It appears the superintendent search is a bit behind schedule. Review of applications and candidate screening and selection of semifinalists was part of Phase 2, to be completed in late February to March.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Returning to the Superintendent Search
HHA and the Planning Board
Spenser Walsh has an article today in the Register-Star about the Planning Board review of the project being proposed by the Hudson Housing Authority: "Hudson Planning Board working on approval for Bliss Towers project." The article does not include much information that has not already been reported by Gossips, but one of the images used to illustrate the article shows that one of the renderings of the project has been updated. The presentation visuals submitted on March 10 included a rendering that showed State Street "pedestrianized," but a subsequent rendering, posted to the Planning Board portal on March 24, has been revised to eliminate the "plaza" and show State Street marked for parking on each side.
Madeo told the HHA board that he expected there would be a special meeting of the Planning Board, focusing only on the HHA project, in the second or third week in May. He opined that they were "in pretty good shape with the Planning Board" and predicted they would have approval of the project by July.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2026
The Outcome of the BOE Meeting
The board unanimously opted for the plan that increased the tax levy by 5.8 percent, which is the maximum allowed. Had they chosen to go with the 6.94 percent increase, it would have required 60 percent approval from the voters.
But closing the $2.58 million budget gap recently discovered and attributed to using financial planning software incorrectly for the past ten years does not come without sacrifice. Interim superintendent Brian Bailey outlined those sacrifices. Twenty-seven positions will be cut--six fewer than originally proposed.
The cuts to instructional and support staff are not quite as deep as originally proposed. The new proposal cuts two fewer teachers and four fewer aides.
The proposal also reduces by half the number of "executive level" positions in the Central Office.
The proposal also involves having a single principal of the junior and senior high schools rather than two, although there would still be two assistant principals, one for the junior high and one for the high school.
The videorecording of tonight's BOE meeting can be viewed here. The public hearing on the budget happens on Tuesday, May 5. The budget vote and BOE election will take place on Tuesday, May 19.
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Charter Change Revisited
A year ago, inspired by the Citizens' Initiative for Charter Change, the idea of revising the city charter, enacted in 1921 and amended in its entirety in 1973, was on everyone's mind.
Ferris was elected. Day One was 110 days ago, but so far nothing has been heard from the mayor about charter change. Last night at the informal meeting of the Common Council, however, Council president Margaret Morris announced that she was starting work on assembling a Charter Commission to consider charter revision. She is inviting anyone interested in serving on this group tasked with the serious work of studying the charter and recommending revision to send a letter of interest to councilpres@cityofhudson.org.
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Frederic Church and Olana in the NY Times
This year not only marks the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, it also marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Edwin Church. This past Sunday, Church and Olana were the subjects of an article featured in a special Museums section of the New York Times: "Honoring Frederic Church: Beyond the Hudson River School." It is recommended reading.
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| Frederic Church, Our Banner in the Sky (1861) |
Additions to the Weekly Calendar
- Tonight, Tuesday, April 21, the HCSD Board of Education meets at 6:00 p.m. in the Hudson High School auditorium. The meeting is being described as a "Community Budget Workshop," and it is expected that the BOE will vote on a budget tonight. Tonight will reveal if the BOE will agree to pare down the exorbitant proposed $63.1 or try to get voters to approve a tax increase that exceeds 5.8 percent. The meeting will be livestreamed on YouTube.
- Thursday, April 23, is Voter Registration Day in the Hudson City School District. If you live in the district and are not already registered to vote, you can do so in the Junior High School cafeteria from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. on that day. Those wishing to register must bring photo I.D.
Monday, April 20, 2026
On Reopening Harry Howard
At the Common Council Code and Infrastructure Committee meeting last week, Rob Perry, superintendent of Public Works, reported on the status of the stretch of Harry Howard Avenue that's been closed since March 16.
Investigations discovered that a gasket about six feet below roadway had failed, and the water spraying out from the failed gasket had undermined the road, causing the pavement to crack. The failed gasket has now been replaced with a more robust one.
