Ear to the Ground

Gossips has heard that Mayor Joe Ferris is appointing Sara Black to replace Gabrielle Hoffmann on the Planning Board. Black currently sits on the Hudson Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, having been appointed to that board by Mayor Kamal Johnson in June 2025. 

According to Gossips' sources, Black intends to step down from the HHA Board to take the position on the Planning Board, apparently to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest. Still it seems more than a little inappropriate for someone from the HHA Board to serve on the Planning Board at this point in time, given that HHA's ambitious proposal for redevelopment is currently the most significant project before the Planning Board. HHA and Mountco, their development partner, have been bemoaning what they perceive as a delay in the plan site review caused by the number of new members of the Planning Board. It would seem to be quite a coup for them to have one of their allies on the Planning Board to get the board up to speed and to fight their corner. 

Sara Black at a recent HHA Board meeting

COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK

Of Interest

Bon Appetit recently published a list of "The Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings This Spring." There are eight restaurants on the list, in such places as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New Orleans, St. Paul, Washington, D.C., and, you guessed it, Hudson.

The Hudson restaurant featured is Pez, "a contemporary Mexican spot from Efrén Hernández," which is coming to Rivertown Lodge. Bon Appetit says this about the new restaurant:

The menu at Pez focuses on sustainable East Coast seafood presented in three sections: frio, vegetables, and caliente. Hernández is pulling out all the stops with raw bar dishes like a Jonah crab tostada with chicatana chintextle (a smoked chile spread from Oaxaca), plus hot plates like grilled dayboat scallops with smoky chipotle and seaweed butter, or a whole dry-aged Atlantic mackerel with salsa serrano and housemade sourdough flour tortillas.

Pez is expected to open sometime in May.

Correcting the Record

On March 20, Spenser Walsh reported about the Common Council Legal Committee meeting which took place on March 12. The report was mostly about the proposed amendment to clarify Section 325-17.1 of the city code. The article contained misinformation, which is explained by Donna Streitz today on imby.com: "Again? Correcting the record on Colarusso's dock." 

Dust created by Colarusso's dock operations

How Much Do You Know About Olana?

Test your knowledge of all things Olana at a special trivia night celebrating Frederic Church's 200th birthday year. 

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 4, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., you can join The Olana Partnership staff for a rousing game of trivia. Bring a team or play on your own. Winners and runners-up will receive a special Olana prize pack. To register for Church 200 Spring Trivia Night, click here.

The State of the HCSD Budget

It's been a few weeks since Gossips posted about the Hudson City School District budget being proposed for 2026-2027, but it seems since then things have gone from bad to worse. In a few weeks. the proposed budget has gone from $61.4 million to $63.1 million. Roger Hannigan Gilson tells the story in today's Times Union: "Hudson school board faces tough choices amid huge budget gap." The following is quoted from that article:

Without cuts, spending is expected to rise about 7.8% for the 2026-2027 school year, a figure that would require a large increase in school taxes and for the district to spend a significant amount of its unassigned fund balance--excess money that is supposed to serve as a rainy day fund.

But the situation is worse than that. Even if the school board were to approve a budget that would raise taxes by the maximum allowable amount this year--5.8%--and spend the maximum allowable amount of the unassigned fund balance, the district would be $2.58 short, or more than 4% of the total proposed budget of $63.1 million.

Gilson reports that Mark DePace, president of the Board of Education, asked the district to prepare plans for cutting $2.5 to $4.5 million from the proposed budget, "allowing for different options with tax increases and using the unassigned fund balance," before the next board meeting, which takes place on April 14.

Looking Ahead to Summer

Registration for Oakdale Summer Camp 2026 is now underway. The program runs for six weeks, from July 6 to August 14. To register a child for summer camp, click here. The deadline for registering is May 31.

At the Common Council Services Committee meeting this evening, Youth Director Calvin Lewis reported that 71 campers have already registered for the summer camp program. More than 30 applications have been received for jobs as camp counselors, and almost 20 applications have been received for jobs as lifeguards.

Photo: cityofhudsonyouth.org

In Case You Missed It Yesterday

The Hudson Wail spoofs the New York Times.

Webinar on Frederic Church

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Church. Next week, as part of its bicentennial observance, The Olana Partnership is hosting Where to Start: Frederic Church's Early Career in Wider Contexts, a webinar with Joseph Mizhakiiyaasige Zordan, Ph.D. candidate in History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University and contributor to the forthcoming publication Frederic Church: Global Artist. 

The presentation will reexamine the role of local, national, and familial mentors in establishing Church's artistic career, particularly through his painting Hooker and Company, which is in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum on Hartford, Connecticut. The webinar will be moderated by Erin Monroe, Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Wadsworth.

The webinar takes place on Thursday, April 9, at 6:00 p.m. For more information and to register, click here.

What's Happening with CMH

Columbia Memorial Health traces its roots back to 1887, when Hudson Hospital was first established in a house at the corner of North Fifth and Washington streets. In 1900, the hospital moved to its first building on Prospect Avenue.

Today, the hospital is the city's, indeed the county's, largest employer, and we all rest a little easier knowing that there is a hospital in our city, close by, only minutes away. But, after nearly 140 years, the future of Hudson's hospital seems unclear.

In 2014, the hospital announced plans to enter into a "strategic alliance" with Albany Medical Center. In 2015, the relationship between the two institutions was described as AMC being the "parent" of CMH. Around that time, too, the H in CMH came to stand for "Health" instead of "Hospital." By 2022, it was clear Columbia Memorial was one of four hospitals in the Albany Med Health System, and new signage introduced in 2023 made that relationship clear.

A plan is currently being pursued to change the hospital's designation from "rural hospital" to "critical access hospital" and to reduce the number of medical beds to 25. The plan is being presented as a necessary step to ensure the survival of the hospital. At the same time, CMH is adding 23 beds in its inpatient psychiatric unit, more than doubling its capacity. 

Members of the hospital workers union, 1199 SEIU, take issue with the plans, which they say would reduce the services provided at CMH by 80 percent. They have been trying without success to meet with members of the hospital administration. 

Today at 4:00 p.m., members of the union plan to attend the annual friends event of the Healthcare Consortium, hoping to make contact and state their case. The meeting takes place at Hudson Hall and is open to the public. It might be a good way to get some insight into just what's happening at an institution we all count on to be there when we need it.

COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK