More, More, More About "Civic Hudson"

At the Common Council Finance Committee meeting last night, Mayor William Hallenbeck presented a letter he received from Eric Galloway's Lantern Organization, offering the City $150,000 for the vacant lot at the southwest corner of Fourth and State streets. Tom Casey has the story in today's Register-Star: "Lantern eyes city parking lot." Rick Scalera, perennial mayor of Hudson turned "special adviser" to Galloway's Galvan Initiatives Foundation, is reported to have urged the City to "move on this offer." Common Council President Don Moore advised caution. 

The land in question, until 1994 (Scalera's first year in office) the site of the Fourth Street School, is owned by the City of Hudson but is currently being used by Columbia County to provide additional parking for 325 Columbia Street. Located across Long Alley from the proposed site of "Civic Hudson," the lot is sought by Lantern to provide parking for whatever use is settled on for that building.

On the topic of "Civic Hudson," Linda Mussmann informed Gossips last night that the rumor reported here that Lantern was pursuing the idea of having Columbia Memorial Hospital establish a walk-in clinic in the building was incorrect. According to Mussmann, the plan is for a health center that would provide "wrap-around care"--dental and psychiatric as well as medical--and give people without regular health care providers an alternative to going to the emergency room at the hospital for non-emergency health problems. The facility would be run not by CMH but by "an independent group that is doing these kinds of centers." Mussmann declared the proposal for such a facility "a good thing."