A Vision for the Library

Last week, a reader told me about a library created in an abandoned Walmart in McAllen, Texas, that had received the 2012 Library Design Award from the International Interior Design Association. I shamelessly suppressed that information. As far as I am concerned, the last thing we need is for the board of the Hudson Area Library to get it into their heads that the library should move to the old Walmart building in Greenport.

Yesterday, another reader sent me the link to an article about ten other noteworthy libraries created in unused and abandoned structures, one of them a drill hall in Cape Town, South Africa. It's well known that I am opposed to moving the library from its historic building, but if it must go to the drill hall at the armory, let's make it look like this.

Another Hope Dashed

Yesterday, an article in the Register-Star raised the hope that two of the Furgary shacks were in Greenport and hence might be spared demolition. This afternoon, DPW Superintendent Rob Perry informed Gossips that the two northernmost shacks are definitely not in Greenport. As Perry explained, "The shacks in question are not only within the 14.49 acres [conveyed to the City of Hudson] but at least an estimated 2,000 feet from the Town of Greenport border." Perry provided this map of the land granted to the City of Hudson by the State of New York as evidence.

All About HDC

HDC (Hudson Development Corporation) came into existence in 1976, in the era when Hudson was the poster child for Urban Renewal, busy destroying the historic fabric that would be the impetus for its eventual renewal twenty years later. HDC's mission statement, adopted in 2006 and since refined, describes its purpose in this way: "The Hudson Development Corporation (HDC) is a non profit Local Development Corporation (LDC) established to sustain, promote and attract projects that improve economic opportunities for businesses and residents, create jobs and enhance the quality of life in the City of Hudson." Over the past almost four decades, HDC, along with HCDPA (Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency), has played a large role in shaping Hudson, and it still does, but its activities and initiatives are not always well known to the people affected by them. This basic situation and a couple of things learned in the past few days have inspired this post.

The kerfuffle about the Furgary Boat Club and the City's position that it can't sell or lease waterfront property to a private entity raises the question of how the Hudson Power Boat Association acquired its land. It seems that some of the riverfront land on which the Hudson Power Boat Association is located--the land at the foot of Promenade Hill, north of the state boat launch and west of the railroad tracks--once belonged to the railroad. HDC acquired it from the railroad in 1984 and sold it to HPBA for a dollar. Of course, that was back in the day when people treated the Hudson River as if it were a sewer and no one in Hudson seemed to place much value on riverfront property. (In December 1984, Art Koweek, then chair of the Hudson Community Development Office, was quoted in Hudson Valley magazine as saying of our waterfront: "It's an industrial area. Let them go out of town to get access to the river.")

Today, HDC is typically the receiver of property acquired by the City of Hudson. For example, when the City took possession of the lone surviving Hudson River Knitting Mills building, HDC ended up owning the building. It was HDC that marketed the building and eventually sold it to Rob Kalin for his new venture, Parachutes.

The same is the case with the Kaz warehouses. When the City acquired the Kaz warehouses at the south end of Second Street in December 2010, the acquisition was done through HDC. HDC now owns the warehouses and is marketing them.

Sheena Salvino, who is young and full of energy and ideas, is the executive director of HDC and HCDPA, a position which, when last I heard, was only part-time. John "Duke" Duchessi, one of the principals of TGW Consulting Group (which used to call itself The Grant Writers), is also part of the HDC staff, responsible for preparing grant applications and administering grants received. HDC has a nine-member board of directors--four are elected officials (the mayor, Common Council president, and Council majority and minority leaders); five are members of the community. Currently, the four elected officials on the HDC board are Bill Hallenbeck, Don Moore, Cappy Pierro, and Ohrine Stewart; the five community members are Steve Anderson, a vice president at Columbia Memorial Hospital; Perry Lasher, a vice president at the Bank of Greene County; Victor Mendolia, chair of the Hudson Democratic Committee; Seth Rapport, owner of Valley Mortgage Company; and Lori Selden, co-owner of Mexican Radio.

