The Friends of the Public Square HUDSON, which is going by the acronym FOPS, has issued the following press release:
Last week Mayor Kamal Johnson and the Commissioner of Public Works, Peter Bujanow, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Friends of the Public Square HUDSON, or FOPS, a new non-profit formed by Hudson residents. The MOU was previously approved by the Common Council following a presentation by co-chair Dorothy Heyl on how FOPS will raise funds and plan projects for Hudson’s “public square,” known as the Seventh Street Park. The MOU provides a framework for FOPS to collaborate with the City and Hudson citizens on park projects.
As a first step, co-chair Katherine Kanaga and board members Walter Chatham and David Dew Bruner met last Wednesday with Rob Perry, the Supervisor of the Department of Public Works. On the agenda were interim measures that FOPS would like to accomplish during its first year, prior to any long-term plans or significant fund raises. These measures include addressing the current state of the fountain, which is no longer operable, painting benches a more attractive color until new benches can be chosen, pruning trees in poor condition, and mulching and planting bulbs. Perry was supportive of FOPS’ involvement with the park and agreed that DPW would remove the double fences from the fountain later this year and do certain pruning of trees as recommended by an arborist retained by FOPS, within the limitations of DPW equipment. Two volunteer days, organized by Bruner, are now being planned in the fall, for painting benches and planting and mulching.
FOPS welcomes community input on any of these initiatives and looks forward to productive collaboration with the DPW. As the volunteer days approach, Bruner will be reaching out to local groups and businesses for participants. Comments can be made via fopshudson@gmail.com, Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/fopshudson/, and on Facebook at Friends of the Public Square Hudson or FOPS.
For those who remember the "re-imagining" of the park proposed back in 2014, it may be reassuring to note that the logo that has been adopted by FOPS seems to reflect the original 19th-century design of the park, with paths fanning out from the fountain at the center, suggesting some commitment to restoring the park and respecting its basic design rather than re-creating it. 
hooray, this is much needed. Rob Perry should also let the group know how long orange cones and orange barrels are projected to stay in the park when placed there by DPW. And if they are not placed there by DPW, how long it will take him to figure out who placed them there and when they will be removed.
ReplyDeleteThere is a short utility pole in the southeast corner of the park full of boxes and wires and outlets that is so 1970s ugly and dangerous-looking -- it needs a redo, too!
It will be interesting to see if a little prodding on the part of FOPS will get Mr. Perry to fix the fountain, rather than just dismiss it as "shot." All fountains can be fixed, it just takes the will, or in this case, some oversight of the highest paid employee in city hall to get it done.
Well done FOPS. A good start. Glad David Dew Bruner is on the team.
ReplyDeleteThe park never needed to be re-imagined. That's just double talk for a reshuffling that isn't called for. It just needs some love. Put it back the way it started out, when it was so pretty they made post cards of it. Putting a real fountain back, like it had in the beginning is something I think a lot of people would chip in for. We could do a fundraiser and it wouldn't be that difficult. There is already water to the site. The water to the old fountain actually used to run itself, so it was low maintenance. It should never have been removed.
ReplyDelete"pruning of trees as recommended by an arborist retained by FOPS"
ReplyDeleteThis will hopefully be a great learning experience for the DPW for the rest of Hudson !
HOPEFULLY, but don't count on it.
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