Returning to School in 2020

Today is the day that every school district in New York was to submit its reopening plan to the state. Last night, Superintendent Maria Suttmeier and other school officials presented the reopening plan for the Hudson City School District in a virtual informational meeting. The visuals from that presentation can all be found here. The complete plan can be found here. 

The school is scheduled to begin for all students on September 14, but whether that means actually showing up at school on that day or not depends on the grade level.

As the chart indicates, students in PreK through Grade 5--those who attend classes at Montgomery C. Smith--will go to school on Monday and Tuesday and on Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday, there will be remote learning while the school building is being cleaned. Students in Grades 6 through 10 will be divided into two groups. One group will go to school on Monday and Tuesday, the other on Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday, there will be remote learning for both groups while the school building is being cleaned. For students in Grades 11 and 12, that is, juniors and seniors in high school, all learning will be remote, at least for the time being. 

For parents reluctant to send their children back to school, HCSD is also offering a Virtual School Option. To review the complete plan, which among other things addresses measures to ensure health and safety and social-emotional well being, click here. 

Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to announce next week if schools will reopen in New York.
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Where the New Cases Were This Week

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its breakdown of COVID-19 cases by municipality and nursing home. In the past week, there have been eighteen new cases of COVID-19, ten more than were reported last week. The largest number of new cases was in Greenport, where there were four. There were three in Chatham and Claverack, two in Stockport, and one each in Clermont, Kinderhook, Stuyvesant, Taghkanic, and at Barnwell, and one in Stottville, which made the list this week for the first time.

In the following list, the first number indicates the number of cases last week; the second number of the number this week. These are the total number of cases not the number of active cases. Strangely, with eighteen new cases since last Friday, the CCDOH is reporting just fifteen active cases.

Ancram  4 |4

Canaan  9 | 9

Chatham  17 | 20

Claverack  20 | 23

Clermont  7 | 8

Copake  22 | 22

Craryville  2 | 2

Gallatin  3 | 3

Germantown  1 | 1

Ghent  23 | 23

Greenport  28 | 32

Hillsdale  15 | 15

Hudson  28 | 28

Kinderhook  31 | 32 

Livingston  13 | 13

New Lebanon  9 | 9

Niverville  2 | 2

Philmont  6 | 6

Stockport  4 | 6
Stottville  0 | 2

Stuyvesant  16 | 17

Taghkanic  6 | 7

Valatie  12 | 12

Nursing Homes

Barnwell  142 | 143

Livingston Hills  2 | 2

Pine Haven  51 | 51

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been five new cases of COVID-19 and four recoveries, increasing the number of active cases by one, to 15. There are four fewer county residents in mandatory quarantine. The number in precautionary quarantine remains the same, as does the number of people hospitalized with the virus. There have been no new deaths.

As of 3:00 p.m. on July 31, 2020:

• Columbia County has had 37 residents that have passed away from COVID-19.
• Columbia County has 491 confirmed positive cases.
• There are 15 active cases of COVID-19 in Columbia County. We are monitoring 105 residents on mandatory quarantine, and there are 11 on precautionary quarantine.
• 439 of the 491 cases have recovered from COVID-19
• 3 of the positive cases are hospitalized, none of those hospitalized are in the ICU
• We have received 18,202 PCR reports. Please note this number may represent duplicate reports, out of county reports, and multiple nursing home testings.

This is the second day in July the CCDOH has reported five new cases, the other day being this past Tuesday, July 28. In July, there have been nine days when the CCDOH reported no new cases at all.

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About the Chicken Law

Today is the last day for submitting comments to Mayor Kamal Johnson about the proposed law that would permit keeping backyard chickens in Hudson. Today also a reader shared this notice from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) which went out two days ago.

If you go follow the link provided, you will find this additional information. 

As of July 28, 2020, 938 people infected with one of the outbreak strains of Salmonella have been reported from 48 states.

• 151 people (33% of those with information available) have been hospitalized.
• One death in Oklahoma has been reported.
• 28% of ill people are children younger than 5 years of age.

Don't we have enough to worry about trying to keep the pandemic in check without adding to the potential health problems in Hudson? 

Comments about the chicken law can be submitted to the mayor by phone at (518) 828-7217 or by email to mayor@cityofhudson.org. Today is the final day for submitting comments.  
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COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been two new cases of COVID-19 and one more recovery, increasing the number of active cases in the county by one, to 14. The number of county residents now in mandatory quarantine has increased by 38, to 109. The number of people in precautionary quarantine has decreased by one. The number of people hospitalized with the virus remains the same as it was yesterday, and there have been no more deaths.

