- The City of Hudson is getting $248,000 for the Upper Union Street Green Stormwater Retrofit, which "will use stormwater tree planters to intercept rainfall and prevent it from entering the combined sewer system along Union Street in the City of Hudson. . . . This pilot project will help the City to decide where to install similar green infrastructure practices throughout the community."
- The Hudson Opera House is getting $1.3 million for "restoration of the theater's staircase, hall, stage and backstage, new equipment and seating, installation of a new elevator and window, and other improvements."
- Redburn Development Companies is getting $1.5 million to "acquire and rehabilitate 41 Cross Street in Hudson. This historic building, currently used mainly for storage, was built in 1876 and would be redeveloped into a 56 room boutique hotel with fitness center and rooftop space."
The rest of the awards destined for Columbia County can be reviewed here on pages 97 and 98.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK
Damn, that is great news all around!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to the Opera House and Redburn.
ReplyDeleteBut the 3rd award for stormwater control wasn't based on a benefit/needs analysis, or on any analysis at all.
It's not part of a badly needed comprehensive approach to our runoff problems, but just grabbing at money which should never have been awarded.
If the City even knows how to calculate runoff volumes, it has never shared that information with anyone (and for good reason).
It's wonderful, though, that our DPW Commissioner and Superintendent finally discovered how easy it is to channel funding by using the magic words "green infrastructure," even if they were only motivated by the need for a fig leaf.
The problem they've been loathe to acknowledge all along concerns contaminants in urban runoff, more than water volume. That's a problem which their stormsewer separation plan - the one in need of the fig leaf - will only exacerbate, and which this award does nothing to address.
Upper Union Street is near the top of our gravity-fed collection system, so the project will have little filtering effect on the city's filthy runoff.
This award, at this time, is wasteful of taxpayer dollars. Then you consider that other, worthier projects lost out as a result, and the cynicism of it all makes you sick to your stomach.
What wonderful news for HOH. Who would have imagined, so many years ago, when 5 or 6 of us --the first HOH Board, sat around Janet and Bill Ebel's kitchen table planning and dreaming about how to make the empty building, of which we had just become stewards,into what we hoped it would be--The Hudson Opera House --a welcoming and exciting place for everyone. It happened slowly, but it has happened, thanks to everyone over the years who worked to make to so, and especially of course to Gary, the untiring guiding genius behind it all.
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