More About Botstein and Epstein

Times Union investigative reporter Sarah Trafton has another story about Leon Botstein and Jeffrey Epstein in today's paper: "Epstein told assistant to ensure woman has 'appropriately dressed' for Botstein."

News from City Hall

Our new mayor has a number of vacant positions to fill--commissioners, as well as code enforcement officer. Today it was announced that he has named a new Commissioner of Youth. The official announcement from City Hall follows.

Mayor Ferris is pleased to announce the appointment of Daren Collins, Sr., to serve as the City of Hudson's Commissioner of Youth. A lifelong resident of Hudson with two children who attend Hudson Junior High School, Daren has dedicated his life to serving our community. He currently works as an Attendance Officer/Community Relations Specialist for the Hudson City School District and a Youth Mentor with the Mental Health Association. His passion for youth, sports, and cooking drives his work as an assistant coach for the Hudson Varsity Football team, head coach of Southern Columbia Hudson Pop Warner, and a coach for Got Game Sports. He also proudly serves on the Columbia County Youth Bureau board, the Southern Columbia Hudson Pop Warner board, and supports local catering initiatives with What's Really Good. His philosophy is simple: unity is power, positivity is light, and love is the answer.

Exhibition for the Semiquincentennial

The 250th anniversary of the founding of our country isn't getting as much attention as the 200th anniversary did. Maybe that's because Semiquincentennial is harder to remember and pronounce than Bicentennial, or maybe it's because the great experiment that is American democracy is so threatened in this anniversary year. Nevertheless, the History Room at the Hudson Area Library will be observing this significant anniversary--a quarter millennium--with a special Hudsoncentric exhibit: Patriots of Hudson in the Revolutionary War. Joining the History Room in observing the Semiquincentennial are the Jacob Leisler Institute and the DAR.

The opening reception for the Hudson Area Library’s History Room exhibit, Patriots of Hudson in the Revolutionary War, will be Thursday, March 5, at 6 p.m. in the library’s Community Room. The exhibit celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States and features stories of local residents who supported the fight for American independence. 

Registration is required for the opening; email brenda.shufelt@hudsonarealibrary.org.

This event is the launch of a three-site exhibition developed collaboratively by the Hudson Area Library, the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, and the Hendrick Hudson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In addition to the three exhibits, each institution will have related programming throughout the year. The Hudson Area Library will offer a three-credit Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) class on the exhibit for local teachers. The library will also have a follow-up exhibit on the effect of the war on the neighboring indigenous tribes, including an examination of the history of the Esopus Tribe. It will be researched and curated by Justin Wexler of Wild Hudson Valley who studies local Eastern Algonquian languages, history, and folklore.

Each institution’s exhibit focuses on a different aspect in local history of the fight for independence:

The Hudson Area Library exhibit, Patriots of Hudson in the Revolutionary War, profiles local residents who fought in the Revolutionary War or who contributed to the fight for independence. Several went on to help found the City of Hudson. The exhibit will be on view from March 5 through June 30, 2026. The library’s exhibit was made possible by the Rheinstrom Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History exhibit is titled From Glorious Revolution Toward Independence: America's Forgotten First Revolution. The exhibit will be on display at 46 Green Street Studios in Hudson in July 2026. This exhibit focuses on how the peoples of the former Dutch colony of New Netherland--New York, New Jersey, and the three lower Pennsylvania counties (Delaware)--created, during the Glorious Revolution of 1689-1691, a unique American identity that influenced the movement for independence from Great Britain eighty-five years later.

The Hendrick Hudson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution exhibit is called Who Were Our Patriots? and will be at the Hendrick Hudson Chapter NSDAR Historic Robert Jenkins house at 113 Warren Street in Hudson in the Spring/Summer of 2026. This exhibit will flesh out the lives of selected Revolutionary War patriots. Included will be those to whom several of the chapter's members proved their lineal descent and thus qualified for membership in the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Also included will be "forgotten patriots"--Native American and African American patriots and at least one woman. Local ties, if any, will be emphasized, and, when possible, relevant social issues will be explored. The focus is on remembering heroines and heroes from 250 years ago.