As of 3:00 p.m on July 30, 2020:

• Columbia County has had 37 residents that have passed away from COVID-19.
• Columbia County has 486 confirmed positive cases.
• There are 14 active cases of COVID-19 in Columbia County. We are monitoring 109 county residents on mandatory quarantine, and there are 11 on precautionary quarantine.
• 435 of the 486 cases have recovered from COVID-19
• 3 of the positive cases are hospitalized, none of those hospitalized are in the ICU
• We have received 17,932 PCR reports. Please note this number may represent duplicate reports, out of county reports, and multiple nursing home testings.

About the Kaz Site

On Sunday, Gossips published an excerpt from the DRI Committee meeting summary for July 15, which reported on a phone conversation between unnamed committee members and representatives of Bonacio Construction. Bonacio, it will be remembered, was one of three developers that submitted a proposal for the Kaz site in 2018 and the only developer to respond to a request for expression of interest for the Dunn warehouse earlier this year. It was Bonacio apparently that persuaded the DRI Committee to add the three City-owned parcels north of the Dunn warehouse to what was being offered for development. In June, the Common Council passed a resolution to that effect.

Now, judging from what was reported in the meeting summary, Bonacio is suggesting that the Kaz site be added to the plan. The following is quoted from that meeting summary:   

By including more parcels--and combining KAZ, Dunn, and the two parcels north of Dunn, a project could have less density. The development needs to have a minimum number of units to achieve economy of scale for development and property maintenance. With more parcels, the unit can be spread out more across space.

A stumbling block for the master plan Bonacio may have in mind is the fact that Hudson Development Corporation, not the City of Hudson, owns and controls the Kaz site. On Tuesday, the Kaz site was an agenda item under "Old Business" at the HDC Board's monthly meeting.

The discussion started with board chair Bob Rasner reminding the board, once again, that the agency is "real estate rich and cash poor," HDC owns a large and valuable parcel that is off the tax rolls, and they need to take a serious look at "the disposition of the Montgomery Street property," a.k.a. the Kaz site, which now includes the parcel acquired from CSX in October 2019. 

In the matter of the Kaz site, HDC doesn't seem to have moved much beyond where they were last month. Nick Haddad reported that the Kaz Committee had not met since the beginning of the pandemic. The options, however, seem to have been narrowed to selling the whole thing to a developer and expecting the developer to "sell their vision" to the community, or subdividing the parcel and selling the individual lots. Haddad suggested that subdivision would result in "a more robust tax base." Haddad also expressed the hope that "what we do down there is representative of the whole city." Phil Forman, who, in addition to serving on the HDC Board, chairs the Historic Preservation Commission, opined, "We can help shape that upfront." Steve Dunn suggested, "We should reach out to the Planning Board and the city to get a sense of what they are looking for." If by "city" Dunn meant elected officials, the answer is probably predictable: affordable housing.



Back in early 2019, when Walter Chatham and Mark Morgan-Perez were on the HDC Board, it seemed the notion of establishing a street grid in that area to replicate the pattern of streets in the rest of the city was an idea with legs. Determining a basic format for development was thought by some to be more responsible than just turning a sizable tract of land over to a developer. It's not clear if this idea still has supporters on the HDC Board. Even if it does, it's not clear how the street grid would be designed or carried out. It seems to be a perfect job for the Zoning and Planning Task Force, the creation of which was announced by Tom DePietro in August 2018. Unfortunately, if memory serves, that group met only once, a year later in September 2019, and, according to the resolution that created it, ceased to exist in December 2019.

What should be avoided is a course of action someone articulated at Tuesday's meeting: "Turn it all over to a Bonacio, and let them plan it." It seems that the DRI Committee may be contemplating just that, not only for the Kaz site but for the Dunn warehouse and the parcels along Water Street as well.           
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COVID-19 Update: CCDOH

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, according to the CCDOH, there have been two new cases of COVID-19 and one recovery, increasing the number of active cases in the county by one, to 13. There are 21 more people in mandatory quarantine and one more in precautionary quarantine. One fewer person is hospitalized with the virus, and there have been no new deaths.

