Public Hearing On, Public Input Canceled

Two meetings were scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8. One was the Planning Board public hearing on the amended site plan for 347 Warren Street.

The other was a second opportunity for public input on the conceptual design for the entrance to Promenade Hill that will accompany a grant application due at the end of the month.

The good news, for everyone who wanted to be two places at once on Wednesday evening, is that the meeting about Promenade Hill has been canceled. The bad news, for everyone who cares about what happens in and around Hudson's most historic park, is that the meeting about Promenade Hill has been canceled. 

Initially, it was believed that the meeting scheduled for July 8 would be a second opportunity to see what was planned for the entrance to the park, the first being the meeting that took place on June 24. As it turned out, the meeting held on June 24, a little more than a month before the grant application is due, was meant only to gather public input. No plans were presented beyond the same two possible designs for a ramp that had been shown to the Common Council Economic Development Committee back in February. John "Duke" Duchessi, consultant to Hudson Development Corporation, anticipated that a conceptual design "with numbers attached" would be presented at the next meeting--the meeting originally scheduled for July 8, which has now been canceled.

This grant is an important one for Promenade Hill. Normally, if a grant application like this isn't successful, there's no harm done. Things just stay the way they are. That's not the case this time. If this grant application isn't successful, and there is no money to do the job well, the Common Council is committed to spending $20,000 to install a "temporary" ramp at the entrance to Promenade Hill. Given the alternative, we need to hope the grant application is successful, but it would be nice to know just what we are hoping for. In the twenty-four days remaining before the application is due, it would be nice to see what's being proposed, even if, as Duchessi stressed on June 24, the conceptual design used for the grant application may not be the design that is actually executed. 
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

Addendum: Duchessi assured Gossips this morning that there will be another public meeting about the plans for Promenade Hill. That meeting has not been scheduled yet, but as soon as it is, Gossips will let you know.