Meetings (and Events) of Interest This Week

This week, there are many meetings in a variety of different places.

• Today, Monday, September 10, the Common Council holds its informal meeting at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will take place not in the Council Chamber at City Hall but in the Community Room of the Hudson Area Library, 51 North Fifth Street. Among other things, the Council will be receiving the recommendation from the Columbia County Planning Board on proposed Local Law No. 5, the law amending the zoning in R2 and R2H to allow the expansion of nonconforming uses. In February, comments from CCPB sent proposed Local Law No. 9 back to committee. The Hudson Planning Board began its consideration of Local Law No. 5 at its August meeting and has not yet made a recommendation. Former city attorney Ken Dow and former Third Ward alderman John Friedman, also an attorney, have expressed concerns about proposed Local Law No. 5. 
• On Tuesday, September 11, the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA) meets at 1 p.m. at 1 North Front Street. At its meeting on August 22, the IDA discussed opening the board to community members. The consideration of new board members will probably continue at this meeting.
• Also on Tuesday, September 11, from 5 to 7 p.m., the launch of the new book by author/illustrator Hudson Talbott: Picturing America: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Art takes place at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. Talbott will be on the porch of the historic house, signing copies of his book. All book sales at the event will benefit educational programming at the site.

• On Wednesday, September 12, Fifth Ward aldermen Dominic Merante and Eileen Halloran will hold a town hall meeting for residents of the Fifth Ward in the Community Center at Crosswinds, 15 Rogers Lane. The meeting begins at 6 p.m.

• Thursday, September 13 is the State Primary Election. Voters in Hudson who are registered Democrats or registered members of the Independence Party or the Reform Party vote for candidates to be on the ballot in the November election. Democrats vote for candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. Independence Party members vote for a candidate for the State Assembly. Reform Party members vote for a candidate for attorney general. The polls are open from noon for 9 p.m. Click here for more information and sample ballots.
• At 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 13, HCDPA (Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency) holds its monthly meeting at 1 North Front Street. The HCDPA board has been contemplating selling of the agency's assets and dissolving the agency. At its last meeting, city attorney Andy Howard told the board there were advantages to maintaining HCDPA. "Liquidating assets is a good thing," he told the board. "Dissolving the agency is not something I would recommend." The discussion of these issues will likely continue at the September meeting.
• At 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 13, the Planning Board meets at City Hall. It is expected that Alderman John Rosenthal (Fourth Ward), who chairs the Legal Committee, will be at the meeting to explain "the thinking behind" proposed Local Law No. 5. What else may be on the agenda for that meeting it not yet known.
• On Friday, September 14, at 10:00 a.m., the Historic Preservation Commission has its first meeting of the month at City Hall. This is the meeting at which the HPC receives new certificate of appropriateness applications for review.

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