At a glance
The Safety Committee, with Councilmembers Henry Haddad, Dominic Merante, and Claire Cousin present, heard July reports from fire, police, and code enforcement, plus a youth crisis intervention presentation. Fire had a busy month, including a lithium-battery fire in a garage and a building collapse on Columbia Street. Police reported two use-of-force incidents involving the same repeat offender and nearly $12,000 in cruiser damage. Most of the meeting was code enforcement: proposed changes would make demolition a last resort for vacant buildings and require independent inspectors on the city's largest projects. A resident's question about Bliss Towers truck traffic went unanswered. No votes were taken.
Fire Department: E-Bike Battery Fire and a Building Collapse
The fire safety officer reported a busy July, including a lithium-ion battery fire in a garage, a building collapse on Columbia Street, and a stuck elevator.
Key points
- The department answered 69 calls for service in July, 28 to 29 of them tied to one Wednesday morning's heavy rain and flooding; even without that day, the department still ran 39 calls
- Three structure fires included a garage fire caused by a charging lithium-ion battery, on what the officer said was some kind of electric or pedal-assist bike, not a scooter. It was contained to the garage and, the officer said, appears to be the first fire of its kind in the city that he could recall
- Four hazardous-condition calls (gas leaks, carbon monoxide, downed wires), one cardiac arrest with a reversal, 23 false-alarm calls, and 36 public-service calls
- A building partially collapsed at 225 1/2 Columbia Street on a Friday; the department also responded to a stuck elevator at Providence Hall that same day
- The department is on pace for roughly 450 calls this year, about 275 to 278 through early August, which the officer compared to 2020 call volumes
This transcript has no reliable speaker labels for most exchanges; names are included only when clearly spoken aloud.
New Fire Truck Delayed in Buffalo; Fire Boat Moved to City Dock
The department's new truck remains in Buffalo for factory fixes ahead of final inspection, and the department relocated its boat to the city's commercial dock.
Key points
- Department members traveled to Buffalo about three weeks ago to inspect the new truck; it is still there while the manufacturer finishes items flagged during final inspection
- The department hopes the truck reaches Albany in the coming weeks with a firmer timeline expected soon
- The department's boat has been moved to the city's commercial dock at the waterfront
- The department plans to participate in this week's Waterfront Wednesday event and hopes to formalize dock space, roughly 30 feet, in future waterfront lease renewals
Presentation: Youth Crisis Intervention Partnership
Councilmember Claire Cousin introduced a representative from an organization identified in the transcript as 'ASC Group,' who described a short-term, in-home crisis intervention program for youth and discussed possible partnerships with the city and school district.
Key points
- Claire Cousin said she invited the presentation after asking, at a prior meeting, whether any partnerships existed with crisis-intervention services for young people
- The program serves Columbia and Greene counties with a small team of clinicians (the transcript is unclear on the exact number, three to nine were mentioned in different ways)
- It is a voluntary, short-term program, roughly six weeks, offering in-home or in-school therapy sessions plus 24/7 phone crisis coaching for families
- It serves youth ages 5 to 20, including those with autism and other developmental disabilities, is free, and is funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health
- The presenter said the program has prevented psychiatric hospitalization or out-of-home placement in more than 90 percent of the families it serves
- Claire Cousin said the district's new superintendent has also asked about youth crisis intervention and wants to partner more closely with the city on student safety
- Committee members discussed a gap between this kind of service and a 911 or mobile-crisis response, and separately mentioned a school-based mental health service, referred to as the 'Cartwheel' program, that has limited contracted slots with the district
- One committee member noted a separate 'CoHost' committee on out-of-school-time community partners where a city official could learn more about youth programs already underway
The transcript's auto-captions are unclear on this organization's full name and some program details (staffing numbers, a program acronym). Treat specifics here as approximate.
Police: Repeat Offender Behind Two Use-of-Force Incidents
The department reported two defensive-action incidents in July involving the same individual, along with July's overall arrest and incident totals.
Key points
- Two defensive-action (use-of-force) reports in July, both involving the same person, who was taken to the ground and handcuffed after resisting arrest and attempting to escape a patrol car on one occasion, and had a taser pointed at them on a separate occasion
- Both incidents involved DWI refusal charges and damaged the same patrol car, one of which was taken out of service; the department estimated roughly $12,000 in damage across two separate insurance claims
- July totals: 37 arrests, 66 charges, nine calls involving a person in emotional crisis, one incident involving a suspected drug overdose, and one use of Narcan
- 898 total incidents in July, which the reporting officer called a busy month, typical for summer
Parking and Traffic Revenue; Proposed Fine Increases Head to Council
The department reported July parking and traffic revenue and discussed proposed increases to fire-zone and crosswalk parking fines, part of a broader fee schedule update expected at the August Council meeting.
Key points
- The department issued 2,817 parking tickets in July, 2,475 of them paid, generating just over $62,000 in revenue for the month
- Parking revenue for the first two quarters of the year totals $812,400; the department also wrote almost 600 traffic tickets over the same period
- 12 vehicles were booted in July and 17 in June
- Common Council President Margaret Morris, joining by phone, said a broader fee schedule package, covering parking and code enforcement fines, is being assembled for an August Council vote; some changes require an accompanying local law because certain fines are set directly in city code
- Dominic Merante proposed raising the fire-zone parking fine, to $125 or $150. Henry Haddad raised the crosswalk-blocking fine, currently $35; 3rd Ward Councilmember Jason Foster had submitted a written suggestion of $50, but committee members leaned toward $100 or $125
A combined fee schedule update, covering parking and code enforcement fines, is expected to go to the full Council in August.
Collections Vendor Cleared to Pursue Three Years of Unpaid Tickets
The committee confirmed that the city's collections vendor, under a contract approved a few months earlier, will begin pursuing unpaid parking tickets going back three years, the legal limit.
Key points
- The vendor will send final notices before turning delinquent tickets over to collections, with a 30-day window for people to pay
- By law, the city can only pursue unpaid tickets going back three years, to roughly January 2023
- Dominic Merante was shown the outstanding-fees file and officials noted many names in it are repeat offenders who still live in the city, not people who have left
- A prior amnesty program under the previous administration recovered very little, officials recalled only a few people came forward despite hundreds of thousands of dollars owed at the time
Bliss Towers Truck Traffic: No Data Yet
A resident asked whether the city has any estimate of construction and demolition truck traffic tied to the Hudson Housing Authority's Bliss Towers project. Officials said the project is still too early in the Planning Board process for that information to exist.
Key points
- A resident identified as Brent asked about truck traffic estimates for the Bliss Towers deconstruction and construction project on Warren Street
- Police and committee members said they have no information on this and that it would fall under the Planning Board's review, not the police department or Safety Committee
- Officials said the project has not yet presented a demolition or construction traffic plan; that work follows initial Planning Board approval
- Committee members discussed sending an informal recommendation, not a directive, from the Safety Committee to the Planning Board (which they noted is an independent body) suggesting truck routes, such as Third Street or the causeway used by Colarusso, to keep heavy trucks off Warren Street
- One committee member said Colarusso's own use of the causeway has already reduced truck traffic through town by an estimated 48 to 100 trucks over the past two years
The Planning Board's public hearing on the Hudson Housing Authority's Bliss Towers plan remains open through the board's August 11 meeting.
No truck-traffic data exists yet for this project; that information is expected later in the Planning Board's review, not from this committee.
Code Enforcement: Utility Pole Ads and Sandwich-Board Signs
The code enforcement officer gave July permit totals and reported on efforts to remove unauthorized signs from utility poles and city sidewalks.
Key points
- July permit activity: 24 building permits, eight certificates of occupancy, three demolition permits, one sign permit, one referral to the Historic Preservation Commission, one plumbing permit, and four letters of compliance, totaling about $14,465 in fees
- The city is seeking written permission from Verizon and National Grid, joint owners of utility poles, to remove temporary signs on sight; without it, the city would have to issue a formal violation notice and wait 10 to 14 days before removing a sign
- Sidewalk sandwich-board signs are only allowed directly in front of the business they advertise, per existing code; the officer said many businesses are placing them elsewhere in the city and plans to canvass and issue notices
- Committee members discussed whether the code should be loosened for businesses located off Warren Street, so they could advertise their location, with suggestions of a time limit or defined hours if the rule changes
Vacant Buildings: Demolition Would No Longer Be the First Option
Prompted in part by the Columbia Street building collapse, the code enforcement officer proposed reordering the city's vacant-building law so that demolition becomes a last resort, after rehabilitation and securing the structure.
Key points
- Current code lists demolition as the first compliance option for a property on the vacant-building registry; the officer's draft amendment would make rehabilitation the first option, securing the building the second, and demolition the third, only after rehabilitation is shown to be impractical
- A separate proposed addition to the demolition code (chapter 97) would require any lot left after a demolition to be properly graded and maintained under a maintenance plan, rather than left as a fenced, overgrown pit
- The officer cited the collapsed building at 225 1/2 Columbia Street, which he had been planning to place on the vacant-building registry, as a case that helped prompt this review
- The officer also flagged an existing code provision he called nonsensical, that a property owner is responsible for protecting their own building when a neighboring property is demolished
- The committee chair asked that the proposed language be sent to the Legal Committee, which would draft it into a local law for a full Council vote
The code enforcement officer's proposed vacant-building and demolition-site language will go to the Legal Committee to be drafted as a local law.
Third-Party Inspectors Proposed for the City's Largest Projects
The code enforcement officer proposed requiring developer-funded, independent inspectors on the city's largest and most complex construction projects, citing a small, underfunded department and Hudson's growing project pipeline.
Key points
- The proposal would apply to projects such as commercial, mixed-use, institutional, or multifamily developments over $5 million in construction value, buildings taller than three stories, or projects with complex fire-protection or structural systems
- The developer would fund the review through an escrow account held by the city treasurer; the inspector, chosen by the code enforcement officer rather than the developer, would need state-required credentials
- The officer named the Hudson Housing Authority's project and the Waterfront Village as examples of projects that could qualify, and said the Housing Authority has already volunteered for third-party review on its own
- Dominic Merante asked whether the Planning Board already has an independent engineer that does this kind of review; officials said the Planning Board's engineer reviews site plans, not the construction of a building itself
- Common Council President Margaret Morris asked for examples of other municipalities with similar requirements and suggested an alternative: raising building permit fees enough that the code department could hire and directly oversee its own third-party inspectors, rather than have a developer hire one for its own project
- This proposal will also go to the Legal Committee for review before returning to the full Council
The Hudson Housing Authority's Bliss Towers redevelopment was cited as an example project this proposal is meant to address; the Authority has separately volunteered for third-party review.
Sidewalk Repair Gap and Chicken Coop Enforcement
A committee member raised concerns about a gap in the sidewalk repair law for unsafe sidewalks outside the city's improvement-district schedule, and the code enforcement officer gave an update on unpermitted chicken coops.
Key points
- A committee member said the sidewalk law has no way to force an emergency repair. If a block isn't yet scheduled for sidewalk-district work, an unsafe sidewalk can sit for years, a liability gap
- The code enforcement officer agreed to look into whether an emergency-repair provision could be added, and whether enforcement responsibility sits with code enforcement or the Department of Public Works
- On chicken coops, the officer said code already requires coops to be kept clean to avoid pest infestations, but proving a violation from a complaint alone is difficult, and there are likely more coops in the city than permits issued for them
- A committee member asked whether complaints tend to involve coops that never went through the Planning Board's permitting process; the officer confirmed at least one recent case, involving a rooster, had no permit at all, and said unpermitted coops should be told to remove them
About this page
FUTURE HUDSON is an experiment in civic engagement: every public meeting of the City of Hudson since January 2026, transcribed and made readable, so any resident can follow what the city is deciding without attending every meeting. This page covers one meeting; see the full archive.
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