At a glance
Monday's informal meeting covered a lot of ground. The Council voted to apply for a federal Safe Streets grant after a long talk about who'd handle the up-front cost. It previewed a slate of resolutions for the formal meeting, including a county parking agreement at 11 Warren Street that drew sharp criticism from residents and members. The proposed $500,000 sale of the historic Dunn Warehouse on the waterfront met strong opposition and was pulled from the agenda. Members also raised an unpermitted cannabis festival that overwhelmed waterfront parking the week before, and concerns about a developer's effect on Tanner's Lane residents.
010:00
Opening & roll call
The Council president opened the informal meeting and roll was called.
Key points
- Roll was called and the meeting opened.
- The April minutes and the month's department reports were placed on file.
A note on the transcript
This page is built from YouTube's automatic captions of the meeting, which was recorded in two parts. The transcript has no speaker labels and garbles many names and figures, so this summary describes speakers by role and rounds or omits numbers where the transcript was unclear. Check anything important against the city's official minutes.
021:18
Safe Streets grant: the city votes to apply
After a long discussion of cost and reimbursement, the Council voted to authorize applying for a federal Safe Streets grant.
Key points
- A representative of LaBella, the firm working with the mayor's office, presented a resolution authorizing the city to apply for a federal Safe Streets for All grant.
- The grant would fund a roughly $225,000 'safety action plan' — about 80% federally funded with a 20% local match — which is the prerequisite for applying for much larger federal implementation funding for road and intersection safety projects.
- The plan would use five years of crash data to identify Hudson's most dangerous roadways; the consultant said three roadways account for roughly 40% of serious injuries. It could also include a temporary 'demonstration project.'
- Council members and the city treasurer pressed on the money: the grant is reimbursement-based, so the city must front the cost, and members worried about who would handle grant administration and reimbursement submissions. The consultant said costs can be billed incrementally rather than all at the end.
- After extended discussion, the Council voted by roll call to approve applying for the grant; the application is due within about a week.
What's next
The application is due in late May. The city expects to learn by the fall whether it received the grant; the action plan would then take about 12 months to complete.
0342:13
Committee reports
Committee chairs summarized the month's work from the safety, infrastructure, services, and legal committees.
Key points
- Safety: the committee relayed the fire and police monthly reports and parking-enforcement figures, and noted a new fire truck is in production and expected to be delivered around mid-summer. (Exact incident and revenue figures were garbled in the transcript and are omitted here.)
- Infrastructure: members previewed upcoming sewer 'smoke testing,' reported waterfront vandalism, and described the larger-than-expected sewer-and-stormwater project. They explained that 'no right on red' cannot be applied citywide and that signs — estimated around $13,000 — would be needed at specific intersections.
- Services: the senior-center survey effort and the youth department's summer camp preparations were summarized.
- Legal: the committee summarized the 11 Warren Street county parking agreement (the county agreed to put after-hours public use in writing), the Pocketbook factory lease, the Waterfront Village rezoning petition, and the payment-in-lieu-of-parking idea.
Connections
These reports draw on the month's committee meetings — the Services Committee (May 7), Code & Infrastructure Committee (May 11), and Legal Committee (May 14) — each archived separately.
0458:43
Bills and routine resolutions
The Council reviewed a slate of resolutions headed to next week's formal meeting.
Key points
- Resolutions reviewed included appointing three commissioners of deeds and cancelling outstanding checks uncashed for over six months — including a $10,000 National Grid check.
- A budget amendment would cover City Hall sprinkler repair and control-panel upgrades; another would fund police department equipment through a restricted federal Department of Justice equitable-sharing reserve rather than the general fund.
- The Council reviewed a lease amendment for the Pocketbook factory tenant, reducing the leased parking at the fire station to about 34 spaces.
- It also reviewed a resolution setting standard work days for the state retirement system, and a resolution authorizing a $20,000 city match for a $180,000 grant supporting the city's zoning code project.
051:01:50
A parking deal with the county at 11 Warren Street
A resolution giving Columbia County reserved parking near its new 11 Warren Street offices drew sharp criticism from members and the public.
Key points
- The resolution would authorize an intermunicipal agreement giving the county 18 designated parking spaces, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., next to its 11 Warren Street offices.
- The Council president said the county agreed to put in writing that the spaces and the county lot would be open to the public after hours and on weekends, after a resident noted a similar arrangement had been formalized for the former Helsinki site.
- Members and the public sharply criticized the deal. One member proposed opening all county lots to residents in off hours; another said a lost handicap space should be replaced and the county should pay for it.
- A resident argued the county's purchase of 11 Warren Street took housing, tax revenue, and storefronts off Hudson's main commercial street, and that a parking problem the county created should not become the city's burden.
- Members acknowledged the agreement is an imperfect solution but said it protects nearby residents from displaced parking and guarantees the city revenue at 90% of the parking rate; enforcement and signage details are still being worked out with the police department.
What's next
The intermunicipal agreement is expected to be voted on at the May 26 formal meeting; the version presented then should include written language on after-hours public use.
061:17:35
Selling the Dunn Warehouse: strong opposition
A resolution to sell the historic Dunn Warehouse on the waterfront met strong opposition and was pulled from next week's agenda.
Key points
- The resolution would sell the Dunn Warehouse — the city's last central waterfront building — to Hudson Brewery Company for $500,000, with $90,000 penalties if it is not stabilized within a year or if it is resold within 24 months.
- Members called $500,000 far below the property's value, criticized the lack of a competitive request-for-proposals process, and said the contract gives the city no mortgage and no right of first refusal.
- The president of the Hudson Development Corporation urged the Council not to sell, citing a 2015 study that recommended adaptive reuse for a mix of uses; she said the building needs a major environmental remediation and offered HDC's help to stabilize it and keep it in city hands.
- Members noted the building is a designated city landmark, was given to the city as a gift, and sits on a contaminated brownfield site for which National Grid may still be liable — with remediation potentially reaching tens of millions of dollars.
- The Council president said the resolution will not be on next week's formal agenda; the Council will seek more information and may return to it in June or July.
Connections
The Dunn Warehouse adjoins the waterfront area where the proposed Waterfront Village development is planned; a break-in and vandalism at the warehouse were also reported at the May 11 Code & Infrastructure Committee.
071:49:43
Three local laws: video conferencing, short-term rentals, and the waterfront dock
The Council advanced three local laws, two of which were sent out for required county and planning board review.
Key points
- The Council discussed a local law to repeal the city charter's video-conferencing provisions, replacing them with a Council resolution that would be easier to update if state rules change; the repeal and a new resolution will be on next week's agenda.
- The Council voted to send a short-term-rental local law to the county and local planning boards for the required month-long review, since it amends the zoning code.
- The chair introduced a local law amending Chapter 325 (section 325-17.1) to clarify allowed dock operations on the waterfront, based on 2008 data. Some members said they had only just received the extensive changes and wanted more time.
- The dock-operations item went to a closed attorney-client session. In the meeting's second recorded segment, the Council voted to submit the dock-operations law to the county planning board, with one member opposed.
081:56:37
New business: an unpermitted festival, and the Waterfront Village's edges
Members raised an unpermitted cannabis festival that overwhelmed the waterfront, and concerns about a developer's pressure on Tanner's Lane residents.
Key points
- A member reported that a cannabis convention at the Basilica on May 13 drew an estimated 500 vehicles and overwhelmed waterfront parking — blocking crosswalks, fire hydrants, and emergency access to the river — without the organizers filing a required mass-gathering permit or notifying police in advance.
- The member said she would raise at the safety committee whether the organizers should be denied future mass-gathering permits until they answer for the event.
- A member raised the proposed Waterfront Village project's effect on Tanner's Lane and Cross Street, saying long-time residents have been pressured to sell, that renderings show homes the developer does not own turned into parking lots, and that surveyors had entered properties the developer does not own.
- Members noted the proposed 150-unit complex would sit in a 100-year flood plain — an area with a history of flooding and prior litigation against the city — and that a city street section and street signs on Tanner's Lane had been blocked or removed.
- The meeting closed into a separate attorney-client session.
Connections
The Waterfront Village project was presented to the Planning Board on May 12 and its rezoning petition reviewed by the Legal Committee on May 14. Both are archived separately.
