This Saturday at Clermont

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the country's founding. It also marks the 280th birthday of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. On Saturday, November 14, the Chancellor's birthday will be celebrated at his home, now the Clermont State Historic Site, in Germantown.

On Saturday, November 14, 2026, the public is invited to visit Clermont State Historic Site for an all-day celebration of a favorite, often forgotten, Founding Father, with fun for the whole family! From 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Clermont’s Visitor Center will host games, a magazine launch, pub trivia, and a toast, all in honor of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston’s 280th birthday.

From 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., visitors can enjoy a Ballooning Story Hour, celebrating early flight and the Chancellor’s technological advancements. Visitors can look forward to a balloon-themed story time, historic games, and the launch of a miniature balloon. Fun for kids (and adults) of all ages and abilities. At 2:00 p.m., join the staff of Clermont State Historic Site for the official launch party of The Clermont Dispatch, Clermont’s brand-new in-house publication. Sip Clermont-blend coffee and enjoy light refreshments while reading the new scholarly magazine. At 4:00 p.m., Livingston Trivia Night begins. Register a team, enjoy the cash bar, and play a rousing game of American History pub trivia with fabulous Clermont-related prizes. To cap off the celebration, at 5:30 p.m., the staff at Clermont will raise a toast to the Chancellor and serve cake.

This event is free to attend. Trivia team registration is $10. Tours of the historic mansion will be offered on the hour from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tour tickets cost $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, and $8 for students. Children under 12 are free but must be accompanied by an adult.

Clermont State Historic Site is a riverside mansion and park with a rich and varied history. It was home to seven generations of Livingston family, as well as dozens of enslaved people and paid servants. Clermont’s most famous resident is Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, who served in the Second Continental Congress and was appointed to the Committee of Five who authored the Declaration of Independence. Late in the war, Chancellor Livingston served as the nation’s first Secretary of Foreign Affairs, a position that became Secretary of State. He would go on to be the chief negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase and the co-inventor of the first practical steamboat.

To See Hudson as It Is Presented to Others

As Gossips reported in May, Eric Galloway has created a new not-for-profit for his acquisitions and activities in Savannah called the Civis Foundation. The logo for the new foundation is curiously similar to the logo of the Galvan Foundation.

This morning, a reader sent me a link to the Civis Foundation website, where the Hudson Public Hotel is presented as one of the foundation's projects.

This is what the Civis website has to say about the project:

Civis is working to repurpose vacant land and historic commercial buildings into an affordable hospitality destination in Hudson, New York. This project expands inclusive access for visitors while helping to reactivate the town center through increased foot traffic and support for local businesses. The landmark hotel seeks to preserve the architectural character that anchors the civic identity of the city.

Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

As we move deeper into November, and the days grow shorter and colder, here is what's happening. 

• On Monday, November 9, the Common Council Code and Infrastructure Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
• At 6:00 p.m. on Monday, November 9, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment presents the proposed budget for 2027 to the Common Council. That budget can be found here. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. The link to the meeting has not yet been published.

• On Tuesday, November 10, the Planning Board meets at 6:00 p.m. After months of meetings focused on reviewing the Hudson Housing Authority's ambitious, transformational project, the only thing on the agenda for this meeting, aside from such housekeeping chores as approving minutes and reviewing escrow payments, is making a recommendation on the proposed local law to enact a one-year moratorium on commercial battery energy storage facilities. Appropos this, the Athens Town Board recently adopted legislation to regulate the development of battery energy storage facilities after enacting a moratorium more than two years ago. The Planning Board meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.
• Wednesday, November 11, is Veterans' Day. Hudson's observance of the day honoring all who served begins at Seventh Street Park with a parade down Warren Street to the Columbia County courthouse. The parade steps off at 10:00 a.m.  

• On Thursday, November 12, at 6:00 p.m., the Common Council holds a special meeting to review and discuss the proposed budget for 2027. 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 Friday, November 13, the Historic Preservation Commission meets at 10:00 a.m. On the agenda for the meeting is the continuation of review of the Hudson Public Hotel, a project that has been subject to a stop-work order since August. 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. 

• Friday, November 13, marks the end of the suspension of alternate side of the street rules for overnight parking on weekends. In the night from Friday, November 13, to Saturday, November 14, cars should be parked on the even side of the street; in the night from Saturday, November 14, to Sunday, November 15, cars should be parked on the odd side of the street.  