As of 3:30 p.m. on July 29, 2020:

• Columbia County has had 37 residents that have passed away from COVID-19.
• Columbia County has 484 confirmed positive cases.
• There are 13 active cases of COVID-19 in Columbia County. We are monitoring 71 county residents on mandatory quarantine, and there are 12 on precautionary quarantine.
• 434 of the 484 cases have recovered from COVID-19
• 3 of the positive cases are hospitalized, none of those hospitalized are in the ICU
• We have received 17,690 PCR reports. Please note this number may represent duplicate reports, out of county reports, and multiple nursing home testings.

According to the CCDOH, the results from 129 tests have been received in the past 24 hours, and two of those were positive. That's 1.5 percent positive not 5 percent. Why there is such a discrepancy between the numbers from CCDOH and what's being reported on the New York State dashboard is not known, but it would be nice if we could understand it. 
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COVID-19 Update: Preview

The Columbia County Department of Health has not yet released its numbers for today, but the data for today being published by New York State indicates that, in the past 24 hours, six people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Columbia County, giving us a positive rate of 5 percent, the highest in the Capital Region.

Lodging Group to Continue Independently

The Hudson Development Corporation Emergency Business Task Force organized two Zoom roundtable discussions about the proposed legislation to regulate short term rentals in Hudson. At the first meeting, on July 13, Alderman John Rosenthal (Fourth Ward), who chairs the Legal Committee, which is drafting the legislation, answered questions from meeting participants; at the second meeting, on July 20, Alderman Rebecca Wolff (First Ward), who serves on the Legal Committee and is principally responsible for the changes to the draft legislation that have been made since the beginning of 2020, spoke with the group about the law. 

At the meeting of the HDC Emergency Business Task Force this past Monday, Bob Rasner, chair of the HDC Board, explained that although bringing legislators and business people together to discuss proposed legislation was in keeping with the mission of HDC, what is likely to happen going forward could involve "taking sides," which would be inappropriate for HDC. For that reason, he and Branda Maholtz, executive director of HDC, would be bowing out. The group will continue independent of HDC, under the leadership of a team made up of Monica Byrne, Stephanie Siebert, Jenny Douglas, and Mark Siegmund. Independent of HDC, the group is not obligated to make its meetings public.
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When the Preferred Course Is Not an Option

Peter Jung sent Gossips this photograph this morning, taken near Ogdensburg, New York.

Back to School

In the past day or so, this meme has been making the rounds on Facebook.

On Monday night, Senate Republicans released the details of their latest $1 trillion coronavirus relief package. Included is $70 billion for K-12 schools, most of which will go to schools that elect to re-open with at least some in-person instruction: "Republicans earmark $70 billion for K-12 schools, but tie bulk of funding to in-person learning."

Here in New York, the Department of Health issued its "Interim Guidance for In-Person Instruction at Pre-K to Grade 12 Schools During the COVID-1 Public Health Emergency" on July 13. At that time, Governor Andrew Cuomo made this announcement: 

Schools in a region can reopen if that region is in Phase IV of reopening and if its daily infection rate remains below 5 percent or lower using a 14-day average since unPAUSE was lifted. Schools will close if the regional infection rate rises above 9 percent, using a 7-day average, after August 1. New York State will make the formula determination during the week of August 1 to 7.

The state's nearly 700 school districts must submit their plans for reopening to the NYS Department of Health and the Reimagine Education Advisory Council on Friday, July 31. The night before the plans must be submitted to the state, on Thursday, July 30, at 7:00 p.m., the Hudson City School District will present its plans for reopening to the public. HCSD superintendent Maria Suttmeier tweeted this announcement last night.

The link to join the meeting is now available here.
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Grants for the Arts

In May, Gossips reported on a new fund for the arts created by Furthermore and the J. M. Kaplan Fund. Today, the Columbia County Arts Fund announced its first grant recipients. The organizations receiving funding are:

• Ancram Opera House Theater  $5,000
• Art Omi  $2,500
• Basilica Hudson  $2,500
• Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts  $5,000
• Clarion Concerts  $2,500
• Four Nations  $5,000
• Hudson Festival Orchestra  $2,500
• Hudson Opera House  $10,000
• Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation  $2,500
• Loire Valley Theater Festival  $2,500
• PS21  $7,500
• Shaker Museum and Library  $2,500
• Time & Space Limited  $5,000

Joan K, Davidson, president of Furthermore, commented, "All of the many organizations that applied are doing interesting and valuable work to serve the public in our county; but we found that these first grantees have managed, in tough times, to serve in ways that go above and beyond."