Salvino submitted a report on HDC's economic development initiatives last Thursday to the Common Council Economic Development Committee. Two grant applications were mentioned: one for a grant from the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program, which we learned something about at the Police Committee meeting on June 26; the other for a "branding/wayfinding grant . . . for $200,000 to cover costs associated with hiring consultants to do a city brand & iconography, gateways, pedestrian kiosks, (fabrication & installation too) a reprint of the walking guide and banner program to highlight districts throughout the City."

Two other initiatives mentioned in Salvino's report are of interest. (The two bulleted items below are quoted directly from the report. Comments in parentheses are part of the original; anything in brackets was added by Gossips.)

• We discussed, in brief, the idea of developing a linear park. A phase 1 could potentially include a walkway that connects Promenade Park [sic] to the waterfront via a pedestrian bridge. This park could eventually connect to the CLC planned park system by traveling behind [west of?] the housing units [i.e., the north half of Hudson Terrace] toward River loft [i.e., the surviving Hudson River Knitting Mills building] and further connecting to the Furgary site and beyond to the landfill park and Charles Williams Park.
• There will be money left over from the Charles Williams Park Project—Maybe $15K? (HCDPA Project) [i.e., the park project is funded by a grant awarded to HCDPA] Ideas: Dog Park (fencing & receptacles), Parking Lot (not my favorite idea), hand launch upgrades at Furgary Boat Club, terraced seating at Charles Williams Park on the incline to be used as outdoor performance space in lieu of the landfill performance space idea (it's perfect for it), Campsite Development (signs, grills, benches, tables) either across from CW Park or develop a passageway to a grassland w/ a view. 

It's interesting that both plans--the one involving an area overlooking and bordering the river, the other for Charles Williams Park, on Mill Street east of North Second--mention the site of the Furgary Boat Club, which suggests that there is currently is no plan for the site but the City--or at least HDC--is actively engaged in trying to come up with one.

Surprising Development in Furgary Feud

Billy Shannon, in a story in the Register-Star posted online on Saturday evening, reports that the two northernmost shacks at the Furgary Boat Club may actually be in Greenport not Hudson: "New hope for two Furgary shacks." If this proves to be the case, Greenport Town Supervisor John Porreca says he thinks the Town Board will want to preserve them. "We feel they have historical significance." Amazing.

The Future of Acres Co-op

On Monday, July 23, the Board of Directors of the Acres Co-op Market will hold a meeting in the Chamber of Commerce conference room in the former Washington Hose firehouse at the entrance to Promenade Hill. The meeting, which is both for members of the co-op and for the community at large, begins at 7 p.m. 


The first part of the meeting will be the co-op's annual membership meeting. The board is expected to propose that the co-op be dissolved and request a vote on that proposal from the fifty or so people who paid $150 in dues to become members of the co-op.


The second part of the meeting will be an open discussion of ways to move forward. In its official announcement of the meeting, the board states: "Our inability to open a store need not stop fresh efforts to address this community's food needs."

Of Interest

Tom Casey has an article in today's Register-Star about the emergency and transitional housing facility being proposed for State and Seventh streets: "For city, shelter plan's a mixed bag." Although the headline suggests the article will contain some dissimilar views, it quotes only people who favor the plan: Mayor William Hallenbeck, who supports the plan and wants a "seat at the table" as it moves forward; Richard Scalera, Fifth Ward supervisor and special adviser to the Galvan Initiatives Foundation, who has been promoting the plan all along; and Laila Frank, who lives across the street from the proposed facility and thinks "we need to start being human [to one another]." (That last sentiment makes the pedant in me wonder why the adjective humane seems to be disappearing from the American vocabulary.)

What Now?

Gossips was alerted today to a public notice that was posted on the City of Hudson website on June 18, 28 days before an HPD SWAT team descended on the Furgary Boat Club at 3 a.m. to evict, according to their own description of themselves, "three grumpy old men." The gist of the notice is contained in the final sentence (the first part is taken up with a legal definition of said lands): "All persons currently occupying said lands must forthwith remove all items of personal property and structures and vacate said lands immediately." (Gossips added the boldface.) 


