Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Anticipated Revenue and Changes of Heart

At the end of the June 18 Common Council meeting, Alderman Cappy Pierro (Fifth Ward) asked about the vacant lot at Fourth and State streets and the Dunn building on Water Street. It will be remembered that at a special meeting in November 2012, the Council voted to sell these two City-owned properties in order to close a $300,000 gap in the 2013 budget. Now, halfway through 2013, Pierro wanted to know, "When are we going to auction these off?"

In answer to Pierro's question, Council president Don Moore explained that the Dunn building was "working on two tracks." He said that two parties have expressed interest in purchasing the building but gave no information about who the parties might be. He also spoke of a grant from the Department of State, awarded, if memory serves, back in 2008, to evaluate the building and assess "what it would take to rehab it and prepare it for public or private use."

Although the 1996 vision for the waterfront imagined a row of commercial buildings along the east side of Water Street, with the former Dunn's warehouse anchoring the south end of the lineup, and Mayor William Hallenbeck is alleged to have proposed that the waterfront, presumably including the Dunn building, would make a great outlet mall, several members of the Council seem to be questioning the wisdom of encouraging dense commercial development at the waterfront.

Alderman Nick Haddad (First Ward), who was absent from the special meeting at which the Council made the commitment to sell the Dunn building, stressed that the "value [of the building] cannot be overestimated in terms of long-term waterfront development" and advised that "it should remain as part of what we do down there"--implicitly arguing against simply selling the building to whomever would pay the most for it and had the capital to rehab it.

The self-appointed fiscal conscience of the Council, Alderman Ohrine Stewart (Fourth Ward) reminded her colleagues that the sale of the two properties had been written into the budget as anticipated revenue. Alderman John Friedman (Third Ward) suggested that, since the year is already half over, "we need to work on plugging that hole some other way," which prompted Haddad to ask if the money from the recent auction of foreclosed properties might "plug the hole."

Answering the question, city treasurer Eileen Halloran explained that the money from the auction--$425,000--goes into the general fund. Because the City collects taxes for the county and the school district, part of the income from the auction was recouping monies already apportioned, but the amount represented by unpaid city taxes and all of the amount over and above the sum of the unpaid taxes--$85,551--could go toward filling the 2013 budget gap, since the proceeds of the auction had not been written into the budget as anticipated income. She also stated that the City had "a decent fund balance, and we can fall back on that."

The Council was thus assured that the City would not grind to a halt if the Dunn's warehouse was not sold in the next 188 days. Still, Pierro declared, "That parkin' lot should go," referring to the vacant lot at State and Fourth streets, and Stewart concurred.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

18 comments:

  1. How many of those who participated in the Vision Plan, and who still live in Hudson, would refuse to alter the document today after 17 years?

    I can't emphasize how often it was used to justify this or that smelly idea in the LWRP, but there it is: we're chained to the thing.

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    1. A number of us are still here, unheimlich.

      What's most interesting about the Vision Plan, in this context, is that the people most involved in its development never had a chance to review and comment on it adequately before it was commandeered by Rick Scalera in a pet over a perceived endorsement of his opponent in the 1995 mayoral race that appeared in the Vision Plan newsletter. We'll never know, had the process been allowed to continue, if this is the document we would have ended up with. Also, although the City seems to be slavishly following it, the Vision Plan was never officially adopted by the Common Council.

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    2. Rick Scalera would have done a thing like that?

      I'm shocked, shocked. Round up the usual suspects.

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    3. Never mind that the endorsed candidate was hounded, and lost the election by a small margin. And that the Mayor himself dusted off the proposed plan when it suited him although he barely jumped on board at the end of the meetings when about 200 people were showing up at J. L. Edwards.

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    4. "Very well then, instead of fleeing this town, I'll stay here and grow fat off kickbacks and slush funds."

      Mayor Quimby of "The Simpsons"

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  2. Like sheep wandering aimless, we,have no guidance...

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  3. This just in; the old Dunn building will be used as a toll booth for the new truck route. The tunnel will pass under the RR tracks and emerge in 7th street park.

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  4. The Vision Plan, in my opinion, is quite broad, and is in many ways, brilliant in looking forward. No plan this old is perfect, but there are some wonderful gems in there.

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  5. Acting as head of Hudson Development Corp, Mayors like Scalera, will sell this City's Liberty to (Lighthouse Tours, Spirit, HPBA) the highest bidders. In turn, they erect fences with locked gates, further disenfranchising the "unconnected". The Poor Man's pathway to paradise is being restricted. Leave go the Lady Faithful!
    1 Riparian

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  6. Any solution that privatizes the property on the West side of Water St. is unacceptable.
    The East side should be utilized to provide public parking, yes kids a parking lot, buildings w/ storefronts & 2-3 stories to offer apartments or condos.
    The street level of the buildings should include an front space to accommodate outside dining, benches & public restrooms.
    The access CSX bridge has to be addressed.
    I see visions of Galvan for Hudson at 4th & State, plus the Waterfront.
    Hey, maybe Galvan could purchase the south side of Warren between Front & 1st, change the whole area by erecting street level buildings to complete the Warren St. flow.

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    1. I agree emphatically:

      "The East side should be utilized to provide public parking ..."

      (The lot uphill from the Dunn building.)

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  7. Every square spare foot should be used to Promote Navigation. Manpower and know-how, just like Key West, and North Dock..

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  8. For the cost of first study on the Dunn building, the "Development" corp. could have used this building as they should have used the factory torn down on North Front. Either building could hold numerous small craft; tin boats, canoes etc. in cradles, just as they do in Key West. At that point, county Navigators would be one forklift away from river access. No need for grant writers, no room for graft. Could it be that no access to graft, is the reason why HDC doesn't promote river access?

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    1. This is an idea worth supporting, but potential lead and asbestos are the problem.

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    2. The beauty of tin boats; low maintenance. Same as canoes. The lot next to Dunns, Fosters or North Dock could hold fifty trailers each. Five minutes after a phone call, a garden tractor coud slip them in time for pick up or departure. Just like Key West.

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  9. As far as the asbestos, our dislodged group was comprised of a dozen middle aged contractors. Master craftsmen who were also tin boat Navigators. With manpower and know-how, nothing is impossible...

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