A Second Chance

It's not often that you get a second chance, but here is one both for Gossips and for you. The deadline for ordering tickets to the Columbia County Recovery Kitchen's garden party, Planting Seeds to End Hunger, has been extended until tomorrow, July 7. That gives Gossips a second chance to tell you about it, and you a second chance to get your tickets for the event.

On Saturday, July 10, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., the Columbia County Recovery Kitchen is hosting a garden party to support the continuation of its efforts to deliver healthy meals to those experiencing food insecurity in Columbia County. The event will be held at a spectacular private garden in Spencertown. Guests can explore the garden while sipping prosecco or sparkling water and enjoying hors d'oeuvres prepared by Recovery Kitchen chef and chef de cuisine at SWOON Kitchenbar, Jamie Parry. The event will also be an opportunity to learn about regenerative agriculture techniques and community farming and find out more about how the Recovery Kitchen is fighting food insecurity with nutrition security.

Click here to buy tickets to the event. After you have purchased your tickets, details about the secret location of the party will be sent to your inbox. If you cannot attend, you still join the party in spirit by clicking here to make a donation to the Recovery Kitchen.

Meetings and Events in the Week Ahead

As the long holiday weekend comes to an end, here's what's happening for the rest of the week.

• Tuesday, July 6, would have been the day of the regular monthly meeting of the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA), but the July meeting has been canceled. Gossips' information is that the IDA always takes July off, but canceling the meeting raises questions about the status of the PILOT agreements for 75 North Seventh Street and 708 State Street, the Galvan buildings proposed for the "Depot District."

In May, Dan Kent told the IDA that the NYS Homes and Community Renewal funding application was expected to be released that month, with a six to eight week deadline for submitting applications. He made the point that a PILOT agreement was needed to meet the threshold requirements. From what Gossips has been able to discover online, the application was released sometime in June, and the deadline for submitting applications is August 26. As of the last meeting of the IDA, the financial analysis of the project has not been completed (in May, they were still waiting on information from the Galvan Foundation), a public hearing on the project has not been scheduled, and the Planning Board had not done its SEQRA review, which is a necessary prerequisite for the IDA to make its decision. There seems to be a lot left to be done if the August 26 deadline is to be met. 

• At 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 6, the Conservation Advisory Council holds its regular monthly meeting. It is assumed that the meeting will take place in person at City Hall, 520 Warren Street. No agenda for the meeting has yet been made available.
• On Wednesday, July 7, the Common Council ad hoc committee pursuing inclusionary zoning meets at 6:00 p.m., in person at City Hall. The committee has been waiting for Jeff Baker, counsel to the Council, to produce a working draft of the law that would require 20 percent of the units in any newly constructed or substantially renovated building with five or more units to be "affordable." Perhaps the draft will be ready for review and discussion at this meeting.

Update: The ad hoc committee meeting has been canceled.

• Also on Wednesday, July 7, at 6:00 p.m., the subcommittee of the Hudson Housing Authority Board of Commissioners is expected to hold a public hearing on the RFQ (requirement for qualifications) for the redevelopment of HHA's properties. The draft RFQ can be found here. The HHA meeting will take place in the Community Room at Bliss Towers, 41 North Second Street. It will also be accessible on Zoom by clicking here.

• Wednesday, July 7, also sees the return of Waterfront Wednesdays. The event, which will happen every Wednesday from 5:00 p.m. until sunset, through September 1, offers musical concerts, dance performances, drum circles, boat excursions, interactive educational programming, food, and more. New this year is a shuttle bus connecting Riverfront Park and Seventh Street Park, where the Upstreet Market takes place every Wednesday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. This Wednesday at the waterfront, an Operation Unite awards ceremony will take place at 7:00 p.m., and at 8:00 p.m., Brett Miller and the Neon Moons will perform, with line dancing called by Alex Udis.  

Photo: Angelina Dreem

• On Friday, July 9, the Historic Preservation Commission holds its first meeting of the month at 10:00 a.m. The meeting will take place in person at City Hall.

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God Is in the Details

At the last meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission, on June 25, the new owner of 508 Warren Street appeared seeking a certificate of appropriateness to replace the windows on the second and third floors of the building and to reconstruct the stoop at the entrance to the upper floors. 

What wasn't included in the certificate of appropriateness application was replacing the colored glass panes surrounding the display windows with clear glass--something that had already been done without a certificate of appropriateness. 

Also done without a certificate of appropriateness was the removal of the signs, believed to be stained glass, that read "Supplies" and "Artist."