Read the full transcript
0:03All right, it's uh 6 o' May 18. This is the calling meeting the informal meeting of the common house constit. >> Yes, I'm here. >> Council members >> here. Fernhagen >> here. >> Foster >> here. >> Roberts >> here. >> Belton >> here. >> Marie >> here. >> Okay. Uh so the uh minutes from April have been placed on file. Uh department reports have been placed on file. And before we go into the meeting minutes uh
1:06the uh report from the committees. I believe we have a representative from Labella online. >> Could be Roseanne. >> That's me. Hello. Who? Sorry. Who's online from Labella? Roseanne Lubec. >> Hi. Um, so this evening we have um a uh resolution that Mayor Ferris wanted for us to vote on. Um the deadline for the application for this grant is um the same day as our former meeting actually. And so um in order to review this uh label which is the uh the group that is working with the mayor's office this has come to um do a presentation on this particular project. >> I was just going to uh explain a little bit about what SS4A is. Um, so what I'm
2:10working on with the mayor's office is an application for the safe streets for all grant. So what we're working on putting together would be a safety action plan, which would then allow the city of Hudson to apply for implementation funding. There's about a billion dollars of federal funding in this program each year. In order to be eligible for the implementation grant, you would need to have a certified uh safe streets for all action plan which is the first step that we are initiating now. So the resolution is to approve us applying for the grant which would have a 20% local match but is 80% funded by the federal government uh grant uh grant. And the application has uh we're we're writing it for you for free. So, can you give a little bit more detail on what this what the grant is for safe streets um on how this process works? >> Sure. So, safe streets for all is a
3:15federal program of the US Department of Transportation. Um any local municipality can apply for this which is really unique with a federal government grant. Uh usually you have to be an NO or a state. So this is one of the only programs that the city of Hudson can apply for directly and receive the funds directly from the federal government which is also true of implementation. So once we have the SS4A plan and you've identified what we'll work on you with in this step is identifying a high injury network making sure that you have appropriate cost estimated for any work that would come out of this and roadway improvements and enhancements and then we can then go back to the SS4A program to get those projects funded. So this first step is for that. Um so like I said SS4A it's been uh around since the IIGGA. So it's 5 years in. Uh Hudson, city of Hudson has not received anything. Neither has Columbia County. Um and you would need this plan to then be able to do the implementation work. >> So one of the things that was listed in
4:19the resolution was um that this would involve demonstration projects. Can you talk a little about that? >> Sure. Um we can work with you to determine where you would want to do something called a demonstration project. A demonstration project is a more temporary application and that can be as quick as just a day or even a couple of weeks or something that's more permanent like a paint and post project within the city of Hudson where you would want to test some of the improvements that we're talking about doing. Um, I know that there are a few intersections that we're already working with you on to see if there are ways that we can enhance them, but this could be another way for us to do some quick improvements that are uh funded that we can get funding for to be able to do that more quickly. So, it would be probably based on the SS4A schedule somewhere in towards the end of 2027 that we would be able to kick off that work. So any questions from council members >> Ros so these projects who's pick picking
5:23the projects >> we would be doing a a very extensive public engagement uh process and working with the city and the stakeholders that the city identifies to put together a plan for what those projects would be. So you would be picking the projects really. >> Well that well for for example right for the action plan like you know my you know my thought is to upgrade you know intersections like stewards and you know uh state street and you know where it's incorporated with the crosswalk and things like that. So is that going to be part of the plan the additional action plan like uh updating intersections crossing things and things like that? >> So there will be a couple of ways that we look at how you can update your intersections. We want to make sure that whatever we're doing is actually improving safety. So without knowing the exact circumstances of what's happening at that intersection, what the crash data is telling us, what the speed data and the traffic data are saying, what we'll want to know is what are the what's the level of effort that we would need to improve the highest impact intersections in Hudson
6:29with because we might find that the ones that need the most investment aren't suitable for a demonstration project because what we can do there wouldn't make it safe enough. Um, I I'm trying I'm struggling to uh figure out how to explain this. If you have a high-speed intersection, for example, and it's something that we don't think we can fix with a demonstration project because it would actually end up putting people more at risk, that's something that we would suggest for a capital project rather than a demonstration project. But I know that there are intersections within the city that we've identified uh I'm sorry that have been identified in other projects um that would look at that would be appropriate for a demonstration project. Uh but that is something that we would want to put through a public process before we make any determinations on where it would go. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Question. Yeah. Can we mark this uh grant with another project like we have I'm sorry. Can you say that one more time? >> Can you move this grant with another project? Oh, no. You have to be that new
7:33project. >> It It needs to be a standalone. Uh the action plan itself really can't go with anything else. This is a specific grant that does only this one thing, but we can do a demonstration project within it that allows for impact immediately. So the yeah the the study itself this uh whatever it's called um the this the outcome of this is required for the application for the but what is the time frame do you think for beginning to end on project >> I'm sorry could you say that one more time it's just >> what is the time frame for uh beginning to end for this project assuming that we get rent >> so the It can take quite a while to get under contract with these. I don't want to uh give you any, you know, false expectations. So, the application is due in miday. We would find out towards the end of the year towards the fall if you received the grant and then it can take over a year up to a year to a year and a
8:36half to get under contract with the feds to be able to get the the money to do the work. Um, so like I said, we probably wouldn't be able to start this work and from like a year year and three quarters, but that's again the first step and you won't be eligible for any implementation funding otherwise. And they are looking at continuing and reauthorizing this program for another 5 years. So it's still worth it to go after it now, looking long-term so that you're eligible for that funding. So assuming we get the grant and you we find out at the end of this year that we've received the grant. >> Is that money that is provided to the city up front to do the study or do we have to do it and then get reimbured? >> It's a reimbursement process. >> So we have to front uh 225,000. >> Yes. But you can bill in stages and you don't have to do it all. I would expect the timeline for the project to be 12 months. Um, so you can you don't have to bill it all at once at the end. You can
9:40bill it throughout. >> Any other questions we have? Yes. uh you mentioned uh the project that we're uh design project or investigation project that we're starting the labella and I'm just mostly telling the audience that um we're looking at the hospital intersection the triangle and uh circulation around the the public square um and part of you mentioned implementation if we study those areas we find we need help that would lead to funding uh implementation through the FS4. >> Exactly. This really unlocks the majority of that billion dollars in federal funding is for implementation grants and this allows you to access those implementation grants. Um the study that we're doing with you on just those intersections does not fulfill the requirements. There's a two-page self-certification form. It will need to be adopted by council. There's a pretty strict process to get these action plans
10:44adopted and then you would be able to apply for implementation. So they do go hand in hand. >> Any other council members or questions? Gary, do you have any questions? >> I do. Thank you. Um hello. Um I'm Gary Fernhagen. Um so would we be reimbursed for the demonstration project? Yes, that's within the cost of the grant >> and the award the award does not happen till after the demonstration. >> No. Um the the award would be towards probably the end of this year. We would do the demonstration project as a part of that 12-month timeline when we build the action plan. Um and then uh you would be reimbursed by the federal government as part of that process. >> Does the demonstr Are there limitations or constricted scope of the demonstration? In other words, we do one demonstration and we
11:47address one intersection, but that's a one-off and all of the other projects we'd like to tackle are somewhat different. So without going into like how we would need to do a little bit of the plan and the I like this all is very rooted in data analysis for SS4A. You have to have all of your crash data. You have to have intersection data. You have to have all of that down to the level of where it's going to be. Once we look at that, a couple of intersections are going to rise to the top. I already know that just from what I've looked at in your 5-year crash data, preparing the application and just like putting together the if this is a good pursuit, I know that you have three roadways that are responsible for almost half, not responsible, but like 40% of your serious injuries happen on just three roadways. So, how can we leverage this demonstration project to do either an intersection or a short corridor? Um there's not a ton of of finances
12:51available to do the demonstration project. A lot of the times those are also done in a separate grant which is called a supplement um a planning supplement. But we can incorporate a small demonstration while also getting you the plan that gets you more demonstration and implementation funding. I hope that answered your question. >> What about the three roadways that you've been on? Uh, I knew I should have known that you were going to ask me that and I don't have it open in front of me, but give me a second and I can tell you. Um I know that one of them is worth um >> we are >> uh New York 9G, New York 23B. Um, so Colombia and Third Street, Green Street and Worth Avenue. Um, >> pretty much
13:58>> okay. So the the thing that the thing that's concerning me that is news to me um is that this is a reimburseable project. And I'm not it's not clear to me that we could apply as we go through. we could provide for reimbursement or we have to wait until we have our full safety plan before receiving reimbursement in court. So, which of those is true? Do we wait until we have the safety plan and then we submit everything and we get paid the uh 2 uh 25 or whatever it is from the beds. Um well our team would be 180 I think because we have 45 match. uh do or can we get can we get paid incrementally as we go through good as we as we reach certain milestones can we submit and get paid it I'm looking now um it's my experience with these that my my client I've been
15:01doing these type I've been doing safety projects and doing this work for over 10 years and I've been doing SS4A plans since the program started and my clients have done multiple submissions for reimbursement throughout the year. I will try to find exact information on what is needed for that, but you do not have to wait until the end to be reimbursed. Um, >> uh, >> no, you don't have to wait until the end of it to be reimbursed. >> You have Heather and then you have Gary. Yeah, Heather, I was actually going to call on you. >> Okay, that's fine. I just wanted to ask Rosanne. Hi, Rosanne. My name's Heather. I'm the city treasurer. As part of Lebella's agreement to um apply for this grant, do the services also include grant administration, including uh developing and submitting reimbursement requests? uh
16:04when you set up your contractor, that would be something that I would suggest having in your contract for the execution of the action plan if that's something that you are looking for. Um as a part of what we are doing, it does not include grant uh administration right now. >> So for this 200,000 and change project that you're managing, you're not doing the administration or the reimbursement requests, >> not as a part of the proono work. If it's one, I would suggest building that into the contract with the contractor who you select to do the action plan. >> Action. I just want to make sure I understand the language. When you say action plan, do you mean the action plan of implementing the demonstration projects and identifying the projects and all of that? That's what you mean by action plan. >> So the action plan action plan is the full project. So everything within that from the plan itself, doing the demonstration project, doing all of the data analysis, getting your policy set, having all of your resolutions prepared
17:06so that you have um a a self-certification form that makes you eligible for everything. That that's all action plan. That's all within that $225,000 grant that we are writing. So my suggestion would be if you want to have grant administration and the reimburseable information done as a part of the contract that you're putting together for that it should go with that and not with what we are preparing right now because we are done with this segment when the grant is uh submitted. >> Does that make sense? Heather, my understanding is that the deliverable here is the safety action plan and that deliverable is what is the prerequisite for applying for federal funding. >> Correct. But we're going to be coming out of pocket for over $200,000. I need to get that money reimbured. And I'm I'm just trying to figure out who is doing that work. >> That was new information for me. I did not understand that this was not a grant that we got up front and the fact that it's not reimburseable until the end.
18:11It's not a question of finding $45,000 is a question of finding $225,000 >> which is a very big difference. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And with not knowing maybe we can do uh milestone billing maybe with I'm not sure that we have enough information right now to vote in favor of this. Jason, do you want another Heather? >> I mean, I I would just say that that this situation as a whole is not unusual. 90% of the grants that we get are reimburseable um for something in this amount, assuming that we're in decent shape. Um because it's not a huge amount of money, is we would generally do an interfund loan that would get paid back to the general fund out of the capital fund. Um, so I'm less concerned about that. Also, if we're not even going to find out until the end of the year if we're getting it or not, it's something we might be able to roll into borrowing if we need to, if our cash flow is that tight. Um my concern is is frankly just how who is responsible for making sure
19:18that the city gets the money that's expended back by submitting by tracking the expenses submitting the reimbursements to the federal government because that is uh that is work that I would like to assume is not our responsibility directly to do because we don't have those resources. that would have to be built into how the um applications put together. So we would have to have an admin portion of your grand. Is it your sense that we can request money for grant administrations out of that pool of money? I will need to double check that, but I don't know why we couldn't prepare the invoice as a part of that grant because it's professional services. Um, I just want to make sure there are extensive there's like trainings, they do onboardings for grant recipients. So, there's a lot of information around this. So, I would want to get into the
20:20details of that to tell you, but I know that payment is within 30 to 60 days. So, it's not, you know, a six month. You don't have to wait until the end. You can do multiple submissions and it and it'll come every 30 days. You just need to have an invoice, for example, a consultant invoice um or cost invoice, for example, with the demonstration to be able to do that. Um and then uh you'll receive it through their their deli project uh program is what it says. But I will look into more about what's in there. I don't I think that you can. So that's all I can say. Just just to make sure we're saying the same thing, the the question is whether we can take some portion of this grant money and say that it will be allocated toward paying somebody to do the grant administration including reimbursements. That's what I'm that's what I'm asking. >> Like a city staff member or a consultant? >> No, a consultant. >> I believe that yes, you can. >> Okay.
21:21>> It's all it's all part of f uh professional services. >> You have your hand raised. I do one other question and my apologies if this is public knowledge but uh Roseanne pardon my bluntness. Why are you doing it pro bono? >> We have done several of these for communities throughout uh New York and it is the first step we see value in putting the grants together um and building the relationship. Um, I'm not I would love to do the work because we're doing it we're doing a lot here to try to build a story around it and I think that there's a compelling reason to do it, but I want to make sure that we're following your protocol for how you would select a consultant. Um, we just want to help you open the door because in what we've been talking about with these three intersections with everything that you have wanting to move forward in the city of Hudson, this is a necessary step to get you where you want to go. Um, and it's a lot. I've done so many of these at this point. It it makes
22:26sense for me to do it with you and get you there and then we can figure out the rest later. >> Thank you. >> We have another question here from >> I'm sorry. So, it's only these three intersections. >> No. >> No. Okay. Fine. So, my other question is okay. So, once we create this action plan, right? So that well we it goes to the federal government to see if they can get grant money to actually implement the active plan. How many municipalities are going against how much money? Do we know at this point? What are our chances once we actually do this? What are our chances of this actually happening? >> It's hard to dig into the exact details because there are a lot of restrictions on where the money goes and how. So part of it is that no state can receive more than a certain percentage. which I think is 10%. So you are not competing against everybody nationally necessarily but also areas of New York um for your implementation grant. While planning is lower dollar and most of the money goes to implementation the implementation
23:28grants are usually somewhere more in the 25 to $40 million range. So they're big chunks. There's usually about 150. I think the success rate is 40%. But if you put together a good application and you can provide the cost benefit and you have a a compelling reason, which is what we do with the action plan is to make sure that you are setting up winning projects, um then I you can have success with the program. I can't say exactly what the win rate is because they haven't fully released how many people are actually going for it. Um, so I can't do the all the division myself to find a win rate, but no state can get more than 10%. So you want to get ahead of other uh New York areas that are going to be going for this maybe a couple years behind you. >> But in the past, what is the success rate been for other areas of in our size and our area of city garden? I mean 10% 40%.
