On July 16, 2012, at 3 o'clock in the morning, a Hudson Police SWAT team evicted three stalwart fishermen from the colony of shacks on North Bay known as the Furgary Boat Club. Since then, the shacks have stood abandoned and vulnerable to vandals and the elements.
In 2017, the Furgary, then called the Historic Fishing Village, was one of five city projects approved for Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) funding. The plan that was approved called for the preservation of "the more historically significant and visually interesting structures."
In January 2024, four shacks were demolished to demonstrate progress and support the City's request for an extension to utilize DRI funds. One of the four shacks--Shack #13--was the one generally considered to be the shack of greatest historic significance. Historic significance was not a consideration when selecting the shacks to be demolished. The four were chosen because they contained no hazardous materials and hence could be demolished by the Department of Public Works rather than by costly haz mat demolition specialists.
City Hall recently announced a Furgary Park Visioning Community Roundtable Event to take place on Wednesday, October 23, at 7:00 p.m. at The Spark of Hudson, 502 Union Street. People are invited to come and share their ideas for transforming the Furgary site into a community recreational resource.
Suggestion: Force Kamal Johnson to create a Parks Department before even talking about creating yet another public park!
ReplyDeleteAt least three years ago at a budget meeting, Hillary Hillman voiced her displeasure that a promised Parks Department was not part of the budget. I remember how Kamal responded to Hillary: "We didn't have the funds to do that this year, but it will happen soon."
DPW is short staffed and having trouble filling potholes, there's no reason to think Rob Perry has any interest or ability to properly maintain another public park.
Plus, there are far too many other pressing matters in Hudson to deal with than figuring out what to do with those old shacks.
Is Margaret Morris going to head the Furgary Park Vision Blah Blah Committee also? Or will Tom Depietro be making all the decisions? Sure, they have plenty of time and brain space to handle yet another project that will drag on for years!
Be careful what you wish for. I've heard they are thinking of creating a Parks and Recreation Department to be headed up by Liz Yorck.
DeleteWhy anyone would want to develop an area next to the city sewer plant is baffling.
ReplyDelete