At a glance
Hudson's Common Council met for its informal November meeting on November 10, 2025. Because this was an informal meeting, no votes were taken. The Council heard monthly reports from the Fire Department, Youth Department, Police Department, Treasurer, and Department of Public Works, and previewed several resolutions for next week's regular meeting, including a cooperation agreement tied to the Hudson Housing Authority's redevelopment of Bliss Towers. Recurring threads ran through the night: the 2025 city budget, parking revenue and enforcement, the $66 million sewer-upgrade project, and how the city pays for services used by people who live outside Hudson.
Opening & Fire Department Report
Council President Tom DePietro opened the informal meeting and noted the routine paperwork on file. The Fire Department then gave a brief account of a quiet October.
Key points
- Draft minutes from the October 9, 21, and 30 meetings are available, and committee reports have been posted to the city register.
- The Fire Department reported a light month: a handful of calls including false alarms, good-intent calls, and two hazardous-condition calls, a vehicle-accident cleanup and a carbon-monoxide call.
- There were two motor-vehicle accidents, one requiring crews to extricate a person from a vehicle, and one equipment fire.
- The department's new boat was used on several calls this season and has been pulled from the water for the winter.
The automated transcript merged the fire official's remarks into the Council President's speaking turn, and exact call counts were garbled. Figures here are described in general terms rather than quoted as precise numbers.
Youth Department: October Report
Youth Department Director Calvin Lewis reported a busy October, rising enrollment, a full slate of programming, and youth basketball sign-ups already underway.
Key points
- Registration is up across all three age groups. The department now runs programs from the Hudson Youth Center, Oakdale, and a satellite site at the library, having left a church location in September.
- Programming includes Literacy Voyagers, music and movement, hip-hop dance, drumming (with Operation Unite at Hudson Hall), cooking with the Sylvia Center, and art through the Art School of Columbia County.
- October field trips included a fruit farm, the MVP Arena, and a mural project at the Hudson Sandwich Shop. Students of the month were recognized.
- Youth basketball registration is open, roughly 104 children had signed up as of the prior Friday, with a December 1 deadline. The department is recruiting coaches and volunteers.
- County-funded transportation continues to bring members to programs.
Debate: Funding Youth Services for Non-Residents
Council questions about Youth Department staffing opened into a broader debate over whether Hudson taxpayers should fund services for children who live outside the city.
Key points
- Council members asked about staffing, six full-time staff (including a full-time cleaner/maintenance worker) and about ten part-time staff, and how students and employees of the month are chosen.
- Margaret Morris questioned the need for a full-time cleaner and, citing past practice of receiving residency data, asked why Hudson funds youth services for a substantial number of children from neighboring towns. She suggested those municipalities should contribute.
- Director Lewis said he would consider the question and report back. The Council President noted families often move in and out of the city, and that the city's county supervisors had previously raised cost-sharing with the county.
- Residents pushed back: Claire Cousins described the Youth Center as the only drop-in, open-recreation program of its kind, and noted the county already invests heavily in city youth programming.
- A resident raised a process concern, that the funding question had effectively been handed to the Youth Director alone, with no clear path to a decision.
No decision was reached. The Youth Director agreed to bring residency data and information from the county's inter-agency youth coordination group to a future meeting.
Police Department Report & Parking Revenue
A police captain reported October crime statistics and recommended the city keep parking enforcement running through December.
Key points
- October figures: no use-of-force reports, 31 arrests on 48 total charges, two emotionally-disturbed-person calls, and no reported drug overdoses.
- Incidents included an e-bike accident on the Harry Howard Avenue bike path (minor injuries), dirt-bike riders ticketed, and an attempted arson in a waterfront restroom that remains under investigation.
- Two vans were stolen, a funeral-home van and a city van taken after a break-in at the Youth Department, and both were recovered undamaged.
- Parking revenue has risen since the Police Department took over enforcement: first-quarter revenue (July–September) was about $297,561, roughly 19% above the prior year; October revenue was about $130,695, roughly 6% higher.