At the meeting, which was Hudson's first city meeting to take place in person after the pandemic, audience member Chris Jones reported the absence of the stained glass. She told the commission that this was the store where Frederic Church purchased his art supplies and Olana had receipts from the store in its archive. 

Back in 2012, Gossips recounted the story that the panes of colored glass were used to judge the purity of paint colors. Since the colors in the stained glass remained constant, a level of consistency in the colors of hand-mixed and hand-prepared oils could be achieved by comparing them with the colors of the stained glass. Although the likelihood of this being true was questioned in a comment by Sam Pratt, this bit of Hudson lore seems to have persisted.

The new owner of the building claimed some of the stained glass was "broken and crooked" and "hadn't been installed correctly." He said some of it wasn't actually stained glass at all but rather vinyl. He argued, "It is prohibitive for us to do business with a kaleidoscope of color coming in." (The building is to be the new location of the clothing store Loup, now located at 426 Warren Street.) Reacting to the statement, HPC member John Schobel said, "That's not the way that this works."

The applicant argued that the clear glass had been "created and poured in the same way as the original glass was." HPC architect member Chip Bohl asserted, "The history of the storefront needs to be known and evaluated." 

It was decided that work could proceed on the stoop, but the HPC would have to have "another conversation" about the windows--those in the storefront and on the upper floors. The HPC is seeking historic photographs of the building to establish the history of the storefront and the configuration of the upper windows. So far, Gossips has been able to find only this one, taken in 1917, when the ground floor of the building was occupied by Miller Brothers Barber Shop.

  

Sadly, the photo is of little help in confirming the history of the stained glass panes and of no help in understanding the appropriate configuration of the windows on the upper floors.

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Ear to the Ground

Actually, it should be "Eye on Facebook." For everyone wondering what will replace Ca' Mea at 333 Warren Street, the answer was found recently in two appeals for new employees that appeared on Facebook. A new restaurant, headed by NYC chef and restaurateur John DeLucie, is expected to open sometime this summer. Associated with the restaurant will be a butcher shop and fishmonger, "selling fish, local produce such as tomatoes, peppers, corn, and fruits," as well as "ready to cook items such as hamburgers, meat and fish shish kebabs, crab cakes, marinated leg of lamb, etc."

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News You Have to Read in the Register-Star

Years of watching The West Wing taught me that Friday was the day the White House released negative stories to the press, in the hope they would go unnoticed. I was reminded of this when I learned that today, on a Friday before a long holiday weekend, the news was released that Alderman Calvin Lewis (Third Ward), who is now also assistant director of the Youth Department, has resigned his position as alderman "to avoid conflict of interest": "Lewis resigns from Common Council." 

According to the article, "Lewis will have to be replaced before the end of the year, and the council will hold a special meeting to discuss its next steps." Presumably, Lewis will also have to be replaced as a candidate for Third Ward alderman on the ballot in November. According to information provided by John Kane in a comment on this blog, Lewis's replacement on the ballot will be determined by a committee made up of Emily Chameides, Kate Treacy, and Kamal Johnson.

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The Weekend Starts Off with a Bang

Many have predicted problems with the concrete barriers installed on Warren Street to protect people seated in what is typically the parking lane from vehicles moving along the street at 30 mph. Today, at around 3:45 p.m., there was such an incident, which resulted in the car that hit the barrier suffering a blowout. Thanks to Virginia Martin, who was nearby when it happened and took these pictures.

As can be seen in the fifth picture above, the cone that should have been on top of the cement block to warn drivers of its presence was stowed safely inside the barriers. The absence of a front license plate on the car suggests that the driver was an out-of-state visitor to Hudson.

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. The run of no new cases, which lasted for three days, is over. Today, the CCDOH is reporting two new cases. A press release from Matt Murell, chair of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, explains that the two new cases are both "adult family members residing in the same domicile." The number of active cases is two more than yesterday, from which it can be inferred that no county residents have recovered from the virus in the past 24 years. There is one more county resident in mandatory quarantine today than yesterday, but, as was the case yesterday, no one is hospitalized or in the ICU with the virus. No deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in Columbia County since Thursday, June 24.   

The New York Forward dashboard is reporting a positivity rate for Columbia County yesterday of 0.0 percent and a seven-day average of 0.9 percent. By comparison, the daily positivity rate for the Capital Region is 0.3 percent and the seven-day average is 0.3 percent.

A year ago today, the CCDOH reported two new cases of COVID-19. The total number of cases was 447, and the number of active cases was 27. There were 7 county residents hospitalized with the virus, and none was in the ICU. The total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 at this time last year was 37.

