On the Subject of a Parks Department

Last Tuesday, at their first meeting of the new year, members of the Conservation Advisory Council expressed the desire to have a Parks Department in Hudson, whose responsibility would be the care and keeping of the public parks and open spaces in the city. 

Last night, at the informal meeting of the Common Council, DPW superintendent Rob Perry addressed the issue of parks and the discussion of a new Parks Department. He assessed the work that would fall to such a new department, mainly in terms of the mowing and maintenance of 35 sites totaling 22 acres. His statistics did not include the cemetery, which is a separate department within the Department of Public Works, or Oakdale Lake.

Perry told the Council that the money allocated for the parks, which totals about $145,000, is less than 3 percent of the total DPW budget, but the parks are 30 percent of his headache. He went on to say, "If they want put parks somewhere else, I'm handing' the keys tomorrow."

It may be that a Parks Department is an idea whose time has come.

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