24:33>> I'm sorry. Can you say that one more time? >> What is the success rate of getting the funding uh of similar area of our size of our location? >> I I can't answer that question because the federal government hasn't released how many people apply. They only release the number of people who win. Um so I I can't say exactly how what the success rate is. I just know that it has been publicly said it is estimated to be 40% win rate, but there is no division of whether that's planning or implementation or small or large municipalities. That's the only information that's been shared publicly. >> This is the first time that this grant has been available. >> This is the first time what >> is it the first time that this federal grant has been available? >> It's five years old. So, this is the fifth round. Rosanne, how do they rate the projects in terms of, you know, is there a Rubik's and how do they how do they rate other projects and like if we're low on the threshold of other products being
25:35more, you know, important? How do they how do they decide that? >> There are merit criteria. Um, so for an action plan, the merit criteria is based on your annual crash rate. uh that is put at it's set to 100,000 people. Um they have extra merit criteria for disadvantaged communities. Both census tracks within the city of Hudson are disadvantaged communities based on the 2020 census. Um and it's based it's basically based on crash data and there's extra points for your merit criteria for being a disadvantaged community. So you've looked you have looked at our crash data because you identified the three uh roadways that were problematic. Correct. >> Correct. >> Do you think that we have high level of crashes that would qualify us? >> I think that your your crash rate is 6.7. Um I have seen communities with lower crash rates win grants. Anything over 17 is considered high priority. Um,
26:41but those are typically really large urban areas that have a lot of density and a lot of high crash rate within a small area. So, since they do try to spread around different community types with rural and suburban communities in there as well, it's not all urban, but they if it's over 17, that's like your very likely to win. At 6.7, I think that you're kind of mid-range. Rosanne, I appreciate you doing question. Rosanne, I appreciate you doing a proono, but are you doing the same uh projects for other municipalities in New York? >> Uh we are working on one other grant, but it is not a safety action plan. It is an implementation grant in New York. So, you would not be competing for the same kind of funding. You wouldn't be going against each other. >> Anyone else? Yeah, you have Ronald and Matt. >> Okay, go ahead. Before we do that, Counc.
28:00All right, go ahead. >> Uh, yes. I I was wondering if this is committed to then are we committed to go further if and and raise money for the other two projects and what what kind of costs would that be to the city and you would be having to pay 20% of and also you might be having to borrow money and I just wondered about that and also when they did the uh >> Yes. Anyway, when they redid uh what is your name? >> Stewarts. >> Stewart's uh uh intersection there, uh they had a large amount of money at first, about some 200,000 and the project went way over that. So are these things, you know, coming into this as well or is this all going to be really worked out?
29:05So you are not obligated to do anything after the action plan. There's no commitment on the city of Hudson's behalf to continue on with anything else with the program. you will have an action plan that will tell you where you should be doing work, roughly how much that work should cost based on today's dollars, um, and an extensive community involvement process to support that work. Um, it does not say that you have to go after anything. It does not say exactly what you should do with that. There are other ways that you can find the funding as well. It doesn't necessarily have to be an SS4A project, but you can't do the implementation money without this. And that was where this came from was we were looking at, okay, if we wanted to try to do some interventions on these intersections and get the funding to be able to do implementation projects on the roadways here, what are the levers that we have? And one of them was SS4A, but right now you are not eligible. So
30:07this is the eligibility requirement. >> I just got one more question. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Rosanne, so we get this action plan, right? Can we use this for other grants too that like state grants and things like that if if it something becomes available? >> Absolutely. um this will be the basis for you to be able to get funding anywhere that you would want. You would have a very strong support for a capital plan for what you would want to advance. >> Thank you. >> Uh I've since I started the development with Labella and we thank you guys for helping us get the grant for the smaller project. Um, I feel like these answers have been very like Heather's comments were very helpful. Um, I think it's a bit of if we want to do something, this is one of the best
31:11groups to do it. Um, we're looking at $50,000 to commit. Um, and I think it's hard to we can do smaller projects, but I'm not sure we do much to improve the function of this city without pursuing something like this. Um, I understand Margaret's concerns. Um, I don't I don't think we ever answered exactly how these invoices get made and how we get reimbursed, but uh, far as the the managing of the money, um, I know that Heather's done a great job of it in the past and I appreciate her saying so. Um, so I I just I feel like there's a little bit of concern, but that my gut says we want to do something. I have heard a lot about us wanting to do something as a city to improve. Uh I think this is the way to go. >> So there are two outstanding questions that I noted that we don't have answers to. One is whether or not incremental
32:14reimbursement is an option and the other is whether or not the uh 3.5 and the grant can include uh grant administration. Those are the two concrete questions to which we do not have answers. Which gets to the next thing. Does the council feel that you can vote this evening on this without knowing the answer to those questions? Will the answer those questions change your mind? If for example we cannot do um incremental reimbursement. If if it cannot include the uh let's say worst case scenario does include inflation, we have to pay for that some other way. Would it change your book? Uh we yes and no with the 200 225 of it >> 225 that would be >> 45 of it is non reimbursement >> 25 is non reimbursement >> 45 >> 45 >> 180 grant money 45 >> mish would we be reimbursed within a calendar year
33:18>> this is what we don't know >> we don't oh sorry sorry that was the question of the time frame of the reimbursement >> the time frame and whether or not we can get the advice by milestones. Heather is indicating that this would not necessarily be a problem, but the speed at which one gets reimbured is an issue. >> Yes. >> Have to carry the bet. >> For the financial schedule, I would default to our professional which is Heather. >> Okay. >> And if she is comfortable or would like us to wait on that financial issue, then I would default to what she thinks because she has more experience in this than we do. I ask. >> Yeah, but the deadline is mid May. >> The deadline for the application is next week. >> Next week. So, yeah, >> that's why I'm posting to all of you. Here are two open questions. Will the answers to those questions make any difference to your vote? >> I have one question because if those questions are critical to how you're going to vote and you need to get the information before you can vote, that's all I'm doing.
34:20>> And we have until next Tuesday, right? >> No. Yeah. Yeah, it has to be today. >> It does. We have to up the application. I want to add >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. Heather, worst case scenario, we cannot have the grant administration piece as part of the 225. >> I'm sorry. Can I just interject really quickly? I've been doing a little bit of research off on the side for a planning grant, which is what this is. You are eligible to apply for reimbursement in advance. You can get in advance. You don't have to wait for all of the costs to be done. You can also bill monthly uh with the consultant invoice as you go forward. >> Okay, good. >> That's fine. Um you had a question. >> No, that's the thing. It's a current is made of so we need to make a soon. >> Yes, that's I was checking the calendar. >> Yeah, but I mean she's okay. Yeah, I should make sure Heather, you're okay with this, correct? >> Heather. >> Yeah, in general, I I'm still slightly
35:23unclear on the whole grants administration front to be honest with you. If I'm understanding correctly, Roseanne, you're saying in the grant application that you are going to create pro bono to submit to get this money for the planning portion of this project. You believe that we can include grants administration as part of professional services as part of what that 200 whatever it is thousand dollar amount will go toward. Is that correct? >> I will look at it but the grant administration for this is fairly low level. It's mostly submitting reimbursements with a progress report which is what I have usually put together for the client and then the client submits reimbursement with our invoice. So Heather, my question to you about this was in the event that we can't do this as part of it. Um what is the cost and like could we identify someone other than you uh within the city who would take responsibility for this or hire somebody to do it as a you know a part to do this?
36:28Well, that that that was the question at hand is whether or not we could we could get funding to cover some sort of administrative support from somebody outside of the city. I mean, you you know, the reality of it. If that's not a capability, then it's going to end up in my office. that I'm just, you know, concerned about. And and just so you know, Roseanne, this is just, you know, a a tiny little root in the giant root ball of grants administration in the city and there being no clear oversight for them and there being no clear um uh grants administration across the city. So, it is always my concern that these things get approved and then all of a sudden it's like, well, who's actually doing the work to make sure we're getting the money back. And what I'm trying very hard to do is to make sure to the most extent possible that it is not my office's job because we have no bandwidth and we actually have no, you know, experience or background really in grants administration or reimbursement submissions. So, what you're describing
37:30in terms of this is a short project. It's 12 months. You guys provide the information. If if if our if you're doing that work and really the only thing that we need to do is to log into whatever portal is the portal of the day for the federal government and upload some documents. That's not I don't think that's a big problem. I'm not concerned about that. My concern would be nobody's collecting all the invoices. Nobody's pulling it together. Nobody's got a pay summary and a pay wreck. You know, none of that work's being done by anybody. That's my concern. But it sounds like I >> Sorry. >> Go ahead. No, go ahead. >> There's one form There's one form that's required to be submitted with the It's like a quarterly report is what they um usually do. So, what I've put together for clients is the progress report and then there's this form that's very short and I've filled it out or the client will fill it out. Um, there is
38:31information that you would need to provide on how you're providing the 20% local match. Um, on the form to show that you are paying it before you do your reimbursement because it's on each one you have to do 20%. It's not they do the 80 and then you do the 20 at the end. You do it throughout. you you split the bill um and then you submit it through their portal >> the mayor's office >> so one progress report and I will stay in this >> I will stay involved to help with this if I believe the mayor's office is committed to this >> yes um Rosanne probably confronts but it seems likely that if something came up that made this untenable for the city to do you could withdraw the application probably right. So I mean if >> if you don't obviously you don't make the deadline you you cut us off probably withdraw >> but that's my question. Yeah, I think we need to get a commitment from the mayor's office as to who's going to administer the project.
39:32>> I just so let me uh so Rosanne so something what what on line what Ken was saying. So is there a safety uh cord for example that before we commit anything financial because this is in the future and there's some still questions that we have that can we pull this even if we get the award can we still pull this without committing anything financial? Yes, because I' I've had clients who have received it and in the end they didn't like the way the grant agreement was written. You still have to go through a grant agreement process after the award is made. So, you have time in the grant agreement process to make sure that it's set up the way that you want it to be. So, >> and if I could just I'm sorry. I just want to make one more comment following on on Jason's thing is, you know, I I because this is a relatively short project and because I know it's uh something that both um Jason and the mayor's office are interested in. I'm sure we can figure out how to get it
40:34administered. I just wanted to make sure that we knew that that was an issue out there. So, >> thank you. Thank you. >> He's been doing it so far. >> Any any other comments from the council? Gary, are you good? >> I'm good. Thank you. >> Uh Ronnie. >> Okay. So, can we have a motion to vote on this resolution um to approve the mayor applying uh for the SC? >> I'll make that motion. >> Second motion. Um for this one, we need to roll. >> President. >> Yes. >> Council member Tad. >> I burn Hagen. Hi >> Rooney. >> Hi >> Sar.
