Two comments on last week's post about the upcoming mayoral debate made reference to a lease-to-own agreement between the City of Hudson and Colarusso. The reference is to a deal entered into nearly a quarter of the century ago, in 2002, involving 354 acres of the former Lone Star Cement quarry. The story of how and why the City came to acquire the former Lone Star quarry in 1969 and the circumstances leading to the deal with Colarusso in 2002 is told in this Gossips post from 2016: "Water, History, and Colarusso: Some History." It is recommended reading.
The late Robert "Doc" Donahue, who served as Fifth Ward alderman for twenty-four years--twelve consecutive terms--from 1994 to 2017, often spoke with admiration about the deal negotiated with Colarusso by Rick Scalera during his fourth (nonconsecutive) term as mayor, calling it Scalera's legacy. In December 2011, Sam Pratt had this to say about Donahue's assessment of the deal on his blog, SamPratt.com:
Alderman Doc Donahue recently pronounced the signing of an agreement with Colarusso to mine around Hudson’s backup water supply as the Mayor’s “legacy.” It’s tempting to agree, because that document sums up a lot of what has been so wrong with his tenure as Mayor. Scalera’s tenure as Mayor is indeed well-encapsulated [in] a sweetheart deal with a former campaign contributor, feebly negotiated with financial terms highly unfavorable to the taxpayers (what's $100,000 per year going to be worth in 20 years, with no increase in payments to account for inflation?). It represents Rick fumbling away one of the City’s most important assets. The next time there’s a drought, or your tax bill goes up, do remember Donahue’s pronouncement.
COPYRIGHT 2025 CAROLE OSTERINK
The story of how Colarusso came to effectively buy the former Lone Star quarry is quite funny for a very specific reason: It sums up in a nutshell Hudson's persistent mismanagement of anything it comes into contact with. This is Hudson's true DNA.
ReplyDeleteSo back then, Hudson needed to build a new water treatment plant. To fund this, Scalera decided to transfer most of that quarry to Colarusso in a lease-to-own deal and in return the city would be getting a reliable income stream for the next forty years. From a mayor's point of view, this wasn't unreasonable.
But now cue Hudson: The moment the deal was struck, the voices rose complaining that the mayor had just signed over a truckload of gold bricks to Colarusso because the quarry had of course infinite potential.
It's the usual Hudson story. Everything here is a potential gold mine yet no one ever proactively thinks about how to exploit it. This is on full display whenever it's about the waterfront which is seen by many as this great engine that could.
Maybe that's true, but for it to become a reality, you can't just sit on your hands and raise the concerns when it's too late.
For Colarusso to have set up shop right outside of Hudson was a fortuitous kiss of fate. It's a wet dream to have a municipality as neighbor that is never prepared and always too late.
The city meanwhile, or at least most its elected officials that I have been trying to convince, are still entirely disinterested in fixing the LWRP. And so, this tale of squandered opportunities perpetuates itself.
What do all of these things have in common:
ReplyDelete1) Colarusso as a major campaign donor, then personally steps in to negotiate away Hudson’s water adjacent resources:
✅ Rick Scalera
✅ Kamal Johnson
2) Close ties and supporters of Galvan, with Galvan in a power dynamic position (Landlord or Employer):
✅ Rick Scalera
✅ Kamal Johnson
“🎼Just some good old boys,
Never meanin' no harm 🎶”
I’m no supporter of Kamal’s, but he was a child when the backup reservoir deal was done. He hasn’t done much good, but he wasn’t involved in this negative action. That was Rick and his henchmen.
DeleteJohn: What I am wondering is if - from the perspective of a Hudson mayor back in 2002 - this could even be classified as a bad deal. To me it looked like it solved an immediate problem that needed solving: Scalera found a way to fund a water treatment plant that was needed.
DeleteIt doesn't seem that the city at the time had any idea what else to do with this quarry.
John, I’m referring to this:
Deletehttps://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/2025/06/news-from-planning-board-meeting.html
Speaking of mayors turned lobbyists... what current Mayor Kamal and his domestic partner and Housing Justice Director Michelle Tullo will do after the election...
ReplyDeleteThere just aren't that many (or any) jobs for career politicians outside of Albany.
