Thursday, April 4, 2013

About the Senior Center

It will be remembered that in early February the Galvan Foundation offered to give the City $300,000--exactly the amount needed to fill the gap between what the City had to spend on the senior center designed by Spacesmith ($780,000) and what the architect and engineer, after making some modifications to the design, estimated it would cost ($1,080,000). But in March, the Galvan Foundation had an even better idea: put the senior center in the Officers' Hall of the Armory, which in the plans for the renovation of that building has been dubbed the Community Wing.

Last night at the meeting of the Common Council Youth & Aging Committee, Doris Moore, commissioner of aging, spoke about locating the senior center in the Armory as if it were a done deal. The commissioner had toured the proposed space last Friday, along with Common Council president Don Moore, aldermen Wanda Pertilla (Second Ward), Ohrine Stewart (Fourth Ward), and Chris Wagoner (Third Ward), Youth Department recreation supervisor George Bednar, and members of the Youth Center staff. Pertilla, who chairs the Youth & Aging Committee, said she was "impressed with the building" and was "planning a day when the seniors [who participate in the senior program now offered at the Youth Center] can go and look at it."

Supervisor Sarah Sterling (First Ward), the only elected official in Hudson who actually participates in the senior program, said, from the audience, that "her nose was a little out of joint" because she had not been invited to join the tour, especially in light of the fact that she had made her interest in seeing the space known at the March 20 Common Council meeting when Daniel Kent, executive director of the Galvan Foundation, presented the proposal. Pertilla told Sterling that the tour on Friday was "only for aldermen" and Sterling could "go with the seniors."

Council president Moore expressed his concern that "the space [in the Armory] that is dedicated to seniors accommodates their needs." The space being offered in the Armory totals 2,700 square feet. The space in the proposed building adjacent to the Youth Center would be 4,200 square feet, and there was a time it was thought that wouldn't be enough.

Meanwhile, it still is not known if the City will get an extension on the $400,000 from the Community Development Block Grant program. At the March 20 Common Council meeting, Mayor William Hallenbeck, declaring that he had not "abandoned the idea of a senior center at the Youth Center," said that he had an appointment in Albany on Monday, March 25, to discuss an extension of the grant. Council president Moore and city attorney Cheryl Roberts were to accompany Hallenbeck on the mission. The Office of Housing and Community Renewal cancelled the meeting, and a conference call took place some days later in lieu of a face-to-face meeting, but it is still not clear if the appeal for more time will be granted. The $400,000 was awarded to the City of Hudson in August 2010.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

10 comments:

  1. So when is the name "Hudson" going to become officially "Gallowayville?"

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  2. " The total budget for the senior center is $550,000--$400,000 from CDBG and $150,000 from
    the Hudson River Bank & Trust Foundation.
    Moore stressed that the priority in designing the building is figuring out what can be built for $550,000." (will post source later)

    Then Moore took $280,000 out of OUR General Fund to come up with the figure of $780,000
    to be able to build elevator to access Youth Center Gym.

    Spacesmith design for this escalted the costs to include an elevator to 2nd floor to connect to Youth Club GYM......to $1,080,000. The CDGB Grant for $400,000 was contigient on the Youth Center and making it a intergenerational facility.
    . . . . . .
    " It will be remembered that in early February the Galvan Foundation offered to give the City $300,000--exactly the amount needed to fill the gap between what the City had to spend on the senior center designed by Spacesmith ($780,000) and what the architect and engineer, after making some modifications to the design, estimated it would cost ($1,080,000). " Gossips of Rivertown 4-4-2013 .(above).
    Today Moore says"The space being offered in the Armory totals 2,700 square feet. The space in the proposed building adjacent to the Youth Center would be 4,200 square feet, and there was a time it was thought that wouldn't be enough. " Gossips of Rivertown 4-4-2013 .(above).
    ....

    ( this is not figuring borrowed sq ft. that justified $280,000 to have access to GYM.)

