The Mayor vs. the Board of Education

According to an article discovered in the Albany Evening News, in the early summer of 1936, there was a "legal wrangle" going on in Hudson between the city administration and the Board of Education over the construction of Chancellor Livingston High School, now Montgomery C. Smith Intermediate School.

The minutes of the Common Council yield more information about the wrangle. On May 1, 1936, in his address to the Common Council at the beginning of the new fiscal year (the fiscal year did not correspond with the calendar year back then), Mayor Fred Wheeler had much to say about the financial state of the city and about the extravagance of the Board of Education. It will be remembered that in 1936 the country was still struggling to recover from the Great Depression. Wheeler took office at the beginning of 1936. The following are excerpts from Wheeler's address:

As I had good reason to believe upon taking office that the finances of the city were in a precarious condition as well as certain departments, I proceeded to make an investigation under the powers granted by the charter. The information obtained from this investigation enabled me to correct immediately certain evils. All of the departments of this city have co-operated with me in these changes with the exception of the Board of Education, over which I have little or no control. This department still continues on its former policy of extravagance. Furthermore if some means are not devised to check its present course, the City of Hudson will never be able to emerge from the chaotic financial condition in which it now stands. . . .

A bond issue of forty-five thousand ($45,000.00) dollars was sold. It was estimated that this amount with the refunds thereon would pay the necessary expenses of the Commission [of Public Charities] to May 1st, 1936. Desperate efforts were made by the City Treasurer and the selfish interests acting with him first to divert the sum of twenty thousand ($20,000.00) dollars from relief purposes to the General Fund Account to be credited on, his illegal overdraft which efforts were ultimately defeated. The same official, backed by the same selfish interests and some members of the Common Council, sought to, and have in part, diverted refunds which were properly applicable to relief, to the payment of claims and pay-rolls. These men think more of protecting an illegal overdraft than they do of the requirements of the poor and needy. I was obliged to veto a resolution which was passed under the guise of meeting pay-rolls for the city but the primary purpose of which was to make funds available for the payment of this illegal overdraft.

With relief unprovided for from May 1st, 1936, I caused investigations to be made as to ways and means for the raising of moneys for relief purposes. I did not want to admit to the world that our ancient and beloved city which celebrated last year its sesqui-centennial and was engaged in building a five hundred thousand ($500,000.00) dollars high school, could not take care of its own citizens who were in need of aid. However, the previous administration when it bonded this city for two hundred seventy-five thousand ($275,000.00) dollars, effectively closed the door to any further borrowing except in so far as the city was able to provide for relief to May 1st. We applied to the State, which refused to increase its burden of forty per cent (40%). We then applied to the county. They have not acted. They have been deliberating over a week. While the Supervisors are conferring and procrastinating, families will go hungry; children will go to school unfed and without milk.

Upon these former officials and citizens who fostered the era of reckless spending in this city and the incurrence of an additional issue of two hundred seventy-five thousand ($275,000.00) dollars, I place the responsibility for this city's inability to continue relief. They alone must face the consequences of having caused cessation of food, shelter, fuel and milk to over one thousand people in want. In no other city except Hudson, in no other county except Columbia, could persons responsible for the mismanagement of a city and all its attendant consequences, escape the just punishment for their unfaithfulness to their trust. . . . 

I have no recommendations as to the Board of Education for this Body seems to be a law unto itself. It sold two hundred seventy-five thousand ($275,000.00) dollars worth of bonds with an interest rate of four (4%) per cent. Less than two months later this administration sold seventy-five thousand ($75,000.00) dollars worth of bonds at an interest rate of one and eight-tenths (1.8%) per cent. It is apparent that the one and only interest the Board of Education had in this matter was to dispose of the bond issue. The saving of five thousand ($5,000.00) dollars a year in interest charges was evidently not even considered.

The City of Hudson cannot, and will not, so far as I am concerned, contribute one dollar more than it is required to give by law to the Board of Education as long as that Body pursues extravagant policies. The Board of Education certainly is not economizing when it pays one firm of attorneys one thousand ($1,000.00) dollars to draw an answer and another attorney five hundred ($500,00) dollars to make an argument of half an hour, which the attorneys of record did not feel they could effectively make. The payment of this one thousand five hundred ($1,500.00) dollars was equivalent to a year's salary of the Corporation Counsel. This is truly something for the citizens of this city to consider.

Also certain salaries paid by the Board of Education should be drastically reduced. They are entirely out of proportion to the salaries paid in other cities of the size of Hudson. As I said previously until this Body shows an inclination to co-operate with the other departments of the city in the present financial emergency, I feel that the city is not responsible to the Board of Education for more than the legal requirements. . . . 

The previous mayor, whom Wheeler blamed for the "era of reckless spending," was Frank W. Wise, who served as mayor from August 1933 through December 1935. The Board of Education, which Wheeler castigated for its "extravagant policies," was in 1936 made up of Robert W. Evans, president; Montgomery C. Smith, secretary (and the Superintendent of Schools); Mrs. E. Washburn Scovill, Dr. John L. Edwards, Thomas H. M. Hathaway, and Morton L. Clark.
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Eighty Years Ago in Hudson

Gossips has been paying a fair amount of attention recently to the design for the proposed addition to Montgomery C. Smith Intermediate School, the school building of Colonial Revival design that was built during the Great Depression as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The current situation has piqued my curiosity about the circumstances surrounding the construction of the historic building in 1936-1937.

We know from Walter First's wonderful scrapbook that in the early 1930s the student population of Hudson High School exceeded the capacity of 401 State Street, the school building that was completed in 1915 to be the new high school. The overcrowding was such that the high school took over the school building across the street, which was the original high school building but was then being used as an elementary school. 

The elementary school students of Hudson, now crowded into three school buildings instead of four, could only attend school for half a day. In an appeal to the taxpayers (and parents) of Hudson, the school board assembled all the children and took a picture that ran in the newspaper with the caption: "'Under Privileged': Hudson's children to whom but one-half time schooling is given." 

We know the outcome was building the new high school on Harry Howard Avenue, originally called Chancellor Livingston High School, which was completed in the fall of 1937. 

Curious to learn more about the construction of Chancellor Livingston High School, I turned to my favorite source: that incredible database of old newspapers, Fulton History. Unfortunately, there are no Hudson newspapers in the collection from the years the building was being planned and constructed, but this article, which appeared in the Albany Evening News for June 19, 1936, reveals that the new school building was the cause of a legal "wrangle" in Hudson.

         
It appears that in this controversy--"one phase of Hudson's many political wrangles"--the Board of Education was pitted against the mayor and the Common Council, who did not support building a new school at the staggering cost of $500,000, because Hudson was a "bankruptcy city." This, of course, demands further research in the Council minutes for those years.
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Design Development Continues

On Thursday, there was a special meeting of the Hudson City School District Board of Education to consider the newest configuration of the addition to Montgomery C. Smith Intermediate School. The new concept, which Gossips reported about on September 27, would build classrooms on top of and beside the existing tech wing and put the gymnasium at the front but at a considerable distance from the historic school building. Two different versions of this concept were presented: one with a flat roof on the gymnasium building; the other with a roof line that echoed the profile of the historic building and the 1997 additions to the north of the historic building. 

A third version was also presented on Thursday night--one that had a gable roof on the gymnasium building but not the Colonial Revival silhouette.

Dr. Maria Suttmeier, HCSD superintendent, began the meeting by reporting that the new concept had passed muster with all the stakeholders on the basis of its support for the academic program because it kept the new classrooms in close proximity to the main school building. It was then architect John Starkey's turn to report on the cost analysis. The new configuration was within the budget, but only the version with the flat roof on the gymnasium. The structural frame for a peaked roof on the gym would cost $200,000 and the end wall that tied the new addition in with the original building and the 1997 addition would cost $50,000, putting the design that best achieved compatibility $250,000 over budget.

Fortunately, Suttmeier and the board did not immediately conclude that they and the community would have to settle for the flat roof. Suttmeier asked the architect and the engineer, "What kind of items would we have to look at to save $250,000?" The answer was "reducing square footage," which is not an option. Suttmeier told the board, "We are a school district that needs a lot of [academic] support systems, and we need a lot of space." She acknowledged the design that echoed the Colonial Revival profile of the historic building met the compatibility criteria of massing, size, and scale and connected the design of the new building with the existing buildings but told the board that she could live with either design "because we need to focus on academic support systems." Still, when the meeting was adjourned, both designs remained in the running. Starkey agreed to do renderings of both versions of the new design for review at the next school board meeting on October 24.

Since the meeting, Gossips has learned that another possibility has been suggested--one that could achieve the desired result in terms of compatibility and be within the budget. The suggestion combines the gymnasium with the flat roof with the end walls that provide the desired profile and adds an ornamental detail--a kind of balustrade--along the north and south edges of the roof that would relate to the crest and balconets on the historic building (and also hide the mechanicals mounted on the roof). The architect agreed to prepare elevation drawings to show what this would look like.
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Parking Reminder

The summer suspension of alternate side of the street overnight parking on the weekends is over. Tonight, from midnight until 8 a.m., because tomorrow, October 8, is an even day, all cars must be parked on the even side of the street. (Even side and odd side are determined by house numbers.) Tomorrow night--Saturday into Sunday, October 9--cars must be parked on the odd side of the street. If you leave your car on the wrong side of the street overnight, you risk getting a parking ticket.
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Proposition 1: Fair & Equal

With Election Day just a month away, signs encouraging support for Prop 1--the Fair & Equal proposition-- are cropping up all around town.

Recently, too, a well-reasoned explanation of the process that yielded the proposed new ward boundaries has been added to the Fair & Equal website: "How We Created Wards of Equal Population." It is recommended reading for all as the day approaches when Hudson voters will decide whether or not we adopt the new ward boundaries and do away with our arcane system of weighted voting.
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You Can't Please All of the People . . .

At last night's Common Council Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee meeting, the principal topic of discussion was a petition dated September 23, 2016, directed to Mayor Tiffany Martin Hamilton, and bearing the signatures of thirty owners of retail establishments on the 500 block of Warren Street. The text of the petition, protesting the Hudson Bed Races which were to take place the next day, reads as follows:

We, the business owners and owners of retail establishments in the 500 block of Warren Street, urge you to consult us in future decisions to hold parades on what is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the week.

There are many other suitable locations in the City of Hudson for a 7 bed race. Why not Front Street, with the race starting at Promenade Hill in front of the Chamber of Commerce? Additionally, this type of function could have been held at 5PM on a Saturday, or another day of the week.

As the signs in the 500 block indicate, there is no parking on either side from Noon to 4PM tomorrow. This is the only block that is so marked.

We are not against Parades, but the date/time/location for this were not the wisest choice.

Needless to say, the petition sparked discussion at the committee meeting about the mass gathering permit process and reignited talk of relocating such events to streets other than Hudson's main street. Two instances, in 2012 and 2013, of merchants in the 300 block of Warren Street being blindsided when their block was closed to traffic on an early summer Saturday for car shows sponsored by American Glory motivated the Common Council to rewrite the requirements for obtaining a mass gathering permit.

The new statute, adopted in June 2014, requires that applications for mass gathering permits be submitted 120 days before the event is to take place and, if the event requires a street or any part of a street to be closed, "the applicant must cause to be posted in the newspaper of record notice of such application within seven days of submitting an application for a special event or parade to the City Clerk. . . . Written public comments regarding the special event or parade application may be submitted to the Clerk within 10 days of the first publication of said notice." The mass gathering permit application for the Hudson Bed Races was submitted on January 27, 2016--eight months before the event was to take place--and presumably it was noticed in the Register-Star, the newspaper of record, in a timely fashion back in early February, but there seems to have been no public comment on the event until the day before it happened, when the "No Parking" signs went up. Clearly, the permitting process isn't working as it was intended to.

It may also be time to reconsider using Warren Street for every event the happens in Hudson. While it's understandable that people want their events to take place on Warren Street--it is the center of our community after all--it may be time to give more consideration to the the impact such events have on our merchants. A point made by Alderman John Friedman (Third Ward), who sits on the Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee, should be given serious consideration: "By putting events on secondary streets, we expand the city center." Perhaps next year the bed races can be on South Front Street, as the petition suggests, and help to forge the link between Warren Street and the waterfront we've been talking about for the past twenty years.
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Special Meeting Tonight

Today a 6:15 p.m., in the library at Hudson High School, the Hudson City School District Board of Education will hold a special meeting on the proposed addition to Montgomery C. Smith Intermediate School. At the last school board meeting, two versions of a new configuration for the addition were presented to the board.
 