Don't Come Here From There: Update

Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have been added to the travel advisory list. There are now thirty-four states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico on the list of locations from which travelers must quarantine for fourteen days upon entering New York. Here is the full list, in alphabetical order. An asterisk indicates a new addition to the list.

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Delaware
• District of Columbia *
• Florida
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Illinois *
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky *
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Minnesota *
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Puerto Rico *
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• Washington
• Wisconsin

Drought Watch

It should come as no surprise to anyone, but Columbia County and much of the rest of the state is now in an official state of "drought watch."

A press release on the subject states:

A "watch" is the first of four levels of state drought advisories ("watch," "warning," "emergency," and "disaster.") There are no statewide mandatory water use restrictions in place under a drought watch or warning, but citizens are strongly encouraged to voluntarily conserve water. Local public water suppliers may impose water use restrictions depending upon local needs and conditions.

Although weather reports keep mentioning rain, there has been done to speak of, and there is now no rain in the forecast until Thursday.

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been 5 new cases of COVID-19 and 2 recoveries, increasing the number of active cases in the county by 3, to 12. There are now 50 county residents in mandatory quarantine--6 more than yesterday--and 11 in precautionary quarantine--2 more than yesterday. There is one fewer person hospitalized with the virus, and there have been no new deaths. 

As of 3 p.m. on July 28, 2020:

• Columbia County has had 37 residents that have passed away from COVID-19.
• Columbia County has 482 confirmed positive cases.
• There are 12 active cases of COVID-19 in Columbia County. We are monitoring 50 county residents on mandatory quarantine, and there are 11 on precautionary quarantine.
• 433 of the 482 cases have recovered from COVID-19
• 4 of the positive cases are hospitalized, none of those hospitalized are in the ICU
• We have received 17,561 PCR reports. Please note this number may represent duplicate reports, out of county reports, and multiple nursing home testings.

Increasing the Fees

At its regular meeting on July 21, the Common Council passed a resolution increasing the fees (and fines) for a number of things in Hudson. The entire list can be found here, but a few things of interest are these:

• The annual license fee for a spayed or neutered dog has increased from $13.50 to $15.00.
• The fine for leaving your car parked overnight on the wrong side of the street has increased to $25.00. If memory serves, it had been $18.00.
• There is now a $100 fee for swimming lessons at Oakdale Lake for nonresidents.

Apparently, the Zoning Board of Appeals has always charged fees to have applications considered. Now the amount of those fees has increased.

• Area variance: $250.00
• Use variance: $300.00
• Code interpretation: $100.00
• Non-conforming use: $300.00

In the past, there have not been fees associated with applications for review by the Planning Board. Now there will be.

• Special use permit:  $500.00
• Site plan approval:  $300.00
• Minor subdivision:  $250.00 + $75 for each lot
• Major subdivision:  $500.00 + $75 for each lot
• Lot improvement or lot line adjustment:  $100.00

There will also be a $100 fee for Certificate of Appropriateness reviews by the Historic Preservation Commission. The fee for review by the HPC of signs in historic districts will be $25.00. 

The new fees were the subject of discussion at the HPC meeting on July 24. The topic was introduced by code enforcement officer Craig Haigh, because he thought the members of the HPC might be unaware of the new fees. HPC chair, Phil Forman said he had hoped the Common Council would ask the HPC to weigh in on the fee and suggested that it should be progressive. The fee for a new stoop or door on a historic building should not be the same as the fee for a major restoration. "When you charge people fees they believe to be unfair," Forman said, "they try to avoid it."

Victoria Polidoro, counsel to the HPC, explained, "The fees are supposed to offset administrative expenses," which Haigh defined as "the time it takes to receive [an application] and pass it along." HPC member John Schobel argued, "The scope of the work does impact the scope of the administrative stuff." Polidoro then recommended that the HPC propose a fee schedule and present it to the Council.
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Classification Made

Today, in a special meeting that lasted only thirty minutes, the Planning Board voted on a new resolution classifying the conditional use permit for the Colarusso dock operation as a Type I action. Betsy Gramkow, who chairs the Planning Board, reported that she and Victoria Polidoro, counsel to the Planning Board, had used the EAF mapper and discovered that the dock area was "significantly contiguous" to historic buildings that had been "determined by the Commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to be eligible for listing on the State Register of Historic Places." Those two buildings were the Railway Steel Spring Company Foundry and Sand House, now known as Basilica Hudson, and the Hudson and Boston Railroad Shop, now known as the Dunn warehouse.

