Thursday, September 10, 2026

NY RANKS 35TH NATIONALLY FOR VACCINATION RATES IN 2026

New York ranks 35th among the 50 states and District of Columbia in a new WalletHub analysis of vaccination rates, with relatively strong results for several childhood and teen vaccines offset by much weaker rankings for some adult vaccinations.  New York ranks 35th nationally for vaccination rates in 2026 study

1969, COACH DILLEY, ROSS CONNOLLY, TERRY FIORITO, LOU GIUSTI, CROTON FOOTBALL

Welcome to Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton -- our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools, our houses or worship -- in short, EVERYTHING CROTON.

We've had this one for a while but only recently came across enough info to satisfy the questions posed by the two readers who asked---Click on the images for Coach Dilley, 1969, ROSS CONNOLLY, TERRY FIORITO, LOU GIUSTI, CROTON FOOTBALL.

TRI-MUNICIPAL 9/11 OBSERVANCE 2026 INFO AT CROTON LANDING

Welcome to Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton--our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools, our houses of worship--in short, Everything Croton.

THE TRI-MUNICIPAL 9/11 OBSERVANCE (a.k.a. PATRIOT DAY)

Croton-on-Hudson, Buchanan, and Cortlandt — 4 p.m.-SEPTEMBER 11TH FRIDAY

The towns of Croton-on-Hudson, Cortlandt, and the Village of Buchanan will host their annual tri-municipal memorial ceremony once again this year at the 9/11 memorial sculpture called “Reaching Through the Shadow” at Croton Landing.

If inclement weather, the ceremony will be held at Harmon Firehouse, 30 Wayne Street in the Village of Croton-on-Hudson.

PRESIDENT TRUMP will attend and speak at the Pentagon ceremony.

VP VANCE and former presidents will attend and observe the NYC WTC ceremony.

Both these events are being broadcast live on assorted chanels and YOUTUBE.

JUST A REMINDER---9/11 CROTON SENIOR CLUB MEETING

Meeting in the Community room.

See more at  EverythingCroton: 9/11/26 CROTON SENIOR MEETING

YADA YADA YADA THIS FINE THURSDAY

Many of us are not on social media but we often get to hear about it and are sometimes sent screenshots...trending at the moment----lots of local outrage across the tri-state area about Mamdani---yes, he IS disliked (few folks it seems truly trusts anything WAPO has to say)....

You'll have no trouble finding any of this---but we're kind of done with it-----and much was deleted once it hit assorted emails-----yes, he's still planning to attend the 9/11 ceremony and the petition requesting him to stay away is still going strong---at 109,000 signatures as of earlier last evening per RF. The Hudson Valley has lots of events planned. Will post later.

Moving along.....ON ASSORTED SITES:

***BOTS..... bots.... everywhere a bot..... yes one fb page is continually overrun with these and anonymous accounts. The standard advice remains--if you are going to be on social media, choose what pages you visit and post on wisely.

***Lots of the usual annoyance that so much news "these days" is behind paywall or requires a subscription. It is what it is. Again, choose what you spend your money on wisely.

***Some amusing commentary about what constitutes real journalism from a few Hudson Valley bloggers---but you have to be on those pages to see it---and some hysterical BABYLON BEE posts on assorted topics across multiple public pages.

BTW for those not on fb, Babylon Bee has a lot of these on Youtube; but Red Papyrus posted this one---which you can see at the link below---and it really brought out the....yada yada yada on one fb page Conservative Vids to Make You LAUGH | Babylon Bee, Awaken With JP & More

***SOME local chatter STILL that Croton must create affordable housing catering to the LGBT youth yada yada "of our community" 

NOT going to address the responses

Lots of the usual chatter about Harmon being partitioned for ADU's, multifamily housing, rentals, low income, POT SHOPS etc. from TMThoughtsCreekskill/Cronkers and others -- while the rest of the village gets arts centers, private homes, veterans memorials, and pigeon-free zoning....

LOTS OF TALK about JOHN McKeon's RECENT TAX ANALYSIS, recent letters in the Gazette, the good work Sarcone is doing, and how much folks like the new AI Croton.News site with words such as "sleek, robust, fast and very helpful".

Oh and pigeons and Sam Watkins topics occasionally broached--one fb poster quipped how all "isms" and "phobics" are equal but some "isms" and "phobics" are more equal than others. Ageism it seems is just fine.....yada yada yada.....

