About That Barge

On Saturday, Gossips reported about a barge that had capsized the previous day at the Colarusso dock while being loaded with gravel: "On the Waterfront."

Photo: Peter Meyer

Last night, at the Planning Board meeting, the incident was brought up by Planning Board member Randall Martin. Colarusso attorney T. J. Ruane explained that the barge had a hole in it, and no one knew it was defective until they started loading gravel onto it. Expressing concern about the safety of kayakers and other recreational users of the river, Martin asked, "Do you inspect barges before you load them?" The answer from Ruane and JR Heffner, vice president of operations for Colarusso, was, "Yes." But when Martin asked the follow-up question, "So how did this happen?" Ruane and Heffner didn't seem to have a clear answer.

Martin persisted wanting to know more about the "serious issue that occurred at your dock just last week," but Ruane dismissed his concerns, maintaining there were no safety issues and asserting that the Planning Board had no purview over the river. Theresa Joyner, who chairs the Planning Board, after saying that she did not see this as a problem, asked, "Is there anyone else on the board that sees the problem Randall does?" No one except Gaby Hoffmann did. Commenting on Martin's concerns about the safety of kayakers, Heffner declared, "It's not safe to take a kayak into the river near a deep water port."

You can listen to the conversation here, beginning at about 1:45:02.

Today, Roger Hannigan Gilson has a story about the overturned barge in the Times Union: "Industrial barge flips in Hudson, remains stuck days later." This is the account of what happened provided by the U.S. Coast Guard and reported by Gilson:

The U.S. Coast Guard said the dock operator contacted the agency Friday morning and said the barge had capsized and run aground. Chief Warrant Officer Brandyn Hill added that the incident did not present any environmental hazards, and the barge did not block boat traffic.

Interestingly, this account does not include the information that the barge was at the dock and being loaded with gravel when it capsized. 

Before launching into a synopsis of the ongoing conditional use permit review, Gilson makes this statement:

The overturned barge has been visible to anyone using the Hudson-Athens ferry or anyone boating in the river since Friday. Hudson residents were mostly in the dark about what happened. Messages left for Mayor Kamal Johnson, Mayoral Aide Justin Weaver, and A. Colarusso & Son, the dock's owner, were not returned on Monday.

Gilson's article is accompanied by this photograph, taken from a kayak by Nathan Woodhull.

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