The Dumping Grounds
Gossips toured two obviously popular but completely illegal dumping sites in the city yesterday--both on the north side town. One of them, behind the backyard of 90 North Second Street, turns out to be on county property.
The location of this illegal dumping site is at the western end of land that used to be part of the Charles Williams School property. Decades ago, the building and the land were given to Columbia County by the school district. In 2004, when the City of Hudson gave the county the lots on which 325 Columbia Street now stands in exchange for the Charles Williams School, this little piece of land apparently wasn't part of the deal. So, even now, when the Charles Williams School belongs to people who plan to turn it into an arts center, this bit of land still belongs to the county.
The owner of property adjacent to this dumping site is reported to have tried unsuccesfully, during the previous administration, to get the site cleaned up and was allegedly told by Rick Scalera that there was nothing he could do about it. The current administration, however, is taking a different attitude. Gossips was privy to a conversation last Friday morning between Peter Wurster, code enforcement officer, and Mayor William Hallenbeck, in which they agreed that Wurster would speak to David Robinson, public works commissioner for Columbia County, about cleaning up the mess. In the conversation, they also discussed the second dumping site--at the eastern end of Rope Alley.
This property is owned by the Hudson City School District. Hallenbeck and Wurster agreed that Wurster would contact George Keeler, the buildings and grounds superintendent for HCSD, about getting this illegal dump site cleaned up, too.
Perhaps a "Clean Up Hudson's Act" day is in order.
ReplyDeleteWith publicity I bet we could find a lot more trash lying around that could be done away with promptly with by a concerted effort.
City supplied bags/dumpsters and volunteers to fill them could work!
Four or five years ago we did exactly that, with city-provided bags and a time and place for volunteers to show up. There were plenty of bags, but only four volunteers. Each year after that I simply went out on my own and pursued the thing for my own gratification. The city will pick up bags of litter when left by the public receptacles. See you out there!
ReplyDeleteI helped organize for multiple years in a row (c. 1998-2003) with Ed Cross, a community cleanup day focused on "downtown." We always had a large crew of people show up, and sometimes had lunch afterward at AME Zion. There is plenty of people power for these efforts, if they are properly organized.
ReplyDelete--S.