Michael Chameides works at Rural Democracy; RDI’s own grantee criteria explicitly allow funding of “lobbying, ballot measures, and issue advocacy” under its 501(c)(4) grant making arm.
But there are only so many lobbying groups like that in this area.
Galvan is pulling back (Scalera's post mayoral landing) and Spark is not explicitly political and might change direction (or go back to originally intended curiosity/UBI/innovation roots) post Caitie?
In any event.... Hudson has overproduced career politicians who fail to break into the middle or top tier of state politics.
The NY Dems are engaged in a civil war over Mamdani... WFP backed candidates all lost in this area.
When you see a WFP / Democratic Socialist out there buy them a latte.
One would think that in a properly functioning democracy, a Mayor who appoints a Planning Board would be prohibited from taking financial donations from a business entity that has major business in front of that Planning Board. Am I setting the bar too high? ~ PJ
ReplyDeleteAside from the problematic deal between the city and Colarusso (which might be considered drinking water under the bridge...) I call your attention to this passage in Hudson's 2019 Natural Resources Inventory regarding drinking water: "If the DOH [Department of Health] determines that the backup water supply is no longer drinkable, or is for any reason unavailable, the mining company must provide a substitute backup water supply that is equal or superior in quality or quantity to the existing backup reservoir. It is, however, unclear what that alternative backup supply might be." Also, if I remember correctly, at the time the NRI was written there was no infrastructure envisioned or in place for actually delivering the backup water into the city's mains. Thirsty now?
ReplyDeleteFormer mayor Rick Scalera emailed this request:
ReplyDelete"Sam once again popped out from under the rocks with a background full of lies and distortion!
"I realize he can't help himself and needs to feel relevant every now and then!
"That said, it would be appreciated if right under his paragraph you could insert my short and factual response that you posted dated December 14, 2016, an overview of how I sold it to the Council. BTW I believed the City recently received their 23rd check of $200,000 used to directly offset the debt service for the Mandated build of the New Water Treatment plant back then. Simply by selling rock that was of little value to us. Yes we reached out to Peckham to see if there was interest on their part and they responded by saying, 'No thank You, it would be too expensive to mine it and transport it to our plant, and that Colarusso's offer was a good one and they have the quarry nearby and mining permits in hand!'
"Never once was the City's Secondary Water Supply ever considered as part of the deal! We still own it, contrary to what some people want you to believe!"
The comment from 2016 referred to is this:
"Since there are a few that are curious how the conversation went between Aldermen and myself as Mayor please allow me to paraphrase to the best of my recollection;
Alderman(fill in the blanks)
The City of Hudson will soon be building a new water treatment plant costing around 10 million dollars. Debt service for this build will be annually around 250 thousand. The Scalera Administration secured 2 million in grant money toward this project leaving about 8 million left to pay over many decades. There has been negotiations with Colarruso's that will bring to the city of Hudson 7 million dollars at the rate of 200g for the first 30 years and 100g for the next 10 years for the lease to own lands at the quarry that the city owns and most important the city KEEPS for future possible use its' secondary water supply. So the scenario is simple;
We sell the rock which was only valuable to Colarusso (and we reached out elsewhere) and offset our 8 million dollar cost of a new plant by 7 million.
As a result the city will have a new plant built and it will only cost taxpayers 1 million instead of the initial cost of 10 million dollars. If you support this the taxpayers of the City of Hudson will be greatly indebted."
Rick -
Delete1. How much money has Galvan paid you per year since you left office to lobby on their behalf for PILOTs and other benefits?
2. Have you now, or recently, used your office as Supervisor, or any other familial ties to apply pressure any City of Hudson departments to follow your directives?
3. Since you support Kamal, why don't you write an open guest op-ed about why you think he might be better than Joe Ferris?
Can you please articulate your thinking and evidence?
Surely it must be more than "from here".
As a former mayor you are well placed to know what it takes to be a bad (or good) mayor.