Does this mean the City of Hudson expected the Furgarians to remove the shacks? The entire notice can be read here.

If You Don't Ask . . .

Inspired by a comment on Gossips yesterday about a "plastics extrusion factory" here in Hudson, I asked about this persistent rumor at last night's meeting of the Common Council Economic Development Committee. Two months ago, the word was that a plastics manufacturer was interested in setting up shop in the Kaz warehouses, at the south end of Second Street, and had been told by the Hudson Development Corporation board that zoning does not permit that activity in that location. Last night, I learned that the same folks have turned their attention to the former Hudson Fabrics building at the north end of Second Street. 

What, I asked, happened to Premier Brands--the company that spoke of creating a hundred jobs for people living within walking distance of the facility, the company for whose sake the the Common Council authorized a settlement for unpaid property taxes with the building's current owner, the company to whom the Columbia County Industrial Development Agency granted a PILOT, the first PILOT they'd done in Hudson since 1967?


It seems that while the City of Hudson and Columbia County were lavish in their support of the undertaking, the banks were not. Premier Brands was unable to get the financing needed to acquire the building and establish a facility in Hudson and consequently abandoned their plan.


According to Common Council President Don Moore, the "plastics extrusion factory" that may move into the building beside the former county landfill manufactures the plastic net bags that some kinds of produce--potatoes, onions, oranges, grapefruit--is sold in. He said there was also the possibility that they might manufacture plastic deer fencing, if they were awarded a contract by the State of New York. Alderman Cappy Pierro (Fifth Ward) conveyed the information, in a manner that suggested he was not convinced of the truth of what he was saying, that the plastic and the manufacturing process were "environmentally friendly."

Locavore's Delight

Often the produce at ShopRite (my supermarket of choice) that's identified as "locally grown" actually comes from New Jersey. "Locally grown"? I don't think so. (Say that the way Macaulay Culkin did in Home Alone.) In recent days, however, ShopRite has been offering black raspberries from LoveApple Farm in Ghent. Now that's local.

In Memoriam

Tom Davis, one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live and the taller half of the comedy team of Franken and Davis, who lived near Bells Pond and was a frequent presence in Hudson, died of cancer yesterday. His obituary appears in the New York Times. Sam Pratt has a remembrance on his blog: "So long, it's been good to know 'ya."

Ear to the Ground

Gossips' sources confirm that, after months of uncertainty, the sale of 542 Warren Street to Duncan Calhoun and Russell Gibson is going forward. One of the conditions of the purchase is that the City of Hudson agrees to lease sixteen parking spaces in the municipal parking lot behind the building for the exclusive use of hotel guests. Mayor William Hallenbeck indicated yesterday during his interview on @Issue that the City was amenable to this. It appears that Hudson is going to get a much needed boutique hotel after all.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 Clear Hurdle 1

Last Friday, at the Historic Preservation Commission meeting, Rick Scalera, perennial mayor of Hudson turned county supervisor and special adviser to the Galvan Initiatives Foundation, said that the Galvan proposal for State and Seventh streets would be presented to the Human Services Committee of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors on July 18, and it happened just as predicted, although Scalera himself, appropriately, was not present at the meeting.

The proposal, the amount of money the proposed plan is expected to save the county, the number of homeless people who can be sheltered there, the services that will be provided, and the musings about what would happen if the program actually works and the number of homeless people in Columbia County is dramatically reduced have been reported by Nathan Mayberg in today's Register-Star: "Shelter plan clears major hurdle." Gossips will take up the question of how Hudson came to make the "gracious gesture" and agree to "provide for the homeless throughout the county."

At some point during yesterday's Human Services Committee meeting, Supervisor Art Bassin (Ancram) posed this question to DSS Commissioner Paul Mossman: "Have you been in conversation with the City of Hudson?" Hudson supervisor Bill Hughes (Fourth Ward), a member of the committee, took it upon himself to answer the question. He said that he "sat down personally with several members of the Council, Don Moore, and the mayor," and although he "can't say that everyone is 100 percent behind the plan," he indicated that there is adequate support for it on the Common Council. He mentioned specifically Second Ward aldermen Wanda Pertilla and Abdus Miah and Fourth Ward aldermen Sheila Ramsey and Ohrine Stewart, noting that these two wards have the greatest homelessness problem in Hudson, and Fifth Ward aldermen Robert Donahue and Cappy Pierro, noting that the proposed facility will be located in the Fifth Ward. There was no mention of any conversations with aldermen from the First or Third wards.

Hudson mayor William Hallenbeck and Common Council president Don Moore were both present at the meeting, and both made statements in support of the proposal. Hallenbeck, as he did on @Issue earlier in the day, talked about Hudson being "leaders in providing transitional housing" but said he "worries about services the city provides," intimating that the City of Hudson needs to be compensated in some way for the impact of having this facility located in Hudson on such municipal services as police and public works. Moore agreed with the mayor, spoke of a "service component that is rich and well thought out," and reiterated the mayor's point that "some sort of 'impact consideration' is needed."

Hudson supervisor Ellen Thurston (Third Ward), also a member of the committee, appeared to be the only person in the room with standing to speak who had misgivings about the proposal. She asked if there was to be a public hearing. She asked if the residents of the neighborhood surrounding the facility were aware of what was being planned. She shared the concerns of her constituents that "Hudson already has a large amount of subsidized housing, and this is yet another facility that will be taking in people that are not necessarily from Hudson." She also expressed the opinion that it was premature to enter into a five-year lease agreement with Galvan because the plan still needs to go before the Planning Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Historic Preservation Commission. She was assured by county attorney Robert Fitzsimmons that the lease was contingent upon the project getting all the necessary approvals.

When it came time to vote on approving the resolution, Hughes made the motion. Thurston was the only member of the committee to vote against it. [Hudson supervisor Ed Cross (Second Ward) is also a member of the committee.] The resolution still needs approval from the Finance Committee, which meets on August 7, before it goes to the full Board of Supervisors for a vote--a vote from which Rick Scalera, Fifth Ward supervisor and special adviser for the Galvan Initiatives Foundation, says he will not recuse himself, although many consider it a conflict of interest.

Some questions still require answers: How did it come about that Hudson is "taking the lead" in providing for all the homeless in Columbia County? Who offered Hudson for this purpose? What caused Hughes, who has expressed strong objections in the past to Hudson taking on the burden of homelessness for the whole county, to change his tune and now embrace and advocate for this plan?

It's important to remember that the facility proposed for State and Seventh street is meant to provide Tier 1 and Tier 2 services in a scheme that involves three tiers. At Tuesday's Common Council meeting, after some present had expressed support for the facility proposed for Seventh and State streets but reservations about the facility proposed for Fourth and Columbia streets, Linda Mussmann made the point that "Tier 3 is integral to this project. That's what the Fourth and Columbia building is."    

What He Said

This morning, Mayor William Hallenbeck went on Victor Mendolia's @Issue radio show and talked for almost a full hour about issues affecting Hudson. I won't attempt to summarize everything that was said. If you missed it, the interview is now archived, and you can listen for yourself. I will remark, however, on a few things he said that were news to me and may be news to Gossips readers as well. 

In his laundry list of accomplishments and ongoing projects, Hallenbeck included RFPs being considered for the three acres adjacent to the old Dunn warehouse building on Water Street across from Henry Hudson Riverfront Park. The combination of the verb considered and the object RFPs made it unclear if the City was reviewing proposals submitted in response to a request for proposals or if the City was thinking of writing an RFP to solicit proposals from developers.

He also mentioned how happy he was that there was the "potential for a hotel just above City Hall," referring to the plan to convert 542 Warren Street into an upscale hostelry. In April, after site plan review by the Planning Commission was already underway, it was learned that the owner had a change of heart and had taken the building off the market, thus dashing any hope of the purchasers turning it into a boutique hotel. When Menedolia asked the mayor this morning if the hotel plan was still on track, Hallenbeck confirmed that it was.

