Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

The month of April--which T. S. Eliot called "the cruelest month"--is almost over, but the last full week of April is jam-packed with meetings and events--some promising to be contentious, others not so much.

On Monday, April 22, there are two Common Council committee meetings: the Fire Committee meets at 5:30 p.m.; the Police Committee meets at 6 p.m. Both meetings take place at City Hall. No agenda is available for either meeting.

On Tuesday, April 23, the Hudson Development Corporation board meets at 12 noon at 1 North Front Street. The calendar on the City of Hudson website indicates that this meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Addressing that problem, HDC issued the following statement last week: 

To clear up the confusion about meeting times: The HDC meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month. In the past the Board traditionally met at noon, but at the request of several public attendees, changed the meeting time to 6 p.m. to accommodate their schedules. The board met for three months at 6 p.m. and public attendance dropped to just one or two individuals. None of those individuals that demanded the time change attended 6 p.m. meetings. Thus, we have returned to a noon meeting schedule. 

Among the items of business before the board will no doubt be the charge that new members of the board were elected illegally at the board's March meeting.

Also on Tuesday, April 23, the Tourism Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at 1 North Front Street. At its last meeting, the board was still debating whether or not to use $20,000 of its $140,000 budget to help fund such community events as Flag Day, Winter Walk, and the Halloween Parade. At the informal meeting of the Common Council on April 8, Council president Tom DePietro and Alderman John Rosenthal (Fourth Ward), who chairs the Legal Committee, spoke of amending the lodging tax law to defund the Tourism Board, making the board's role not to spend a designated portion of the revenue from the City's lodging tax but simply to propose projects to the Council to be funded with that revenue.

On Wednesday, April 24, the Common Council holds a special meeting at 5 p.m., the purpose of which is to discuss next steps in the ongoing city-wide revaluation. Last Tuesday, the Common Council passed a resolution authorizing the mayor to terminate the City's contract with GAR Associates, the consultants hired to do the revaluation. On Friday, the mayor vetoed that resolution. On Wednesday, the Council is expected to vote to override the mayor's veto, as well as to discuss how they plan to proceed if the assessment roll is rejected before the tentative assessments are submitted on May 1. The meeting takes place in the Community Room of the Hudson Area Library, 51 North Fifth Street.

Also on Wednesday, April 24, the Common Council Legal Committee meets at 6:15 p.m., also presumably in the Community Room of the Hudson Area Library. No agenda is available for this meeting, but it is expected the committee will take up the issue of revising the lodging tax law as it pertains to the duties and responsibilities of the Tourism Board, among other things.
Update: The Legal Committee meeting has been canceled.
  
On Thursday, April 25, we all get to take a little break from the sturm und drang of City governance and politics to dine out for a good cause. The Alliance for Positive Health is holding its sixteenth annual Dining Out for Life event. On Thursday, participating restaurants throughout the Northeast contribute a percentage of their sales to HIV/AIDS-related programs and services. The restaurants in Hudson where you can dine out for life are Baba Louie's, Ca' Mea, Helsinki Hudson, and the Red Dot. 

On Friday, April 26, the Historic Preservation Commission holds its second meeting of the month at 10 a.m. in City Hall. At its last meeting, the HPC began a discussion of how it might intervene to prevent the loss of historic integrity as a result of neglect and demolition by neglect in historic districts. This discussion may or may not be continued at this Friday's meeting.

Also, on Friday, April 26, the Tourism Board pursues its understood yet controversial task: "to take all reasonable steps it determines desirable, necessary and proper to market the City of Hudson as a destination for overnight and daytrip visitors." From 1 to 5 p.m., the board will be hearing presentations from two of the four consulting firms being considered to help develop a marketing and branding strategy: Neo Design Group and Fifteen Degrees. The four-hour session takes place at 1 North Front Street.
Update: This meeting of the Tourism Board to hear presentations has been canceled. Presentations by all four firms being considered will take place, at different times throughout the day, on Friday, May 10.
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