Some talk about the last four "bridge takeovers" never happening-----the action call screenshots were posted--the most recent being last week---but the comments were hysterical---very LORD OF THE RINGS and FOUNDATION themed......Have a feeling these will be making the rounds for weeks......Coming to a fb page near you soon.......

AND LOTS OF VERY TECHNICAL TALK ON THE AI HUGGING FACE RECENT EVENTS---but those are page after page of commentary, contain very deep jargon, and require a dive your editor is not prepared to make; however, two of our readers will----stay tuned........

More fabulous analysis and local stuff from John McKeon--a friend says: DON'T FORGET THAT SEVEN MILLION DOLLAR SEAWALL DOWN AT THE TRAIN STATION which is getting some pretty interesting commentary (did you know Croton seems to have at least seven  "community-type" fb  pages and dozens of private forums/instagrams and twitter sites--only Peekskill has more)  -- anyway, 

READING...WRITING...AND GENDER SURGERY--WASHINGTON DAD DUES SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR DENYING RELIGIOUS OPT-OUT FOR YOUNG SON DURING PRIDE MONTH LESSON








A Washington father is suing his son’s public school district after he said his 10-year-old was taught about gender surgery during a Pride Month lesson despite the Christian parent previously asking the school to excuse his child from LGBTQ-related instruction.

On Tuesday, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the father, Konstantin Averkiev, filed a federal lawsuit against Lake Washington School District, alleging officials violated Averkiev’s First and 14th Amendment rights by refusing to provide notice and allow his son to opt out of LGBTQ-related lessons and other school requirements that conflict with his religious beliefs. The dispute began after Averkiev said he met with his son’s fourth-grade teacher at Henry David Thoreau Elementary School in September 2025 and requested advance notice and an opt-out ...MORE AT 

RECEPTION DATE CHANGE--DAVID ROCCO--CROTON RIVER ARTISANS GALLERY

Please join us in welcoming photographer David Rocco to the Croton River Artisans Gallery as our September visiting artist. Meet the artist at a reception on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27!!! Light refreshments will be served.

Local painters will be out and about on September 19 painting in a local plein air event sponsored by the gallery. All paintings will be auctioned off at a fundraising event at the Black Cow on Saturday, October 24th with proceeds going to the Croton River Artisans Scholarship fund annually awarded to a Croton Harmon High School Senior pursuing a degree in the visual arts. If you see any painters out on September 19th, stop and say hello!

DEEP DIVE, THE NEW VILLAGE WEBSITE DESIGN

Welcome to Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton -- our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools, our houses or worship -- in short, EVERYTHING CROTON.

About the new village website design, a
reader who describes himself as a "techno-nerd", sent the following:

It's "CivicPlus", a Content management system (CMS) designed specifically for local and municipal governments. GOOGLE AI SAYS:

Tech Stack Details

Platform Provider: CivicPlus specializes in building secure, accessible, and user-friendly platforms tailored to civic needs. [1]

Underlying Architecture: The platform leverages a modern, highly optimized Drupal headless/cloud-hosted framework. You can spot this technical fingerprint in their underlying document file URLs, which use a centralized, secure repository system structure (/sites/g/files/...). [1]

Features Used: The redesign integrates smooth citizen-facing tools including their unified Citizen Authentication Portal (MyAccount) and interactive widgets for Live Streaming municipal meetings. [1, 2]

USERS say it will take some getting used to but seems fast, clean, mobile-responsive...

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

AN OPEN LETTER FROM JOHN McKEON REGARDING THE PROPOSED SEAWALL FOR THE CROTON-ON-HUDSON METRO NORTH RAILROAD PARKING LOT



I am writing to express my deep concern over the recent decision to seek $1 million initial grant as part of a $7 million project to construct a seawall around the Metro-North train station parking lot in Croton-on-Hudson. 

This significant infrastructure project, which directly impacts our local environment and public tax dollars, has been advanced with a troubling lack of public debate, transparency, or community discussion. I became knowledgeable of this grant application in a meeting held on September 3 at the municipal building when it was included in the presentation associated with the New York Forward grant request. The parking lot sits immediately adjacent to critical wetlands that face regular tidal flooding from the Hudson River—a challenge that will only intensify as sea levels continue to rise. We are hurdling towards a new normal by 2050. That will bring the daily baseline high tides on the Croton River permanently about 16 to 24 inches higher than they are today. Episodic events, like storm surges or heavy freshwater runoff from the northern Hudson Valley will build on top of these elevated base lines leading to more frequent and severe flooding in the parking lot. Building a massive seawall in this delicate ecosystem could have severe, unintended consequences for local biodiversity and water displacement. Yet, there has been absolutely no public exploration of alternatives. The MTA‘s core plan for this threat for the Metro North Railroad involves the Hudson line climate resilience blueprint, a multimillion dollar initiative designed specifically to address tidal rise, storm surges, and intense stormwater runoff along the riverbank between Riverdale and Croton Harmon. This plan involves physically elevating the tracks above the projected flood stages of the river and maintaining living shore lines to absorb title energy. Why are we not coordinating our efforts with the MTA?