When asked about the Furgary Boat Club, Hallenbeck reiterated that "once the City took ownership, the Furgary became a liability." He spoke of two "olive branches" that he had extended to the Furgarians: the first was giving them 30 days before evicting them from the shacks instead of doing it as soon as the court decision was handed down on June 14; the second was allowing the Furgarians to hold open houses, which Hallenbeck referred to as "tours," on two Saturdays--June 30 and July 7--prior to their eviction.

In recounting the most recent history of land ownership in the North Bay, Hallenbeck said that the City of Hudson had to own the land on which the Furgary Boat Club was located in order to qualify for $4.4 million in funding to upgrade the waste water treatment plant. The state owned the land in question and was willing to swap it for 9.5 acres of land underwater that was owned by the City of Hudson. According to Hallenbeck, when the City acquired the land, former mayor Rick Scalera "went to the Furgary and offered them the opportunity to work out a deal with the City to pay taxes and stay." The Furgary, calling themselves the North Dock Tin Boat Association, responded to Scalera's "olive branch" by initiating a lawsuit against the City claiming adverse possession, a lawsuit that Hallenbeck said cost the City $40,000 to defend against.

When asked about the City's future plans for the Furgary Boat Club, Hallenbeck reiterated that "it is my job to make sure I protect every citizen of Hudson from liability," and then mentioned four possibilities, along with the problems that might render each an impossibility. (1) The City could lease the land to the Furgarians, but he didn't think it was legal for the City to lease public property to a private entity, in spite of the fact that the City has for years leased land to the Hudson Power Boat Association. "Corporate counsel," as he likes to call Cheryl Roberts, has written a letter to the Department of State asking if the land can be leased, and the City is awaiting their response. (2) The City could sell the land to the Furgarians, but since the City needed to own the land to get the $4.4 million for the sewer treatment plant, it might have to return that money if the land was sold to someone else. (3) The City could preserve four or five of the shacks and rent them out--whether to Furgarians for whole seasons or to visitors for a week or two was not clear. The cost of bringing the shacks up to code, said Hallenbeck, would likely be $20,000 per shack, and whose expense, he wondered, would that be? (4) Some of the shacks could be "preserved for a boathouse or something that would support recreational use." This was the one possibility that seemed not to have a strong argument against it.

Speaking on the topic of the Civic Hudson Project, Hallenbeck revealed two things that had not previously been public knowledge. The first was that Scalera, when he was still mayor of Hudson, had tried to work a deal with Eric Galloway to have Galloway build a police and city court building for the City. That plan was abandoned because it was going to cost the City $385,000 a year for some undisclosed number of years, and that was more than the City could afford. Then, this year, when Scalera was no longer the mayor but a special adviser to the Galvan Foundation, the idea of adding low-income housing to the plan for a municipal building made the cost affordable to the City--only $100,000 a year for thirty years. 

Hallenbeck also revealed that, although Galvan representatives have told the Planning Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals that no use has yet been determined for the first and second floors of the proposed building, there is still the possibility that the building will house the police department and the city court. Hallenbeck said that the architect for the building, whom he described as "an expert in police and court buildings" and I suspect is Tony Shitemi of Urban Architectural Initiatives, who presented the project to the Planning Commission last week, had a meeting with the Hudson Police Department. Hallenbeck, who was present at the meeting, intimated that the architect had persuaded the police to reconsider their position on the Civic Hudson Project, but, he explained, "they are waiting for the tax credits to be approved before they change their position." The decision on tax credits is expected in mid-August.

Another surprising revelation was that the City of Hudson has volunteered to, in Hallenbeck's words, "take the lead in providing a [homeless] facility" for the entire county. He spoke of "the movement Hudson has so graciously made to provide for the homeless throughout the county" and suggested that the City "should be compensated for that by the towns" who don't want the homeless in their municipalities. Just last night, Alderman Nick Haddad (First Ward) said we don't want "to make Hudson the repository for all the homeless in the county." It seems that someone had already offered our city to be just that, and the county has taken him up on it. 

