Matteawan Road at the end of Beacon High School near the entrance of the Fishkill Correctional Facility.
*Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin*

Further impacting an already strained busing system, Beacon City School District Superintendent Matthew Landahl announced to district families yesterday that the Fishkill Correctional Facility will close to the public the part of Matteawan Road that runs through their facility. After Matteawan loops through the Fishkill Correctional Facility, it turns into Prospect Street Md (according to Google Map), which runs through a residential area. Prospect Street Md intersects with Route 52 (aka Business 52 aka Fishkill Avenue depending on what map you look at) diagonally across from Old Glenham Road. According to Dr. Landahl, the closure possibly starts with the guard stations on both ends of the Fishkill Correctional Facility.

It is unknown at this time if this closure is related to the car accident that happened on Route 52 near Old Glenham Road last week at around 3:30pm, which is a high traffic time for school and a shift change at the Fishkill Correctional Facility.

In an email dated 10/19/2021, Dr. Landahl stated:

The Fishkill Correctional Sign on Matteawan Road.
*Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin*

“I am writing to inform you about the permanent closure of Matteawan Road by Fishkill Correctional Facility. We were informed yesterday that officials at the Fishkill Correctional Facility are permanently closing the part of Matteawan Road that runs past their facility. This closure will take effect on Monday, November 1, 2021.

“Many of our school busses use this road as well as parents and students driving to Beacon High School and Rombout Middle School. The closure will cause increased traffic congestion at arrival and dismissal time at Beacon High School and Rombout Middle School and will cause delays for many of our bus routes.

“We are currently analyzing all of our bus routes and we will update the community with revised pick-up and drop-off times for the impacted routes. The bridge construction on 84 has already caused delays this year for many of our routes, so I apologize for this in advance. We will also work with the City of Beacon to see if anything can be done to help alleviate traffic congestion on Matteawan Road heading to Verplank Avenue.

“We will update the community next week with more information about bus routes and this situation.”

On Matteawan Road: Rombout Middle School on the left, and Beacon High School on the right.
*Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin*

Pedestrian and bike activity picks up significantly in Beacon at 3pm, which is when all 6 public schools dismiss. According to the police officer on the Traffic Commity during a May 2020 public meeting, the Fishkill Correctional Facility also has a shift change at 3pm, contributing to increased traffic on Matteawan, running past the Beacon High School, and in the other direction toward Route 52, which is across from Old Glenham Road, which leads to Glenham Elementary.

Both the Beacon High School and Rombout Middle School are located on Matteawan Road. Picking up kids Rombout Middle School is an already congested situation, both within the Rombout pickup loop, and at the intersection to exit in either direction out of Rombout.

An alternative to driving into Rombout, is to meet a child behind Rombout by their outdoor school basketball court, on Robert Cahill Drive (inside of Memorial Park), which is already a traffic area for after-school sports. Speed bumps used to exist on Robert Cahill Drive for safety, but have not been placed down for years.

Biking Home Is An Alternative To Driving, But Biking In Beacon Is Unsafe

Map of Matteawan Road and Robert Cahill Drive.
*Photo Credit: Google Maps*

An alternative to car pickups is having kids walk or bike home. However, several drivers in Beacon are so impatient when driving, they often recklessly and illegally pass cars on the left, crossing a double yellow line, with no regard for why a car in front of them stopped. Twice, I personally have stopped for a pedestrian crossing the street, and a car, driven by a local Beaconite, has tried to drive around me, crossing the double yellow line, and would thereby hit the crossing walker or biker. I have also almost been hit when I was crossing the street when an impatient car crossed the double yellow line to pass the stopped car in front of it on the left.

Biking in Beacon is quite unsafe, with no sidewalks dedicated to bikers (it is illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk), and only a small section of Main Street is indicated with biking encouragement painted lines. Yet biking on Main Street for children is not recommended and is unsafe. Kids bike on neighborhood roads mainly, so this focus is beyond Main Street. Bike safety and enforcement of crossing yellow lines and doing U-Turns should be enforced.

Years ago, Beacon’s Park and Recreation Department proposed a continuous bike loop through the public parks. It is unknown at this time what became of that drawing or proposal. Should anyone remember the date at which it was presented, please contact us.