Last month, Gossips reported that the city clock, located, as it has been since 1802 in the tower of the First Presbyterian Church, was no longer tolling the hours. This happened as a consequence of one person, who lives in close proximity to the church, complaining that the clock striking the hours was keeping her up at night.
The issue of the striking clock came up again at last night's Common Council meeting. Council president Tom DePietro told the aldermen that the City had researched and found a device that would turn the striking of the hours off at night. The device would cost an estimated $6,000. He wanted to know if there was interest on the Council in pursuing this.
Speaking of the tolling of the hours, Alderman John Rosenthal (Fourth Ward) said, "This has been going on for decades," and asked, "How many people have complained?" He commented that he lived near the church and found the tolling of the hours through the night reassuring.
Tiffany Garriga (Second Ward) recalled a time when the entire city was without electricity, and the striking of the clock still told the time. "The noises that bother me," said Garriga, "are car crashes and shootings." She expressed the opinion that $6,000 could be better spent in other ways.
It appears tradition and the will of the majority have triumphed, and the City will not be investing $6,000 in a device to suspend the tolling of the clock through the night.
Below is a photograph of the clockworks, provided to Gossips by DPW superintendent Rob Perry.
Well here’s an Einstein suggestion.
ReplyDeleteBefore you purchase a property anywhere please spend time there.
So if you’ve lived near The Townclock for a few years accept it for what it is, an Historical Part of Hudson.
Ps. Don’t let the light from the Statue of Liberty keep you awake at night.
For the people of Hudson, and indeed all of Columbia County, this welcome news about by whom, and for, the bells are tolled should be seen not as a victory, but as cautionary tale.
ReplyDeleteWe are a city surrounded by heritage farms and historic rural areas. Collectively these help define and reflect the rich city+urban environment that ties us all together. But there will always be those who will seek to divide; especially by those who perceive their ‘rights’ are being falsely infringed.
In this time where the pursuit of individual rights drives misguided people into court to fight for their ‘right’ to enable their children to die of Covid-19 by going maskless - nothing is sacred.
What’s next? Muting the klaxon and sirens of Hudson’s fire companies as they roll out onto Warren Street? The smell of curry wafting through the city from the food truck down the block? Deer, moose, and bear having the right of free passage on Hudson city streets? Freight and passenger train whistles from the tracks by the river? The mooing of cows? The crowing of a rooster in my neighbor’s yard?
Did I say rooster? Meet Maurice, the famous chicken whose rural life and right to crow was recently safeguarded by a 'sensory heritage' law enacted in France.
As related in the published report quoted below (link below), the legislation was proposed in the wake of several high-profile conflicts in rural areas between residents and vacationers, or recent arrivals derided as "neo-rurals".
"A rowdy rooster named Maurice in particular made headlines in 2019 after a court in western France rejected a bid to have him silenced by neighbours who had purchased a holiday home nearby.
"Living in the countryside implies accepting some nuisances," Joel Giraud, government minister in charge of rural life, told lawmakers. Cow bells (and droppings), grasshopper or cicada chirps and noisy early-morning tractors are also now considered part of France's natural heritage that will be enshrined in environmental legislation.
"It sends a strong message," said Pierre-Antoine Levi, the senator who acted as rapporteur for the bill. "It can act as a useful tool for local officials as they carry out their educational and mediation duties." The law is emblematic of growing tensions in the countryside between longtime residents and outsiders whose bucolic expectations often clash with everyday realities.
Corinne Fesseau and her rooster Maurice became the image of the fight when she was brought to court by pensioners next door over the animal's shrill wake-up calls. Critics saw the lawsuit as part of a broader threat to France's hallowed rural heritage by outsiders and city dwellers unable or unwilling to understand the realities of country life. Thousands of people signed a "Save Maurice" petition, and a judge eventually upheld the cock-a-doodle-doos.
In another case from 2019, a woman in the duck-breeding heartland of the Landes region was brought to court by a newcomer neighbour fed up with the babbling of the ducks and geese in her back garden. A court in southwest France also threw out that case."
https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20210122-france-safeguards-rural-way-of-life-with-sensory-heritage-law-cow-bells-roosters-noise