Rebuilding the roadway's substructure will be completed this week. Once that is done, they need to wait for the asphalt plant to open for the season before the road can be paved. According to Perry, that should happen in a couple of weeks. When the road has been repaved and the guardrails installed, the road will be reopened. Perry predicted that it would be a couple more weeks before Harry Howard Avenue can be reopened. As he told committee, "I said four to six weeks at the very beginning, and we're going to be four to six weeks."
Perry's report to the Code and Infrastructure Committee can be heard here, from 17:41 to 23:31.
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UPDATE: Here's a statement from the mayor's office on the subject, received this morning.
Tentative Timeline for Reopening of Harry Howard Avenue
We are nearing completion of repairs to Harry Howard Avenue. The road will be milled this Thursday, followed by paving and replacement of guardrails. Timelines can shift due to numerous factors. We anticipate the road to reopen by no later than May 15th.
Sunday, April 19, 2026
Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead
Last week, we got a taste of summer, but this week, we're plunged back into more typical April weather. While we put those Bermuda shorts and tank tops away for a few more weeks, here's what is happening.
- On Monday, April 20, at 5:30 p.m., the Common Council holds a public hearing on a very minor change to the short-term rental law. The proposed amendment does nothing more than require that all short-term rentals designate a local contact person and submit their contact information to the Hudson Police Department and the Code Enforcement Office. The hearing is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
- Also on Monday, April 20, the Common Council holds its informal meeting. It is expected that, in addition to introducing various resolutions, the Council will discuss the amendment to clarify Section 325-17.1 of the city code. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.
- On Wednesday, April 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., the Columbia County Housing Advisory Board hosts a Tenant Landlord Forum. The event takes place in person at the Central Fire Station, 77 North Seventh Street, and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
- On Thursday, April 23, the Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency (HCDPA) meets at 6:00 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.
- Also on Thursday, April 23, at 6:00 p.m., the History Room at the Hudson Area Library and the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History present Hudson Valley Food Riots & the American Revolution, a lecture by Thomas Wermuth. In the 1770s, while armies battled throughout New York, the Hudson Valley "home front" suffered food shortages, high costs, and price-gouging shopkeepers. Riotous crowds took matters into their own hands by participating in market seizures and price riots, even threatening to pull their support for the war. The event, which takes place in the Community Room at the Hudson Area Library, 51 North Fifth Street, is free and open to the public.
- On Friday, April 24, the Historic Preservation Commission meets at 10:00 a.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.
Saturday, April 18, 2026
About that $105,000 National Grid Bill
After that article was published (and Gossips posted the link to it), Rob Perry, Superintendent of Public Works, issued this statement about what happened and how it happened. The statement is shared here with his permission.
Street Lighting (5182.46) is the budgetary account for the 891 streetlights in the city, and it averaged $200,000/year before 2024. There were annual fluctuations with the lowest being $188,288 in 2016 and the highest being $208,058 in 2022. These variations were purely a matter of energy cost and any other charges approved by the NYS Public Service Commission (PSC).
Within the annual bill was $8,000 per month for "equipment lease." That was a charge that National Grid assessed the City for every arm, pole and light fixture. While National Grid owned everything, they would change bulbs, migrate arms & fixtures from old poles to new poles and also reattach arms & fixtures to new poles if one was broken by nature or accident. $8,000 per month (or $96,000 per year) would never go away, unless the City agreed to acquire all the assets.
Although several acquisition discussions took place from 2017 to 2023 at DPW & Finance committees of the Council, at full Council, and with every mayor, nothing moved forward until the City contracted with an agency of the State, the New York Power Authority (NYPA). With the assistance of NYPA, the City was able to purchase the Street Light assets from National Grid in May 2024. After acquisition, NYPA presented a contractor, Guth DeConzo, to perform two tasks:
- Task 1: install DISCONNECTS between the light fixture and the power supply from the pole. A requirement from National Grid, and
- Task 2: remove every High Pressure Sodium (HPS) fixture and replace with energy efficient LED fixture with Smart Nodes.
Guth DeConzo began this work in July 2024 and completed their work in December 2024.
Even though the City legally took ownership of the assets in May 2024, we were billed for the lease of assets for months after assuming ownership. Eventually we began to receive credits to reimburse those overcharges in 2024. Our 2024 invoices = $128,533.