After the resolution had been introduced, John Privitera, attorney for Colarusso, asked to be heard before the vote was taken. He attested that the two historic resources had not been picked up when the Colarusso consultants had used the mapper. He also protested that Ryan Weitz, the board's consulting engineer, the board's former attorneys Andy Howard and Jeff Baker, as well as the board's current counsel, Victoria Polidoro, had all gone on record as saying it was an Unlisted action. He asserted that the resolution was "not in accordance with the regulations."

Nevertheless, the five members of the board present at the time of the vote--Gramkow, Larry Bowne, John Cody, Theresa Joyner, and Laura Margolis--voted unanimously to pass the resolution classifying the conditional use permit as a Type I action.

In other business, the board also voted unanimously to give site plan approval to 502 Union Street, with one condition: that there be no outdoor activity or amplified noise outside after 10:00 p.m.

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COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been no changes in anything except the number of test results. (There were 144 since yesterday.) Today, the CCDOH reported the number of people in mandatory and precautionary quarantine, data that was omitted yesterday. Since on July 25, when those numbers were last reported, there are 16 more county residents in mandatory quarantine and 4 fewer in precautionary quarantine.

As of 3 p.m. on July 27, 2020:

• Columbia County has had 37 residents that have passed away from COVID-19.
• Columbia County has 477 confirmed positive cases.
• There are 9 active cases of COVID-19 in Columbia County. We are monitoring 44 county residents on mandatory quarantine, and there are 8 on precautionary quarantine.
• 431 of the 477 cases have recovered from COVID-19
• 5 of the positive cases are hospitalized, none of those hospitalized are in the ICU
• We have received 17,321 PCR reports. Please note this number may represent duplicate reports, out of county reports, and multiple nursing home testings.

Today's report from the CCDOH also contained this warning:

Although our numbers are low, it is IMPORTANT to remember to stay home if you feel symptoms. Recent positives were feeling ill and continued to go to work and/or socialized, potentially exposing many more people, putting them on a Mandatory Quarantine for 14 days. Please continue to practice social distancing and wear your mask!

SEQR and the Dock

Toward the end of a Planning Board meeting last Tuesday, which went on for more than four and a half hours, Victoria Polidoro, who is now serving as counsel to the Planning Board, addressed the issue of classifying the conditional use permit sought by Colarusso for its dock operations. Classifying an action is the first step in the SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) process. As Gossips has already reported, Polidoro told the Planning Board that she and Ryan Weitz, the engineer from Barton & Loguidice retained by the Planning Board, were recommending that the action by classified as Unlisted action instead of a Type I action because it does not meet the thresholds of Type I. Not knowing what the thresholds for Type I were, I decided to find out. They are listed here. A passage of interest is Section (b) Paragraph (9) which defines one of the thresholds for a Type I action:

(9) any Unlisted action (unless the action is designed for the preservation of the facility or site), that exceeds 25 percent of any threshold established in this section, occurring wholly or partially within, or substantially contiguous to, any historic building, structure, facility, site or district or prehistoric site that is list on the National Register of Historic Places . . . or that is listed on the State Register of Historic Places or that has been determined by the Commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to be eligible for listing on the State Register of Historic Places pursuant to sections 14.07 or 14.09 of the Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law; . . .

The Colarusso dock and its dock-related operations are surrounded by historic sites. There's the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse in the river, which has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. There's the train station, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure in the Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District created in 1985. The train station is also a locally designated historic landmark. There's the Dunn warehouse, which was determined to eligible for listing in the State Register of Historic Places in 1985. There's Basilica Hudson, which is pursuing National Register listing and has been issued a preliminary determination of eligibility by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). 

A bit farther afield, there is the building where The Wick Hotel is located, which was determined to be eligible for listing in the National Register a few years ago, and the Robert Taylor House, which has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, as a contributing structure in the Hudson Historic District, since 1985. The Robert Taylor House is also a locally designated historic landmark. 

One wonders why the existence of these historic structures--four of which are "substantially contiguous to" the Colarusso dock operation--is not sufficient reason to make the review a Type I action.
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A Meeting of Interest This Afternoon

A meeting that didn't get included in Gossips' earlier list is the HDC Emergency Business Task Force meeting, which takes place at 3:00 p.m. today, Monday, July 27. Once again, the topic of discussion will be the proposed legislation to regulate short term rentals (STRs) in Hudson. Click here to join the Zoom meeting. The meeting ID is 884 8032 6330; the password is 658221.