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Resolving the Violations at Hudson Public

Since August, there has been a stop-work order in place at 402-406 Warren Street, the buildings that are being redeveloped as the Galvan Foundation's Hudson Public Hotel. 

The stop-work order was triggered by violations to the certificate of appropriateness granted by the Historic Preservation Commission in March 2023. The following is the list of violations identified by Code Enforcement Director Nick Fox.

On September 14, Walter Chatham, advising architect for the project, submitted a new application for the project which reflected things that had already been done, many of which were in violation of the original certificate of appropriateness. The HPC has discussed the project a few times since then, and at a special meeting last Friday, it appeared the HPC had reached some conclusions about what should be done.

The HPC seemed to agree early on that, although the certificate of appropriateness specified that the corrugated metal siding on the walls of the building not visible from the street "shall be unpainted galvanized or ungalvanized metal," they did not have a problem with the black painted metal that had been installed. 

Other violations were not as easily dismissed. Ninety-five windows were installed without approval from the HPC. The configuration of all the windows is two-over-two--two panes in the upper sash and two panes in the lower sash. The HPC had not deemed that configuration appropriate to the building. Chatham argued that because all the renderings presented during the original review process showed two-over-two windows, the HPC had given tacit approval to that configuration. 

At the October 23 meeting of the HPC, Matt McGhee maintained that the original buildings--402-404 Warren Street and pair of townhouses facing North Fourth Street--were Greek Revival, built at a time when it was not yet possible to make large panes of glass, and hence the original windows would have been six-over-six. McGhee suggested that the original buildings should have six-over-six windows and the new infill buildings should have two-over-two. 

This picture, which is believed to date from 1866, is the oldest visual documentation of the building. Unfortunately, it does not provide clear evidence of the configuration of the windows, and, given that it was likely taken three or more decades after the building was constructed, it is possible that the windows on the building's primary facade may have been updated. 

At last Friday's meeting, the HPC agreed that the Greek Revival townhouses on North Fourth Street should have six-over-six windows, and the two-over-two windows already installed would be appropriate for the other buildings. 

Photo: Matt McGhee

The building's colonnade was also a topic for discussion at Friday's meeting. The original certificate of appropriateness contained the following condition, which was not met:

The applicant shall return to the Historic Preservation Commission for approval of specifications and details for all windows, doors and light fixtures. The applicant shall also provide additional information on existing storefront marble at the time windows and doors are reviewed.

As Gossips reported in August, two of the three original marble elements were removed, and the third is now covered over with new material. 

At last Friday's meeting, Cara Cragan, the architect member of the HPC, presented what she called a "more detailed approach" to the colonnade. Using 701 Warren Street as a model, whose relevance to 402-404 Warren was noted by McGhee, Cragan suggested there should be marble at the bottom of the colonnade openings. This, she said, would make the colonnade "reminiscent and reverential of what was originally there."

701 Warren Street--Photo: Matt McGhee

Chatham cited possible "water issues" are a reason not to include the marble piece at the bottom of the windows in the colonnade.

Cragan also recommended detailing in the application of the marble veneer, which Chatham referred to as "little cushion capitals."

Cragan suggested that the infill structures--at 406 Warren Street and on North Fourth Street between 402-404 Warren and townhouses--be whitewashed or stuccoed to distinguish them from the historic buildings. In the original proposal, these buildings were to have a "slurry wash." Cragan expressed the opinion, "Stucco feels like a clearer distinction." HPC member John Schobel, however, commented, "We have so much brick and clapboard on Warren Street, but no stucco. Limewash [i.e., whitewash] feels more in keeping with the context."

The HPC has its regular meeting on Friday, November 13. Chatham is expected to have new drawings of the enhanced colonnade, as well as pictures of the proposed doors, for presentation at that time.

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News of Proposed Housing Nearby

Billy Shannon opens his most entry in his Substack column Middle Sphere with these lede:

In a cluster-development partnership with the Columbia Land Conservancy, Habitat for Humanity plans to build and sell 23 starter homes near Hudson in the coming years. The people who will buy the homes will get them for a price significantly lower than they'd fetch on the open market.

Titled "The Missing Rung on the Housing Ladder," the entry features an interview with Columbia County Habitat for Humanity executive director Al Bellenchia. It can be read here.  

The proposed development will be located near the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Route 23/Route 9.  