41:35>> Hi >> Foster. >> Yes >> Roberts. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Absentee. >> Hi. Okay. Well, that wasn't unfortunate. Thank you. >> Okay. So, uh, thank you very much. We're going to go on with the rest of our meeting. >> All right. Thank you. >> Uh, let's see. Reports from committees. You can keep your these are from your committees to the house not to keep your reports. Um you want to begin with safety. Well, I was absent from the safety meeting Dwan chaired. So, I will leave it to Dwan. On second meeting we have first of the
42:39fire uh committee does um all 47 call in April um reported and uh five for as 17 for non-emergency total first quarter. So is 19 for from the last year as for the police and the fire and also the truck new truck uh in production in Florida and it should be delivered to New York in mid July at station mid August from the fire and the police there was no defensive reaction was reported on April and there was total 922 incident officer responded and the parking there was a total 300 uh
43:453570 ticket was issued and there was uh 200 2860 was paid and the money was $53,000 675 Five and this the revenue working revenue amount is uh 144,000 in April is up is 111,000 from last year for parking and uh also we talk about Um uh uh no turn on red. So we are waiting to determine the Kansas section and we're going to pursue there. Awesome. Thank you.
44:50>> Thanks. Uh infrastructure on the call. Um, so people be aware that there's going to be some smoke test in the city to help find the newer routings. Um, shouldn't come into your home, but if it does, uh, that means you probably have a lead if it needs to be fixed. Um, been repairs and uh, back online here. Um there's reported vandalism across the not only the spruce tree but the uh the float the brain float uh was uh um >> huh >> the bathroom. Oh bathroom. Um we also spoke about the right terms on red. Um, we would need a sign at each location. Rob estimated those would cost $300 each for the sign and materials to hang them, which we put it on the order
45:55of $13,000 for materials. Um, I created a list of uh specific spots rather than just doing it blanket wise so that we could try to that cost if we need to do it covert. So the list is out there on try in on which areas uh should actually have no right to remember. Um the report on the sewer project that is coming uh got larger uh the pipe sizes were determined and so for an example like the 300 block of Columbia will have a 48 in sewer and a 36 inch rainwater. So the entire street will be the same and then also that uh sewer lateral should be done all the way to the houses and rain water will be collected from the roof. So those front bars will be excavated and set sidewalks will be
46:59replaced. Um it's going to be bigger than we heard about before but um probably not starting any earlier projects >> physically minor. >> Yeah. I just had a question about the right turn on red. It's my understanding that you the initial idea of universally no turn on red was not that's not an option because that you're not allowed to do that. >> The only place allowed to do that is New York City. That's correct. The rest of >> we have to identify specific places. >> Yeah. >> You could do it citywide, but we would need to sign for every single place. the estimate of hydrogen diagnose material plus the EPW. >> So we need to identify the ones where it's not. >> Anything else? >> Um well Nick Fox was nice enough to join us for the first time. We have a lot of good discussions. Um I guess we kind of focused a bit on noise and due to the pock factory but he's working sound like he's working on
48:01all the things that we were concerned about. Um and he will at this point continue to return to that meeting unless it becomes people decide it's more to attend safety or something else for the time being unless things change it's going to continue um services you >> got um okay so senior services um attempted a couple times, left a message who was written down at the to obtain information. I was not successful. Uh there is still no senior uh commissioner uh for the city. So I have no input there. Uh the only thing I know is that the county is still doing their programming from 9 to one. Uh and then um we do have hopefully in the next couple weeks uh the survey uh community
49:05has volunteered to go to some of T hours, Providence Hall um Crosswinds to actually uh get a SE survey about transportation to Senior Center, if they're going, why they're not going, is transportation an issue? uh because there's a shuttle bus from my understanding, but it's a long wait uh to it's not a kind of a direct route. So it that might be one of the issues too is that catching that bus is very difficult and staying on the bus for two blocks could be very long at times in terms of so uh if I'm going to create a flyer uh they agreed to have let us come down. So, they're going to put a flyer up of the date and then we can go down and sit with a clipboard and surveys and ask uh my goal is to at least get 50 back. I think that's a good sampling of what uh what's the reason why uh seniors aren't attending the
50:07senior center uh especially if there's transportation issue. Uh as of the youth uh services um Calvin gave his monthly report. Did you get that report? Did you see? >> Yes, that's >> uh and then um one of the key points is they're transitioning from uh end of school year programming into camp programming. Uh they did not do any program during the week of April uh at because apparently they were doing interviews uh for camp staff. Uh they're looking at 16 counselors and 18 lifeguards. Uh they also have a prospect for the uh camp director which is going to be a far behind decision uh to run camp uh you know during uh camp session uh and I think they said they have a candidate that works at the school uh that they're uh highly uh looking forward to working with them. The
51:10there's three locations uh uh for rainy days for camp. One is the library which they do their programming uh during the year. That's going to be for the younger kids. Uh the youth center is going to be another location for a different age group and firehouse is going to be another location for different age group. Uh so it's going to be more manageable as and uh as the group's going to be smaller and the activities going to be according to the age appropriateness. The um Calvin went to a conference for a couple days. He said he got some good information uh that uh he hopes to bring back and uh implement some some of the ideas uh in the youth conference in Albony. Um sorry. So the um the other so so part of the preparation for uh camp is a week of training for the staff uh that that is at Oakdale um that is
52:16that the youth department conducts with uh the safety plan and safety gear toward um you know camp location. uh and there is I think it's a two or three AEDs that staff get um are trained on uh for uh the use of the AEDs. Um I think that's oh what what's kind of neat they they're doing a sample um flag football uh for three weeks as that's kind of the training in school right now. The high school I know they have a girls for life football team. Uh, so I think that's kind of a trend and it's going to be interesting to see how that works out for those three weeks of the flag football to see if that's something that can be uh done more basis. I think that's basically it for the update. >> Thank you. Any questions? >> Yes. Uh, you mentioned the the temporary position
53:19financially they're handling it. Is there any impact? >> Well, what? So, they had a recendant um that was budgeted for this year um uh resign. So, they're not going to fulfill that position. My understanding is I they're going to use that funding uh that salary >> I believe to to help fund the camp director position. >> Any other questions? Anything online? Yeah. >> Okay. Legal pretty brief. Uh this evening we have the 11 War Street uh parking contract as uh that we're going to discuss. Two things came up um during the discussion of 11 war. Uh one related to the fact that uh the county has said that their faces can be used after hours by non Columbia County uh employees. So they'd be open to the public and I followed but it was not in writing and
54:24uh member of the public pointed out that the arrangement for the lot at Helsinki was actually a arrangement that was worked through during the planning board process and that that really that wasn't just a casual thing that was an agreement that Helsinki folks could use the Columbia County for the meetings. So I followed up with the county the following day and they are amending the contract to put that in writing. Um so the version that you get to vote on next week should have language in there that after hours it is open for use to the public. Uh the other issue that was discussed was the handicap parking space that is in front of street. Uh they have a space within their parking lot that they are going that would be a handicap spot. Um but in a discussion with Jason uh we may actually need to have a handicap spot in and you had also raised concerns uh in that block. Um so my recommendation to the mayor was that we put a handicap spot that you replace the one that we are losing that we put one
55:27on the other side of the street ac beside child Baptist church. that will meet the access requirement and there wasn't really very much down there other than the church and soon there will be a hotel. So that recommendation I made to the mayor uh pock uh factory lease um the revised lease is for you here for your review. We discussed that um this situation with the leases that it's you know um we need to move to to get that in place so that they can actually pay that and try to alleviate some of the problems that the residents in that area are having. So you have that uh this evening. Uh we didn't have any changes or revisions to that. Um I also put on the agenda for legal uh documents that we received about a month ago from uh Ben's attorney regarding the water for the village reszoning petition. Um that is before the planning board at the moment. We do not need to take action on it right away. Ken will advise us on it.
56:32Essentially the um the parcel currently has three different zonings in it. uh and the petition is to create a single zoning for the entire parcel. Um it's beyond our scope to talk about the appropriate use of the development etc. That's really belongs to the board planning board. Um but I do not anticipate really looking at that probably not until the July meeting but for now read it look at it pay attention to what's going on planning for it. um safe streets we've we discussed that um at uh at our legal committee and we have had our discussion of that on the resolution. Uh Jenny updated us on the BIM in L of parking and she is putting together a list of potential locations in the city where uh should we go with a the OP um the funds could be used to create parking. Um and that's it for me. Okay. Finance, do you have anything?
57:42>> Yeah. Oh, the one thing I put on the agenda this evening. There's a followup point on the agenda for B schedule. >> Excuse me. Yeah, I'm going we have there's a couple of things we need to add to it. I'm working on putting a final version together. Um you will not have that for I hope to get it to you this evening but we will have a look at that next month. You should have the full updated fee schedule um that has been working on you'll get that next parking resolution. Are we going to discuss that later that you brought up legal? Are we going to discuss that later or is we talk I just got a couple questions. >> Oh it's it's in the it's in the list. It's it's on it's in our it's in our package. bring it up when we get to it. Right. Right. So, I'm just giving you this is >> Okay. Anything any further questions? >> Okay. Great. Now, we get to resolutions. >> Okay.