Botstein Responds

Today, in Rural Intelligence, Jamie Larson reports about Leon Botstein and the accounts of his connection with Jeffrey Epstein: "Bard President Botstein Responds to Epstein Ties in Campus Email, But Big Questions Remain." 

The issue is of interest to us in Hudson not only because Bard College is a few miles down the road but also because the institution is soon to own about eighty properties in the City of Hudson.

Update: If you are curious to know exactly what Botstein said in that email, it can be found here, in The Daily Catch.

Time and Again

Back in 2009, a resolution of the Hudson City School District Board of Education created the Task Force on Student Academic Performance to study the district and make recommendations for improving academic performance. The report summarizing the conclusions of the task force was submitted in February 2010. The report was used by HCSD Superintendent Maria Suttmeier to guide changes she made during her tenure (2012-2022) to improve reading scores and graduation rates. 

Peter Meyer, who chaired the Task Force, provided the link to the report in his comments on a couple of recent Gossips posts. You can access the report by clicking here. Given HCSD's abysmal performance on assessment tests and the conversation around the current search for a new superintendent, the report still has relevance and is recommended reading.

Hudson in a Super Bowl Ad

Spenser Walsh reports in today's Register-Star that the Super Bowl ad for Redfin|Rocket Mortgage includes brief glimpses of scenes in Hudson: "Hudson featured in Super Bowl ad." The two scenes of Hudson show the park at the courthouse, with West Court Street in the background, and a location in Mt. Ray Estates. 

Strangely, the image of courthouse square is flipped, so that Partition Street appears at the left and Allen Street at the right.

To watch the entire ad, click here. The two images of Hudson appear toward the end.

Of Interest

It was a bit of serendipity that, on the same day the link to the Superintendent Search Survey was published on Gossips, this opinion piece appeared in the New York Times: "These Three Red States Are the Best Hope in Schooling." 

Photo: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

The three states in question are Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. These states have achieved significant gains in public education by insisting "on metrics, accountability and mastery of reading by the end of third grade." They also recognize the importance of getting kids to attend school regularly.

The following is quoted from the piece:

For many years, skeptics have offered dispiriting arguments about the prospects for educational gains: The way to improve literacy is to fix the family, fix addiction, fix the parents, for as long as the child's environment is broken, there's not much else that can be done.

The gains in these states suggest that that critique is wrong. Mississippi and Alabama haven't fixed child poverty, trauma and deeply troubled communities--they have figured out how to get kids to read by the end of third grade.

Here's another quote that will resonate with taxpayers in the Hudson City School District:

What's particularly impressive is that the Southern surge states lifted student achievement with only modest budgets. Spending per pupil in Alabama and Mississippi was below $12,000 in 2024, while in New York it was almost $30,000.

In Hudson, the budget for 2025-2026 works out to almost $40,000 per student.

A Preview of What Is to Come

The Planning Board meets tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. On the agenda for the meeting is the Hudson Housing Authority's redevelopment plan. In advance of that meeting, materials to be presented at the meeting have been posted in the Planning Board Portal. Among those materials are elevation drawings--not renderings that show the buildings in the context of the surrounding neighborhood but two dimensional elevation drawings--of the buildings proposed for the Bliss Towers site and for the lot at corner of Second and Columbia streets, now a community garden.

This is the elevation drawing for the west facade of Building A1, which will be situated on the Bliss Towers site, behind the current building. (When the new buildings have been constructed and the current tenants relocated, the tower will be demolished.)

Additional elevation drawings for this building, as well as floor plans, can be found here.

This is the elevation drawing for the street-facing facade of Building B, which will be located on State Street where the park and gazebo currently are. 

Additional elevation drawings for this building, as well as floor plans, can be found here.

In July, this drawing of the design being considered for the townhouses was shared.

The design seems to have evolved since then. This is the elevation drawing for the street-facing facade of the townhouses.

Additional elevation drawings and floor plans for the townhouses can be found here.