Good News on the Budget Front

Gossips was mistaken. The 2027 budget was not balanced by raising property taxes the maximum allowed. The projected revenue from taxes for 2027 is exactly the same as it was for 2026: $5,973,844.

What made the difference between the $171,000 gap at the end of the BEA meeting on Wednesday and the $61,000 surplus reported at the start of the meeting on Friday was an amended calculation of projected revenue from sales tax. 

The current budget documents can be found here.

The budget will be presented to the Common Council in a special meeting on Monday, November 9, at 6:00 p.m., at City Hall. 

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What Brought Us to This Place

On Thursday, Friends of Second Street (FoSS) and Project7Hudson held a community forum about the proposed Hudson Housing Authority redevelopment. The forum was introduced by a comprehensive, meticulously researched video recounting the history of Bliss Towers, charting Hudson's population decline, summarizing the current redevelopment plan, and introducing an alterative. That video can be viewed here. It is about half an hour long and well worth the time.

A report about the forum appears today in the Register-Star: "Residents hope Bliss revamp returns to drawing board."

Money for Hudson Infrastructure

The Register-Star reported late this afternoon that Hudson has received grants from the State of New York to improve its infrastructure: "Hudson receives $11.9M from state." The grant for $11,897,604 supports the city's ongoing effort to separate its stormwater sewer from its sanitary sewer, so that in significant rain events effluent from the sanitary sewer does not spill into the Hudson River, a phenomenon known as combined sewer overflow, or CSO. 

According to the article, Rob Perry, Superintendent of Public Works, estimates the sewer separation project will cost $180 million over fifteen years. Perry is quoted as saying, "Twelve million is a nice win, but we're going to keep applying for more and more grants because we want to bring the local costs down as low as possible. Over the next couple of years, we'll continue to apply for as many funding sources as we can get to help offset the cost."

A second grant was also received today: a cybersecurity grant for $50,000 to protect the city's water treatment plant and waste water treatment plant.

The Word on the Proposed 2027 Budget

At the beginning of this afternoon's Board of Estimate and Apportionment session, Mayor Joe Ferris asked City Treasurer Heather Campbell to review "where we stand." Campbell reported that projected revenues for 2027 were $16,673,584 and projected expenditures were $16,612,514. This was assuming a 3.16 percent increase in property taxes.

By the end of the session, the BEA had balanced the budget by reducing the anticipated lodging tax to eliminate the projected three months' of collecting lodging tax at 7 percent, since it is not entirely certain that an increase beyond 5 percent would be approved by the New York State Legislature. 

The BEA will present the budget to the Common Council on Monday, November 9, at 6:00 p.m., at City Hall, after which it will be available online for all to scrutinize.

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Update: Gossips was mistaken. The 2027 budget was not balanced by raising property taxes. The projected revenue from property taxes for 2027 is exactly the same is it was for 2026: $5,973,844.

Of Interest

Roger Hannigan Gilson explores the circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of Bob Gibson from the Department of Social Services in the Times Union today: "Columbia County social services commissioner suddenly resigns." Among other things, the article confirms that Galvan Civic Motel is one of the properties that has been given to Bard College.

Eye on the 2027 Budget

At the end of their workshop yesterday, which went on for more than two hours, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment (BEA) had whittled down the gap between revenue and expenditure to $171,000. A hike in property tax could close that gap.

It will be remembered that on Monday, City Treasurer Heather Campbell reported that the maximum property tax increase for Hudson this year is 3.16 percent, which would yield about $189,000. It remains to be seen if the BEA decides to close the gap by increasing property taxes or not. Council president Margaret Morris has repeatedly stated her commitment not to raise property taxes, but there may be no other way. 

The BEA holds its final workshop tomorrow, Friday, November 6, at 2:30 p.m. The proposed 2027 budget will be presented to the Common Council in a special meeting on Monday, November 9, at 6:00 p.m.

Although the 2027 budget has not yet been completed, City Hall today announced the public hearing on the budget:

The FY2027 Budget Public Hearing will be held on Tuesday, November 17, at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place at City Hall--520 Warren Street--and will also be available remotely via Microsoft Teams.

All residents of the City of Hudson will have the opportunity at the hearing to present comments on the proposed City budget.

After the proposed FY2027 budget is presented to the Common Council on November 9, the document will be available for review at City Hall during regular office hours and online at hudsonny.gov.

