By Holly Crocco With the proposed Putnam County mental health crisis stabilization center that was planned for Stoneleigh Avenue having been voted down by the Carmel Planning Board earlier this month, the County Legislature is now scrambling to spend $2.5 million in American Recovery Plan Act funds that were tied to the project so that it doesn’t have to be returned to the federal government. “At this point, with the ARPA deadlines, the money has to be spent by the end of thi

A New York Police Department sergeant from Putnam County was recently found guilty of second-degree manslaughter after throwing a cooler at a fleeing suspect in August of 2023, leading to the man’s death. Sgt. Erik Duran, 38, pleaded not guilty during his bench trial, in which there was no jury – just a judge hearing the arguments and rendering the verdict. He was convicted Feb. 6 by Bronx Supreme Court Judge Guy Mitchell and faces up to 15 years in prison. Sentencing is sche

A Mahopac man was arrested last week following a road rage/menacing incident in which he allegedly aimed a loaded gun at a school bus driver. New York State Police at Hawthorne received a walk-in complaint Feb. 4 from a school bus driver who reported that, while driving on the Taconic State Parkway southbound near exit 3 in Mount Pleasant, the driver of another vehicle pointed a handgun at him. In addition to the driver, a bus monitor and three children with special needs wer