It  is expected that at this evening's special meeting the results of the cost analysis for these two plans, known as Concept 3A and Concept 3B, will be presented to the board for consideration.   
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Hudson's Curious and Arcane Laws

At last week's Common Council Legal Committee meeting, city attorney Ken Dow spoke at some length about "provisions in the city code that need to be removed because they are not lawful or not workable." The example he focused on primarily was Chapter 188, Paragraph 5: Keeping disorderly house prohibited.

§ 188-5. No person shall, within the limits of the City, keep or maintain a disorderly house or a house of ill fame or allow or permit any house, shop, store, or other building or structure owned or occupied by him or by her to be used as a disorderly house or house of ill fame.

It seems the Hudson Police Department has been applying this law to situations that involve people hanging out at a house or apartment creating noise and objectionable activity that disrupts a neighborhood. The problem is that by definition--admittedly an archaic one--a "disorderly house" is not simply a domicile frequented by an unruly crowd, it is a brothel, a house of prostitution. 

Dow also spoke of the law applying to yard signs for political candidates--Chapter 244, Paragraph 34 G.

§ 244-34 G. Election signs. Temporary election signs shall not be erected prior to 40 days before any election and shall be removed not more than five days after the election. Such temporary signs shall not exceed 32 square feet in area and shall be completely prohibited in residential zones. Where permitted, such signs shall be installed no less than 10 feet from the curbline.

Every aspect of this law is regularly ignored in Hudson. These banners from the 2013 local election, positioned only a couple of feet from the curbline in a residential zone, remained in place for more than two months after the election.

Dow made the point that it was "unconstitutional to impose a durational limit on election signs." He went on to say, "It puts enforcement officers in an awkward position when they must enforce laws that are illegal."

Dow's recommendation was that "the laws should be pruned so that what is there is good law." He further commented, "People don't know which laws 'count.'" The Legal Committee agreed to take on the task of reviewing the city code to identify such problematic laws and recommend amendments to fix the problems.

The Legal Committee may have already gotten some help in their endeavor from former First Ward alderman David Marston. Back in 2013, Marston made a practice of reading the city code and sharing what he considered the more bizarre and arcane laws with his colleagues on the Council. On April 3, 2013, he brought the "disorderly house" law to the attention of the Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee. Among the others he highlighted during his tenure on the Council were the following:

§ 70-5. All female dogs shall be confined to premises of their owner while such are in season (heat) and may not be left outside unattended. Any owner not adhering to this rule will be subject to having the dog seized by the Dog Control Officer and removed to a safe place of confinement.  

§ 188-2. No person shall, within the limits of the City, disrobe in any automobile, truck or vehicle while the same is upon any parking place, street, road, avenue, highway, park or other public place. 

§ 188-27. No person shall use or pretend to use or have any skill in physiognomy, palmistry or like crafty science, or pretend to tell destinies or fortunes. 

§ 318-8. No more than three such yard or garage sales may be held by one residence and/or family household during a calendar year. If members of more than one residence join in holding such a garage sale, such sale shall be considered having been held for each and all of such residents. Each day that a yard sale is held shall count as one yard sale.

Although a paragraph of the yard sale law (Chapter 318) made Marston's list of bizarre laws, it is not a law that has existed for generations in Hudson. It was adopted by the Common Council in 2003, in response to a perpetual yard sale then being conducted at a house on the 300 block of Allen Street. The year-round display of items of furniture on the porch, in the yard, and on the sidewalk was deemed unsightly, and it interfered with the use of the sidewalk by pedestrians.
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The Death of Another Great Tree

Five years ago, Gossips did a series of posts called "Showcasing Hudson's Great Trees." Among the dozen or so trees included were two rare surviving American elm trees--one in the 200 block of Partition Street, the other in the 200 block of Columbia Street.

