It's Only (Tax) Money

After many fits and starts and feasibility studies and spending $1.5 million for the old Ockawamick School, a building no one wanted, the Columbia County Board of Supervisors finally decided, in May 2012, to buy 25 Railroad Avenue, the building that the county had been leasing for twenty years for the Department of Social Services. The price was $1.288 million, 29 percent more than the price allegedly offered to the City of Hudson a year or so earlier, and there was never an explanation of why the county had to pay more.

Now we learn that Paul Mossman, commissioner for social services, wants to spend another $3 to $5 million to "upgrade the building and expand the parking lot." The parking lot expansion alone is expected to cost almost half a million dollars. Nathan Mayberg has the whole story in today's Register-Star: "DSS chief backs $3 to $5 million upgrade project."