On June 11, Bill Huston, familiar to many from his appearances at Common Council meetings and his comments on this blog, published a post on his own blog, HUDseen, sounding the alarm about a washed-out section of trail at Oakdale--on the path leading to Spring Street. The post was called "At Least the Trail Isn't Completely Washed Out (for Now)." Here's an excerpt from the post.
That post had an update, which is reproduced below.
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| Photo: Verity Smith |
The woman from the Survey (?) Department at National Grid who called me the day before the signs went up told me this: "No one ever should have been on that trail. It's private property. No one can just walk onto my front yard, can they?" I asked her why it took a washed out portion of the trail for them to consider closing their portion of the trail off. "No one should be back there," was all she could say. She had called to tell me that she had looked at the eroded trail herself and deemed it dangerous. She also told me that there was nothing NG could or would do about the erosion and that NG "never sells their property."
ReplyDeleteNG has a years (or decades) long drainage mess they are trying to force onto DOT at the shoulder of Fairview next to Stella's where water is almost always accumulated. They own a long slice of property from there, behind the houses on Spring and along the now off-limits trail, all of which they apparently pay taxes on to the City of Hudson and may have gas pipes underneath. They seemed to have completely forgotten about that property, which is concerning but not too surprising since National Grid is headquartered in England.
It's also important to understand, perhaps, that NG's portion of that trail behind Oakdale is part of a longer trail, most, if not all, of which is owned by the city, likely where the tail splits near the platform, past the two ponds and all the way to the DSS exit driveway. This is not only a public area and hiking area that is promoted by signs and maps in the park put up by the city (even at the parking lot) that is part of the entire trail around the lake, but it is of course also SUMMER CAMP land where children can be found exploring the quietest and wildest outdoor oasis in Hudson. Meanwhile, just 150 feet beyond where the city portion of the trail turns toward the bridge -- in what has always been an unmaintained but convenient no man's land used by many -- for well over two months NG's portion of the trail has had a gaping hole taking up at least half of the trail, waiting to swallow an adult or child, even in the daytime. People use their bicycles back there. It's the woods, after all, where people like me and plenty of others, including children, can't help but explore the wild. It's only natural. Falling into a gaping hole on a public trail caused by erosion that goes ignored for months by the owner is not natural at all. You can't even call it an accident. Falling off the cliff of a mountain or a rocky trail is an accident.
ReplyDeleteWhen I notified Youth Director Liz York in early June about the washout, she took a look at it and told me that she would be notifying the county, because that was county property. Most people thought it was city land, the person in charge of maintaining the park thought it was county property, and no one would have ever guessed that it was NG property. Could that have anything to do with NG having forgotten about their property and gas pipes and them honestly thinking that NO ONE should have been back there on their property and trail because there was one yellow plastic pole sticking out of the ground that signified nothing to anyone passing by?
It's somewhat poetic to me that the washout occurred right across the trail from that pole which indicates that there is a natural gas pipeline somewhere not too far away.
It took someone from Hudson two calls to inform National Grid that there was a possible dangerous situation that not only might kill or injure someone but might expose a gas line to damage and serious trouble. You have to wonder in what decade of the 20th century was the most recent visit by someone wearing a National Grid uniform on their trail through the woods where the public can often be found -- you know, just to check and see how things were near their gas line(s) not anywhere near a road. And you have to wonder who the last mayor of Hudson was who was fully aware who owned that defacto public trail and if they had ever reached out to National Grid to discuss the trail that is an extension of city-owned trails and property. You know, just to make sure everyone at City Hall is on the same page.
National Grid is the same company that has been charged by the State of New York to replace all of Hudson's downtown natural gas pipes, and began doing so over a year ago. If you get a subcontractor of NG's to speak frankly with you, they will tell you how uncommunicative and frustrating it is working for and with NG. I've heard it several times.
Also, we musn't forget -- if the washout had occurred on the city's portion of the trail, the city would have closed down the trail, too, a fitting complement to the toxic, closed off Oakdale Lake and beach.
Hooray for the maintainers of Oakdale Lake and Park, our Hudson Youth Department! And for our mayor, making sure that this unforgiveable, dysfunctional and untenable structural flaw continues to plague the city. They're all doing a hell of a job!
Anyway, everything happens for a purpose, even erosion.