UPDATE: Washington Hose

On Friday morning, the proposal to restore Washington Hose came before the Historic Preservation Commission. At the outset, Cheryl Roberts, counsel to the HPC, advised that the proposal was coming before them for recommendation only since Washington Hose was owned by the City of Hudson and therefore the HPC that not have the power to grant or deny approval. 

According to Dan Proper from the engineering firm of Crawford & Associates, who appears to be overseeing the project, two significant changes are planned for the building. The first involves the truck bay, which, in the building's new life as the offices of Hudson Development Corporation and the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, will become a conference room. The roof on the truck bay, which is now a flat roof with a parapet, will be changed to a gable roof with asphalt shingles. The second significant change involves the frieze, which will be made "more Greek Revival" in style. 

According to Proper, the building has undergone "so many morphs" that it doesn't make sense to retain any of the windows except the arched windows at the front, which fill openings that were originally the engine bays, and the metal windows in the truck bay. The new windows will be wood, with true divided lights, four over one to match the configuration of the few existing windows believed to be original.  

The Historic Preservation Commission made only one recommendation: to retain the little round windows in the gables on either side of the main part of the building. In the architect's rendering of the building, the window was missing, and in the drawings presented to the HPC, the round window reportedly had been replaced with a square window. 

Among the materials submitted to the HPC were historic photographs of the building, including this amazing image. The building has been so altered over time that it's barely recognizable as the same building. 

This photograph is remarkable not only because it reveals that the building once had this extraordinary turret but also because at includes three fire-wardens dressed exactly as dictated in a resolution passed by the Common Council on July, 22, 1794:

"That so many firemen shall, from time to time, be appointed as the Common Council shall deem proper, and shall be called fire-wardens, whose duty it shall be, immediately on notice of fire, to repair to the place where it shall be, and to direct the inhabitants in forming themselves into ranks for handing the buckets to supply the fire-engines with water,-- . . . and the citizens are hereby enjoined to comply with the directions of the fire-wardens upon such occasions. . . . And in order that the . . . fire-wardens may be readily distinguished at fires . . . each of the fire Wardens shall, upon all those occasions, carry in his hand a Speaking-Trumpet painted white, to be used as occasion may requires; . . . shall wear, a Leather Cap with the crown whited white."

Gifford's Grave Restoration

Peter Jung reports good progress on the restoration of Sanford Gifford's grave. Jung speculates that "if the weather doesn't get too fierce, there's a good chance that all the stones will be set before winter sets in." The "final cosmetics," he says, will be finished up in the spring.

Mention of the cemetery and the efforts to restore parts of it prompt the reminder that in 1983 Hudson's cemetery was deemed eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The City of Hudson, with the Historic Preservation Commission taking the initiative, should pursue this status for our historic cemetery, which, in the words of William Krattinger, Historic Preservation Specialist with the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, contains "a noteworthy collection of funerary art, ranging from typically late 18th century stones executed by a master carver--and embellished with winged effigies and other typical design vocabulary--to tombs, such as the Egyptian Revival-style tomb which is an outstanding reflection of American romanticism in the antebellum period and the interest in that period of utilizing Egyptian design motives in cemetery design."     

Ear to the Ground

There’s a new development in the battle over assessments being waged by the Hudson Property Owners’ Coalition (HPOC). Gossips has received word that earlier this week HPOC attorney Robert L. Beebe filed a sur-reply—a response to the respondents’ response—which asks the Court to strike the reply submitted by the City of Hudson to HPOC’s original petition. The reasons given boil down to this: In the City of Hudson’s response, Paul S. Goldman, the attorney representing the City of Hudson in this matter, “avers that the 2010 assessment roll satisfies the State’s standard for a coefficient of dispersion (COD), the recognized test for assessment uniformity,” and the response is "structured in language that implies that the State has issued the purported COD," which HPOC maintains is simply not true.

