Mayor Lee Kyriacou gave his annual “State of the City” update to Beacon’s residents at the City Council weekly meeting on Monday, March 3rd. Some residents attended in person, while others listened online. The goal of the “State of the City” is to share the City’s achievements over the past 12 months and to outline what’s coming in the year ahead.

In describing the state of the City as “excellent,” the mayor said “what makes this so amazing is how far our City has come in the last 30 years or so—transforming from a tired factory city to a reimagined one, with a reinvigorated historic Main Street and a quality of life that attracts newcomers, investment, and visitors; a beacon and model for other communities to follow.”

Key areas of commitment were laid out in the presentation: financial discipline, public safety, infrastructure investment, quality of life, and climate leadership.

Here's the highlights for those who couldn’t make it.

Financial discipline

Describing Beacon’s financial health as “the best it’s been in decades,” Kyriacou gave an overview of some of the City’s $40 million investment in capital projects, including investments in the new fire station on Wolcott Avenue, roads and sidewalks, water, sewer and wastewater treatment, parks and quality of life, plus investments in people. For 2025, the City Council passed a $35.9 million combined operating budget.

Beacon has its lowest tax rate since 2009. In 2024, the City’s tax rate fell to $5.70 per $1,000 of assessed value. By comparison, the tax rate is more than $10 for the cities of Poughkeepsie and Newburgh. The City expects to continue lowering its tax rate with new construction and increases in the value of existing properties.

Beacon’s 2025 total tax levy of $13.2 million was a 3.8% increase from 2024, but it’s an increase well below inflation and the State Property Tax Cap. Meanwhile, the cities of Poughkeepsie and Kingston have enacted 9% increases.

Following the successful negotiation of a 10-year sales tax sharing agreement with Dutchess County beginning in 2023, Beacon’s share of the county-wide sales taxes in 2024 was a record $6.1 million; up $1.3 million from two years ago. It’s anticipated that sales tax revenue will increase every year for the next eight years.

Revenue from new construction added $37 million to Beacon’s tax base last year, and $178 million in the past five years.

The Mayor’s 2025 Budget has added two new revenue sources to help reduce pressure on property taxes. They are a 2% occupancy tax on hotels and short-term rentals, and a share of the state cannabis tax from dispensaries in the City.

Public Safety

Beacon’s state-of-the-art new central fire station opened in 2024.

The City’s largest accomplishment in 2024 was the on-time, on-budget opening of the new $15 million fire station. The renegotiation of the new sales tax revenue helped minimize property tax funding and the investment in an all-electric facility with geothermal heat wells in the parking lot. The station houses all Beacon’s firefighters in one location with state-of-the-art equipment, which apparently has already improved operations, training and safety. In 2025, the City will sell the two obsolete firehouses at 425 Main Street and 57 East Main Street to finance a portion of the new one, with protections in place to ensure historic preservation. It’ll also seek to replace its current ladder truck.

The City added another civilian police dispatcher in 2024. Mayor Kyriacou made a point of saying that—reflecting a national issue— the Police Department has too many vacancies. 2024 saw the appointment of new Chief, Tom Figlia, as well as many internal promotions.

The administration provided its second year of funding for BVAC (Beacon Volunteer Ambulance Corps) and funded advanced life support services from Ambulnz.

Infrastructure Investment

Over the past four years, the City has implemented or advanced more than $40 million in major capital investments for public facilities, streets, sidewalks, parks, drinking water system, aging sewer pipes, and the wastewater treatment facility.

Rebuilding Fishkill/Teller Avenue

The second major project of 2024 was launching the rehabilitation of Teller and Fishkill Avenues. Kyriacou shared, “This effort dates back to 2001, and had City Administrator Chris White not prioritized the time-intensive right-of-way acquisition process and final engineering design, we would have lost $9 million in federal/state funding.” According to Kyriacou, the work is more than half complete and on time and is slated for completion by the Summer of 2025. This follows recent end-to-end repaving and sidewalk bump-outs on Main Street, and partial repaving of Route 9D.

Roads & Sidewalks

In 2024, Beacon’s Highway Department milled and repaved 28 streets (4.25 miles). In 2025, the City will extend sidewalks and repave Route 52 to the City limit, rebuild the Wolcott Avenue sidewalk along South Avenue Park, repave more streets and the parking lots at Memorial Park and Van Nydeck, and continue to stripe side streets off Main Street to improve parking.

Water & Sewer

The Water Department began a citywide water meter replacement project in 2024, installing “smart” meters that allow the City and residents to monitor water usage online. It continues to modernize the City’s aging sewer system with the construction of a new West Main Street pump station and force main and rebuilt the box culvert for water runoff under Washington Avenue. The Water Department will complete the projects in 2025 and begin replacement of the Mount Beacon water supply tank.

Wastewater Plant & Transfer Station

In 2024, the City upgraded the Wastewater Treatment Plant’s primary settling tanks, and renovated staff locker room and showers.

City Hall and Court Building

There are cost-conscious planned improvements to the municipal building including renovating the Police locker room and dispatch area, exterior and interior painting/repairs, and reconfiguring the City’s clerk window area.

Quality of Life Improvements

The City continues to increase the parks and recreation programming budget and make capital investments in its work, as well as other aspects of the community’s quality of life. These projects are funded in large part from new construction that adds to the City’s property tax base and provides recreation fees. Kyriacou said: “With careful planning and community input, we continue to steer our zoning and planning processes to make Beacon a sustainable and livable city.”

2024 marked the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the City’s Memorial Building on Main at Teller. This is the only municipal building in the region built to honor veterans. We’re told to expect more events in 2025 and 2026 with the approach of the nation’s 250th birthday.

The City’s 2024 budget for Recreation and Parks (including University Settlement) exceeded $1,000,000 for the first time ever, with a 17% annual increase, which included a new full-time staff member. Ten years ago, the same budgets were just over $300,000. This prioritization of tax dollars has afforded a large expansion of programs for youth, seniors, and the community. The numbers do not include large capital spending to upgrade the City’s parks.

2024 saw the reconstruction of the Wee Play Playground toddler park at Memorial Park, with new play structures, surfacing, fencing and site amenities. In 2025, the tennis and basketball courts in South Avenue Park will be refurbished and public bathrooms will be installed. Memorial Park will see upgrades to the skate park, fencing, and parking.

Last Fall, Beacon’s Main Street was one of three in New York State ranked nationally—at number 28— as one of the cleanest Main Streets in America. This recognition complements Beacon’s “Walkers Paradise” listing, with a 96 out of 100 walkability score.

At the City’s urging, Dutchess County Planning completed in late 2024 a feasibility study of converting the Beacon-Hopewell rail spur into a rail trail which will connect Beacon’s waterfront and Main Street to the 700-mile Empire State Trail system. This will be presented to the Council in the coming weeks. The Mayor indicated he has made the rail trail his top priority for 2025.

One of the many trail walks along the Hudson River in Beacon, NY.

Kyriacou also shared that he recently testified his strong support of the proposed Fjord Trail from Beacon to Breakneck Ridge and Cold Spring. The City is currently working with the Fjord Trail to locate a future trail maintenance facility at its Transfer Station. Its maintenance facility partnership will help accelerate trail construction in Beacon and connect to the parks, trails, and train station. You can read our story on the Fjord Trail here.

The Mayor’s Committee has made progress on ideas for how Route 52 will shift gradually from largely commercial and industrial uses to include more mixed residential and retail uses. That includes planning for connections to the directly adjacent rail trail and an access road to schools and the Camp Beacon area. NOTE: There is a Community Feedback Meeting hosted by the Fishkill Avenue Concepts Committee on Sunday, March 9th, at 2PM. See here for details.

Improving affordability

Almost 30% of Beacon’s rental units are in affordable programs. This is second only to the City of Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County. The City has encouraged the County to look at developing part of its DMV lot on Main Street to include affordable units. The State has recognized Beacon as a Pro-Housing Community, which has opened up funding options. Kyriacou shared that Metro North is reviewing proposals to build housing on top of its north parking lot, saying “this project would be fully consistent with our current zoning and include ten percent Below Market Rate units. In addition, New York State has just announced that Beacon qualified for State funding for homeowners to build accessory dwelling units under the Plus-One ADU program.”

Climate Leadership

Beacon was one of the first, and one of only 15 of 1,600 local governments in New York State, to achieve the State’s highest Silver-Certified Climate Smart Community status. This recognition gives the City access to grants that fund additional sustainability efforts.

In 2025, Beacon expects to install a photovoltaic system atop the City’s Highway Garage to add to the City’s self-generated electric capacity. Beacon generates over 70% of its electric needs from solar arrays and purchases Renewable energy Credits for the rest.

The City will continue to grow its all-electric and hybrid fleet in 2025, taking advantage of State Climate Smart grants to finance the purchases. They’ve added EV charging stations at the fire station lot, and this year will see additional chargers installed at other municipal sites. See our Parking Guide for more details on EV ports at municipal parking lots.

The new central fire station is fully environmentally sustainable and is one of the first regionally with all-electric, high efficiency insulation, geothermal heating/cooling, and natural lighting.

In the past year, Beacon has continued to grow its popular municipal composting program.

In 2024, Beacon earned its longstanding status as a Tree City, planting 55 trees, including those from a new program for property owners to purchase and plant trees at a large discount. It expanded its pollinator footprint, including a 2,500 square feet of pollinator patch in front of the City’s Hiddenbrooke rural park.

Visit YouTube to hear the full presentation. All City Council, Planning and Zoning Board meetings are livestreamed and recorded for public viewing.

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Until next time…

The Beacon Beacon🧡

State of the City of Beacon 2025