Virtual Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

The month of July ends with regular meetings, a special meeting, and two events of considerable interest.

• On Monday, July 27, the Planning Board holds a special meeting at 4:30 p.m. The meeting was called to continue the site plan review of 502 Union Street. On Friday, the Historic Preservation Commission agreed to grant the project a certificate of appropriateness.

It is also expected that the Planning Board will, at this meeting, vote on whether to classify the Colarusso project as a Type I or an Unclassified action.

• There are also two Common Council committee meetings on Monday, July 27: the Fire Committee at 5:30 p.m., and the Police Committee at 6:00 p.m. 
• On Tuesday, July 28, the Hudson Development Corporation holds its regular monthly meeting at noon. Click here to access the Zoom meeting. The meeting ID is 817 7116 3754; the passcode is 536761.
• Also on Tuesday, July 28, the HDC Emergency Cultural Task Force meets at 3:00 p.m. Click here for the link to access the meeting.
• On Wednesday, July 29, at 4:00 p.m., there is a walking tour with Arterial and Street Plans, the consultants that will be undertaking the "Hudson Connects" project. The purpose of the participatory event is to "evaluate the safety, accessibility, and beauty of the streets in the DRI study area." The walking tour begins at the entrance to Promenade Hill. Participants are required to wear a mask and stay six feet apart and encouraged to wear comfortable shoes and bring a bottle of water.
• At 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29, there is a workshop at Hudson Hall to initiate the analysis and data collection phase of the "Hudson Connects" project. "Attendees will be encouraged to share feedback on the current state of the streets and vet priority projects, highlighting missing, crucial connections within/to/from the project area, and what currently enables or prevents safe mobility around the neighborhood." Registration is required. Click here to register. Masks are required, and attendance is limited to fifty people.

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Forgotten But Not Gone

What compelled me to check the DRI meeting summaries--an act that inspired my previous post--was the desire to learn something new about the DRI project to transform what was once the Furgary Boat Club into a city park. My reason for wanting this new information was to use it to introduce a photo essay about the Furgary Boat Club that recently appeared on Trixie's List. Alas, there was none. So, without introduction, here it is.

Photo: TrixiesList.com

The indomitable Rich Volo, a.k.a. Trixie Starr, got in his kayak sometime in the past week and paddled north to visit the famed Furgary Boat Club and take some pictures of the fabled shacks from the vantage point of the water. He has published the pictures on Trixie's List, and Gossips recommends you take a look: "The Furgary Boat Club."

Photo: TrixiesList.com

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What's Happening with the DRI

The DRI Committee continues its work, with little input or oversight from the public. Granted there was the public meeting on July 13 about plans for Promenade Hill, and this week, on Wednesday, there will be a walking tour and workshop with Arterial and Street Plans about the connectivity project, now being called "Hudson Connects," but when it comes to the Dunn warehouse and the City-owned parcels along Water Street, there is no transparency.

In June, many were blindsided by a resolution passed by the Common Council authorizing a new Request for Expression of Interest (REI) to be issued for the Dunn building that included the three City-owned parcels north of the Dunn site. It will be remembered that Bonacio Construction from Saratoga Springs, best known for their residential development, was the only company that responded to the original REI, and the suggestion that the three parcels be included came from them.     

Today, seeking an update on the planning for transforming the Furgary Boat Club into a city park, I discovered this in the summary of the DRI Committee meeting for July 15, under the item "Call with Bonacio Construction (Larry Novik and Amber Mathias)." There is no information in the summary about who from the DRI Committee was part of that call.

• Informal discussion with Bonacio on the possibilities for the Dunn Warehouse site, with or without the addition of the north parcels, and the overall vision and implementation plan for the area, including KAZ site status.
• Ideas about affordable housing, including high-level discussions about Area Median Income (AMI) targets and mixed income opportunities were discussed. City objectives related to the availability of homeownership for all income groups were discussed alongside development approaches that would yield affordable home ownership options. 
• By including more parcels--and combining KAZ, Dunn, and the two parcels north of Dunn, a project could have less density. The development needs to have a minimum number of units to achieve economy of scale for development and property maintenance. With more parcels, the units can be spread out more across space.
• It was discussed that the site is subject to an environmental easement, which is discussed in detail in the Feasibility Report by Saratoga Associates. 
• Potential financing was discussed, including Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) and DRI funding possibilities (e.g. potential financing for infrastructure, site preparation). 
• A need to understand the City’s desires as it relates to the site goals and development strategy, including potential affordable and market rate housing and rental or ownership structures will help shape a better understanding of price points, tax burden and related financing objectives/needs.
• No promises or commitments were made and it was understood that KAZ is owned by the Hudson Development Corporation. 