Filed with HPOC’s sur-reply was an Affidavit of Support from Donald Vitaliano, professor emeritus at RPI, who taught public finance, urban economics, and managerial economics—subject areas that relate to the structure and economic theory of property tax and to the quantitative analysis of data. Vitaliano’s affidavit states that: “In the ‘Reply Affidavit’ submitted by Respondent-assessor Garth Slocum, . . . Mr. Slocum claims that a ‘Sales Analysis Report’ shows that his ‘desk audit’ assessment project meets State standards for assessment equity. In particular, he claims to have met the coefficient of dispersion (COD) equity test. A careful examination of his report suggests nothing of the kind.”

Vitaliano points out that “Mr. Slocum’s ‘Sales Analysis Report’ is not a report generated by the New York State Office of Real Property Tax Services (ORPTS). . . . There is no indication from any public record of the New York State Office of Real Property Services that the City of Hudson has conducted a recognized reassessment in 2010, a project that would have resulted in a ‘Local Reassessment Project Review and Analysis’ being performed and published by ORPTS.”

The affidavit claims that “Mr. Slocum has merely entered a self-selected set of recent sales into his desktop computer, using commercial RPS Version 4 software, to create his own test and purport ‘proof’ of uniformity. Mr. Slocum’s use of recent City of Hudson parcel sales compared to their assessments in the 2009 and 2010 roll tells us nothing about the COD or other equity measures of either roll. The reports simply show changes affecting individual properties. What the reports do suggest is that his 2010 ‘desk audit’ was most likely chasing sales, that is, reassessing properties as they sold.”

Vitaliano explains his own analysis of the "Sales Analysis Report” and concludes: “Reviewing the inadequacies of Mr. Slocum’s self-generated reports purporting to calculate a COD for the 2010 City of Hudson assessment roll, I find that his contention, that such reports ‘prove’ his 2010 ‘desk audit’ assessment project meets State standards for assessment equity, is without foundation.”

Of Brackets and Braces

The 200 block of Warren Street has no shortage of interesting brackets--some ornate, some very simple indeed.

So with all these historic models, why did the owners of 226-228 Warren Street opt for this design?

Standoff on Columbia Street

On my way home from the Veterans Day ceremony this morning, I came upon this traffic jam on Columbia Street just above Fifth. 

  
A gravel truck was heading east, an ADM truck was heading west, and, with the north side of the street parked solid with cars, the two trucks could not get past each other. The gravel truck had to back up until its rear end was well beyond the intersection with Fifth Street to allow the other truck to go by.

As the gravel truck continued on its way back to the quarry for another load of aggregate, I noticed this sentiment inscribed on the tailgate: "I Love A Good Dump." 

2011 City of Hudson Budget

The proposed budget for 2011 is now available on the City of Hudson website. The mil rate (the tax per $1,000 in assessed value) is 12.198420, down from 14.770500 in 2010--a 17 percent decrease. The total taxable value of properties in Hudson increased from 303,174,231 to 373,232,346, so the taxes on a hypothetical property assessed at $150,000 in 2009 and $250,000 in 2001 will increase from $2,215.58 to $3,049.61--an increase of 38 percent.

In his presentation, Mayor Richard Scalera highlighted these details of the proposed budget. (The following six points are quoted directly from the text of the mayor's presentation.)

1. There will not be salary increases for elected officials, Department Heads, PT 40-hr employees as well as PT hourly employees. The Police Union has previously negotiated a 3% increase for 2011 and CSEA is currently in contract discussions with the city.

2. The long time vacant Washington Hose building noted in last year's message as "quickly approaching when it would be beyond repair," has $350,000 appropriated for immediate restoration work but we also include $300,000 in expected revenues from the sale of City-owned properties to help offset the overall expense.

3. In the Assessor's office the part-time clerk position was cut and added was $68,000 toward the overall cost of a professional revaluation.

4. The city bus operations will be changed over in early January as we now will work within a Cooperative Agreement with the county. The Bus will continue to provide transportation from the City to the surrounding retailers in Greenport and back with expanded hours from the current schedule. This will represent a huge savings to the city and it's the beginning of what we hope to be many cooperative arrangements between the county, city and surrounding communities as we all search for ways to deliver services with cost savings in mind. This will also help our residents in seeking and securing job opporunities as well. 

5. Our water and sewer rates will not increase for fiscal year 2011, but with our new water-treatment plant online and our new waste-treatment plant scheduled to be completed next summer, the cost of new technology will undoubtedly be more and holding the line one rate increases of both funds in the future with all factors taken into consideration will be challenging.