58:44Uh I think we're in the right order here, Logan. The first one I have is Commissioner of Deeds. >> Yeah. >> Okay. uh three individuals for commissioner of deeds and these are for the most part are things that are going to be sold out next month. Um not next week, excuse me. Uh next is um cancellation of outstanding checks. Uh this is simply checks that uh have been issued and have not been cashed in over six months. One of them notably is a national grid check for $10,000. And um you will all recall the issue that we have and that confirmed with um DW that they we now have that's all cleared. It's done and so that's a non-issue. Uh next resolution is um a budget amendment uh to cover city hall sprinkler repair and control panel upgrades. Um there are some uh damage panels and necessary
59:48replacements for city hall. Uh so that is an amendment and stop me if you have any questions. Uh then we have excuse me a budget amendment for the police department. Uh while this is an amendment and Heather correct me if I'm not saying this correctly um there is actually funding in the restricted equitable sharing DOJ um for this but this is necessary equipment for um uh training for the for >> that is correct yep it's money that we get for equitable sharing and that money is set aside in a reserve fund and they can draw from it their guidelines on what they're allowed to use it for. So yeah, this is not um coming out of the general fund. >> Okay. Uh next is resolution authorizing the mayor to execute execute a lease amendment agreement with the pocketbook factory tenant. This is the um uh reduction in the number of spaces. I
1:00:51think it's down to 34 um yes 34 parking spaces. Once this is in place and the planning board has approved their site plan, they can then work on paving and so forth. So was this what you wanted to bring to have comments on boundary? >> Uh the property factor. >> Yeah. No, 11. >> Oh, okay. Any questions on Okay. Next is resolution establishing standard work day for New York State LS employees. This is about um the retirement system. Uh met with Heather and Danielle. This is a purely administrative issue. There are some new titles that needed to be added to the system and there were a couple of um uh titles where the information is not correct. So this is the full roster of titles right now. Um but that is a new function. Um, next resolution uh is authorizing uh the mayor to execute an inter municipal agreement
1:01:54with Columbia County allowing the county to have 18 designated permitted parking spaces weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. adjacent to 11 Min Street aka uh it's the 11 M Street mission. So down. So you said you talked to the county and what was their agreement that they were going to after hours and >> I talked to them because we had had verbal agreement that after hours I put spaces in their lot and also in front of Warren Street would be available to members of the public and I asked if they would I told them about the situation with Hanki that the member of public had brought up and I asked them if they would be willing to put that in writing in the agreement and This was a conversation on Friday. Uh their attorney will was going to be coming back this week. He was not available on Friday, but they agreed that they would indeed be happy to put it in writing. So the resolution that you see next week to vote on should have that in writing. >> Well, I mean, I'd like to amend it to I mean 610 is going to become available in
1:02:57July, right? I I think that it would be nice especially evenings and weekends that residents have an option, you know, as long as there's, you know, time table signage say you can't have to be out by 8:00 or whatever it is that I think all the county parking lot should be available to read these swap hours. I think maybe we should put that in there, right? Because um like I said, 610 has maybe 15 spots, >> right? Right. And that's going to be, you know, could be an option for the popular factory on weekend edge, right? DSS could be a option for popular factory to put, you know, uh, help alleviate the stress on Washington if there's some overflow. So I think that if there's signage where you know people know that they can use it after hours on the weekend but during you know there's consequence of course if it's there during the week during business hours I would like to open all but the uh county lots to you know help our parking
1:04:00situation. >> Okay. Any other comments yet? >> Um we talked about the the handicap parking space. I think it should be in writing as well. I think it should be in the resolution. >> H that's not for them. That's not their problem. That's our problem. >> I think they're created the problem for I think that they should pay to paint the plot and get the photo. >> Yeah, that's what my factory did. They had to put that on there. >> I also just like the air that I feel makes about this whole agreement. Um, I think that we're trying to protect the neighbors. Um, but I think neighbors up and down Orange Street are also kind of feeling the same pain and have the same concern. Um, so I I feel like we're doing what we can and we're a little bit forced here. Um, but yeah, I just just say that I feel mixed. I'm not sure what to do about feeling
1:05:02mixed about it. Want it out there. I'm going to have to say I agree with Jason and I also especially since we offered them other solutions that they did not take. Um, yeah, I feel mixed. Easy to feel a certain mixed way when we've always had the short end, been handed the short end of the stick from the county and never gotten our fair share from them and they've asked more from us than we can provide and they've never given us well our fair share. >> Whatever our whatever our feelings may be, >> it is a solution. So, >> right, whatever our feelings may be, >> they do not hang up. They do not have and yes they created problem they do not have enough spaces in their log to accommodate their employees. If those employees do not have space to park with space for they will be seeking parking on Colombia and on hour they will be trying to avoid parking in spaces on
1:06:05which will create more costs will be at that end of town. The other thing I'd invite any of you during the day to drive down to that end of farm and see that there are very few hours of park there and that we are going to get guaranteed income 9 8 a.m. 5 days a week every week of the year at 90% of the rate. Currently we probably have >> 10% usage seven 90%. So there is a financial benefit to us to doing this and also most importantly the quality of life fishing for the folks who are going to be impacted by the so I I have feelings about the thing too but you have to be practical this is a problem and we have to address it and you know um uh that's I think and also this contract was written to specify that it's 90% of whatever the parking rate is not a fixed amount so that if our parking rates go up there reason
1:07:09so yes is it um difficult to swallow yes would we prefer to have a different development there yes but this is where we are >> sure what the snapshot is in terms of the parking uh spots are they going to be signage how how are they going to know that they're counting the county the county is paying for and doing signage that the that the city has to approve and we will uh the signage will be showing you know I haven't seen it yet they haven't drafted it but there will be signage indicating that from one end to the other end of the street in front of the it's everything is abing their property is reserved for comedy for comedy county employees 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. And then on first week there'll be signage indicating I think it's four something that will be uh done. >> So I'll get to you. >> I'm sorry but you know this really isn't a great solution. I mean you're going to
1:08:13have people parked there. Their employees parked there during elections. Where are people going to park when they need to vote? I'm sorry. This isn't a really great solution. It's a terrible solution actually. The solution that they were offered by the parking committee was a great solution. >> They'll be showing people maybe have to use like a shuttle bus to shuttle people things for you know for parking lot. >> I mean I would tell you where I work right we have to pay the parking we submit a receipt and we get reimbursed. So why can't the county do the same thing for their employees, you know, if they have to bar and they, you know, submit a receipt to the county, let the county reimburse, I think it's to Margaret's point, I think it's very unlikely the county employee is going to pay for parking part of the building, but they can walk
1:09:16100 ft on Gotcha South first. >> Where there's where there's no parking where there Yeah. Where there's no meter parking, right? The solution that was was presented to them was to build their own parking lot for $175,000. That's what Rob quoted me. Um where the gravel lot is next to the the bridge that goes over Ferry Street. um building that and then metering that lot for use when they're not they're not there and giving them six years free. I thought that was a really good solution. But >> well, when it's voting though, Jen, the county's closed. >> Yeah. >> Right. So they won't be parking there if during voting. >> I don't think the county the election board will still be there and their people will still be parked there. Well, hopefully they will have some kind of sense to party. I don't know. You're
1:10:19right. I think that's going to be an issue. >> I have a question. They aren't expecting HP to enforce their part. >> Yeah. No, HPD has been part of this agreement and they will ensure that the cars of park there are they they are working at the details of uh whether they're going to have hang tags or what they're going to have to determine it. I believe they're going to enter the register vehicles in the system so they don't know but I think they may also have time tax >> that that's another question sorry are so they are going to register their license plates not at home taxation correct >> but I would that's really a question for chief fire um they are working on the details of the imp implementation >> what happens Margaret is that those pay taxs are given to other people and their families their >> they are registering the vehicles. >> Okay. >> If it's by tag by license plate then I'm okay with it.
1:11:24>> That is the name is not >> as long as the tag is indicating just that area because you don't want them having a free ride. >> No. >> Anything from Gary or Ronnie? >> What's that? >> Are Gary and Ronnie hands raised or not? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh we have someone in the room. Good. Thanks so much. Uh I live right across from Martin and obviously was intrigued uh by the news uh that I won't be able to park, but I want to go back a little bit about how we got to the situation and then focus on the parking and if I'm going too long to be quieter and shorter. Uh the whole story does not start well uh with a stealthy acquisition of 11 Warren uh by the previous administration. At least they didn't get involved in it. I guess gallery sold it uh for purposes that could have been
1:12:30housed almost anywhere, but the county chose those purposes to be housed in our historic district and in our commercial street. Uh, imagine uh Kathy Hogel coming to New York and saying she'd like to take part of Fifth Avenue uh to provide support for elections uh and probation. And by the way, she was going to close down the street for parking to the people working there. I don't think that would happen. The county is supposed to be our brother, our sister, our cousin, our friend. Uh I don't find anything about this particularly friendly. uh that acquisition for the purposes that they're using it for is totally inappropriate to the historic district and to our commercial street. Uh I see it frankly as a taking that should have been housing which Hudson needs. It should have been paying taxes which Hudson needs. It should have been
1:13:32additional potentially storefronts which Hudson needs. and we got nothing that Hudson needs, but just stuff that county needs that didn't have to be on Warren Street. That was taking number one. Taking number two is parking. And how did that become the city's problem? They knew very well going in their number of employees, uh, which ranges, I guess, from 18 to 28 or something. >> That's four. They knew very well the number of people who would be transient in and out of the space to do work there or provide services or pursue services there. And they knew that tiny parking lot in front was inadequate. And I would say they didn't give a damn. They made it the city's problem. So, we're in a situation where the president of the common council and the mayor have been working their hearts out to come to a resolution to protect their friends and
1:14:36neighbors and they should not have been put in that situation. The burden should be on the county to solve a problem created by the county. It should not be put back to the city and said, "Here guys, I'm throwing you three ways. I'm going to screw you on taxes. I'm going to screw you on usage. I'm going to screw you on appropriate usage of your commercial district and your historic district. And by the way, solve my problem. >> Thank you. Any other public comments? >> I think we should start charging the council. >> Sorry. I think we should start charging the county for the lot that they use on city land on stage 4 and forfeit. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Why don't we just take it from >> uh ours? >> It's it's our take the other lot. >> Yeah. >> No, I mean I agree with everything that you say and I was very angry and I was part of the 11 group that tried to
1:15:39oppose that sale and um it was a disgrace. >> Murder did this. This is not a good deal. Not a good deal. >> Do you have a better one? >> Yes. What what uh what your colleague before was describing, they should have a separate parking lot for their purposes. They should pay for it. There should be sub shuttle transportation. They don't own warrant lower street. They now have consumed virtually the entire block of our most important commercial street for what? elections, probation that could be anywhere else in town. Do you find that respectful? No. >> Do you find it respectful? >> As chair of the preservation commission, they never even bothered to contact me >> about what they were doing when the courthouse was being built. They contacted us immediately. This isn't about dissing the city. >> Yeah. >> Well, it's part for the course. I mean, I wouldn't want to I'd be shocked to be
1:16:42treated any other way by the county. >> When you get bullied once, you should try not to get bullied twice. >> Anything else? >> Not on that. >> Okay. >> Moving right along. Um, okay. Next is uh okay we received the next is a resolution authorizing a grant match. Um so this relates to the fact that we received a grant of 180,000. Um and this is a budget amendment. Uh we have to make a $20,000 match and this is to cover our uh city zoning code project. So that's what that one is. Any questions? Um, next I have something that will definitely not have any controversy or comment. Um, the resolution authorizing
1:17:45the mayor to uh execute a real contract of property sale with Hudson Brewery Company. This is the sale of the double warehouse. Thank you. >> So, um you have the uh the the contact will be posted um publicly. Uh members of the council have received the contract. Um essentially this is a sale for uh $500,000 to the brewery. Um the there are provisions in here that if they do not uh complete the stabilization within a year that they need to pay a uh $90,000 uh fee to Hudson um or if they um uh resell the building within 24 months of closing, they have to pay a fee of 90,000 to So I'm opening this up for comment. >> Um I haven't Um, when I was on the council
1:18:4914 years ago to 10 years ago, we did discuss the Doug warehouse quite a bit. And to think that we would sell the Dun warehouse for a shortterm gain of $500,000 is completely insulting. Uh, to give away our last bit of property at the waterfront is no less than shortsighted. and it is quite frankly stupid on our part to proceed with that. Um, it is a forever super fun site. It is only going to be done affordably by a municipality. We own it. We should finish the job. Um, HTC 12 years ago or so had plenty of plans in place. Um, and then the ball was dropped by the city. Um, and I think that we certainly should not proceed with this without I don't believe this
1:19:52contract even has us holding the paper on it. And it doesn't have any uh right of first refusal. If they were to turn around w if they were to win this and turn around and sell it within an appropriate amount of time, $90,000 fine, penalty or whatever, we don't get the right to have it back. And I think that is two things. If there were this were to proceed with a sale are very shortsighted to not hold the note and to not have right of first refusal. >> I I think the right of first refusal issue should actually go way beyond two years. I mean, the two-year clause, >> it should be forever. This should be in perpetuity. if this was ever to be sold again if this is awarded. >> I have a question. >> So that that that's basically it. >> Yeah, I think it needs to go beyond the >> and I would like to hear from HDC again on their plans for because I know they have them. They've had them for a long
1:20:54time and I'm certain that they have them still and I'm pretty sure they have the funding for it for what they would do in a timely fashion which would definitely be cheaper because it would be us doing it than a private individual. >> Um it I'm I'm going to ask Mr. Dao is it is it can we do that? Can we write that into the contract that you know we have the right of first refusal forever and ever? >> I not really sure because the mayor's office is this is an entire mayor's office. They've worked out all negotiations presented to you guys. So I wasn't I haven't been involved in it to any degree. Um >> we can refuse to move the resolution. >> Yeah. I mean I don't know what >> I'm really said so I haven't really been involved in this transaction so I'm I can't really speak out in the purchases I've done in the past you can negoti you can negotiate anything Jenny
1:21:56>> okay >> and I did meet with them >> and they themselves brought up the fact that they had internally discussed giving the city right of price refusal so I expect to see that in this contract and and I also think that if they don't stabilize it within a year, it should refer to the city because the only reason we're selling it is because we do not want to degrade any further and if it's going to degrade and nothing is done with it within a year, we might as well still own it. >> Well, actually, this is one more comment. This was also done by the previous administration without a proper RFP and it was ran through at the last at the 11th hour by the former council president which is another slap in the face for everyone that lives here, works here and and has been on this council and was on this council for the last four years. It is a slap in the face of your intelligence.
1:22:58>> Marty, what happens to the 500,000 restore grant that the city has for that building? Excuse me. >> The $500,000 restore grant that the that the city I have more questions than answers on this. Um I have a lot of questions about seeing the financials from the buyer and uh the actual work plan and the timeline and who are >> you know like what you what you would ordinarily see in a in a sale like this like what is the actual plan? the financials break out step by step. Um I yes I have a lot of questions >> I know about the restore grant but I don't I don't know the answer to that. >> Okay because I'm wondering if they're expecting it if someone agreed to that before you took over you know if they said they're going to use the >> we didn't I don't have the plans on this document. So, I don't know whether that's part of what they're planning to give to >> we see the previous uh plans. >> Excuse me.
1:24:01>> Where can we see previous plan? >> We emailed to uh the council. I asked um Lyric to email everyone in February the old plan, the old development plans that HDC HDC provided to the council 10 to 12 years ago. and uh >> it's 2015. It's in our email, but it was a big mess of emails, so we easily could have gotten swiped fast. Um, and if HBC is in the room, maybe they would like to speak. Sorry, Council President. >> Hi, Rick. >> Sorry. Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> Any other council members want to speak first? >> No. Okay. >> Thank you for reopening this conversation. I think it's a very healthy thing to do. I'm Christine Jones, president of the Hudson
1:25:02Development Corporation. Currently, this is Nick Adam. He's the VP and Phil Corman is our treasure, but he's not here to speak on that on this issue. Um I um it's the 50th anniversary of HCC. We're a local development corporation. Um, our task is to support economic development and we we love to collaborate with the city, with the council, with the mayor's office. That's our that's our power. It's very hard for us to do things without a collaborative relationship with you. So, we welcome the opportunity to speak here. Um, in August of 2015, the Hudson Development Corp, which I'm going to call HDC going forward, received a concept development plan from Saratoga Associates for the adaptive reuse of the Dun Warehouse on the Hudson waterfront. The plan promoted the stabilization of the historic Dun Warehouse, the city's last remaining central waterfront building. Pudson issued a request for proposal RFP for a public private partnership to adaptively reuse the gun warehouse based on recommendations in a
1:26:052015 study and that that's 11 years ago. Um the plan cautioned against limiting it to any one use. The the warehouse's isolated location and a diversity of activities is that a diversity of activities is recommended that would once complement one another serve as attractions that relate to waterfront experience and would not compete or duplicate with Warren Street the Warren Street experience. Analysis found that the northern section of the building would be most conducive to a mix of retail and food activities with the southern section being more optimal as a flexible public space. The the analysis also strongly recommended that certain conditions be attached if sale were the option chosen. It encouraged stipulations to avoid the risk of inappropriate uses or delays in implementation, which something we're very worried about with the building now that it's so much later that we haven't done anything with it. um that sales should be conditioned upon specific qualifications that include financial
1:27:07management capabilities of the buyer in addition to a successful track record of the buyer as a viable business plan for a building of this nature. Um it was suggested that the city retain ownership of the building as it is a big part of the value of the Hudson waterfront and we are all guilty of not making something happen in the waterfront. There's no question about that. But we don't want to give away this building before we have the opportunity to do something about it. The city would have to bring an investor into the ownership structure of the building so that the investor could claim credits and other economic tax benefits in exchange for providing the equity into the project. At the time, the study said a two to$2.5 million investment would be required. Of course, that's, you know, 11 years ago, so it's pretty pretty small, I'd say. Um and at at the time um uh the the tenants that they believe that the tenants that would come about after the remediation to the waterfront location and the tourism and the hospitality that would take place there would be a great
1:28:09benefit to the city's um cash flow. Um there's also the remediation component which I'm not really you know talking about tonight but it is a tremendous remediation to to remediate the building. I spoke with former mayor Scalera about the remediation of the park which he was on watch to do that and um that that was an amazing undertaking to clean out what is cleaned out. He has said that the interior of the building was unable to be cleaned out at the time and there are questions of of colar um you know are the bricks polluted is the the ground is definitely you know a brownfield. So, um, a vapor barrier would have to be put down to even make it suitable for eating in the building. Um, the vapor barrier is an extremely expensive thing to do and the national grid is still theoretically on on the hook for the remediation of that building, which could go as high as $23 million. I'm sure that the buyer you have on on the RFP, the brewer, is well-meaning and wanting to participate
1:29:13in in that building. But I the scope of the remediation alone is is much greater than any individual in Hudson, you know, can really understand it. It's going to take a very big effort to do that. >> Great. May I interrupt? >> Yes. >> With regard to the remediation? >> Yes. Um, I provided the phase one environmental study to them because I wanted to make sure they understood the scope of what the issue was because that the vapor barrier etc. the fact that the ground underneath the building is contaminated all of that is laid out in that report. I don't know if you all have that. So, do you all have the Saratoga study? >> I don't think they knew it was February. Uh well, when I gave them the report, they told me that they had been looking for it. They had seen a reference somewhere. Um but they hadn't actually seen it and I handed it. >> Hopefully they read it. >> Yeah. I mean, having participated, HDC tried to remediate the general school divide and the general literary school.
1:30:17And in our due diligence of the building, we found that there's a there was a great deal. I mean, it's a steel building, a beautiful building, but it has it's bestus because it was built in the 60s. So to remediate that building would be $5 million just for the asbestous and it it's difficult for it was difficult for us to even wrap our minds about how we were going to do that. We were willing to try, but we would need to collaborate with the school district who owns the building and also the city. and the collaboration on that side wasn't willing to go forward to apply together for grants. So $5 million for that remediation and of vapor barrier and remediation of the dirt is is in the more than 5 million. So I I don't know if they're prepared for that. Anyway, finally, >> which by the way is one of the reasons why I would like to see detailed answers before agreeing to anything. Finally, the review determined that the best use of this historic building would be a variety of uses, shopping, dining, events, you know, events we can all envision that it was no ranch. It should
1:31:19capitalize on the location by complimenting and enhancing the character of the riverfront, strengthening a sense of place by visually and physically connecting the building to the Hudson River. Nowhere was it suggested that one tenant would be the best scenario. We all know that many years of talking about this building have done nothing to save it. it is um it's at a critical juncture. Something has to happen. Um there are repairs needed to stabilize it and HDC um brought a structural engineer into the building a couple of maybe a month ago. Um and he reviewed the work to be done and believe that the building can be stabilized. Uh the the ground is another matter that would require us to you know tap into national grid and get them I think they were supposed to be coming and looking at the site once a year to check it out. >> Yes. and I don't know that they have been ever here since Rick was in office. So there's that question. Um our mission, you know, is to grow the economic opportunity for the city president to work with the city to do so. We're more than willing to do that on this building. Um we worry about the
1:32:22timeline that the brewery has in place to actually remediate the structure and and bring it back and there's a stabilization aspect and then there's the ground. So the these things are huge huge things to do and I'm not sure that one business in Hudson has got the has got the bandwidth or the financial wherewithal to find the money to actually move it forward on a schedule that we're hoping we we know it needs to be on um to keep the ownership of this building in the hands of the city and to move it forward is as a major asset on the waterfront is something that HTC would consider reviewing the cost to stabilize a building with you work together with the council, with the city to to work as a team to make this building come back, um to buy more time to to to get it moving and you know, maybe even underwrite some of it. We have to present that to our board because we don't we don't make decisions in a vacuum, but um we're we're we think this is an important moment to review a mistake that's about to happen. So, um we're willing to collaborate. we we know
1:33:26developers on a larger scale than just people in the city who been on RFP that maybe wasn't widely circulated. Um so I applaud I applaud you, Council Member Hadad, for bringing that up and um I I I'm enthusiastic that you're willing to open this back up and listen and work together. Thank you. >> Yes. I I just want to make can I make one comment that I got from a member of the public with regard to the referring to the building as a historic building. Uh just to remind everyone that its status is as an individual landmark of the city of Hudson designated by the historic preservation commission. >> Right. >> And I just wanted to point that out. Also, as a reminder, having been here when the when done builders gave the building to the city, I don't think it was never their intention. They expected that at some point it was a storage building. They used it in running their business, but when the brothers gave it to the city, it was a gift. It wasn't
1:34:29this necessarily for the city to sell. They anticipated something being done. And this is at the time when the waterfront was recently conceived. It wasn't that many years ago, but I was on the council at the time when Saratoga Associates when we hired them and they did their presentation and it might be a bit formulaic on some level, but it's accurate. It grabbed the the meat and potatoes of what needed to be done of the building. And and really what's important in for me is the future. I mean, this is we've only got one waterfront and we've probably got the best one on the river at this point. I mean, it's unspoiled. It's >> We're biased. >> Pardon? We're biased. >> Well, we are biased. But the idea of giving up a piece of it, it when we have it right in our power in our hands to make something happen and you know it was on us too. I mean
1:35:33successive uh administrations have sort of let this thing go and we don't know exactly what when I when I think about what the north parking lot right now what New York State's planning on doing with it. If in fact they engage with it, it's going to cons constrict dramatically the use by the public of the river and they'll be half the parking spaces if if half at all. So we're going to be we'll be we'll be constrained. So the public will need something. And I mean this whole idea of lowhanging fruit for a half a million dollars. Yeah. It's on us. It's on the old, you know, us who were didn't develop it when we had the time. Um we didn't have the money. >> But I think with HVC, we have an the ability to go for grants.