As Gossips has reported before, the public discussion of the best adaptive reuse of the Dunn warehouse has been going on for years. There have been lots of suggestions about what the building could become, but all of them had to do with some public use, something that would benefit and be accessible to everyone in the city. The idea of developing the Dunn warehouse or any part of the area across Water Street from Henry Hudson Riverfront Park as housing was never suggested much less embraced. But now, with no input from the public or even the public's awareness of what is going on, the DRI Committee is discussing, with a developer, devoting all that open and public space to affordable housing. 

There are much better sites for such development. North Fourth between Columbia and State springs to mind. Let's hope the consultant the City hires to create a plan for developing affordable housing recognizes that turning this potential parkland and open space into a site for affordable housing is a bad idea. 

COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK

Different Plant, Similar Threat, Same Graphics

Twenty or so years ago, when the threat to the Hudson River and the Hudson Valley was the Greenport Project, the giant cement plant proposed by St. Lawrence Cement, one of the troika opposing the plant, along with Friends of Hudson and The Olana Partnership, was the Hudson Valley Preservation Coalition, led by Scenic Hudson, with such partners as Historic Hudson, HADA (Hudson Antiques Dealers Association), and Hudson River Heritage. In 2002, Woody Pirtle designed this poster for the HVPC.

Eighteen years later, similar graphics are being used by the opposition to the expansion of the Danskammer fracked gas plant downriver in Newburgh.  

Again led by Scenic Hudson, the Stop Danskammer Coalition is made up of environmental organizations, among them Riverkeeper, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the Sierra Club, as well as community groups, faith-based congregations, elected officials, businesses, residents, health professionals, and first responders. The coalition's website stoptheplant.org says this about the expansion plan:

The new Danskammer plant will emit far more air pollution than the existing plant. Given the dramatic increase in operating hours, harmful air pollutants that threaten public health and contribute to climate change will increase significantly, which Danskammer admits in its own regulatory filings. These pollutants include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides--both ozone precursors--as well as greenhouse gas emissions, which are projected to increase by more than 4,000%!

In April, the American Lung Association published their State of the Air 2020. This report gave the Hudson Valley's air quality a "D" average rating, with many counties ranking among the worst in the state. Air pollution particularly aggravates chronic diseases, including asthma, while extended exposure reduces life expectancy. Given the worrying public health issues caused by the region's existing pollution, building a new power plant that will exponentially increase annual emissions is a giant step backward.

To learn more about the proposed project and to find out how to take action, go to stoptheplant.org.
COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been three new cases of COVID-19 and two more recoveries, increasing the number of active cases in the county by one, to 9. No information was provided today about the number of people in mandatory or precautionary quarantine. The number of people hospitalized with the virus remains the same, and there have been no new deaths.

As of 10:00 a.m. on July 26, 2020:

• Columbia County has had 37 residents that have passed away from COVID-19.
• Columbia County has 477 confirmed positive cases.
• There are 9 active cases of COVID-19 in Columbia County.
• 431 of the 477 cases have recovered from COVID-19
• 5 of the positive cases are hospitalized, 0 of those hospitalized are in the ICU
• We have received 17,177 PCR reports. Please note this number may represent duplicate reports, out of county reports, and multiple nursing home testings.

The Legal Committee and the STR Law

As expected, the draft of the legislation regulating STRs (short term rentals) was the subject of discussion at the Common Council Legal Committee this past Wednesday. The number of people participating in the Zoom meeting, which went on for two hours, ranged from 65 to 74. Although the goal of the meeting was to consider revisions to the draft, and there were lots of people wanting to share ideas about what those revisions might be, for the first hour and a half the only people allowed to speak were the four members of the Legal Committee: John Rosenthal (Fourth Ward), who chairs the committee, Rebecca Wolff (First Ward), Tiffany Garriga (Second Ward), and Shershah Mizan (Third Ward). 

Rosenthal opened the discussion by expressing his opinion that allowing only STR facilities with a "resident host operator" made the most sense. He repeated his desire to have a "simple law." During the discussion, these are the changes that were agreed upon.