6. Our Youth Department also has personnel cuts proposed for 2011 but more changes may be forthcoming. The fact is that we will review this Department to make sure that taxpayer monies spent for Youth Programs will be delivered in the most efficient and effective way possible. We look forward to positive public discussion on the matter and our goal is to use that input resulting in more changes in place by Jan. 1 2012.

A public hearing on the budget will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 17.

UPDATE: 226-228 Warren Street

Last week, progress on the exterior of 226-228 Warren Street seemed to have stopped. The little roofs over the box windows, which had not been approved by the Historic Preservation Commission, were still there. When asked about the building, Code Enforcement Officer Peter Wurster confirmed that the owners of the building had "every intention of going ahead to comply with the approved drawing submitted to HP" but urged anyone who noticed the siding going up to contact him immediately. 

This week, it appears that work on the exterior has resumed. The roofs have been removed, and brackets have been installed below the projecting windows, but it's still hard to imagine that this building will ever be compatible with the rest of the block.   

Signs of Change

Today's Register-Star has an article about the findings of the volunteer signage committee: "Survey shows need for signage upgrades." One finding, attributed to committee member Chad Weckler, who represents the Hudson Business Alliance, is that "at the intersection of South Third Street and Warren Street, there is an arrow pointing left toward the river for the business district—while there really should be . . . a sign with arrows pointing both directions on Warren."

Look again. The arrow on that sign actually does point both ways, but it appears that at some time a prankster tried to peel off the arrowhead that points east. 

On the (O&G) Road Again . . .

On October 26, Gossips reported that the Greenport Planning Board had informed O&G that no further action would be taken on their application to create a haul road from the quarry to Route 9G until O&G had submitted an application to the Hudson Planning Commission for the continuation of the road through South Bay to the river. What wasn't reported in that post was that the action was prompted by a letter from Hudson city attorney Cheryl Roberts, in which she suggests that "the Greenport Planning Board postpone its decision on site plan approval as currently proposed until conclusion of the GEIS [Generic Environmental Impact Statement] in order to comply with SEQRA's regulations and to avoid claims of segmentation in violation of SEQRA."

The letter goes on to say: "Under current zoning, 'transportation services' are a permitted use within the Industrial District, therefore, arguably O&G would have no obligation to submit an application for site plan approval to Hudson's Planning Commission, and the Commission would have no jurisdiction under SEQRA to initiate an environmental review. . . . Upon passage of the LWRP and its enabling legislation, expansion of the use or modernization of the port or causeway for shipping purposes would subject O&G's operations to review as a conditional use." In other words, only if the Common Council adopts the LWRP, which currently supports the use of the abandoned railroad bed as an industrial road, would the City have any control over the use of the "causeway." If the LWRP is not adopted, O&G can, in the opinion of Roberts, go ahead and use the railbed as a road "as of right."

Among the recipients of Roberts' letter was Jeffrey Anzevino at Scenic Hudson, and a few weeks later, Mark Wildonger, planner at Scenic Hudson, sent in a letter to Cheryl Roberts, stating that Scenic Hudson disagreed with the opinion that "constructing a new road along the abandoned railroad bed (causeway) across South Bay would constitute a permitted use in the Industrial District." Wildonger argued that the term "transportation services" relates to "some form of public transportation associated with a railroad station" and should not be construed so broadly as to include a heavy industrial road for hauling aggregate. Although Hudson's Code does not define "transportation services," Wildonger pointed out that other New York municipalities have defined "transportation services" to be related to passenger transport. Further, he noted out that the Code expressly prohibits uses in an Industrial District that "are noxious or offensive by reason of emission of odor, dust, smoke, gas, fumes or radiation, or which present a hazard to public health or safety. . . [325-17.D (1)]," concluding that "O&G Industries' proposal to use the abandoned railroad grade as a new road for use of heavy trucks hauling aggregate (80 roundtrips per day according to the City of Hudson LWRP DGRIS pg 3-5.2) would likely result in increased emissions, fugitive dust and other adverse impacts with the potential to present a hazard to public health or safety."          