When Mendolia reminded Hallenbeck that he had said Eric Galloway should have the key to the city, Hallenbeck talked about the "great justice" Galloway has done to Hudson by "taking vacant buildings," many of which have been renovated. It is too bad time ran out before Mendolia could press him for examples, since most Galloway watchers would describe a quite different modus operandi: buy an occupied building, empty it of tenants, and let it stand vacant for years.

The entire interview has now been archived and can be heard online.

In Case of Rain . . .

The National Weather Service is predicting showers and thunderstorms, some of which may be severe with heavy rain, for late this afternoon and this evening. Rob Caldwell, producer of Hudson.Water.Music., has announced that if what is predicted comes to pass, tonight's concert, featuring Travis Chandler Philharmonic and Kayln Rock, will take place at Musica, 17 North Fourth Street, instead of Henry Hudson Riverfront Park. The concert begins at 6 p.m.

Not to Be Missed

At 10 a.m. today, on his WGXC radio show @Issue, Victor Mendolia will interview Mayor William Hallenbeck. Intended to be an assessment of Hallenbeck's first six months in office, the interview, which will last for the entire hour, is expected to question the mayor about the eviction of the Furgary Boat Club, the many projects of the Galvan Initiatives Foundation, and other issues facing the city. WGXC is at 90.7 F.M. or online at wgxc.org.

Last Night at City Hall

Tuesday night's Common Council meeting lasted for an hour and a half.  A few things worthy of notice transpired. For one, the Council passed unanimously the new dog law, upping the fines for people caught failing to pick up after their pets. For another, the Council passed a law banning smoking in all public parks. The vote on that law, however. was neither unanimous nor without contention.

John Friedman (Third Ward) opened the discussion that preceded the vote by saying that all of the parks in Hudson are small, with the exception of riverfront park, and then told the story of how he left the beer tent during the Hudson Pride Rally to have a cigarette and found himself surrounded by children, so he walked outside the park before lighting up. Voting against adopting this law, he told his colleagues, is "voting against requiring adults to walk to the edge of the park to smoke." For kids, he said, "playing in streets is not an option." He went on to allege that not banning smoking from the parks "forecloses children from using the parks."

Wanda Pertilla (Second Ward) and Abdus Miah (Second Ward) agreed that it was important to pass the law for the sake of children, but Chris Wagoner (Third Ward) expressed the opinion that it wasn't the City's duty to get people to stop smoking. David Marston (First Ward) called the law an attempt to "legislate personal responsibility," telling Friedman that it was not "the City's job to use law enforcement to get people to make the decision you made," alluding to Friedman's story about how he left riverfront park rather than smoke in the presence of children. Council President Don Moore made the point that "protecting public health, safety, and welfare is our responsibility," but Wagoner predicted that, as with Prohibition, "honest, law-abiding citizens will end up having to break the law" if smoking is banned from city parks.

When the vote was taken, the law passed with 1,100 aye votes (1,011 are required). Wagoner, Marston, Nick Haddad (First Ward), and Cappy Pierro (Fifth Ward) voted against banning smoking in city parks; Moore, Pertilla, Miah, Friedman, and Bob Donahue (Fifth Ward) voted for the ban. Both Fourth Ward aldermen, Sheila Ramsey and Ohrine Stewart, were absent from the meeting.

Next to be considered was Mayor William Hallenbeck's request that the mayor's office act as the sole records access officer responding to FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests. Friedman again opened the discussion, telling his colleagues that he did not support the proposal because "putting [access to public records] in the hands of a single political figure creates the opportunity for trouble." Responding to the claim that having a single records access officer is more efficient, Friedman declared "I'd take a little chaos over a lot of nondisclosure." The majority of his colleagues agreed with him and voted to send the law back to committee. Only Donahue and Pierro voted to put the new law on the aldermen's desks.