The next and last step was for Guth DeConzo to prepare a quantitative report that identified the old and new condition of each fixture. That is, they had to detail all 891 fixtures by what the previous light fixture was, AND what the new fixture is. And National Grid had to amend their billing to represent the delta between old and new. Did this take 18 months from the date of transfer? Yes. But Guth DeConzo had to actually perform the work first (6 months), then audit and certify and submit. Then National Grid had to audit and certify, internally.
In the meantime, whatever happens in the nebulous realm of National Grid . . . invoices were generated, credits were issued and according to Grid . . . replacement invoices were sent, but none received.
The City and its leadership were well aware that our annual costs for street lighting would decrease at the close of this project. We knew the "lease price" would no longer apply. And we knew our energy costs would decrease as the average light was 150 watt HPS and was replaced by a 75 watt LED. What those exact numbers would be was a factor of National Grid rates that are approved by the PSC.
Meanwhile, we continued to receive energy bills for streetlights in 2025. Some had high balances and some had high credits. The City paid EXACTLY what balance was due. For 2025 that was just over $15,000. Was this amount reasonable? No. But we aren't in the habit of overpaying bills because we think it's too low. We wait for the vendor to correct their error.
The DPW 2026 Budget request for streetlights was $120,000. BEA [Board of Estimate and Apportionment] conversations are unknown to me, but at some point the budget was reduced to $30,000.
The resolution before the Council this month uses surplus funds in twelve (12) individual accounts to cover what is outstanding for 2025 charges. It also used Fund Balance to make the 2026 streetlight account "whole" for what we now believe are actual costs.
The resolution Perry references can be found here.
Celebrating Ellen Thurston
Ellen Thurston, one of Hudson's great treasures, died in early January. On Saturday, May 9, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., at the Hudson Opera House, there will be a celebration of her life.
All who knew and loved Ellen are welcome to attend. For more information about the event, click here.
Friday, April 17, 2026
Money Woes Everywhere
It's curious that the residents of Hudson are hearing about this first from the Times Union, but so it goes. The City owes National Grid $105,000: "Hudson upgraded its streetlights. Then got a $105,000 National Grid bill." This is the first paragraph of the article:
Earlier this month, National Grid sent the city of Hudson a notice threatening to disconnect its 891 streetlights, along with a bill for $105,000 in unpaid electricity costs dating back at least a year.
According to the Department of Public Works, National Grid had not been billing regularly for streetlight electricity since the City began upgrading to LED bulbs in 2024. According to National Grid, the City and its contractor failed to submit updated wattage readings in a timely manner. No explanation is given for why no one seemed to notice that the electricity bills were unusually low.
There is, however, a plan to pay the unexpected bill for $105,000 and keep the streetlights on.
[Mayor Joe] Ferris said Hudson will pay most of the outstanding amount using unspent funds from 2025 budget lines. The remainder will be covered by a proposed 2026 budget amendment. City officials officials hope to move money from 12 different municipal accounts to cover the cost, according to a copy of the proposal.
The resolution transferring unspent funds from various accounts and $75,000 from the General Fund can be viewed here. The resolution is on the agenda for Monday's informal meeting of the Common Council.
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Who Is Getting the Money?
Yesterday, the Common Council Finance Committee met to decide how to divvy up the $30,000 allocated to support "events, event series, or other tourism-related initiatives." The Finance Committee has four members--Rich Volo, Lola Roberts, Mohammed Rony, and Margaret Morris--but only two--Volo and Morris--showed up for the meeting. In about half an hour, they made decisions about awarding $23,500.
- $2,000 to Bindlestiff Family Cirkus/Bindlestiff Cirkus Afterschool for its annual summer artist-in-residence program
- $1,000 to FASNY Museum of Firefighting for its annual Dalmatian Day
- $3,000 to OutHudson for the Pride Parade
- $1,000 to Hudson Family Reunion
- $1,000 to Hudson Area Library History Room to design and print Hudson Whaling & Maritime Commerce Walking Tour brochures
- $5,000 for Hudson Flag Day Parade and Festival
- $1,000 to Who Be We! for Juneteenth programing
- $3,000 to Hudson Sloop Club for Waterfront Wednesdays
- $5,000 to Hudson Hall for the Hudson Jazz Festival
- $1,500 to Hudson Film Festival
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| Henry Hudson Riverfront Park the morning after Flag Day |
The spreadsheet containing all the information about the projects that applied for funding can be found under Documents on the Finance Committee page of the City of Hudson website.
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More About the HCSD Budget Crisis
The following, quoted from Gilson's report, is of interest to those who pay property taxes in the Hudson City School District:
The school board also asked about overriding the tax cap. That would require 60% approval from voters, as opposed to the simple majority that suffices when the budget does not go above the tax cap.
According to a state law, if the budget does not pass after two votes, New York state would step in and prepare a contingency budget under which many new costs are prohibited, including equipment purchases, salary increases for non-union employees and new capital projects. A contingency budget would have deeper cuts than the district's proposal, Bailey said.
"A contingency budget would be a disaster, that's safe to say," school board President Mark DePace said.
Where are Ben Wyatt and Chris Traeger when you need them?
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Thursday, April 16, 2026
Another Sidewalk-Related Issue
Sidewalks have been a topic of discussion in Hudson for years. In all discussions of sidewalks, many of which are admittedly in bad shape and unsafe, not just safety but also uniformity have been put forward as goals to be achieved. Back in September 2018, Rob Perry, Superintendent of Public Works, pointed out a problem with the quest for uniformity. At a meeting of the then Public Works and Parks Committee, he showed pictures of some of the most handsome sidewalks in Hudson--sidewalks that had one thing in common: they are not in compliance with city code.
At the meeting of the Common Council Code and Infrastructure Committee this week, Perry brought up another issue that makes uniformity problematic. The city code is inconsistent when it comes to the required width of the sidewalks. In one place, the code indicates sidewalks must be 4 feet wide; in other, it specifies 5 feet. The committee seemed interested in eliminating the inconsistency, but how might they do that?
In the oldest parts of the city, the position of the houses in relation to the street would make a 5-foot width requirement challenging, and it would eliminate altogether creating wells for street trees on these blocks.
UPDATE: After this post was published, Public Works Superintendent Rob Perry contacted Gossips to explain that, after the committee meeting in September 2018, Jeff Baker, who was the city attorney at the time, recommended that the Council amend the code to allow for sidewalks of nonstandard materials. Subsequently, the clause "unless permission in writing is granted by the Commissioner of Public Works" was added to Chapter 266-2 C (3) of the city code:
No material other than the mix above specified shall hereafter be used for the construction or reconstruction or repair of sidewalks in the City of Hudson, unless permission in writing is granted by the Commissioner of Public Works.One hopes the current Commissioner of Public Works, Tyler Kritzman, who sits on the Public Works Board, as well as our new Code Enforcement Officer Nick Fox are aware of this clause.
At a recent Historic Preservation Commission meeting, Matt McGhee brought up the historic brick sidewalk on South First Street, running along the west side of the street from Union Street to Cherry Alley. The proposed demolition and replacement of the garage behind 30 Union Street is currently being reviewed by the HPC, and McGhee expressed concern that the sidewalk in front of the proposed new building be repaired and preserved.
Responding to McGhee's concerns, someone pointed out that the sidewalk was not in compliance with code, seemingly dismissing the notion that the sidewalk should or could be preserved. Actually, given the clause in the code, it does not seem the case that all nonconforming sidewalks need to be replaced so long as they are or can be restored to be ADA compliant.
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Happening This Saturday
The Hudson Farmers' Market returns to its outdoor location at Sixth and Columbia streets this Satuurday. In preparation for that, the Department of Public Works has painted the carrots on the street, marking the way to the market.
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| Photo: Hudson Farmers' Market | Facebook |
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| Norman Posner |
With Milt Meisner, Posner established the market in 1997 to support small farms and start-ups that had no other outlets to sell their produce. The carrot idea came a year or so after HFM got started, and DPW has been faithfully painting the bright orange root vegetables on the pavement every year since, in preparation for the market's spring return to its outdoor location.
This year, the opening of the outdoor market coincides with the second anniversary of Posner's death on April 18, 2024.
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