~
We were not in Hudson in the 90s but imagine, given the Hudson Correctional Facility vibes and Prison Unions when you ran against Linda, it must have been something like the TV Show Mayor of Kingston?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Kingstown
It’s important to realize that there are many ways to use a quarry. New York State Gov encourages quarries be re-wilded after 8-16 years. A quarry in our back yard is a health hazard to humans, animals, pets, wetlands, rivers, trees and vegetation. This fact is stated on the New York Gov website. Google maps quickly show that mining, and roads to haul mining products, are eating up the land around Hudson. Heavy machinery, diesel, barges, fine particulate matter from the quarry itself puts a continuous layer of grime on Hudson and in our lungs. Pulmonologists confirm this. Quarries can be repurposed for profit by transforming them into recreational areas, agricultural sites, housing development projects, or renewable energy projects. These ventures not only generate revenue but also contribute positively to the environment and local communities.
ReplyDeletehttps://rockproducts.com/2025/05/09/reclamation-success-stories/
https://www.mit.edu/people/spirn/Public/Ulises-11-308/Quarrying.pdf
Quarries can become a stunning asset to a community. The benefits include creating work, income revenue and at the same time eliminating pollution.
My husband and I asked Mayor Johnson about the Lease to Own Colarusso deal, and what his thoughts were about the selling of hundreds of acres of Hudson City land to a private corporation. (technically we still own the land since it’s being “leased to own”). He refused to answer any questions about this, and appeared to not know about it.
The choices made in Hudson’s past have been to favor mining and prisons, taking hundreds of acres of land away from potential positive development, and holding Hudson prisoner to its influence.
The use of the former House of Refuge for Women, the first reformatory for women in New York as a prison, The Hudson Correctional Facility is another choice that has taken acres of land and potential away from the city.
We are circumscribed by mines and a prison.
“The Hudson prison’s history holds significant meaning for contemporary debates about penal reform, child welfare; juvenile justice; the role that race, gender, income and immigrant status play in determining what is a crime and what kind of punishment is appropriate; the role of architecture and design in rehabilitation; and the dependence of rural and small town economies on prison jobs.”
https://prisonpublicmemory.us/hudson-ny/
With vision displayed in the above articles, Hudson City owned land could employ hundreds of people in positive, sustainable and beneficial jobs. It could provide hundreds of acres more land for building homes, light industry, allow for nurses and doctors and other workers to live where they work. We have a major employer -a hospital that desperately needs employees. We could create public parkland, recreation areas and trees to fight climate change. The prison could be a university or museum. Instead, the past leaders of Hudson have chosen mining and prisons. The trees die around us.
One can only hope future leaders would have the vision to reclaim and manifest city assets, not sell them to corporations.
Sienna, all of these things are indeed possible. But it requires someone to put in that work to make it happen.
DeleteThere is no shortage in Hudson of people pointing out flaws after the fact but a marked absence of people who recognize what is possible and proactively work towards it.
Tassilo, I agree all those things are possible. And : Yes, it takes people who have vision, take action, who promote ideas and action as a unified force of the people. I disagree that there are not people who are proactively taking action. That does exist here, and the potential is great. Many many people have been fighting against massive corporate industrial interests here for decades. There has been a resurgent groundswell over the last five years, and people have been taking very clear action in the form of gathering, petition signatures and showing up to meetings of the planning board and city council, as well as sending letters to our representatives. The silence on the other side is deafening. This indicates what’s needed most of all is a sweep of local government officials, being replaced by ones who have vision. The lawyers are here who can defeat Colarusso, as seen by KD’s post. A new mayor who can appoint a Planning Board that is effective, know how to organize and run meetings, with a lawyer present who will not let Colarusso’s lawyer run all over them would be helpful. A Mayor who is disentangled from the lords of the land, could help bring forth the hundreds of hours of work, if not thousands that seriously engaged, and totally ignored locals have put into revisioning what our city could be.
ReplyDeleteOne must recognize flaws of the past after the fact, in order to decide what the possibilities are for the future. Without examining the past we have no future. I personally believe that discourse is good. You and yourself has brought so much to the table. It is important and vital foar a community to have discourse. We also need representation. Unfortunately, many of us in Hudson do not have representation. Our representatives who receive benefits do not show up at the table, they do not open up a forum in order for tax paying citizens to give their input. We are shut out of the system.