COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there has been one new case of COVID-19 and one recovery, so the number of active cases remains unchanged at three. There are six more county residents in mandatory quarantine today than there were yesterday, but the number in precautionary quarantine remains the same. No one is hospitalized with the virus, and for the past 105 days, there have been no deaths from COVID-19 in Columbia County.

 

With one positive out of 242 test results, the positive percentage rate for today is 0.4 percent.

In the Microcosm That Is Hudson

The grand jury indictment of Mohammed Ali in August on multiple charges of predatory sexual assault is causing turmoil in Hudson's Bangladeshi community that is spilling out into the political arena. On September 11, JAAGO Hudson held a rally in Hudson in support of the victims of Ali's alleged abuse. The group assembled at Promenade Hill and then marched to Ali's house. Among the speakers who addressed the crowd there was one of Ali's accusers, who told for her experiences.

Photo: Facebook

Writing about the rally in a piece published on Facebook, Jabin Ahmed, one of the organizers of JAAGO Hudson, said:

Despite how fearless I felt in that moment I could not get over the disappointment and heartbreak I felt when I saw there was very little representation from the brown community. The Bengali community representatives (Abdus Miah, Shershah Mizan, Dewan Sarowar) voted into city positions did not show up, nor did they reach out to show their support. Our current representatives may wear the same skin, speak the same tongue and face the same battles but their values and stance on social issues do not mirror the needs of the Bangladeshi community or Hudson in general. They hold office positions for power and fame. It's as simple as that.

The elected officials from the Bangladeshi community are taking the position that the issue is now a matter for the court to decide. In the article that appeared in the Register-Star, Third Ward alderman Shershah Mizan is quoted as saying, "I respect the law. The case is in the court." The article also quotes Second Ward alderman Dewan Sarowar: "Both of them [the accusers and the accused] are in my community. I can't make either of them happy or unhappy." Both men said they had not attended the rally because they knew nothing about it.

Speaking with Gossips on Friday, Abdus Miah, who represents the Second Ward on the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, talked about due process. He said he had been advised by legal counsel to remain neutral and stressed that the presumption of innocence was a fundamental principle of the law. "No elected official can convict," he asserted. "It would be taking the law into my own hands. If we do that, we don't need a justice system." Miah also expressed regret that none of the victims ever came to the leaders of the Bangladeshi community. He said he had no knowledge of the situation until he read about Ali's arrest last November in the newspaper.

The expressed desire of these elected officials not to interfere in the judicial process is not being well received. At the Common Council meeting last week, Quintin Cross, who has allied himself with the JAAGO Hudson cause, demanded to know "where the aldermen stand on the incident of abuse in the Bengali community." When Sarowar and Mizan did not speak, someone who was not identified declared, "Their silence is complacency." Although the speaker said complacency, she may have meant complicity. Alderman Tiffany Garriga, who had called out Sarowar and Mizan, then expressed her contempt for "any man who thinks he can get away with this or any man who helps them," adding, "I won't stand for it!" 

In a Facebook post, Jarin Ahmed, another of the organizers of JAAGO Hudson, wrote: "There is a fine line between showing support and making a judgment. No one is being asked to be the judge/jury/executioner. Simple support would be enough. . . . The only thing at stake for these officials is losing votes/support from misogynists."

COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK

You Can't Come Here from There: Update

It isn't over until it's over. The pandemic may seem under control here in Columbia County, but it's not the case in the rest of the country. Today, five states were added to New York's list of restricted states: Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Wyoming. There are now thirty-five states and territories on the restricted list. Travelers from these places must quarantine for fourteen days upon arrival in New York. It is also worth mentioning that New Yorkers who visit or travel in any of these states must quarantine upon return to New York. Here is the full list:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arkansas
• Arizona
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Guam
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• Puerto Rico
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina 
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been no new cases of COVID-19 and one recovery, reducing the number of active cases by one, to three. Today, no one is hospitalized with the virus. The number of county residents in mandatory quarantine is the same today as it was yesterday, but there is one more person in precautionary quarantine. It has now been 104 days since there has been a death from COVID-19 in Columbia County.

With zero positives from 242 test results received, the positive percentage rate for today is 0.0 percent.

Meetings of Interest in the Week Ahead

Early voting begins in 33 days. In the meantime, here are the meetings that are happening in Hudson this week.

• On Tuesday, September 22, the board of the Hudson Development Corporation meets at noon. To access the Zoom meeting, click here. The meeting ID is 822 1561 6942; the passcode is 267685. The word is that some part of the meeting will take place in executive session.
• Also on Tuesday, September 22, the Hudson IDA (Industrial Development Agency) holds a special meeting at 1:00 p.m. to consider the PILOT agreement for Hudson House, the boutique hotel project proposed for 620 Union Street. 

At the public hearing on the proposed PILOT, which took place last Wednesday, only two members of the public spoke. John Kane asked about the commitment to hire local people for positions at the hotel and noted that hospitality workers typically do not earn enough to afford to live in Hudson. Steve Dunn asked if the project would be abandoned if the PILOT was not granted and also questioned the assessment of the completed hotel being used in the calculations presented in the cost-benefit analysis. A letter in support of the project, submitted by Scott Neven of Neven and Neven Moderne, was read aloud during the public hearing, in which it was stated: "[The hotel] will create new jobs for residents of Hudson and it will generate revenue for the business owners in Hudson and will generate significant revenue for the City of Hudson." 

• At 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 22, the HDC Emergency Cultural Task Force resumes its meetings after a brief hiatus. According to Seth Rogovoy, who chairs the task force, the meeting is "somewhat morphing into a weekly discussion of the greater Hudson arts and cultural scene." This week's meeting will feature a presentation by Laura Summer about the "Art Dispersal" of paintings from the project In the Figure of Divine Substance to be exhibited next weekend at Lightforms Art Center and about the new video by Finnish video artist Sampsa Pirtola displayed in the front window of Lightforms. Click here to join the Zoom meeting. The meeting ID is 972 7312 5560; the passcode is 009933.
• On Wednesday, September 23, the Common Council Public Works and Parks Committee meets at 5:00 p.m., and the Legal Committee meets at 6:15 p.m. Information to access the meetings will be posted on the City of Hudson website prior to the meetings. Scroll down to the calendar. 
• On Friday, September 25, the Historic Preservation Commission meets at 10:00 a.m. The meeting can be viewed at Hudson City Zoom Meetings on YouTube.

COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there has been one new case of COVID-19 and no new recoveries, increasing the number of active cases to four, one of whom is hospitalized. There are six more county residents in mandatory quarantine today than there were yesterday, but the number in precautionary quarantine remains the same. It has now been 103 days since there has been a death from COVID-19 in Columbia County.

With one positive out of 88 test results received, the positive percentage rate for today is 1.1 percent.

New Life for an Old Cement Plant

Gossips posted about this in 2011 and 2012, but every time a new article about it comes to my attention, I feel compelled to provide a link to it. What architect Ricardo Bofill has done with an abandoned cement plant outside Barcelona is remarkable and awe inspiring and makes one wish that someone with great vision and wealth would do something similar with any of the several abandoned cement plants in the Hudson Valley: "Brilliant architect turns abandoned cement factory into a breathtaking home, take a look inside." 

Interesting Development

An hour ago, Bill Williams reported in the Register-Star that Peter Volkmann, who is the chief of police in Chatham, had been placed on paid administrative leave by the Village Board after "the village was served with a warrant by state police on Thursday seeking computer records from its police department": "Chatham board places police chief on leave."

A few minutes ago, Mayor Kamal Johnson made the following announcement on Facebook:

I have received and accepted the resignation of Police Commissioner Peter Volkmann. I'm thankful for the work that was accomplished during his nine months as Commissioner. Moving forward, we will continue our work to improve public safety as well as police-community relations. I will continue to work closely with the Hudson Police Department, the Police Reconciliation & Advisory Commission, and Transitions to Treatment. As the great John Lewis would say always forward never back.

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today, in a new format. Since yesterday, there has been one new case of COVID-19 and no new recoveries, increasing the number of active cases to three, one of whom is hospitalized. There are three fewer county residents in mandatory quarantine today than there were yesterday, but the number in precautionary quarantine remains the same. It is now 102 days since there has been a death from COVID-19 in Columbia County.

With one positive out of 207 test results received, the positive percentage rate for today is 0.5 percent.

Honoring RBG

At 8:00 p.m. today, Saturday, September 19, Hudson RBG Memorial will take place at the Columbia County Courthouse, 401 Union Street. Participants are asked to bring "candles, lights, signs, and any offerings to memorialize Ruth Bader Ginsburg." For more information, click here.

Update: Because of Rosh Hashanah, Hudson RBG Memorial has been rescheduled for tomorrow night, Sunday, September 20, at 8:00 p.m.

No Words

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died today of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer. She was 87.

Where the New Cases Were This Week

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its weekly breakdown of COVID-19 cases by municipality and nursing home. According to the totals reported today and last Friday, there were four new cases of the coronavirus this week: two in Copake, one in Canaan, and one in Germantown.   

As always, in the list below, the first number is the number of cases last Friday; the second is the number of cases today. These are the total number of cases since the pandemic began, not the number of active cases. The number of active cases in the county is now two.

Ancram  5 | 5

Canaan  10 | 11

Chatham  25 | 25

Claverack  27 | 27

Clermont  8 | 8

Copake  23 | 25

Elizaville  2 | 2

Gallatin  3 | 3

Germantown  4 | 5

Ghent  24 | 24

Greenport  40 | 40

Hillsdale  15 | 15

Hudson  31 | 31

Kinderhook  41 | 41

Livingston  19 | 19

New Lebanon  9 | 9

Niverville  2 | 2

Philmont  9 | 9

Stockport  7 | 7

Stottville  1 | 1

Stuyvesant  19 | 19

Taghkanic  8 | 8

Valatie  17 | 17

Nursing Homes

Barnwell  142 | 142

Livingston Hills  2 | 2

Pine Haven  51 | 51

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. The CCDOH is reporting one new positive case since yesterday, but if you compare the total number of cases reported yesterday (549) with today (551) the difference is not one but two. There are now two active cases, one more than yesterday, but the CCDOH is also reporting one recovery since yesterday. One of the two active cases is hospitalized.

The number of county residents in mandatory quarantine has doubled since yesterday, but the number in precautionary quarantine remains the same. It has now been 101 days since there has been a death from COVID-19 in Columbia County.

Since yesterday, the CCDOH has received 159 test results. If one was positive, the positive percentage rate is 0.6 percent. If two were positive, the positive percentage rate is 1.2 percent. The New York State dashboard is reporting our rate today as 0.7 percent.

Autumn in Vermont

Despite the New York State Travel Advisory, cars with license plates from states on the list--Nevada, California, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, to name a few--are spotted in Hudson on a regular basis. Whenever I see such a car, I wonder if anyone is asking when the folks in the cars arrived in New York and if they are observing or have observed the state's fourteen-day quarantine regulation. 

On the subject of interstate travel, those of us who live in Columbia County can travel to Vermont this week, as we did last week, without having to quarantine when we get there. Vermont's logarithm translates our single active case into 167 active cases per million, which means Columbia County is still green (or aqua) on Vermont's interactive travel map.

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, there have been no new cases of COVID-19. The number of active cases remains at one, and that person is no longer hospitalized. The number of county residents in mandatory and precautionary quarantine is the same as it was yesterday. There has not been a death from COVID-19 in Columbia County for one hundred days.   

With zero positives out of 298 test results, the positive percentage rate today is once again 0.0 percent.

The Financial State of the City

There was no good news at the Common Council Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday. City treasurer Heather Campbell, who had been projecting a revenue shortfall of between $1.3 and $1.9 million, has now raised her "best case" projection to $1.4 million. She also reported that the fund balance is currently $2,748,452. 

Council president Tom DePietro spoke of the plan to replenish the fund balance by selling property owned by the City of Hudson. So far, in public meetings, he has mentioned the house beside the Churchtown Reservoir, Hudson's water source, and vacant land north of Charles Williams Park and east of the landfill as properties that could respectively be sold or developed as a solar farm. Speaking on Tuesday of the eighty-one properties owned by the City, DePietro said, "We could sell enough to replenish the fund balance."

Campbell cautioned that selling property would be a one time solution and predicted that the City's financial problems as a consequence of the pandemic could continue into 2024. She also reminded DePietro, "We have not made a budget that did not tap into the fund balance for fifteen years." The fund balance is typically used to help keep the rate of increase in property taxes to a minimum. 

Committee member Rebecca Wolff (First Ward), who as minority leader also sits on the Industrial Development Agency (IDA), asked about the PILOT request from the hotel proposed for 620 Union Street. "It doesn't require an expenditure from us," DePietro told her. Campbell added, "It wouldn't, because of the increase in sales tax and lodging tax."

It was thought that the plan to handle the revenue shortfall might be a topic of discussion when the Board of Estimate and Apportionment (BEA), made up of the mayor, the treasurer, and the Common Council president, met the next day. Instead, with only DePietro and Campbell in attendance, the focus was on next year's budget. The proposed 2021 budgets have been received from all the departments except the treasurer's office and the mayor's office, and the process for determining the budget is ready to begin. The steps for doing so were outlined at Wednesday's meeting of the BEA:

• Meetings with department heads to review proposed budgets
• Reviewing all nondepartmental expenses
• Reviewing revenues
• Reviewing budgets without department heads to find cuts

The BEA will set up a regular meeting time and develop a schedule for the budget workshops. For now, the next meeting of the BEA will take place on Tuesday, September 22, at 2:00 p.m.

COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK

The Deadline Approaches

The deadline for applying for HudsonUP, the universal basic income pilot program funded by Humanity Forward and The Spark of Hudson, is Sunday, September 20. The program will select at random twenty-five Hudson residents to receive $500 a month for five years. Today at 5:00 p.m., Mayor Kamal Johnson will hold an online conversation with Andrew Yang, former presidential candidate and founder of Humanity Forward, about HudsonUP. The conversation can be viewed on Facebook or on YouTube. 

Last Night's Council Meeting: Part 4

Here's the final report from last night's Common Council meeting.

When the meeting was essentially over, and Council president Tom DePietro was entertaining public comment, Quintin Cross said he wanted to know "where the aldermen stand on the incident of abuse in the Bengali community." The reference, of course, was to the recent indictment of a member of the Bengali community on multiple counts of predatory sexual assault. As soon as Cross made his statement, Alderman Tiffany Garriga (Second Ward) said, "I think the men should go first."

Photo: Jabin Ahmed|Facebook

Alderman John Rosenthal (Fourth Ward) said he supported women speaking out. Alderman Malachi Walker (Fourth Ward) said it was time for the "whole rape culture" to be exposed. Alderman Dominic Merante (Fifth Ward), who identified himself as the father of a daughter, said of the victims, "It takes courage to tell their story, and we need to listen." Alderman Calvin Lewis (Third Ward), who said he was first exposed to "rape culture" at college and he comes from a matriarchal household, declared, "I do not support anyone who neglects women or children."

Garriga then demanded that they hear from aldermen Shershah Mizan (Third Ward) and Dewan Sarowar (Second Ward), the two Bangladeshi members of the Council. Both were present at the meeting but remained silent. DePietro told Garriga, "I can't force them to speak."

Claire Cousin then commented, "The first step is believing the victim," and went on to say, presumably directing her comments to Mizan and Sarowar, "People are paying attention, and people will not support you in the future." Garriga added, apparently also addressing Mizan and Sarowar, "You cannot make comments to the newspaper and not speak on the Council."

DePietro then reiterated that he could not force anyone to speak but added, "My heart goes out to the victims. I hope they are served by the justice system. If they feel they are not, that is the time to speak out."
COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK

ZBA Meeting Update

For anyone who tried in vain to access tonight's Zoning Board of Appeals public hearings, the meeting had to be postponed because the link to the Zoom meeting had not been published on the City of Hudson website. The meeting and all the public hearings are being rescheduled for Wednesday, September 30, at 6:00 p.m. The link for the Zoom meeting has already been distributed to the members of the ZBA and will appear on the city website in a timely fashion. 

COVID-19 Update

Is there such a thing as 24-hour COVID-19?

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Yesterday, the CCDOH reported two new cases, and since there had been no active cases the day before, those two new cases were the two active cases reported yesterday. Today, the CCDOH is reporting only one active case, so it appears someone recovered in just one day. Unfortunately, the second active case from yesterday is still hospitalized. The number of county residents in quarantine--mandatory and precautionary--remains the same as yesterday, and, for the ninety-ninth consecutive day, there have been no new deaths from COVID-19 in Columbia County.

With zero positives from 160 test results, the positive percentage rate today is 0.0 percent. Governor Andrew Cuomo reported today that yesterday the state's rate of positive tests rose above 1 percent for the first time in a month. Today, however, the rate is back down to 0.87 percent.