- The captain recommended the city not suspend parking enforcement in December this year. The weekend overnight-parking suspension will be lifted starting November 21.
No formal vote was taken, but council members Diskaloudi and Morris voiced agreement with keeping parking enforcement in place through December. The weekend overnight-parking suspension lifts November 21.
The raw transcript labels this speaker "Speaker 10." Council members address him as Captain Miller of the Hudson Police Department, and he is named that way here.
Treasurer's Report: Budget, Taxes & Tax Foreclosures
City Treasurer Heather Campbell reported mixed budget signals for 2025 and gave an update on the city's tax-foreclosure process, which has already recovered most delinquent properties.
Key points
- Through September, building and plumbing permit revenue is running below budget, though October and November permits added roughly $50,000.
- Sales-tax revenue is strong, the third-quarter distribution was the highest on record. Lodging tax and cannabis tax are both running below budget.
- The 2024 city audit is still not finalized; the Treasurer hopes to close it within the week.
- Tax foreclosures: the city began with 151 privately-owned delinquent properties and is down to 76 after a first demand letter, with about $2.1 million still outstanding (roughly $1.5M in principal and $635K in interest). About 75 properties have been redeemed, totaling around $890,000.
- A second demand letter will follow a required mayoral public hearing (expected around November 12) and will include information on installment-payment agreements and free foreclosure counseling from Housing Resources of Columbia County.
- The city closed on EFC financing for the first phase of a $66 million sewer-upgrade project, and 98 Park Place has been authorized for sale at auction.
- The $66 million sewer-upgrade project, whose EFC financing closed here, is described in detail in the DPW & Water Department report (section 06).
- A resident asked whether buyers of foreclosed property can be restricted. The Treasurer noted only city employees are barred from bidding; the Council President said sale terms can carry conditions such as build-by deadlines.
DPW & Water Department Report
DPW Superintendent Rob Perry reported on sewer and stormwater work, the design phase of the $66 million sewer-separation project, and routine water-system maintenance.
Key points
- Crews repaired a collapsed manhole at Fifth and Union and installed a new catch basin on the 500 block of Union Street to relieve stormwater backups for nearby residents.
- The $66 million capital sewer project is in design. Using LIDAR contour data and 3D modeling, the city is laying out new storm and sanitary mains.
- Construction documents for the Columbia Street corridor are expected to go out in March or April 2026, with construction starting in summer 2026. The full project will run roughly four to five years, with later phases reaching through 2028–2029.
- Water system: a state-inspection punch-list item at the water tank was completed, a lead service line was replaced, and a hydrant on Clinton Street was replaced.
- Algae found at the reservoir was tested and came back below regulatory limits, with no cyanotoxins detected.
- Other items: Railroad Avenue was formally designated a two-lane road, a new parking lot was built at the cemetery house, and the department lent its boat to Greenport for a Halloween event.
This is the second time the $66 million sewer project came up, the Treasurer's report (section 05) covered its financing. A fully built Hudson AI would link both mentions to the project's own page, so a resident could follow it across every meeting and every body.
Resolutions Introduced
The Council President introduced a set of resolutions and previewed a presentation. None were voted on, all are expected to come up at next week's regular meeting.
Key points
- Four resolutions were introduced for a vote the following week: appointing commissioners; authorizing the sale of Long Alley; a transfer of funds for attorney fees; and a Greenport charge-back matter.
- On the Greenport charge-back, council member Jen Belton noted the Council was still waiting for an explanation of how a figure of roughly $75,000 had been calculated, following an earlier visit from outside representatives.
- A fifth item, a cooperation agreement with the Hudson Housing Authority, was introduced and presented in detail in the next section.
The transcript is fragmentary in this section. Resolution titles and the names attached to each introduction and second are partly garbled and should be checked against the official Council agenda.