It appears that the existing solar panel initiative in the parking lot is driving this decision. By treating the solar structures as an asset that must be protected at all costs, the Village appears willing to compromise the surrounding natural ecosystem rather than exploring adaptive alternatives. If the solar canopies are the primary anchor driving this multi-million dollar project, we must ask whether armored gray concrete infrastructure is truly a cost-effective, long-term solution or simply a shortsighted fix to protect a localized investment.

Instead of rushing to build a barrier that could alter local hydrology, increase erosion elsewhere, and disrupt critical wetland habitats, the Village of Croton-on-Hudson should pause this process. We need a comprehensive, transparent review that prioritizes nature-based solutions—such as living shorelines or strategic relocation of vulnerable infrastructure—in lockstep with regional efforts like the MTA’s blueprint.

I urge the Village Board and the NY Forward Local Planning Committee to hold dedicated, transparent community forums specifically regarding the train station parking lot's climate adaptation. Our response to sea-level rise must be collaborative, ecologically sound, and subject to robust public oversight.

John McKeon

ROUTE 129 2-CAR CRASH



MORE at Driver Taken To Trauma Center After 2-Car Route 129 Crash In Yorktown | Daily Voice

ATTENTION HIGH SCHOOL--JOIN THE ST. AUGUSTINE PARISH YOUTH GROUP

Welcome to Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton -- our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools, our houses or worship -- in short, EVERYTHING CROTON.

ATTENTION HIGH SCHOOL--JOIN ST. AUGUSTINE PARISH YOUTH GROUP

CLICK ON THE IMAGE. 
St. Augustine Church - Ossining, New York

THANK YOU CHARLES J. COOK 2026 POOL CREW

Welcome to Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton -- our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools, our houses or worship -- in short, EVERYTHING CROTON.

FROM THE TOWN OF CORTLANDT FB PAGE - We LOVE the Charles J. Cook Pool crew! Your hard work makes waves in our community! Thank you for another great season! PHOTO AT Facebook

SOME MAILBOX CLEAN-UP, FOUR ITEMS

Can't keep up--but trying, lol.....

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Confidential to "CONGRATS WE LOVE YA":  Thank you. The numbers speak for themselves and have since surpassed significantly the last ones posted.  Still, it is always gratifying.  Monetization has indeed been suggested--but no. 

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A reader asks: I attended a "love-lunch" with a friend who has since passed at the Methodist(?) church a few years ago. Got anything?

Response: Posted once before but you missed it: Asbury 2018, click on the link: EverythingCroton: BY SPECIAL REQUEST---FROM 2018---PHOTO ALBUM ASBURY METHODIST LOVE LUNCH

They may also have more---try them directly at EverythingCroton: CONTACT INFO FOR ASBURY METHODIST, CROTON

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Confidential to AMUSED & BEMUSED: Very funny observations. You may enjoy joining certain local facebook pages.  Indeed, your former Yonkers, Village Voice, and Brooklyn perspectives would be refreshing for some and illuminating for others.

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Dick's Barber Shop must have been a special place--as the blog constantly gets requests for info.....and so...By special request--can anyone help? More than one reader is looking for any photos, clippings, etc. about "Dick's Barber Shop" in the Upper Village. If you can help.....

CYNDI LAUPER TO PERFORM AT FIRST EVER 9/11 "TRIBUTE IN LIGHT" LIVE BROADCAST



The Big Apple’s true colors will be shining through.

Pop legend Cyndi Lauper will perform beneath the glow of Ground Zero’s iconic annual “Tribute in Light” — the projection of two blue beams where the Twin Towers once stood — Friday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The “Time After Time” and “True Colors” singer’s performance will conclude a first-of-its-kind national broadcast that honors the memory of the victims and “the resilience of survivors, families, first responders, and communities forever changed by that day,” the September 11 Memorial & Museum announced Tuesday. MORE AT Cyndi Lauper to perform at first-ever 9/11 'Tribute in Light' live broadcast