All Gone

The Gothic house on Fairview Avenue, once known as "The Pines," was demolished in February to make way for a new McDonald's.

Long after the big house was reduced to rubble, the little Gothic cottage at the back of the property, believed to be part of the Farrard estate, remained standing. 

Below is the view from the parking lot of the current McDonald's on Wednesday, June 30, just two days ago. There at the left, the little Gothic cottage is still standing. 

Photo: Dorothy Heyl

Gossips is quite sure the cottage was still there yesterday, when I passed by shortly after midday. But today, the cottage is gone without a trace.

Photo: Dorothy Heyl

There's a Bear Out There!

This is really hyperlocal news. Sometime today, a bear was sighted, walking in the street, in the 200 block of Allen Street. Gossips missed seeing it (I was away from home at the time), but a neighbor reported it to me. 

This is the third time there has been a bear sighting or evidence of a bear's presence in this part of Hudson--what was the original First Ward--in the past month. On June 8, a bear was seen ambling down a passageway between two houses in the upper part of the 200 block of Allen Street. On June 24, evidence of a bear's presence was discovered in the backyard of a house in the first block of Union Street. Today, a bear was sighted out in the street, in the part of 200 block closest to Second Street. 

So, to all my neighbors: Be on the alert. Bizarre as it may seem, you could encounter a bear at any time.

What to Do on the Fourth of July

Robert Livingston was a member of the New York Provincial Congress, and, in 1776, he was selected to attend the Continental Congress. He was part of the committee tasked with drafting the Declaration of Independence but was recalled to New York before he could sign the document. What better place in the Hudson Valley to celebrate Independence Day than his home, Clermont?  

The Fourth of July observance at Clermont State Historic Site happens from noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 4. Culinary historian Lavada Nahon will be present to teach 17th- to 19th-century cooking techniques, including those once used by enslaved people in the mid-Atlantic region. Other domestic arts demonstrations will include sewing and paper cutting. You can watch the British Army drill on the lawn of Clermont. You can listen to readings of the Declaration of Independence and Frederick Douglass's famous speech "What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?" There will be crafts and activities for children, as well as tours of the exterior of the mansion. Fortunes Ice Cream will be selling their fresh seasonal handmade ice cream.

There will be no fireworks at the site this year, and the gates will close at sunset. The event admission fee is $10 a car. For more information, call Clermont State Historic Site at (518) 537-4240 or visit the website.

COVID-19 Update

The Columbia County Department of Health has released its numbers for today. Since yesterday, and for the third day in a row, there have been no new cases of COVID-19. The number of active cases being reported today is the same as yesterday, and there are three fewer county residents in mandatory quarantine today than yesterday. No one is hospitalized or in the ICU, and there has not been a death from COVID-19 reported in Columbia County since Thursday, June 24.

The New York Forward dashboard is reporting a positivity rate for Columbia County yesterday of 0.0 percent and a seven-day average of 1.1 percent. By comparison, the daily positivity rate for the Capital Region is o.2 percent and the seven-day average is 0.3 percent.

A year ago today, the CCDOH reported 4 new cases of COVID-19. The total number of cases was 445, and the number of active cases was 25. There were 7 county residents hospitalized with the virus, and none was in the ICU. The total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 at this time last year was 37.

In Memoriam: Ginna Moore

Ginna Moore died last night. The following is quoted from the obituary written by her husband, Don Moore.

After a grace filled and courageous confrontation with brain cancer, Ginna Holmes Moore of Hudson, New York, succumbed on June 29, 2021, at her home on a hill overlooking the city. As damnable as was the shadow of the COVID pandemic pervading most of her last months, she found a measure of comfort and peace looking out over the city, the Hudson River, and the Catskill Mountains. . . . 

If it is possible, and it is, to be selfless and bristling with opinions, with a smile that lit up many, many lives, that was Ginna. She honed a sense of social justice on issues of women’s rights and racial equity. Both came naturally to her. In her quarter century in the Hudson Valley, Rhinebeck and Hudson, she threw her energies into work with Columbia County Habitat for Humanity, and as an ardent congregant and active volunteer at St. John the Evangelist in Barrytown and Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson. 

Photo: Catherine Smith|Facebook

Ginna's community service in Hudson includes a term on the Planning Board, to which she was appointed in 2017 by Mayor Tiffany Martin, and stepping up to run for First Ward alderman in 2019.

Contributions in Ginna's memory can be made to Perfect Ten Hudson and Friends of Hudson Youth.