 

The elm tree on Partition Street died two years ago, and its owner reluctantly removed it at the beginning of this summer. 

Now the elm tree on Columbia Street is also dead. According to some reports, it has not leafed out in two years.

The tree stands on property belonging to the Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency. Sheena Salvino, who is the executive director of HCDPA as well as Hudson Development Corporation (HDC), told Gossips that an arborist examined the tree last year, when it had a few remaining leaves. Although the tree appeared at the time to be "past recovery," the arborist suggested that the tree be given one more year to see if it might rejuvenate, but it has not. Neighbors are said to be complaining about falling branches, and the tree is now considered a nuisance and a safety issue. The tree service that has been hired to remove it is expected to "get to it" in three weeks.

After surviving the Dutch elm disease epidemic of the mid-20th century, these two stately elms apparently have succumbed to a disease called elm yellows.
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Of Interest

Food & Wine has published its list of "The Hudson Valley's Best Wine Spots." Heading the list is Hudson Wine Merchants. Fish & Game is also on the list.

Photos: (left) Christina Pickard; (right) Peter Barrett|Food & Wine

More About School and Community

The Warren Street Academy, the alternative learning program that combines The Bridge and the Bard in Hudson Early College Program and is located in the former COARC building now owned by the Galvan Foundation, maintains a student-run thrift store at 203 Warren Street, a building owned by Galvan Housing Resources.

This morning, a reader sent Gossips this picture and reported that the sidewalk display of merchandise and the sandwich sign were forcing pedestrians into the street. It is hoped that one of the first things the students running the store learn is that Hudson city code requires four feet of sidewalk be kept clear of displays and clutter.
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The Not So Obvious Career Paths

On September 17, Gossips reported on a new "Power Lunch" program conceived by John Friedman for students at Hudson High School. Similar to the Hudson Reads program at the intermediate school, which brings students and community members together to read to each other during lunchtime, Friedman's program, called Creative Approaches to Work, will bring high school students together with members of the community who have nontraditional careers for lunchtime discussions. On Saturday, Friedman put out an appeal for participants on the Hudson Business Coalition list serve. Among the community members interested in being part in the discussion series are a caterer turned food writer and cookbook author, the producer of TV commercials turned architectural color consultant, and a world-class blacksmith who considered himself an academic failure until a high school welding program inspired him.
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Looking Back a Couple of Decades

This past weekend was the opening of The Warren Street Project, the monumental collection of photographs by Lynn Davis which capture the buildings on Warren Street as they were in 1994 and 1995.

This past weekend, too, Neal Van Deusen sent Gossips some photographs of buildings just a block over from Warren Street that were destroyed by fire in 1991, just a few years before Davis began her monumental undertaking. Van Deusen, who served as first assistant chief in the Hudson Fire Department from 1987 to 1992, often took pictures of the aftermath of significant fires.

The first photograph shows two houses that were destroyed by fire on Union Street: 128 Union Street, a house believed to have predated the arrival of the Proprietors in 1783, and a little house that sat just east of it.

Photo: Neal Van Deusen

After the fire, in 1992 and 1993, Bill Ebel and Jeremiah Rusconi undertook to save the house, which was an eighteenth-century example of Dutch vernacular architecture. They had a new post and beam roof frame constructed for the house, but as they cleaned out the house and discovered the extent of the damage to the rest of the structure, they were forced to admit it it was a lost cause.

They couldn't demolish the west wall of the house because it served as the side wall of the little infill house west of the building, so for years the brick wall of the ancient house remained.

In  September 2013, the owner of 124 Union Street demolished the little infill house and the wall to build an addition her own house and to develop the lot where the historic Dutch house once stood as a garden.

Another significant fire of 1991 took place at the corner of Fourth and Columbia streets. The lot has been vacant for so many years that it is hard to imagine that buildings ever stood there, but here they are, in their sadly burned out condition.

Photo: Neal Van Deusen

Photo: Neal Van Deusen

Van Deusen recalls that the fire started in the rear of 29-31 North Fourth Street, which is the building to the right in the first picture, and damaged not only that building but also 25-27 North Fourth street (the building on the corner) and 366 Columbia Street.