Making Connections . . . and Playgrounds

Last week, the Columbia Land Conservancy (CLC) hosted a ribbon cutting to mark the official opening of the new connector trail from the north end of Third Street down to Mill Street and Charles Williams Park.

The trail is Phase 1 of CLC's work on Charles Williams Park. In the spring, Phase 2 will begin, which involves the revitalization of Charles Williams Park--creating a destination playground with nature play features, adult fitness stations, pickleball courts, and a public restroom. Last year, in the Regional Economic Development Council initiative, CLC was awarded $675,000 for the renovation of Charles Williams Park.

Rendering: Starr Whitehouse

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Ear to the Ground

Almost a year ago, in December 2025, the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA) approved a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) for Hudson Mansion, the project that would develop 601 Union Street, for decades the Hudson Elks Lodge, into a boutique hotel. In June 2024, the Planning Board granted the project site plan approval, after a review that went on for eighteen months. The Historic Preservation Commission gave the project a certificate of appropriateness in September 2024.

The terms PILOT agreement offered by the IDA were less generous than the terms originally sought by the developer, Casetta. After the PILOT had been approved, Mike Tucker, then administrative director of the Hudson IDA, commented, "The IDA has seen developers that do not have the wherewithal to complete a project, but these people do." In the post reporting on the IDA action, Gossips commented, "It is not clear, however, given that the benefits of the PILOT being offered are less than what were requested, if the project will move forward."

Nearly a year has passed since the IDA granted the project a PILOT agreement, and in that time little has been heard about it, until last week. At the meeting of the Columbia Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) last Tuesday, October 27, Jonathan Spampinato, who succeeded Tucker as president and CEO of CEDC and administrative director of the Hudson IDA, reported on the status of Hudson Mansion: "We've received some inquiries from them about adding condominiums and how that would impact benefits. So, I'm guessing their investor stack needs a little massaging." 

Later, Spampinato explained how the hotel/condominium combination works: "What's becoming trendy with a lot of hotels is having condominium properties on the property as well that they would manage and will get rolled into the hotel's management, so when you're not there, it's kind of like Airbnb. It just reverts into their inventory, and they manage renting it out." 

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Closing the Gap

At the beginning of yesterday's BEA budget workshop (BEA being the Board of Estimate and Apportionment), the gap between projected revenues and expenditures stood at $1.16 million.

Early in the session, City Treasurer Heather Campbell reported that, given the tax cap in New York State, the maximum property tax increase for Hudson this year is 3.16 percent. If Hudson were to "max it out," the increase in revenue would be about $189,000.

The BEA came up with two ways to increase revenue. The first is to increase the fee for parking in the Amtrak lot--the big city-owned lot across the street from the train station--from $10 a day to $15 a day. Mayor Joe Ferris, who suggested the increase to $15 (the BEA had previously discussed an increase to $12.50), said the greater increase was "a reasonable change, since so many people who use the lot do not live in Hudson."

The second way to increase revenue was the lodging tax, which the BEA is proposing to increase from 5 percent to 7 percent. Since this increase must be approved by the NYS Legislature, it is not certain exactly when the increase could be put into effect.

On the cutting expenditures side, the BEA eliminated the new garbage truck requested by the Department of Public Works and the Hudson Police Department's proposal to hire two new officers. Another proposed cut from HPD's budget was the long-term lease agreement for vehicles. 

At the end of the BEA workshop on Monday, the gap had been whittled down to $264,092. But that might not be the final word. 

At the Common Council Safety Committee meeting last night, Chief Mishanda Franklin and Detective Sergeant Nick Pierro argued for the advantages of the long-term lease agreement proposed by HPD, which would keep City departments in new vehicles and save the City money over time.

The BEA meets again tomorrow, Wednesday, November 4, at 2:30 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at City Hall and on Teams. Click here to join the meeting remotely.  

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Update on the Cats

Last week, Gossips shared an appeal from the Columbia-Greene Humane Society for homes for cats rescued from hoarding situations. Today, CGHS made the following announcement on Facebook.

On behalf of the entire Columbia-Greene Humane Society/SPCA (CGHS/SPCA), we would like to thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of support following three recent cat hoarding cases.

Thanks to the compassion and generosity of our community, we received and processed more than 250 adoption applications. We are delighted to report that all of the cats and kittens have either been placed in loving new homes or are awaiting pickup by their new families. . . .