Hudson Housing Authority: Bliss Towers Redevelopment & PILOT Agreement
Representatives of the Hudson Housing Authority presented a proposed cooperation agreement, a tax arrangement tied to the long-planned redevelopment of the authority's housing. The Council is expected to vote on it next week.
Key points
- The Housing Authority's redevelopment plan is currently before the Hudson Planning Board. New York State, a major funder, requires a cooperation agreement, a PILOT, or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, with the city, setting tax payments for the life of the state's bond financing.
- The proposal would sever part of the project site (on the north side of State Street) from the existing 2020 Bliss Towers agreement and place it under a new agreement. Bliss and Columbia Towers would stay under the existing one.
- Because winding down Bliss Towers has strained the authority's finances, it proposed that PILOT payments for 2025–2029 be paused and replaced by a single one-time payment of about $120,000, expected around the third quarter of 2026.
- Phase 1 would build 166 units, including a townhouse with two five-bedroom, two two-bedroom, and two one-bedroom units. Overall, the project would grow from the current 135 units toward about 276 across all phases. Roughly 80% of units would serve households at or below 50% of area median income.
- The new PILOT works out to about $250 per unit, up roughly 12–13% from the current $220.
- Discussion covered ADA accessibility in the multi-floor townhouse units, asbestos remediation in the old Bliss building (a Phase 2 item needing state and federal approval), and acceptance into the state Brownfield program to fund site cleanup. HUD funding was described as unaffected, since the project's primary funding is from the state.
- Residents and a commissioner raised the idea of revisiting an earlier concept to close part of State Street for a larger shared courtyard, noting that parking at the existing development is largely under-used.
- Phase 1 financing is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026; construction would take roughly 18 months, with residents potentially moving in around 2028–2029.
No vote was taken. The cooperation agreement is expected to be voted on at next week's regular meeting. Council members were urged to read the full document and send questions to the Housing Authority's counsel beforehand.
This single agenda item reaches across years of city decisions and several governing bodies. A fully built Hudson AI would link it to each of these:
- Hudson Planning Board, the redevelopment plan is in active review there, with a State Environmental Quality Review lead-agency notice already issued.
- The 2020 Bliss Towers cooperation agreement, negotiated by the same counsel before COVID; this proposal amends it.
- The Hudson 2035 Comprehensive Plan, the city's housing goals are the policy backdrop for replacing and expanding 135 units.
- NYS Brownfield Cleanup Program, recently accepted the project, a funding source for remediating site contamination.
Closing: School-Sale Vote & Street-Safety Petition
The meeting closed with a reminder about Thursday's public vote on the sale of a former school building, and a resident petition about street safety.
Key points
- The Council President reminded residents of Thursday's public vote on the sale of a former school building to the developer Penrose.
- A petition from residents of a street that straddles the Hudson–Greenport line asks for safety improvements. Residents describe the street being used as a cut-through near the cemetery and want measures such as a crosswalk.
- The petition will go to the Council's legal committee. Margaret Morris, who chairs that committee, offered to take it on and coordinate with Greenport.
- The meeting ended with a reminder that the following day was Veterans Day.
The street-safety petition is referred to the legal committee, with Margaret Morris taking the lead. The public vote on the school-building sale is scheduled for Thursday, November 13.
The transcript renders the petitioning street's name inconsistently (variously as "Paul Avenue" and "Wall Avenue"). The exact name should be confirmed against the petition itself.
About this page
FUTURE HUDSON is an experiment in civic engagement: every public meeting of the City of Hudson since January 2026, transcribed and made readable, so any resident can follow what the city is deciding without attending every meeting. This page covers one meeting; see the full archive.
How it was made
The meeting video was transcribed automatically; the transcript was then organized into sections and summarized. The raw transcript is above, every claim can be checked against it.
What to be skeptical of
The transcript is automated and contains speech-recognition errors; names and numbers may be wrong. This page has not been reviewed by a human. Nothing here is an official record, the city's official minutes are authoritative.