    ......
    This is same senario with GalVan to the rescue at 11th hour with Police Station. When City was clearing title to buy 25 R.R Ave for Cops and courts .....suddenly GalVan says the cops can go to the Armory
    So..County buys 25 R.R. for 1 mil more than City was going to pay by a quick reassesment...and
    then the Cops in the Armory deal
    ...went POOF! and next thing we know..GalVan shows up with his Cops and Courts and two floors of Homeless SRO"S on 4th and Columbia.

    Then Cops Union NIX that idea...But GalVan pesists for a while, saying he is going to have a " walk in clinic" for whom..they never said, and services for" residents"
    That project goes on HOLD

    Then the Orhaphange State St. SRO project ...squishing in the same amount of highest pay out per head
    per bed for high risk single homeless. GalVan tried to partner up with a couple of other
    organiztions...as they must always have someone or something to piggyback on....to get all thier free money from Federal,State grants,Tax credits,and incentives and no intresrt loans
    ..etc.from the government.(as in taxpayers)
    Finally that project went on HOLD with County,because there was not enough room for services and "walk -in clinics"
    for the" "residents".
    . . . . . . . . . . . .
    So at 11th hour, after GalVan first offering $300,000 to Senior Center..
    POOF ! there are 2,700 square feet available for the senoirs at the Armory.
    And also announced a newly added "walk in clinic " to Library, that Galvan are planning to build..for whom, they do not say.

    deja vu all over again

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    Replies
    1. Prison Alley: The complete breakdown of the $1,080,000 budget is: is CDBG $400,000, HCDPA $100,000, Hudson River Bank & Trust Foundation $150,000, City of Hudson $130,000, Galvan $300,000.

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  3. You are correct Carole.
    . . . .
    By Lindsay Suchow
    Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
    Published:
    Tuesday, August 31, 2010 2:13 AM EDT
    The city has been awarded a $400,000 New York State Community Development Block Grant
    for the creation of a new senior center....
    The total cost of the center will be $550,000. The additional $150,000 for the project will be drawn from a $500,000
    allocation bestowed upon the city about three years ago by the Hudson River Bank and Trust
    Foundation, Scalera said.
    The money was originally slated to be spent over five years, at $100,000 per year, for youth programs in the city.

    “I asked (the foundation) if we could use some of the money towards the cost of a senior facility, to the tune of $150,000,” said Scalera.
    They liked the idea....
    . . . . . .
    Jan 23 2012 " About the Senior Center " Gossips of Rivertown
    Last week, the Register-Star reported that the Common Council is contemplating exceeding the
    $550,000 the City has in hand for the building, all of which has come from grant money, by $268,000, which the City would have to raise by borrowing and other means not clearly defined.
    The original $550,000 would build a single story addition; $818,000 would buy an addition with a partial second story"
    . . . . . .
    OUR VIEW: Senior center follies Register Star
    Posted: Wednesday, March 7, 2012 1:00 am

    The city was initially granted $550,000 to build the center; the preliminary design would have cost $518,000 to complete.
    The expanded design would come with a $818,000 price tag, all according to the city’s own
    estimates; Common Council President Don Moore said he thought the city would be able to
    secure an additional $100,000 in grants for the expanded project, leaving about $150,000 left for the city to bond for over 10 years with a low 2.4 percent interest rate or take from the
    general fund.
    ................
    So Moore found $100,000. from HCDPA ,
    so I stand corrected,
    and plans to use $130,000 From City of Hudson General Fund.
    and GalVan has offered to pay $300,000. for the rest of $530,000.
    cost over run, from original budget of $550,000

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  4. Yeah sorry, but I'm not feeling the love for any of this.

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  5. Apparently Hudson DAR you don't approve of this town being held hostage to the whims of the Galvan / Scalera Empire .

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  6. Sorry Vincent, but you misinterpreted my comment. I'm not feeling the love for any kind of Galvan to the rescue situation.Please try to be polite.

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  7. Sorry, sometimes my sarcasm doesn't interpret well. Didn't mean to offend. Was intended as a comment in support of your statement Hudson DAR.

    ReplyDelete