Of Interest

Tom Casey reports on last Monday's Public Works Committee meeting in today's Register-Star: "Auction helps city pay for field use." The final item in Casey's report sent Gossips to Promenade Hill to see what changes had been wrought: "DPW supplied topsoil to volunteers from BeLow3rd [sic] who installed the soil as well as ground cover and pavers at Promenade Hill. The volunteers requested to also remove worn down bushes with topsoil and grass." 

Promenade Hill is Hudson's oldest park. Established in 1795, it has the distinction of being the first public space in the country set aside for the purpose of viewing the landscape. Many have believed for a long time that the park should be the subject of a historic landscape study, which would inform a master plan for its restoration. For various reasons, this has not yet happened, and in the absence of a master plan, well-intentioned piecemeal improvements to Promenade Hill make purists a little nervous.

Gossips' reconnaissance yielded the information that the raised bed surrounding the flagpole has been planted with a ground cover and three pieces of bluestone have been laid as a path to the flagpole for the person who lowers the flag to halfmast during periods of public mourning. Nicely done, BeLo3rd!