Gossips is not aware of any response from the City of Hudson to the letter from Scenic Hudson.   

Last Night at City Hall

A few topics of interest were taken up at last night's informal Common Council meeting--chief among them the budget and the LWRP.

2011 Budget  Mayor Scalera will present the budget to the Common Council at a special meeting tomorrow night, Wednesday, November 10, at 6 p.m. Once that presentation has been made, the budget will be online for public review at the City of Hudson website. A public hearing on the budget will take place on Wednesday, November 17, at 6 p.m.

LWRP  Council President Don Moore had hoped that Cheryl Roberts and Frank Fish from BFJ would present their compendium of the comments made on the LWRP and their suggested responses to the Common Council at last night's meeting. That did not happen. According to Moore, the comments and responses are still being reviewed by the Department of State. It seems strange that the Department of State should review these responses before the legislative body whose responses they presumably are gets a chance to see them, but apparently this sequence of review is not unprecedented. 

Washington Hose  At last month's Economic Development Committee meeting, it was unanimously agreed to move forward a resolution to appropriate $325,000 from the general fund to make up the difference between the amount committed to the renovation of Washington Hose and the actual cost of the project set by the lowest responsible bidder. No such resolution was introduced at last night's meeting. When asked, Council President Don Moore explained that it had been decided that the cost could be written into the 2011 budget and there was no need for a separate resolution.

Dogs  The 2010-2011 New York State budget relieved the Department of Agriculture and Markets of the responsbility of issuing dog licenses, transferring it to municipalities. A resolution assuming for the City of Hudson dog licensing responsibilities and setting impoundment fees was introduced at last night's meeting. The annual licensing fees will remain the same: $12.50 for spayed or neutered dogs; $20.50 for dogs not spayed or neutered. The resolution doubles the impoundment fees. If the resolution is passed, it will cost $50 to redeem a dog the first time it is impounded, $150 the second time, and $300 for the third impoundment. There is nothing in the resolution that defines the penalty for keeping an unlicensed dog.               

Anticipating Thanksgiving

Although the tradition of Thanksgiving goes back to the Pilgrims and the first national Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 during the Civil War, it wasn't until 1941 that an act of Congress fixed the date of the holiday as the fourth Thursday in November. Prior to that, presidents every year in early November proclaimed a national Day of Thanksgiving to occur later in the month. One of those proclamations, made by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, in his first year in office, in the midst of the Great Depression, seems appropriate to recall as we approach Thanksgiving 2010.

I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do set aside and appoint Thursday, the thirtieth day of November 1933, to be a Day of Thanksgiving for all our people.

May we on that day in our churches and in our homes give humble thanks for the blessings bestowed upon us during the year past by Almighty God.

May we recall the courage of those who settled a wilderness, the vision of those who founded the Nation, the steadfastness of those who in every succeeding generation have fought to keep pure the ideal of equality of opportunity and hold clear the goal of mutual help in time of prosperity as in time of adversity.

May we ask guidance in more surely learning the ancient truth that greed and selfishness and striving for undue riches can never bring lasting happiness or good to the individual or to his neighbors.

May we be grateful for the passing of dark days; for the new spirit of dependence one on another; for the closer unity of all parts of our wide land; for the greater friendship between employers and those who toil; for a clearer knowledge by all nations that we seek no conquests and ask only honorable engagements by all peoples to respect the lands and rights of their neighbors; for the brighter day to which we can win through by seeking the help of God in a more unselfish striving for the common bettering of mankind.

Keeping History

The few months ago a friend turned me on to an amazing website called Old Fulton NY Post Cards. The site, as I learned recently from a blog called Digitization 101, is the work of a former IT executive named Tom Tryniski, who lives in Fulton. It's a labor of love that started out as a way to share his collection of vintage post cards. Along the way, Tryniski got the idea of digitizing old newspapers, and to date he has digitized more than 13.5 million historic newspapers from all over the State of New York. 

The site is an incredibly rich resource for those interested in the past, although it's not always easy to use. So far, I haven't discovered a way to search only the Hudson Daily Register, so any but the most carefully targeted search yields a slew of articles from the Brookyn Daily Eagle and other newspapers around the state which must be scrolled through before getting to the relevant stuff. Regular readers of Gossips will realize that I use this site often as a source for some of the historic items I publish. There may be a certain bias in some of the articles, readily recognized from a historical perspective, but one never questions the basic facts. Old newspapers are commonly accepted as reliable primary sources of information about the past, but will this still be true in the future?

In the case of the City of Hudson, the Register-Star seems a somewhat unreliable chronicler of our history. It can't be counted on to get names right or to quote people accurately, and a recent bit of revisionism, when the Register-Star reported that the Halloween Parade this year was the first ever to take place in Hudson, riled a number of people. One Gossips reader, who spent her childhood in Claverack in the 1940s, recalled that "there was a parade in Hudson every Halloween for children and adults from surrounding communities." The parade started at the Armory, where all parades originated in those days, and marched to Seventh Street Park, where prizes were awarded for costumes--funniest, prettiest, most original, etc. Another reader, whose son, now off at college, participated in Halloween parades in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which followed the same route as this year's parade, was similarly distressed that the newspaper could so facilely wipe out not only a well established Hudson tradition but also "the history of now-grown or nearly grown Hudson children." "If such a small detail can be erased and restated and printed and distributed," she asked, "what can happen to larger details?"

A little more than a year ago, The Wall Street Journal published an article celebrating the survival of the Register-Star and the Daily Mail while small-town papers across the country were folding: "Write Local: How Small Newspapers Are Surviving." The article stated what readers of the Register-Star already knew or had surmised: "There is no copy desk, and editing is scant." Executive Editor Theresa Hyland was quoted in the article as saying, "You hope you catch everything, but you don't." Readers can attest to that. 

The Register-Star's bare-bones, cost-cutting practices may be the formula for survival in tough economic times, but it doesn't seem to be a very good one for the preservation of local history. A century from now, what reliable primary sources will survive to tell future generations what happened in Hudson in this generation?     

Standard Time Returns

David Seth Michaels has a wonderful "paean" to the return of standard time and the onset of winter at his blog The Dream Antilles. It'll make you happy to be facing winter in the more urban setting of Hudson rather than the rustic environs of Spencertown.

Catching Up with Historic Hudson

They maintain an second-floor office on Warren Street. Their shingle hangs above a doorway next to Le Gamin. They can be counted on to weigh in whenever a historic building or the historic character of Hudson is threatened. If it weren't for them, there would be a building missing in the 100 block of Warren Street, the glass negatives of Frank Forshew's remarkable nineteenth-century photographs of Hudson would still be stashed away in an attic, the Dr. Oliver Bronson House--a National Historic Landmark since 2003--would still be moldering away abused and unnoticed on the grounds of the Hudson Correctional Facility, and the City of Hudson would be without laws to protect historic properties.    

Although their achievements since their founding in 1996 have been significant, it's not generally known from day to day what the preservation group Historic Hudson is up to, especially now that, as the stewards of the Dr. Oliver Bronson House, they're having to focus major energy and effort on implementing the Conservation and Stabilization Plan for a building that can be viewed by the general public only once or twice a year. A couple weeks ago, after their well-attended and well-received Old House Tour "At Home with History," the board of Historic Hudson gathered to assess the organization's achievements over the past year. With the permission of the board, I share that chronology with Gossips readers. Click HERE to access it.      

Full disclosure: The "voice" of Gossips was one of the founders of Historic Hudson and has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1996, serving as secretary from 1996 through 2000, president from 2002 to 2006, and vice president since June 2010. 

Not to Be Missed

According to an article in today's Register-Star, the former LB Industries building is morphing into a grassroots business incubator--without benefit, it would seem, of PILOTs, tax incentives, or any kind of IDA intervention: "New life at old furniture warehouse." 

Coincidentally, as I headed out to take this picture, I heard these statistics on the car radio: 89 percent of businesses in the United States are microbusinesses, employing no more than five people, and people who own their own businesses are likely to earn 27 percent more than they would as employees.    

After School in Hudson

During the course of writing yesterday's post about youth programs in Hudson, I learned about the afterschool program that the Hudson City School District provides for its latchkey kids: Hudson Bluehawk Nation Afterschool Program. Although I knew that an afterschool program existed, I was unaware of its scope or its awarding-winning reputation. Since many Gossips readers may be similarly underinformed, I've decided to share what I learned about the program yesterday from its director, Kathleen Clark.

The program provides homework help and recreational activities from 2:45 to 5:45 every day, Monday through Friday, for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, at each school in the district.

• At John L. Edwards, the primary school, 130 students are registered in the afterschool program, and 110 attend on a daily basis.
• At Montgomery C. Smith, the intermediate school, 240 students are registered, and 200 attend on a daily basis.
• At Hudson Junior High School, 50 students are registered, and 35 attend on a daily basis.
• At Hudson High School, the afterschool program offers credit courses to help students graduate. Approximately 40 students participate in this program.

The afterschool program employs a part-time staff of 84, which includes teachers, club instructors, adults, college students, high school students, and "Counselors in Training" (former participants in the program). Principal funding for the program comes from a 21st Century Community Learning Center Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education and an Advantage After School Program grant from the New York State Office of Children & Family Services, administered by the Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties. More information about the afterschool program is available on the HCSD website. 

The photo is from the Afterschool Program Photo Gallery on the HCSD website.     

Hudson's Senior Center

There's a plan to build a senior center in Hudson, as an addition to the Youth Center at the corner of Third and Union streets, but the question is: Will it offer any programs that will appeal to a growing segment of Hudson seniors?

Currently under attack is the very popular yoga program for seniors, taught by Terry Schaff. An article in today's Register-Star reports that the Hudson River Bank & Trust Foundation is no longer willing to fund the program because, they've been told, the people participating can afford to pay for it and the instructor charges too much ($50 an hour) for her services: "Senior yoga, exercise programs in danger."

The suggestion that participants pay a small fee to offset the cost of the program does not seem entirely inappropriate. There are successful senior centers, run as not-for-profits, that charge a nominal annual membership fee, in addition to small fees for individual programs. The notion, however, that no one providing programs at the Youth/Senior Center should be compensated more than $25 an hour seems to guarantee a level of mediocrity that will result in programs of limited benefit or appeal to many Hudson seniors.

One thing that may be learned from the current situation is that a successful senior center is going to take more than simply building an addition on the Youth Center. It will require capable and dedicated planning for senior programs and for funding those programs--something that cannot be done successfully as a left-handed effort by a staff whose major focus is youth programs.          

You CAN Get There from Here

The bridge on Route 9G over the Roeliff Jansen Kill, on the way to Germantown, reopens tomorrow--Friday, November 5--at 1 p.m.

NOTE: This picture was taken in May 2009, before the bridge closed for repair.

Youth Programs

This morning the Didi Barrett campaign sent out an email message that included this rather amazing statement: "No turnout figures or percentage of the vote begin to tell the stories of the people, young and old, that I connected with over these last nine months. Inner city moms shared hopes for their young children, asking why there are no youth programs in Poughkeepsie or Hudson. . . ." 

No youth programs in Hudson? In 2010, the City of Hudson spent $456,076 on youth programs and maintaining the Youth Center. The Hudson Opera House has a full roster of youth programs, the vast majority of them free. Then there's Operation Unite New York, the not-for-profit that provides educational, cultural, and recreational programs for youth, and TSL. And this is all above and beyond the award-winning afterschool programs and the extracurricular activites offered by the Hudson City School District, where more than $20,000 is spent each year to educate each child. 

So where does the perception that "there are no youth programs in Hudson" come from? Is this spin from the Barrett campaign trying to portray her as being in touch with people who "have felt ignored for way too long" by Senator Saland? Or are there really "inner city moms" in Hudson who believe that there are no youth programs? If the latter is the case, the next logical question is why do they think this? Is this a problem of communication? Do these parents really not know what is available to their children? Or is there some disconnect between the progams being offered--by the City of Hudson, by the public schools, by the not-for-profits--and what these parents think would improve their children's lives?     

The picture, from the Hudson Opera House website, shows Fran Martino with youth in the Environmental Education Program offered by the Hudson Opera House.    

Relive the Best Halloween Party in Hudson!

Roy Volkmann's fabulous photographs from Saturday's Witches Ball are now online. Click HERE to view them all.