When this project got started almost three years ago, Alexander Gorlin Architects was announced as the architectural firm that would be designing the buildings. Gorlin and his associates appeared at several meetings over the years. Curiously though, the plans and drawings submitted to the Planning Board today are not from Alexander Gorlin Architects but from a firm called Aufgang Architects, located in Suffern. One wonders exactly when and why Gorlin was replaced by Aufgang as the architects for the project. 

COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK

HCSD Superintendent Search Update

The Hudson City School District website now has a page devoted to the Superintendent Search.

There you will find the proposed timeline for hiring a new superintendent. It involves four phases, the first of which, to take place in the month of February, is Community Input. A part of the Community Input phase is the Superintendent Search Survey. Input is being sought from all stakeholders in the district, which are defined as:

• Parents and guardians
• Students
• Teachers and staff
• Community members
• Local partners and organizations

The survey can be found here. Readers who live in the Hudson City School District, especially those who are property owners and taxpayers, are encouraged to complete it.

Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

The best thing that's going to happen this week is that on Wednesday the high temperature is predicted to be a balmy 36 degrees. In addition to that eagerly anticipated event, there are some meetings of interest.

• On Monday, February 9, the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA) meets at 1:00 p.m.--a different day and a different time for this group, not mention all the new faces: Mayor Joe Ferris, Planning Board chair Ron Bogle, Common Council minority leader Mohammed Rony, and community member Jonathan Spampinato. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at 1 City Centre, Suite 301, and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
• At 5:30 p.m. on Monday, February 9. the Common Council Code and Infrastructure Committee holds its initial meeting. At this meeting, Rob Perry, superintendent of Public Works, is expected to make his usual monthly report. Since this past Friday was Craig Haigh's last day working as code enforcement officer for the City of Hudson, and, to Gossips' knowledge, a new code enforcement officer has not yet been hired, it is unclear if the Code Enforcement Office will be represented at this meeting. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
• At 6:30 p.m. on Monday, February 9, Mayor Joe Ferris holds his first town hall meeting in the Second Ward. The meeting takes place in the Community Room of Bliss Towers, 41 North Second Street.

• On Tuesday, February 10, the Planning Board meets at 6:00 p.m. The agenda for the meeting, which can be found here, contains several things of interest, among them Hudson Housing Authority's redevelopment plans (it is hoped the presentation to the Planning Board will finally include renderings to show what the proposed buildings will actually look like) and a proposal to locate a business called GiGi's Wine Bar in one of the commercial spaces at 76 North Seventh Street, a.k.a. Depot Lofts. 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 Thursday, February 12, the Public Works Board meets at 5:30 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, February 12, the Common Council Legal Committee meets at 6:30 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
• On Friday, February 13, the Historic Preservation Commission meets at 10:00 a.m. No agenda for the meeting is as yet available, but it is likely the meeting will include the continuation of the proposal to demolish the existing garage behind 30 Union Street and replace with a new structure. 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.

COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK

Food News

Eater NY reports today a change soon to happen in the restaurant at Rivertown Lodge: "The Hudson Valley's Buzziest Chef Is Opening a New Spot." What's coming is a "new Mexican restaurant, Pez, with a focus on seafood, on track to open in early May."

The Torch Is Lighted

In 1980, the Olympic torch passed through Hudson on its way to Lake Placid for the Winter Olympics. That event was recorded by Lance Wheeler in a video that can be viewed here.

To memorialize that event, the Hudson Kiwanis Club created a commemorative Olympic torch, which currently resides in the little traffic island that is Rogers Park.

Today, to mark the opening of the Winter Olympics in Milan, officials from the City of Hudson and Columbia County, along with representatives of the revived Kiwanis Club, gathered to light Hudson's commemorative torch, which will burn throughout the duration of the XXV Winter Games.

Photo: Lance Wheeler

Lance Wheeler's video of the torch-lighting ceremony this year in Hudson can be viewed here. 

COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK

A Disturbing Development

Investigative reporter Sarah Trafton has an article in the Times Union exposing the appearance of Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, in the Epstein files: "'I miss you': Emails detail close ties between Jeffrey Epstein and Bard President Leon Botstein." The picture below, which accompanies the article, shows Epstein in Botstein's office. It was included in an email set to Epstein on May 14, 2013, and released as part of the Justice Department's disclosure of the Epstein files.

Botstein is maintaining that his relationship with Epstein was "strictly for the purpose of securing donations for Bard."

Related to the HCSD Superintendent Search

At the January 20 meeting of the Hudson City School District Board of Education, board member Michael Zibella noted there were "six to eight districts in the immediate area looking for a superintendent." One of those districts is Catskill Central across the river. 

Today, Catskill Central shared this information with the Catskill community by email and on its website:

Dear Catskill Community,

The Board of Education would like to send an update to the community regarding the Superintendent search. We hired a search consultant, conducted a full search, interviewed candidates, and brought back three finalists that our community met with. We are very pleased with the completeness of the process and the interest of everyone involved. The Board offered employment to one candidate who accepted. Unfortunately, the candidate then withdrew. The Board pivoted and offered employment to another well-qualified candidate who accepted, then withdrew. Needless to say, this was very disappointing to the entire Board.

At this time, the Board of Education is continuing to explore its options and continue its search. Thank you to our community and stakeholders for their patience while we continue to maneuver this process.

Sincerely,

The Catskill Central School District Board of Education

The consultant hired by Catskill Central School District is Mike Ford of School Leader Search. 

It's a Small World

Last week's post explaining how Bliss Towers got its name inspired Louise Bliss to share some information that may not be generally known. Louise's first husband was Malcolm Bliss, the son of Elah and Roger Bliss, Roger Bliss being the person for whom Bliss Towers was named. Louise and Malcolm's son Robert was a teacher and the assistant superintendent of schools in Rutland, Vermont, when our mayor Joe Ferris was growing up and going to school there. According to Louise, her son remembers that in high school Ferris was an excellent student who participated in clubs and organizations that seem now to "fit right in" with becoming a mayor.

As Mayor Ferris said when I told him that I was planning to write this post, "It's a small world."

COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK

Of Interest

In 2018, a group from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University created eight design ideas for Oakdale Lake. In 2021, students from Pratt Institute's School of Architecture and Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation proposed ideas for reimagining Hudson's waterfront. 

Now a group from the Yale School of Architecture is doing a project on Hudson, which focuses in part on the waterfront. To assist in this effort, Sam Pratt created a timeline of Hudson history. That timeline can be found here. 

The timeline is the focus of a post by Donna Streitz, of Our Hudson Waterfront, which is featured on imby.com today: "A Clear Lesson from Waterfront History." The following is quoted from that post:

The timeline makes clear that Hudson's waterfront has played a central role in the city's economic, cultural, and civic development far beyond the shoreline itself. Today, that legacy is at risk following the Hudson Planning Board's 2025 approval of a Conditional Use Permit for the dock--owned and operated by A. Colarusso & Sons since 2014--that imposes no limit on truck volume and allows weekend operation.

Streitz's entire post can be read here.

What a Concept

Ron Bogle, the new chair of the Planning Board, appeared at last night's meeting of the Conservation Advisory Council to propose that the Planning Board and the CAC might collaborate to achieve better outcomes. He suggested there were projects that had come before the Planning Board in the prior year "that would have benefited from input from the CAC." He didn't specify which projects, but two spring to mind: Mill Street Lofts and the conditional use permit for Colarusso's dock operations. 

In the discussion that followed, CAC member Joshua Cohen noted that in Saugerties the Planning Board regularly asks the Conservation Advisory Council to weigh in on projects before it. This hasn't been happening Hudson. Quite the opposite. It will be recalled that former Common Council president Tom DePietro specifically advised against the CAC weighing in on the Colarusso issue.

It was speculated that Nathan Woodhull, who has served on the CAC and was recently appointed to the Planning Board, might serve as a liaison between the two bodies. 

Could this be the beginning of a more enlightened age in Hudson? 

COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK