Historic Detail Hunt 2015: All Is Revealed

What if you threw a party and nobody came? That's a bit how Gossips feels about this year's Historic Detail Hunt. Thank goodness for Mary Elizabeth and Curt Vincent, the big winners from last year who identified all the details correctly again this year and submitted their list just seventy-four minutes after the last detail was published! The Vincents report that they logged an average of four miles a day walking around Hudson during the month of May, looking for details, and are now in terrific shape. That's a good thing, because they're getting all the goodies: a $50 gift certificate to the Red Dot and $25 gift certificates to Olde Hudson, Fairview Wines & Spirits, and Trixie's Oven.

For those of you who may have been following the hunt, though not participating in it, we now reveal the location of each architectural detail.

Historic Detail 1
226 Union Street

Historic Detail 2
241 Warren Street

Historic Detail 3
418 Union Street

Historic Detail 4
330 Allen Street

Historic Detail 5
247 Union Street

Historic Detail 6
348 Warren Street

Historic Detail 7
East Court Street at East Allen Street

Historic Detail 8
426 Union Street

Historic Detail 9
15 Rossman Avenue

Historic Detail 10
454 East Allen Street

Historic Detail 11
242 Union Street

Historic Detail 12
256 Union Street

Historic Detail 13
3 Willard Place

Historic Detail 14
436 East Allen Street

Historic Detail 15
442  Union Street

Historic Detail 16
2 East Court Street

Historic Detail 17
965 Columbia Street

Historic Detail 18
554 Columbia Street

Historic Detail 19
17 South Sixth Street

Historic Detail 20
228 Allen Street

Historic Detail 21
969 Columbia Street

Historic Detail 22
449 Union Street

Historic Detail 23
544 Washington Street

Historic Detail 24
610 State Street

Historic Detail 25
258 Union Street

Historic Detail 26
12 City Hall Place

Historic Detail 27
419 State Street

Historic Detail 28
114 Fairview Avenue

Historic Detail 29
77 North Fifth Street

Historic Detail 30
401 State Street

Historic Detail 31 
558 State Street

COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

The Deadline Is Midnight Tonight

The Gossips Historic Detail Hunt for 2015 ended on Sunday, but you have until midnight tonight, Tuesday, June 2, to submit your entries. There were a couple of pretty obscure details in this year's hunt, so even if you didn't find them all, submit a list of those you did find to Gossips before midnight. There is a very good chance you could win one of the three Runnerup Prizes: a $25 gift certificate from Olde Hudson, a $25 gift certificate from Fairview Wines & Spirits, or a $25 gift certificate from Trixie's Oven. To win, you need to submit your entry before midnight, so do it now before your chance is gone.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

Etsy in the Park with Crafts

Last Friday, the news spread like wildfire that Etsy planned to close down the 300 block of Warren Street for a craft party. On that day--just a week and a day before the event--the following notice appeared in the Register-Star. 

As the notice indicates, the application for the mass gathering permit had been submitted on May 18--just eighteen days before the event, instead of the 120 days required by the statute.

The problem has since come to a happy resolution. Learning how unhappy business owners on the 300 block were about having vehicular access to their shops cut off for five hours on a June weekend, the folks at Etsy found another venue for the event. It was made known today that the craft party will take place in the underutilized and oft overlooked PARC Park next to 33o Warren Street and across the street from the Hudson Opera House.

The park seems to be a much more suitable place for a craft party than out in the street. Presumably the hours for the event remain the same: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

We Are Not Alone

On the topic of medical marijuana and the promise it holds for economic renewal, a reader alerted me to this article that appeared yesterday in the New York Times: "Medical Marijuana Feeds Familiar Hopes of Renewal Around New York State." In the entire state, only five licenses to cultivate, manufacture, and dispense medical marijuana will be granted. The New York Times reports that applications are due at the State Health Department this Friday, and the licenses are expected to be granted this summer.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

Medical Marijuana and Hudson

There was a special meeting of the Common Council last night, the agenda for which consisted of three items: (1) Hudson Police and Court Center plan to be submitted to the Office of Court Administration; (2) Solar energy contract; (3) Authorizing the payment of certain bills. 

The "certain bills" turned out to be the payments for the public events awards made by the Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee. The Council unanimously approved payment.

The resolution having to do with the Police and Court Center authorized rebidding the project and submitting a capital plan for the project to the Office of Court Administration. Of greatest interest in the capital plan is the "Schedule of Project Milestones" that it sets forth:

June 3, 2015--Submission of Capital Plan to the Office of Court Administration.

July 21, 2015--Completion of value engineering, discussions and modifications to existing plans and specifications, issuance of amended bond resolution, approval of modified plans and specifications, and issuance of bidding documents.

September 15, 2015--All bids vetted and resolution adopted awarding contracts.

November 1, 2015--Commencement of construction.

July 1, 2016--Completion of construction and commencement of relocation.

Alderman John Friedman (Third Ward) expressed disbelief that it had taken a month to produce the capital plan. "This document says nothing," he declared. Still, when the Council voted, the resolution passed, with only Friedman and Tiffany Garriga (Second Ward) voting against it.

The topic that took up the most time was an item that was not part of the original agenda and had to be added by unanimous consent of the Council: a proposal to create a licensed medical marijuana facility in 40,000 square feet of the former L&B building at 99 South Third Street. Good Green Group, LLC, headed up by Kristen and  Stephen Steeneck, a sister and brother from Yorktown Heights in Westchester County. Only five medical marijuana facilities will be licensed in the State of New York, and Good Green Group hopes to be one of them. Stephen Steeneck, accompanied by former assistant city attorney Daniel Tuczinski, who had been retained by Good Green Group only five days ago, appeared before the Common Council seeking support for their application to the New York State Department of State. 

One of the things Tuczinski and Steeneck emphasized was an innovative plan to turn the unusable parts of the marijuana plants into compost, which would go to Heroic Food, the program that trains post-9/11 military veterans for careers in sustainable farming. 

According to Steeneck, developing the facility in Hudson will cost $10 million, but he already has commitments from investors of more than $100 million. Steeneck told the Council that three hedge funds wanted to invest, and Tuczinski assured the Council that there is "no shortage of investors." Tuczinski characterized Hudson as "a perfect storm of opportunities": an underutilized industrial building, a need for jobs, a nearby agricultural community that can benefit from the compost produced. It was not clear exactly how many jobs would be created by the facility. At one point, Steeneck said there would be a "minimum of 70 jobs for manufacturing"; later, he spoke of "at least 120 jobs"--the additional jobs apparently being in control and security.

Both Alderman Nick Haddad (First Ward) and Alderman Henry Haddad (Third Ward) had problems with the quality of the writing in the document presented by Good Green Group, LLC. Nick Haddad called it "disjointed" and opined, "I expect your investors read something more polished." The entire document can be accessed here, but this paragraph, the company's mission statement, provides an example:

It is not every day that you have a chance to make a difference in someone's life and provide them with the best medicine, in purest form, to assist them in a better quality of life. The Good Green Group is humbled to have the chance to make a difference and will, given the opportunity to perform will showcase the purest forms of Medical Marijuana with the highest quality and with the highest regard to the patients needs. The Good Green Group will be the benchmark standard the State of New York will proudly show off as a true New York run diverse minority owned company that the rest of the country will try to measure up to. Start up New York starts at home and with a team of people who want to show that New Yorkers can and will do it all, just given the chance. We love New York for a reason, it is who we New Yorkers are.

Despite the amateurish prose of their proposal, the Common Council voted unanimously to support the Good Green Group's application to become a licensed medical marijuana producer (in Hudson) and dispenser (in four other locations).

The solar energy contract, which was part of the original agenda, got short shrift. At the beginning of the meeting, Council president Don Moore explained, as Gossips has already reported, that an RFP for a purchase agreement for electricity produced by a photovoltaic power system was issued last Friday. At the end of the meeting, he offered to speak more about this subject, but instead one of the members moved to adjourn.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

Not to Be Missed

Scott Baldinger contemplates Hudson's continuing changes of fortune on his blog Word on the Street: "Taken to the Metal Shed."

Photo: Scott Baldinger

Just Beyond Our Borders

Photo: Columbia County Chamber of Commerce

In the latest episode of the checkered saga of Ginsberg's plan to expand in Ghent, Judge Richard Koweek overturned the Ghent Planning Board's denial of site plan approval for the project. In response, the citizens' group GhentCANN has started an online petition asking the the Ghent Planning Board to appeal Koweek's decision, urging the Ghent Town Board to support the appeal, and calling on Columbia County officials, "in light of the State investigation into conflicts of interest in the Ginsberg project," to institute "meaningful reforms to insure open and fair practices in public funding of local economic development projects." 

This is a project that affects us all. Click here to sign the petition.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

Same Meeting, Different Takeaways

Photo: Enid Futterman

Last Wednesday, on the day after a meeting of the Columbia Economic Development Corporation (CEDC), Sam Pratt reported on his blog that John Reilly, the supervisor from Gallatin and the chair of the Board of Supervisors Economic Development Committee, had denied that his committee wanted the members of the CEDC who were cited in the report from the State Authorities Budget Office to appear before the committee: "Reilly goes rogue, nullifying Committee's vote." The following is from Pratt's post:   

At a meeting this Tuesday of the CEDC, Reilly unexpectedly appeared in the company of County Board of Supervisors chair Pat Grattan. After Grattan sung the recently-stung agency's praises for several minutes, Reilly (to the astonishment of multiple witnesses) then proceeded to deny that any demand or request for the appearance of Crawford, Better and Sherwood was made by his committee.

This morning, Katie Kocijanski reports in the Register-Star that, at the very same meeting, Ken Flood, who among other things is CEDC's executive director, announced that Reilly "has been appointed to the Upstate Revitalization Advisory Council, a subcommittee of the Capital Region Economic Development Council." She also reports that Reilly thanked Grattan for nominating him for the position: "Reilly appointed to regional economic development committee."
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK