Who Is Getting the Money?

Yesterday, the Common Council Finance Committee met to decide how to divvy up the $30,000 allocated to support "events, event series, or other tourism-related initiatives." The Finance Committee has four members--Rich Volo, Lola Roberts, Mohammed Rony, and Margaret Morris--but only two--Volo and Morris--showed up for the meeting. In about half an hour, they made decisions about awarding $23,500. 

• $2,000 to Bindlestiff Family Cirkus/Bindlestiff Cirkus Afterschool for its annual summer artist-in-residence program
• $1,000 to FASNY Museum of Firefighting for its annual Dalmatian Day
• $3,000 to OutHudson for the Pride Parade
• $1,000 to Hudson Family Reunion
• $1,000 to Hudson Area Library History Room to design and print Hudson Whaling & Maritime Commerce Walking Tour brochures
• $5,000 for Hudson Flag Day Parade and Festival 
• $1,000 to Who Be We! for Juneteenth programing
• $3,000 to Hudson Sloop Club for Waterfront Wednesdays
• $5,000 to Hudson Hall for the Hudson Jazz Festival
• $1,500 to Hudson Film Festival

Decisions were not made on funding requests from Hudson Open Studios and the Hudson Mile. Regarding the former, it was not clear if the event would meet the requirement for ADA compliance. The organizers of the Hudson Mile were asked to reschedule the event in the morning so it would not interfere with business of Warren Street, but so far they have not agreed to do that. Rich Volo suggested the leftover money--$6,500 at this point--could be redirected to the Police Department and the Department of Public Works to help defray the cost to these departments of some of the events, particularly Flag Day and the Pride Parade.

Henry Hudson Riverfront Park the morning after Flag Day

The spreadsheet containing all the information about the projects that applied for funding can be found under Documents on the Finance Committee page of the City of Hudson website.

COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK