The issue on many people's minds these days is the Planning Board's consideration of a conditional use permit for Colarusso's dock operations on the waterfront. Meanwhile, DPW superintendent Rob Perry announced at the informal Common Council meeting on Monday that Colarusso had submitted the low bid for the first phase of the renovation of Seventh Street Park, a.k.a. the Public Square. The first phase includes new pathways and benches, the repositioning of the Veterans Memorial, landscaping, and the infrastructure necessary to build a new fountain.
And then there was the controversy in 2023 surrounding the contract for the construction of the new Ferry Street Bridge. It's a long story which can be read here. The upshot was the Commissioner of Public Works, who had served in that position for seven years, resigned, Colarusso got the contract for the bridge, and the Planning Board approved Colarusso's two-lane, paved haul road through the wetlands of South Bay.
It seems bitterly ironic that Colarusso, which has been and will be involved in implementing improvements to our two historic parks and in restoring access to our waterfront park, is also engaged in activities that threaten the economic development and recreational use of the waterfront.
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Go to the steps on either side of the expensive new entrance to Promenade where you will see all of the bluestone steps covered in ugly permanent stains, some worse than others, from OBVIOUSLY SHODDY WORK BY COLARUSSO. Rob Perry ignores the stains, he makes no mention of them to council members at meetings. He never has, as if the stains on the expensive stone steps don't exist and Colarusso did a wonderful job there..
ReplyDeleteColarusso repaved South 3rd street in 2017, having been granted that year's CHIPs repaving project as low bidder. The street soon began to fail, then required extensive REPLACEMENT BY DPW beginning two or three years ago, removing and replacing EVERYTHING two feet below Colarusso's cracked and crumbling shit asphalt (they are a "professional paving contractor" and they sold all the material DPW needed to replace their 5 YEAR OLD PAVED STREET). Perry never laid the blame on anyone, let alone Colarusso. No council members questioned how this could be possible, not even Margaret Morris. The street, especially between Union and Warren continues to crumble STRANGELY, QUICKLY AND HORRIBLY. Does Perry make mention of it? Of course not, it's too inconvenient. If DPW doesn't dig up Colarusso's shit work again this year (rather than continuing with temporary patches) things will spiral out of control if they haven't already.
Colarusso is bankrupting Hudson in so many ways, no matter what it says on that large stone they placed to the side of the Promenade entrance, now next to their stained stone steps.
We Can't Continue down this path and expect a livable city.
I wouldn't be surprised if Rob Perry and the current owner of Colarusso have been best pals since grade school.
Bill is right about stained stones at the new Promenade Park. It is one of my favorite jogging destinations (the spectacular view and to say hi to Winifred). The design is wonderful, especially for us old runners (multiple balance challenges). But I have been noticing the stains lately and have been thinking: that should be fixed. And the City should do what we did when I was on the school board after we found problems with the multi-million-dollar building construction: call the contractor and have them fix it. Period. SOP (Standard Operating Procedure.) Bill, should we ask to see the contract? Will it require a unanimous vote of the Council? --peter meyer
ReplyDeleteContract? How about a council member asks Rob Perry at a meeting why every step at the entrance is permanently stained and why he hasn't mentioned, or done, anything about it, even if it means getting Colarusso to clean the steps and prevent any further damage? This should have happened early last year, but our council is too busy trying to get nothing done.
DeleteLow bid? Did I hear "low bid"? Were there other bids? Can we see them? And while we're on the subject, an assignment for some enterprising investigator is to get copies all the "low bids" for housing/building projects (ones that involved public funds) given to Galloway over the years. --peter meyer
ReplyDeleteSo Colarusso is apparently the source of all the ills facing the city. People must have gotten tired of blaming everything on Galvan.
ReplyDeleteThere's enough blame to go around.
DeleteOne more thought about "lowest bidder." I have a vivid memory (most of the vivid ones are from 50+ years ago, so teachers, take note!!!) from John Glenn's first trip around the globe (5 days after my 12th birthday), and his scratchy comment from space to "Houston," "...to think that this thing was built by the lowest bidder." We (speaking for the country!) fell in love with Glenn from that moment, not to celebrate lowest bidders but marvel at Glenn's courage in getting into the vehicle! There will be a p.s. to this comment, but I will save it to later. --peter meyer
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