"Amortization Period"  The current draft of the law allows people operating STRs in violation of the proposed legislation to continue doing so until October 31, 2022. Rosenthal suggested that the time period be extended to five years, to "give people the chance to dispose of their property." When Garriga asked what the time period had to do with, Wolff explained "to allow an owner to basically do what we're making a law against." Jeff Baker, counsel to the Council, summarized: "Longer term amortization helps property owners; shorter term achieves the goal of residents of Hudson." Wolff insisted, "Everything has to do with the immediate situation--the housing shortage," and balked at extending the term to five years. In the end, it was decided to increase it from two years to three years.

"One to One Ratio"  The current draft of the law requires that for every short-term rental unit there must be a long-term rental unit. In a hypothetical building with five apartments, if two are used for short term rental, the other two must be offered for long term rental. (And the owner of the building must live in the fifth.) The committee agreed to do away with this requirement and allow as many units as there are in a building to be short term rentals, provided they are not above the second floor.

"Adjacent Property"  It was also agreed to eliminate the provision that allowed someone who operated an "owner-occupied transient occupancy lodging facility" to also have a "non-owner transient occupancy lodging facility" provided that it was next door to the "owner-occupied transient occupancy facility." It wasn't clear if what was eliminated was the adjacency requirement or the ability to operate a second STR facility that was not owner-occupied.

Jane Trombley (First Ward), who is not a member of the Legal Committee, suggested that the legislation should "carve out exceptions for people who have some commitment to Hudson." She cited two scenarios: (1) a business owner who doesn't live in Hudson but owns the building where their business is located and wants to rent out an apartment over the store as a short term rental; (2) the second home owner who wants to rent their house to short-term guests when they are not using it. Wolff observed that "apartments over stores have traditionally been where workforce housing has been." Rosenthal reiterated that he was "a strong proponent for a residency requirement." Garriga told Trombley she could bring up her concerns when the legislation goes to the full Council.   

When the meeting was opened to public comment, there were predictably those who had concerns about the proposed legislation and those who supported it wholeheartedly. One exchange, however, strengthened Gossips suspicion that the version of the law that was put on the City of Hudson website and about which people were invited to comment was not the most recent version of the document. At the beginning of the meeting, there was some confusion about which draft was the right draft. It was decided that the draft being shared on screen by Wolff was not the most recent draft. Baker finally found and shared the most recent draft, and it was that draft that the committee discussed, but it seemed not to be the same version that had been posted on the city website. 

During the public comment, Dan Barry, who identified himself as an owner/operator and resident, said that most of the people he has hosted were families, and he expressed concern that the three guest limit would change the nature of the tourist population visiting Hudson. Baker told him, "That threshold came from an earlier draft." Yet, that threshold is clearly stated in Paragraph F of the draft legislation that was posted on the city website. 

In his comments, John Schobel said he was stunned by how little the potential impact of the legislation on the city had been considered in the process of drafting the legislation. In this, he echoed Bob Rasner's call for a formal impact study, done by a third party, to help everyone understand what's at stake. At Wednesday's meeting, Rosenthal posited, "The legislation is not going to affect most operators," and claimed it would have a "marginal effect on tourism." If this is the case, there needs to be data to back it up. It would also be nice if the actual latest draft of the legislation would be made available for review and comment before the legislation moves on the the full Council.
COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK

The Story of Two Lighthouses

On Long Island Sound, just off the north shore, there is a lighthouse that is almost identical to the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse. It is the Stepping Stone Lighthouse.

Today, the Preservation League of New York State published an article about the two lighthouses, both built in the 1870s, both listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and both cared for by not-for-profit organizations: "The Hudson Athens Lighthouse Has a Twin."

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there has been one new case of COVID-19 and six recoveries, reducing the number of active cases by five, to 8. There are seven fewer county residents in mandatory quarantine, but the number in precautionary quarantine remains the same. The number of people hospitalized with the virus is the same as it was yesterday, and there have been no new deaths.

As of 10 a.m. on July 25, 2020:

• Columbia County has had 37 residents that have passed away from COVID-19.
• Columbia County has 474 confirmed positive cases.
• There are 8 active cases of COVID-19 in Columbia County. We are monitoring 28 county residents on mandatory quarantine, and there are 12 on precautionary quarantine.
• 429 of the 474 cases have recovered from COVID-19
• 5 of the positive cases are hospitalized, none of those hospitalized are in the ICU
• We have received 17,051 PCR reports. Please note this number may represent duplicate reports, out of county reports, and multiple nursing home testings.