Just before calling for a motion to adjourn, Moore brought up the topic of the Galvan Initiatives Foundation's Civic Hudson Project proposed for the corner of Fourth and Columbia streets. It will be recalled that in March the Common Council passed a resolution of support for the project, but that was back when the building was hailed as an innovative way to get a much needed new building for the police department and the city court. Since then, the funding source has made it clear it will not fund the project in the face of the police union's opposition, and Galvan has moved ahead with a plan that no longer includes the City as a partner. "What we originally supported," said Moore, "is no longer the case," and he proposed that the Common Council formally and publicly withdraw its support from the project.

Several people on the Council and in the audience seemed to find it difficult to focus on the question Moore was posing: Do we still want to be on the record as supporting this project when the nature of the project has changed significantly and the major benefit to the City has been eliminated? The conversation moved from the specific question to a broader discussion of homelessness in Columbia County, causing Wagoner to storm out of the meeting in frustration as Supervisor Bill Hughes (Fourth Ward) talked on about homeless students in the Hudson City School District, apparently failing to recognize that the Civic Hudson Project--indeed everything the Galvan Initiatives Foundation has proposed thus far--is intended for chronically homeless single adults, predominantly males, and will do nothing to ameliorate the problem of homeless families with children.

Some important information and interesting observations did, however, emerge from the discussion. 

• Pierro alleged that the statistics showing a decrease in the number of homeless adults in Columbia County are "misleading" because "Phil Gellert is servicing DSS." According to Pierro, the Department of Social Services, instead of housing homeless adults in motels at a cost of $64 a day, is giving them $500 a month for rent and expecting them to double up in apartments in buildings owned by Gellert, for which he then collects $1,000 a month. 
• Moore shared the information that Lantern (i.e., Eric Galloway) "will not build such housing [i.e., homeless housing] outside of Hudson." 
• Friedman pointed out that, according to the CARES report, the ideal number of units of permanent supportive housing for Columbia County is 25. The Civic Hudson Project involves 35 units, because, Moore explained, 35 is the number of units necessary to get funding.
• Hughes revealed that neither the Galvan Initiatives Foundation nor the Lantern Organization has any experience operating a homeless shelter.

Haddad made an important point that seemed to fall on his colleagues' deaf ears. The developer behind this plan to create 34 units of "permanent supportive housing" (the 35th unit is a one-bedroom apartment for the building superintendent) has, through his acquisition, eviction of tenants, and warehousing of buildings, made more people homeless than the homeless housing he is proposing can accommodate.

In the end, Moore proposed that a draft resolution withdrawing support from the Civic Hudson Project would be brought to the August informal meeting.

Another Perspective: Tom Casey reports on the discussion of the Civic Hudson Project in today's Register-Star: "Wagoner removed from council meeting." Although the article takes as its focus Chris Wagoner's angry exit from the meeting, there is an interesting quote from Rick Scalera, perennial mayor of Hudson turned county supervisor and special adviser to the Galvan Foundation, implying that both Galvan attorney Mark Greenberg and Common Council President Don Moore are out of the loop when it comes to discussions about this project and intimating that he himself, whose involvement with the project is considered by many to be a conflict of interest, is in the know.

Keeping the Faith for the Furgary

Timothy O'Connor, advocate for the preservation of the Furgary Boat Club, positioned himself on the sidewalk in front of City Hall tonight, holding a sign that commented on the City's recent action to evict the Furgarians from their fishing shacks in North Bay. O'Connor was there when people started arriving for the Common Council meeting, which started at 7 p.m., and he was still there when the meeting adjourned shortly after 8:30. He reported receiving lots of support from passersby during his vigil. 

Locating the Cannons

On Sunday, Gossips published three newspaper articles from the 1920s reporting on Hudson's acquisition of cannons to adorn the lawn around the armory. Indeed, so many cannons were acquired--two from the Civil War, four from the Revolutionary War, one captured from Germans during the Great War (I hope this was the one that got melted down during World War II)--that it is hard to imagine where they all were positioned around the building. Most historic pictures of the building show two cannons in front. This picture, taken after the disastrous fire that all but destroyed the armory on December 31, 1928, shows the location of another of the cannons, along the State Street side of the building. My guess is that this is one of the Civil War cannons.