In the background of both pictures above, you can glimpse the Fourth Street School, which was demolished early in 1994. For more than twenty years now, that entire block of North Fourth Street, on the west side of the street from Columbia Street to State Street, has been vacant. The parcel from Columbia Street to Long Alley belongs to Galvan Initiatives Foundation; the parcel from Long Alley to State Street belongs to the City of Hudson. If anything is ever to be built on these parcels, it's nice to recall what was once there.

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Not to Be Missed

Enid Futterman on imby reviews the opening of Historic Hudson's twentieth anniversary exhibition and celebration of Lynn Davis's The Warren Street Project on Saturday night at Vincent Mulford Antiques, 419 Warren Street: "The Warren Street Project: Twenty light years later." 

Photo: Enid Futterman|imby

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The First Step in Building Bridge

The City of Hudson is about to take the first step toward rebuilding the Ferry Street Bridge.

At  the Common Council Public Works Committee on Wednesday, DPW superintendent Rob Perry reported that on September 20 he sent out requests for an expression of interest to four of the eleven engineering firms that are on the preapproved list of engineers for this region. The first money for the project--$250,000--was released on October 1. The money is earmarked for the preliminary design, which must be completed in one year. The preliminary design, Perry explained, will be "95 percent structural." Once the preliminary design has been completed and approved, work will begin on the final design, which will include the "aesthetics"--what the bridge looks like above the roadway. 

The funds for rebuilding the Ferry Street Bridge have been secured through the New York State Department of Transportation's Region 8 office. In order to receive the funding, the project must be executed according to DOT's prescribed timeline. That timeline dictates the construction of the bridge will occur in 2020.
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The Warren Street Project Opens at 419 Warren

Last night, Historic Hudson's twentieth anniversary exhibition of The Warren Street Project opened at Vincent Mulford Antiques, 419 Warren Street. 

Photo: Peter Cipkowski

The monumental Warren Street Project consists of photographs of all the buildings on Hudson's mile-long main street, taken in 1994 and 1995 by celebrated photographer (and Hudson resident) Lynn Davis. The collection was first exhibited in October 1996 as the inaugural event of Historic Hudson, the not-for-profit created to advocate for the preservation of Hudson's unique architectural heritage. The collection is being exhibited in its entirety for the first time since 1996 to celebrate twenty years of historic preservation and revitalization in Hudson. 

Two hundred people attended the opening reception. Midway through the evening, Historic Hudson president Alan Neumann suggested that owners of Warren Street businesses place their cards below the photograph of the building where their business is located to help people connect the twenty-year-old images with the present day. Vincent Mulford initiated the idea by placing his card at the photograph of 419 Warren Street--a building which many at the opening found unrecognizable because its transformation, from the time when it was the location of Columbia-Greene Recovery Services, was so dramatic. During the evening, others followed suit. Business and property owners along Warren Street who were not at the opening are encouraged to visit the exhibition and place their cards at the photographs of their buildings.

The exhibition continues through the month of October and is free and open to the public from noon to 5 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. No one should miss this rare opportunity to see this important body of work and marvel at the changes that have taken place on our beloved main street.
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Happening Today in Red Hook

Today, Saturday, October 1, is the annual Hudson River Heritage Country Seats Tour. The sites on this year's tour are all in Red Hook. The sites are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. To check in and purchase tickets, go to the Elmendorph Inn, 7562 North Broadway, in the village of Red Hook. For more information about the tour, visit the Hudson River Heritage website.  
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Scenes from an Installation

On Thursday night, the installation of The Warren Street Project at Vincent Mulford Antiques, 419 Warren Street, began with moving in and assembling the platforms that would hold the photographs, expertly crafted by Eric Penderleith. Members of the Historic Hudson board, Alan Neumann and Peter Watson, were there to help out, as was Ngounga Badila. The artist herself, Lynn Davis was also present to witness the first step of the installation. 

Yesterday morning, the photographs went in, and today all is in readiness for tonight's gala opening reception for The Warren Street Project.    

Tonight's event is sold out, but the exhibition will be in place through the entire month of October to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Historic Hudson, the renaissance of Warren Street over the past twenty years, and the power of historic preservation to drive revitalization. The exhibit is free and open to public from noon to 5 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during October.
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