1:36:38We we can work with the cities. That's our mission. >> Yeah. I have to say also my my real job is I sell real estate in Hudson and I've been doing it now for 10 years and I've seen, you know, we've all seen what happened here. I do think $500,000 for that building is way way undervalued. Of course, it's in bad shape, but it's it's way way too um undervalued for for what it is and where it is. And and and that brings up the concern of uh reselling it and compensating us with $90,000 if it sells for 1.5 or 2 million is not really >> and 90 90 for a profit of $700,000 while we put the bill >> bad sale. employ. >> Do we have a do we have any questions or comments for council members? >> Yeah, I think I do. >> Hang on a sec. Online are running. Go ahead. >> Um, thank you. I just I'm trying to get the vision and the confidence and the
1:37:45assurance of it. I It doesn't sound like something the city of Fletson would be good at. and um having trouble gaining that vision of wow we could do this and I guess yes the money's may not be right but right now this is something to do with it and somebody's got to do something with it and so I guess just that how do you convince me that that something better something grand can happen >> well I mean I close your eyes now Um, I I have talked to a few people about the waterfront and I and I consider the waterfront the third rail when you're working in Hudson. If you bring up the waterfront, people go out of their minds because you don't know what it should be, should be. But I called up a few people who do design waterfronts and design some spectacular ones in America. They're very well-known people. They, one of the groups has worked with Alana on citing the Berkeley Church visitor center, which is a was a
1:38:47big huge job. They got to know a lot of people in the Hudson Valley and I said to him, "Have you ever had any conversations about the Hudson waterfront and this man almost flipped through the phone at me how much you would love to be involved in doing this?" Another person said, "There's a group of people who did a and they did this and they reviewed the waterfronts. They took comments from the public. They were five years. >> Yes. That was >> Yes. And so she she they're very enthusiastic about being involved. the dawn warehouse was part of it, they would want to know. They would want to be involved. It will take a collaboration of people with expertise to make this happen. Uh and and that's something I don't have those names of people. But I think if we all wanted to do with that enough, we need to figure out what's what's wrong with it and figure out the baseline of it and what needs to be done and what what financially it would cost. And then I think we just go at it. It's it's, you know, there's grant money, there's um there's private money, and it's too good. It's like the jewel to give away.
1:39:52It's not going to be easy. It's, you know, why it's not done. >> And we're not expecting the city to do it alone. >> No. >> But we we did do a couple of capital projects here and do them reasonably well. The city by itself. We built we we built a firehouse, a combined firehouse, and we built a police and court building. and we did a pretty good job. This perhaps is more daunting because it's not as but I think with collaboratively with you know outside help us as a development agency that is focused only on the betterment of >> that we can make it happen. >> At the very least we should understand what what it is before you know decisions. So, are there any comments more? >> I did. I was just trying to get caught up because I'm still doing all this. But with the Dun warehouse, it's been sitting for you said since 2015 that is that >> I mean I'm not sitting in the but I mean
1:40:57like the the um proposals or >> and it's just no no one had any um collaborations with investors or just like I'm just saying like the the Hudson Brewer brewery company wants to take them by the building but you guys are saying you know you don't see if it's fit for one business night. >> Well, it was I I was on the eighth the historic preservation commission when one of the larger developers in the city wanted to offer to buy the done warehouse and we gave them a one-year window to get it stabilized and done and pulled out. >> They knew they couldn't >> they couldn't. And that was and that was somebody with a well a proven track record and owns dozens of buildings in the city. >> The is the the issue is to me >> Mhm. >> Um I have not seen enough detail uh the RP was not
1:42:01>> legal. >> Uh the request for proposal not proposal sorry request for I haven't seen the detailed financials. about to see prime real estate on the riverfront for half million dollars is not reasonable. And if we sell this, we need to do so with some good confidence that this is going to work, that they will actually have the the finances and resources to actually remediate it and pull it off. like whether or not it should just be a worry or not or you know a boutique whatever. Um I'm not that doesn't worry me so much as um we sell this for 500,000 without actually doing due diligence to determine whether or not the entity that is purchasing it understands the scope of the project and has the resources to actually pull it off and then they resell it. um again at that point we have no control over
1:43:04anything that happens there um and uh they sell for 2 million or whatever. Uh I just I think we're rushing into something here without actually doing enough work to make the decision. Um >> proposal is on the Hudson website >> from 2015 but there have been a few along >> Are you talking about Saratoga one? >> Huh? No, talking about passing the >> which which one are you saying? >> Okay. Yeah. I mean I can put a package together for everybody if you want. Um the Saratoga uh report was really interesting and you should also read the uh phase one environmental report. Um yeah also in the deed that the remediation has to take the deed for the property has stipulation of it's um >> one thing I want to add to the environmental part is when in December of last year when the former council heard the two proposals one from
1:44:08uh the brewery and one from >> Ben >> neither of them took into account the environmental conditions that are going to be with that property for the rest of its existence. There are hours of the day employees are allowed to be there and I'm pretty sure it's only eight hours a day because it's a forever super fun site with even with a vapor barrier that you cannot operate a business. OSHA will not allow a business to have employees there for more than eight hours in a 24-h hour period. So there are so many financial hurdles that a developer will have to go through and the two presentations that this council previous council and Jason and I were in the room so I'll say this current council received was it was kind of a smoke screen. It was it was a a another another snake oil salesman coming into the room and
1:45:12trying to get everybody to buy it. And I I they both probably knew better than to present that. And it's I I I don't feel that it was done appropriately. >> That is all. >> I think that's a little unfair. I don't think these people are single citizenmen. They just probably don't know the whole story about what a greatation. >> Then why would you give a presentation knowing rightfully well there are more skeletons in the closet to look at. And if you have development with multi-million dollars behind it, assumably you may have at the very least a accountant doing what? >> Can we Sorry, that's a hang on. Let's not get into whether or not people are snake oil or not. >> Let's just focus on the fact that let's look at um do we have enough information here? Do we have enough
1:46:15information about the financials of this organization? Um, that's let's stick with the facts which >> I just when you say holding >> if we ever were to ever sell this property, we should hold the mortgage on it and we should hold the financial that Yeah, we should hold the we should be holding the financial backing for it. So if they default, it comes to us. If they lose their shirt, I mean, hope hope you if anyone goes there, they should hope I wish them the best of success because that makes us successful. But if they don't, then we should get it back. If they default on the mortgage, we get it back. >> Do we actually sell it? We just rans if they were to sell it. No, you would have to sell it because the reason the last one did not work was it was supposed to be a public private partnership with a uh lease agreement and it was going to be multi-use and the
1:47:19uh the folks had to withdraw from it because uh nobody would give them financing unless the city went in applying for the financing with them because they would not give financing to somebody who was leasing a property. And so the financing piece fell apart. That's what that's how that felt. >> I just say it seems extremely unlikely that a private entity is going to be able to take this thing on. It's a $23 million mediation. There's no way you're going to do that as a purely private activity and come out ahead. So I mean if you sell to them can't imagine that they're going to be able to do that. >> Well, I'd like to see the dimensions on I'd like to see the details of the plan every >> So to Yeah. So it's when it looks like it's almost a guaranteed default. >> I told this >> along. >> Um >> next week is our formal meeting. >> Um ordinarily we review things in this meeting and then if it's on the agenda next week we vote on it. I will not be
1:48:22putting this on the agenda next week. Uh so I would like us to take some time to try to get some more information. um we can potentially have it on the agenda in what is this May and June? Um or maybe it'll be July, but it will not be on the agenda next week. >> I do have a question for Kendra. Okay. Even though um won't we still be on liability? we know is a green field and something was happening, wouldn't the city still be alive? I didn't think you could discript that responsibility off. >> I'm not sure what the history of the of all that and why you know um liable for the green field. >> No, actually gr is currently nationally liable for it. >> Yeah. And if we and if we but right but if we give something to somebody as is with full disclosure of it state then then that's better that's all
1:49:24>> there inspire beware >> as far as I know but financially national land um okay you should read debates one environmental >> house so The next two items. Um, Logan, this is we have a local law repealing the charter provisions for governing, we've been looking at this now for about what feels like a lifetime. Uh, this is local law repealing charter provisions governing video conferencing. We need this uh in order to make this. We we've been clarified rules for video conferencing, but we are going to do it in the future by way of a resolution. so that it's easier if the state changes the rules but it's much easier for us to modify a resolution. So next week for voting we will have repeal of local law to repeal current and then a resolution um outlining the rules for video
1:50:28conferencing. And I think we've discussed this in the past so I don't I don't not expecting any questions. Am I right? Any questions on that? >> And there's also there's a the resolution is just for the common council. Right. Exactly. >> There's already one that's been in place for all the other boards that's going to continue with those. So that we don't want to live any >> next. Um so I I need a vote on this. So uh very small little thing short-term rentals need to have a local person. Uh because this is actually in our zoning code action. We do have to send it to the county and local planning boards. uh and they have it for a month before we can um actually take action on it. So this is going to be a motion uh and second please to give for the council to allow me to submit this to the county and the planning board. Motion is Henry, second is Jason. All in favor? >> Okay.
1:51:37Uh next is a um similar situation. This is a local law to amend section 325171 of chapter 325 the code of the city of Hudson. Uh this relates to an issue we've been discussing for a couple of months. Um which is the dock operations. Um Ken and I have talked about this at length. We have received from a member of the public a proposal to clarify that section of the column using data from 2008 which was reported in the 2009 study. Um and this particular iteration looks at that and then makes a proposal to um establish a level of of uh activity um for dock usage uh in terms of uh number of trucks or weight um and I'll let Ken speak to it but again
1:52:42this is something where um procedurally this needs to go to the county and to the local planning board before any action can be taken on it. And so we thought that it would be good to get this process started, we can still amend it. We can change it. We can choose not to take any action on it. But the first step if we in the event that we do want to adopt it is that we have to send it to both planning boards. you're going to like this take step to actually just um introduce it as is because I don't think it's been formally introduced. >> Well, I people might want to know what is but nobody has seemed to be right. Well, we just we did it. >> Okay. All right. So, I need to introduce you introducing >> Okay, I'm introducing >> for our discussion. >> So, >> yeah, your introduction is just a formal step you had to do. >> Well, yeah. STR has been introduced many times. Okay. So I'm introducing this local law which um will amend 3251
1:53:46chapter 3.5 of >> so questions comments. Okay. Um I read through this today. Usually when we get uh things put up to the portal on line you send them to their we usually copy it. >> I did not see this come in. I did not see this till today. >> Um help thankfully nicely sent me the uh track changes version and I find that the changes are extensive. Um so personally I need more time with this >> because of the changes >> and let me sorry let me just >> you will have time the only thing I'm asking is submitted to the county and the planning board we're not taking any action on >> I understand and probably one of the reasons that I
1:54:52didn't to send everything out to everybody once I've been in bed sick for 3 days. So, sorry. Um, we can have Ken walk us through um the intent. >> Yeah. >> And uh we not being asked to take any action to send it to county. >> I just I'd like to know what we're saying sending that everyone's aware of what we're sending to them and then what we we have at least a reasonable intent of moving forward with not just send them something that um I don't know whether I don't know whether the council intends to move forward in it or not. >> Well, some of this there actually bunch of legal issues that and actually rather address it in in the attorney client session. Um >> so we could do that for a few minutes that would >> Okay. So, let's see first. Can I get a glass of water and then do
1:56:03um before we do that because that will be the last item unless anybody wanted to bring anything else. So, >> I have a couple of issues that happened in the city that I would like to bring up on review business. >> Okay, that's okay. We'll we'll do uh attorney client at the very end. Uh are there any members of the public who would like to speak to this document? Okay. So, thank you. In that case, uh your issues. >> Thank you. Um first of all, Jenny, sorry. Stay wild salesman was not the right word to use. Um, but I I have to bring up two uh things that happened recently in town. The first one is uh an event that took place on Wednesday in the city. Is everybody aware uh the council members are you aware of what happened
1:57:07on Wednesday besides being Wednesday? No. >> Right. Well, it was the majority of the first ward was affected, some of the second, and then as it released, the entire city was affected. So, Wednesday, we had the largest event I think that and according to HPD, the largest event so far that the city has held without water. is it wasn't at the waterfront, but boy did it spill over, >> right? Uh this was a the third now annual um cannabis convention that was localized at the basilica and utilized the campus of Kitties and the Basilica. It was an unnotified sorry the the event organizers did not notify the city. It was a mass gathering. They did not file a mass gathering permit and they abused
1:58:13a city property, a state property, and every parking space from let's say uh well, I got out of work about 3:00 and went down to the waterfront to do more work. And what I noticed throughout the morning was that the congestion on Union and Allen Street and Warren Street and Front Street was very high. So about 3:00 um the event I believe ran from 11 to 6:00 p.m. or it was 11 to 5:00 p.m. The entire waterfront from the parking lot at L & B which everyone calls the antique warehouse now to the auxiliary lot from the Basilica the Basilica's lot proper um to the Amtrak lot. >> Mhm. to the Amtrak station lot itself across the train tracks to Rick's Point.
1:59:16The Dunn parking lot, both done parking lots, all the way to the state boat launch was completely full of cars. I have never seen more cars in the city in my entire life. I have only worked in the city since I was a little kid. It's I've never seen that many cars. on a quick count just shy of 500 vehicles. >> Did you also put tents on on our property? Did they put >> They didn't put tents on our property. But what they did do, Dominic, was they parked vehicles on our property. Okay. They parked vehicles. >> I just heard there was tent on the water from this >> there. I didn't see any tents, but what I did see were illegally erected signs from Basilica all the way to the state boat launch. Sorry, the state boat launch parking lot. There were no less than two dozen 8- foot flag signs which were not requested to be put on city sidewalks, not requested to be blocking pedestrian crosses. There were no
2:00:19fire hydrants accessible from the basilica to the state boat launch. They were all blocked by vehicles. I spoke to the parking attendants when I got there. There were parking attendees hired by the event organizers, the event organizers. They were instructing people to park on every bit of property they could find. Every single pedestrian crosswalk was blocked. Every emergency access point was blocked. The state boat launch was half blocked. So, and and the state parking lot, every bit of grass in that parking lot had cars on it. Every median was blocked with a car. There every no parking sign was blocked. >> No cops were around. >> They were after I got there and called them. >> Oh, >> they they were not informed in advance. They knew
2:01:20>> they had no idea. So, why couldn't they just shut them down? >> Oh, no. That's a very good question because it's it was basically it felt it was the 11th hour. Nobody really knew the scope of it until the event was winding down. >> Well, is there a fine or something from not I mean this is insane. >> It is insane. And I'll I'll take it a step further. There were the only vehicle that could access the state launch and the state parking lot was a small vehicle. The HBD's vehicles were, you know, those are small SUVs. there and every vehicle there a a personal vehicle. Yes, you could get down a pickup truck very difficult. I saw no less than two recreational voters come down to the over the ferry street bridge and a few turned around and some just stopped and waited because at that point we started removing vehicles from the emergency access to the river. There was no way an ambulance or a fire truck could have made their way to an emergency on the water that
2:02:23day. >> Well, that's the whole point of a mask because everyone has to sign off on >> Exactly. >> They didn't I followed up with them as well. They didn't do one um pictures. >> Yeah, I have some pictures and it was it was the the most abusive use of public space that I've ever seen. >> What is the consequence today? >> That is a good question. It is only on Wednesday and I've been asking a Thursday. I know Joe was aware of it. The vehicles that were immediately blocking the emergency access to the river were removed as soon as HPD was notified and then they started issuing tickets, which is great. Um, that's basically all we could do. So, the parking attendees were instructing all of these cars to park exactly where they were on Front Street. Cars were parked against traffic in the parking in in the pedestrian crosses and they were also probably not instructing them, but spillover
2:03:25attendees were parking in the terrace apartments and they were towing cars. Those are all permitted spots. Everybody's aware of that and it is illegal for anyone to park there. >> So the that is one of the issues with this event I have. And the second issue is this is an event promoting cannabis which fine. Okay. It's a it was an industry professionals event. There were no safety checks. HPD was not aware of it. Um coincidentally that was the same night that the um the building at third and warland municipal lot was tagged again. Um it it's It wasn't safe. It wasn't well organized. And I will bring it up at the safety committee meeting that until these two bad actors in the city answer some basic questions, we should not give them another mass gathering permit. They have, first of all, they have filed for
2:04:27dozens of them in their time there. So, they definitely know better. >> But they had it last year. >> They did, right? And every time they have a wedding that you utilize get waterfront, they file a mass gathering permit. So, and and they have been in town long enough >> to know better. So, it just seems it's it seems difficult to for them to ask for forgiveness rather than ask for permission. And and I I think it's it's a further it's definitely an issue we should discuss further at another time once they it's it's unfair to put it all out in the open and make any judgment without them >> being part of the conversation. But I just wanted everyone here to know what happened and what we were very lucky that >> nothing d nothing catastrophic happened. If there had been a fire or uh bodily harm, the response time would have been detrimental to that situation. Well, that's why the clause is if you're
2:05:30attendance of certain you have to involve all them because you know on the state level do you oversees the rescue squad so they have to be present you know pick your numbers or whatever it is that number >> it would your head would respond if you had seen it >> that's I'm sorry I got to shut it down is >> my other issue thank you Margaret is >> it move right along. So, um, in my ward, we have, and Gary, you're going to we'll we'll have to sit down one day and figure something out, but we have been given a presentation from numerous LLC's owned by the same conglomerate, which is Ben Fain, and his proposal for the development of the South I I don't want to say the South Bay, but the marsh land that used to be owned own by von Ritter and all the gobbled up properties on Cross Street and Tanner's Lane. So, the
2:06:34previous administration turn a blind eye to what was going on down there in my opinion, but a number of residents on Cross and Tanners have in a very real way been muscled out and purchased out of their properties. Um, so there was a rendering that was put online over the week, I think it was on Friday, that shows the rendering for a 150 unit um condo complex, a grocery store, and uh something else. >> Yeah. But the rendering that was put online shows properties not owned by that developer demolished and made into parking lots. Though the the last remaining residents on Tanner's Lane are very disappointed because they're they're in fear for their livelihood. They are upset that a developer has put renderings forth assuming they're
2:07:39going to be bought out of their properties and their properties are going to be pushed into a parking lot one day. There are only three um occupied homes by homeowners left on Tanner's Lane there. The fourth is a threeunit um that it was just purchased at the beginning of this at the uh the beginning of this month and they have until the end of July to vacate the I spoke to the last three houses on that street and not one of them is getting a good night's sleep. Not one of them wants to restart their life in another house and not one of them has been contacted by the city in the last several years especially regarding what's been going on down there. Um so I it see it feels very much like um if you have a lot of money you can kind of do what you want now in the city. And
2:08:42I I'm I'm just pleased that that feels like it's it's common uh and accept sounds like a film because buying farms and taking people's farms sounds like a plot from the >> and and he is presenting that with what is deemed to be well what he feels is fair market value. Um, so what the other issue with that I have I have a lot of notes but I'll break save them for next week and maybe when we can get into this in more depth but the significant portion of that property is on south is south of of Tanner's Lane. So, the property south of Tanner's Lane, which um the last residents on that street were Stephanie and Key, uh Bendlestith, and they sold about a year, two years ago, I think. And the largest chunk of that developed property was owned by Von Ritter. Does anybody remember the history of Von Ritter in the last 20 years? >> Well, it flooded twice. Yeah. and he won litigation against the city and we paid
2:09:49him a substantial sum. I think it was north of $750,000 and this is back in 200 uh 2010. The settlement was 2010. So I think this goes actually back to 2003 and then it was 2008 the two floods we had Sandy and Irene. It could actually been a different one, but it's be because the the city was at fault and the property owner was at fault for not maintaining the civil infrastructure. So, the drainage did not pump appropriately. It still hasn't been fixed and it flooded and we lost. So, now we have a proposal to change zoning and put a giant 150 unit complex in a location that is a flood zone. It's in the 100red-year flood plan. We've all seen it for the last 20 years. And it just it really it doesn't it does not feel fair and equitable in any way in
2:10:54the city. And we also have a dozen properties on that street. I'm sorry, it doesn't. Uh we have eight properties on that street that are left and vacant. They look like someone's living in them, but there is not. >> That's most of it. I'm pissed. >> All right. Any other new business? Any hands raised, Logan? >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> I apologize. I was at the mayor's presentation. >> What's What's the question? >> Not a question. its interest in the uh the Hudson Boston Railroad shop, currently known as the Dun Warehouse. This is the last historic industrial building on the Hudson River. My I've been looking into various aspects and uh it was I think Christine went into most of this. Did she go into the 1985
2:11:58National Star Preservation Registry options? She wanted all this but not to read them. I'm interested in finding out possibility of authentically restoring that structure and the feasibility and how the city can benefit in terms of a authentic star preservation activity and that good I I don't know enough about I got to go see the structure. I'd love to get the the council to approve Caitlyn Midday who's familiar with the warehouse. She was one of the RFPs. So she's done two of them. I think last year there were three and only two of them that they looked at that they brought before the council. So and then there was one you all know this. So personally I'm very interested in looking into actually authentic historic preservation maybe national historic registry melan you know there's a lot of big funders and I'm willing to do the
2:13:03work to figure out you know how this could happen in honor of my mother who was one of the original Ros landmark society historic preservation people and Rosman landmark society was the pioneer of authentic back to the bones restoration. There's water in there is another lot of significant. >> So that's it. >> I recommend if you were not here for that discussion >> watch it and I'll come back. >> We had a very lengthy discussion and HTC uh made comments and I recommend that you watch that second. >> Thank you. Thank you for that. I'm sorry. I have one more rant. It's going to be quick. >> The properties on the north side of Tanner's Lane. The residents that are left uh surveyors from uh I'm just going to say Ben Feain's whatever conglomerate were surveying their properties for um this project as though he was was
2:14:07going to purchase them. I forgot to drop that little tidbit. that happened in the last two weeks. They were in people's back, which rightfully so. They're given access, but they were surveying properties that he does not own to add it to this project. And also, the Robert Taylor house is still sitting with unfixed >> three years after he purchased it with a big sign in front that says project under renovation. >> Um, and our city street on Tanner's Lane, where do you think it is? Removed >> there. a tent. I'm sorry. There is a a chainlink fence and an and a barrier on city property in the street and our street signs have been removed there. >> Is that Montgomery used it? >> No, it's on the end of Cross and Tanner. So, >> what he >> Yeah, that's >> but he took he took our property down and is I don't know. It's going to be an issue for tomorrow. I only saw it last night. So, I'll bring it up with me and hopefully he can have this fence removed >> and at least a little modicum of of
2:15:12uh whatever happiness, respect for the for the people that still live there who do not want to sell. Anyhow, sorry concluded. >> So, yeah, I'll give you another one next week. >> All right. So, um if there's no other business, we're going to go into executive session. >> Not executive. Sorry attorney the difference. >> Um, we do we do not anticipate having any other business. So, thank you all for coming.
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