The "Nantucket Houses" of Hudson

A reader recently sent me this photograph of a "Nantucket house" that once stood on Partition Street near West Court Street, and it inspired me to do a post about "Nantucket houses" and the stories surrounding their origins.

It is believed by many Hudsonians that there were and still are houses in Hudson that were brought here--whole or in parts--on ships from Nantucket by the Proprietors, the founders of Hudson. The basis for the notion seems to be this passage from Stephen B. Miller's book, Historical Sketches of Hudson, published in 1862:

In the Spring of 1784, the other proprietors followed with their families, bringing with them several vessels and in some instances the frames of dwellings, prepared in Nantucket, for erection upon their arrival. One of these houses, at least, was standing in the lower part of North Front street until a very few years since, and its frame is believed to be still a portion of the building since erected upon the spot. It was brought by Stephen Paddock. When Mr. Paddock arrived with his family, Col. Van Allen went on board of his vessel and offered them the hospitality of his house which they accepted, Mr. Paddock remarking "if that was a sample of the Dutch, they were are in a happy land."

In Hudson's Merchants and Whalers: The Rise and Fall of a River Port 1783-1850, Margaret Schram identifies "great forests of hardwoods suitable for shipbuilding--something that Nantucket and the other highly populated New England towns lacked" as one of the things that attracted the Proprietors to Claverack Landing. If the sources of hardwood that been exhausted where the Proprietors were coming from it seems unlikely that they would or even could create the frames for new houses before making the move.

Then there's this. In the 1930s, as the story goes, someone from the Nantucket Historical Society visited Hudson and made a presentation to the Fortnightly Club. The historic connection between Nantucket and Hudson was, of course, the subject of the talk. According to this account, the economy of Nantucket and other New England whaling ports was so devastated by the Revolutionary War that there was no market for houses. So, rather than leaving their houses abandoned, the frugal New England Quakers disassembled them, loaded the parts on their ships, and brought them along to Hudson. This story supports the notion that some houses in Hudson were "floaters"--transported here from New England aboard ships.

Some historians, however, consider the idea of "floaters" to be a popular and persistent but basically unfounded myth. Claverack Landing was not an untamed wilderness when the Proprietors arrived. There was a settlement here and farms nearby. Most of Proprietors found quarters with people already living here, as Miller reports Stephen Paddock and his family did, where they lived while their houses were being built. One historic document does indicate that two of the Proprietors brought portable, temporary shelters, like fishing shacks, with them and lived in these structures while constructing their houses. It's possible the existence of these shacks gave rise to the myth of the floaters.

There are certainly houses in Hudson that reflect the late 18th-century vernacular architecture of Nantucket--not necessarily because they were transported here from Nantucket but because they were built by and for people who were familiar and comfortable with that style of architecture. Some of the houses, in fact, are evidence of the architectural conservatism of early Hudson. The house that once stood on Partition Street--the house that inspired this post--was built around 1840, more than fifty years after the founding of Hudson, yet its design is that of houses built a half century or more earlier.

For more insight into Nantucket houses, David Voorhees, historian and chair of the Hudson Historic Preservation Commission, wrote an article about his own Nantucket house for Columbia County History & Heritage. Entitled "My Old Hudson Home," it appears on pages 9 and 10 of the Summer 2004 issue.

Examples of Hudson's "Nantucket Houses"  

217 State Street

245 State Street

418 Columbia Street

233 Union Street--a third story was subsequently added to this house

234 Union Street

Summer Concert Series Begins Tomorrow Night

Hudson.Water.Music., the concert series sponsored by the City of Hudson and produced by Rob Caldwell of Musica, begins tomorrow night and continues with a concert at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park every Wednesday night through August 15. The opening concert features Chandler Travis Harmonic, a nine-piece band from Boston, and singer/songwriter and Hudson native Kayln Rock. The schedule for the series is at hudsonwatermusic.com. Concerts are from 6 to 9 p.m.