Hank Osborne

• Ron Ray has been a resident for 30 years

• Scott Tillett of Beahive

The committee’s first meeting will be 18 March 2020 7 pm.