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 being reported today is one fewer than yesterday, and there are two fewer county residents in mandatory quarantine today than yesterday. No one is hospitalized with the virus or in the ICU. There has not been a death from COVID-19 reported in Columbia County since Thursday, June 24.  

Now here's a puzzlement. Although the CCDOH reported no new cases yesterday and no new cases today, the New York Forward dashboard is reporting a positivity rate for Columbia County yesterday of 3.6 percent and a seven-day average of 1.1 percent. By comparison, the daily positivity rate for the Capital Region is 0.8 percent and the seven-day average is 0.3 percent.

A year ago today, the CCDOH reported one new case of COVID-19. The total number of cases was 441, and the number of active cases was 22. There were 6 county residents hospitalized with the virus, and none was in the ICU. The total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 at this time last year was 37.

The Results of the Absentee Ballot Count

It appears that no outcomes were changed by the count of the absentee ballots this morning. In the most closely contested race, that for Fifth Ward alderman, Rebecca Borrer picked up 3 votes, Dominic Merante picked up 5, and Vicky Daskaloudi and Mark Bodnar each picked up 2, which means Merante, who had led Borrer by 1 vote, now leads by 3 votes. Here are the final numbers:

Borrer               53

Merante           56

Daskaloudi      75

Bodnar             31

Since the race between Borrer and Merante is so close, it may be necessary to do a hand count of all the ballots--those cast in early voting and on election day, as well as the absentee ballots.

In the race for city treasurer, Michael Hofmann picked up 53 votes to Heather Campbell's 47, but that was not enough to diminish significantly Campbell's substantial lead. The final count was Hofmann 228 to Campbell 415. Here's how the absentee voting went in each ward.

First Ward

Hofmann             2

Campbell             7

Second Ward

Hofmann             39

Campbell             32

Third Ward

Hofmann             4

Campbell             3

 

Fourth Ward

Hofmann             3

Campbell             3

 

Fifth Ward

Hofmann             5

Campbell             2

In the contest for Second Ward supervisor, Abdus Miah received 36 of the absentee votes and Tiffany Garriga received 43, which means Miah retains his lead, with 156 votes to Garriga's 73. In the contest for Second Ward alderman, Mohammed Rony received 28 of the absentee votes, Dewan Sarowar received 33, and Willette Jones 40. The final numbers in that race are Rony 111, Sarowar 140, and Jones 85. 

It should be remembered that these are the results of the Democratic primary. It isn't over until it's over. The winners will appear on the Democratic line in November, but since many of the candidates were cross endorsed, most by the Working Families Party, their names will appear in November on that party line.

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Counting the Absentee Ballots

Gossips has received word that tomorrow morning, Wednesday, June 30, the absentee ballots for Hillsdale will be counted starting at 10:00 a.m. At 11:00 a.m., the count of the absentee ballots for Hudson will begin.

Behind the COVID Numbers

Yesterday, the Columbia County Department of Health reported three new cases of COVID-19. Today, a memo from Columbia County Board of Supervisors chair Matt Murell contains this quote from CCDOH director Jack Mabb:

This follows a prolonged stretch of zero or one new daily cases, then we get three new cases in one day. It's a reminder that the virus has not gone away. . . . These were all random community cases. One was a third grader, one 18 years old, and another age 60.

Here's a sobering fact: the 60-year-old had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. There was no information about whether or not any of the new cases were cases of the Delta variant.

HHA Plans for New Development

The request for qualifications (RFQ) for the new development being planned by the Hudson Housing Authority is expected to be a topic of discussion at tomorrow's meeting to the Board of Commissioners subcommittee. Ahead of that, you can view the draft RFQ, which is available online here. 

Of interest is the list of HHA holdings presented in Section 1 of the document:

1. . . . The [Hudson Housing] Authority's public housing portfolio consists of a 120-unit, 9-story high-rise apartment building known as Bliss Tower and 15-units of low-rise housing consisting of three buildings, all constructed in or about 1973. . . . Bliss Tower consists of 3 studio units, 61 one-bedroom units, 34 two-bedroom units, and 22 three-bedroom units. The Low-Rise units consist of 5 three-bedroom units, 8 four bedroom units, and 2 five-bedroom units. 
2. The Authority also owns an adjacent parcel of land on the North side of State Street. . . . The vacant lot is approximately 1.412 Acres with a portion of the site being improved with a two-bay storage garage, small playground, off street parking lot and passive sitting area.
3. The Authority administers and manages a 130 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. However, there are approximately 80 unused vouchers due to the lack of affordable housing with only 50 vouchers currently funded. The HCV SEMAP [Section 8 Management Assessment Program] performance score has historically shown an underutilization of HCV vouchers due to lack of affordable housing inventory in the City of Hudson; lack of interest from property owners; and extremely high rental rates as a result of the ongoing gentrification that has occurred for many years in the City of Hudson.

Although Revonda Smith, who chairs the HHA Board of Commissioners, has been working to get land owned by HCDPA (Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency) added to the parcels offered in the RFQ, the document currently identifies for potential development only the three sites that are owned by HHA:

• Site #1: is approximately 1.00 Acre that includes a single nine-story high rise building. (Second Street Site)
• Site #2: is approximately 1.412 Acres with a portion of the site being improved with a two-bay storage garage, small playground, off street parking lot, and passive sitting area. (State Street Site)
• Site #3: is approximately 1.995 Acres with a portion of site #3 to the west being improved with three, two story, low rise, garden style buildings consisting of 15 units ranging from three to five bedrooms, and the remainder of site #3 of which is vacant. (Columbia Street Site)

How the redevelopment might proceed is also suggested in the RFQ:

The Authority anticipates the construction of the Project at the State Street Site and Columbia Street Site will happen first. Upon completion of the Project at the State and Columbia Street Sites, the Authority residents in the Low-Rise Units will be given the option to transition their housing to the State Street Site or Bliss Tower. Upon all units in the Low-Rise Units being vacated, the Authority anticipates the demolition of the Low-Rise Units, followed by the construction of the Project at the Second Street Site. 

The RFQ also provides this general information about Hudson:

Over the years, and until recently, the City of Hudson has experienced tremendous social and economic pressure from the effects of gentrification. The in migration of new residents and property owners from areas to the south of Columbia County, particularly New York City, has been dramatic. In early 2020 gentrification in Hudson accelerated mainly due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which has pushed families from large urban areas down state north to the Hudson Valley region. This has created a housing shortage geographically in Columbia County, but more specifically, a critical shortage of affordable housing for moderate and low-income, and minority populations in Hudson. Consequently, generations of families and long-time residents are being squeezed out of Hudson to less affluent areas of Columbia County heightening the fear of many now facing new challenges of securing decent safe, affordable housing, and housing discrimination barriers in rural areas. 

At the May meeting of the HHA Board, executive director Tim Mattice reported "an influx of applications from downstate"--downstate apparently meaning New York City. The board agreed to close the waiting list temporarily to applicants outside of Columbia County, while investigating the process required for changing its open application policy.

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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 being reported today is one fewer than yesterday, and the number of county residents in mandatory quarantine is five fewer than yesterday. No one is hospitalized with the virus, and no one is in the ICU. The number of deaths in Columbia County attributed to the virus remains the same.

The New York Forward dashboard is reporting a positivity rate for Columbia County yesterday of 0.0 percent and a seven-day average of 0.3 percent. By comparison, the daily positivity rate for the Capital Region is 0.3 percent and the seven-day average is 0.3 percent. 

A year ago today, the CCDOH reported one new case of COVID-19. The total number of cases was 440, and the number of active cases was 25. There were 10 county residents hospitalized with the virus, and none was in the ICU. The total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 at this time last year was 37.

Can Beer Be Far Behind?

On Friday, the Historic Preservation Commission agreed to grant a certificate of appropriateness for the sign to go on the former Hudson Upper Depot. 

The building, which was constructed in 1871 as a depot on the Hudson & Berkshire Railroad line, has been meticulously restored by the Galvan Foundation to be a craft brewery and the centerpiece of Galvan's proposed "Depot District." 

There is no information on when the new brewery will open.

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A Story That Has Not Been Put to Rest

People have questioned the appropriateness of Calvin Lewis continuing as a alderman now that he, as assistant director of the Youth Department, is a City employee. When it was revealed on June 7, that the newly created position of assistant youth director was to be held by Lewis, Council president Tom DePietro said that, although there was no rule that would prohibit Lewis from continuing as an alderman, doing so "raises too many problems." One of those problems was that, on May 18, when apparently Lewis was already being considered for the job of assistant youth director, he cast the deciding vote on a $8,000 raise for his possible future boss, Liz Yorck. That vote was subsequently deemed invalid by "the City Legal Advisor." Lewis remains on the Council and has not, to Gossips' knowledge, withdrawn his bid for reelection in November.

It seems the question of appropriateness persists. Yesterday, Lewis published this statement on social media, deflecting responsibility for his actions and choices to city attorneys Cheryl Roberts and Jeff Baker.