At a glance
Hudson's new Commissioner of Senior Services, Brittany Gillis, met the Services Committee for the first time, and the senior center survey came back with about 50 responses and one clear message: people do not know what the center offers, and some cannot get there. Council President Margaret Morris, joining by video, said that at 71 she has never received a single piece of information about senior services, and questioned whether the survey was establishing a need that had not arisen; Jen Belton answered that the need exists and the survey proved it. The youth department then reported that Oakdale Lake is closed for the rest of the season after a water sample showed a harmful algae bloom, that the after-school program opens September 14 with online registration for the first time, and that the department may have to cut some personnel to come in near last year's budget. Chair Dominic Merante and Morris both pressed the youth director on why no programming ran in the three weeks between the end of camp on August 14 and the start of school. No votes were taken beyond adjournment.
Meet the New Senior Services Commissioner
Brittany Gillis, the city's new Commissioner of Senior Services, introduced herself and laid out how she plans to start.
Key points
- Merante, who chairs the committee, said he spoke with the commissioner the night before and that her first task is the budget, which is due next week.
- In August the center ran yoga and exercise in the park, and each program drew from eight to 20 people.
- Starting in September she plans to ask attendees to share contact information, kept secure, so the center can reach them about new services by email or paper mail, whichever each person prefers. A member suggested a group newsletter covering all three agencies that run senior programming.
- She has been gathering flyers from local organizations, including a scam-awareness program for seniors that Holly Tanner, Renee and Hudson Dots are putting together at Spark of Hudson and an event coming up at Providence Hall, to share out and gauge the response.
- She spoke with the high school teacher who runs community service for civics and government students, and wants those students to build a social media page that stays with the senior center rather than changing with each commissioner.
- She floated joint programs with the youth department, such as a tea party once it gets cold where young people serve and the 55-and-up crowd mixes, and indoor golf, an idea she had raised with the chair.
The captions render the commissioner as "Britney"; the city's website spells it Brittany Gillis. The name of the high school teacher was garbled and is left out.
The Survey: About 50 Answers, One Message
Jen Belton reported the results of the senior center survey, online and on paper, and the committee chair boiled the findings down to three problems.
Key points
- About 50 people responded. The online survey ran through the Hudson Hub and the city website as a Google form set up by the mayor's aide, Tiffany Martin; paper surveys went out at Bliss Towers and Providence Hall, and some are still to be collected.
- The biggest takeaway, in Belton's words: people just don't know what's going on at the senior center. Many who are interested would need transportation, in some cases just to get to the library.
- A lot of respondents want workshops. The commissioner said workshops could run monthly, depending on which ones stick.
- Belton met with Tracy Robinson, who coordinates programming at the library, and came away with a list of the library's senior-oriented programs and attendance data for each. She said the three agencies running senior programming, the youth department, the senior center and the library, need to be tied together so the word gets out about what is actually offered.
- Merante summed up three issues for the committee: communication, coordination among the three agencies, and transportation.
- Belton is meeting next week about a senior transportation path, possibly free bus rides as an incentive, or the youth department's van, which could run on a schedule built around need rather than the county bus. The youth director noted the van is free during the school year when the kids are in class, less so in summer.
- Members said the senior center has been without a leader for two years, since February two years ago, and that the former commissioner's Facebook posts were how many people used to get information.
The committee reported the first five paper surveys from Bliss Towers at its August 5 meeting, when every respondent said they had never been to the senior center. This month's report folds in the online responses.
"I Have Not Received a Single Piece of Information"
Council President Margaret Morris, joining by video, challenged the committee on outreach, and the exchange got pointed.
Key points
- Morris said she is 71, a Hudson resident, and has never received a single piece of information about the senior center or its services. She asked whether the effort was about seniors or a subset of seniors. For many months she could not download the Hudson Hub, which told her it was not available in her country, a problem she said has now been resolved.
- Her bottom line: the senior center is funded by the city, so the city's website should post exactly what the center offers and to whom. The commissioner asked what she would have preferred if the website failed, a robocall, mail or a post office notice, and Morris said the website posting comes first.
- She said part of what she was seeing looked like an attempt to establish a need where no need had necessarily arisen. Belton replied that this is not true: at Providence Hall, which houses residents 55 and older, she met people with mobility issues who cannot walk to the library and people without cars. "The need exists, and that's what the survey proved."
- Morris said nobody sent her a survey. Merante and Belton said it was on the city website and the Hudson Hub, and the chair said the committee had no budget for a mailing and used what was in front of it.
- A member, reading the city website during the meeting, noted it already lists Gillis as commissioner along with medical alert and STAR program information, and said the committee can do better now that someone is in place.
- Asked for suggestions, Morris pointed to the voter rolls, which carry every registered voter's date of birth and many email addresses. She filters them to people who have voted in the last four years as a proxy for who still lives here. The commissioner said she would rather meet seniors where they already are than contact people who may not be interested.
Flyers, Food Pantries and the County's Missing Listing
The committee and the commissioner traded ideas for reaching seniors who are not online, and learned Hudson is absent from the county's senior services listing.
Key points
- Members named the places flyers should go: Providence Hall, Bliss Towers, Hudson Terraces, every food pantry in town, stores and the Salvation Army.
- The commissioner said the seniors most likely to come to programs are already out and about, so she plans to meet them at Rolling Grocer, food pantries and Bliss Towers rather than knock on doors or cold-contact a voter list.
- A member pointed out the cost: with 10 or 15 programs, flyers could mean a thousand per program, so a website with pictures and a robocall list for people who opt in would be cheaper.
- Belton said the senior center is not listed at all on the county Office for the Aging's website, which she found while searching for an elderly friend. The commissioner said staff from that office reached out to her early last week.
- Merante told the commissioner to lean on the committee, including Gary Purnhagen's past connection to the chamber of commerce, and closed by noting the senior center "actually had a real meeting."
Oakdale Lake Closed for the Season After Algae Bloom
The youth director opened his report with news that a water sample came back showing a harmful algae bloom.
Key points
- The department is closing the lake for the rest of the season as a precaution for people and pets. The beach was going to close for the year on Sunday anyway; the director said he would have liked to close on better terms.
- The closure was posted on the department's Instagram, on signs around the perimeter of the lake and on the beach house, and on the Hudson Hub.
- Merante asked whether the signs use anything like a stop sign or are in Spanish. The director said they are currently English only and that adding more visible, multilingual warnings is something the department can do. The chair said more notification is better, especially for pets.
- The director said blooms will keep happening in a natural body of water, and that Friends of Oakdale Lake, the lake's stewards, sample continuously and are working on ways to minimize them.
- The department is working with the mayor's office on getting closures out more widely.
Signage at Oakdale may get a Spanish version and more visible warnings. No date was given.
After-School Opens September 14, Registration Goes Online
The director walked through the after-school year and the end of the camp season.
Key points
- School starts September 9; after three days of school, the after-school program opens Monday, September 14. Kindergarten through second grade stays at the library's second floor, third through eighth grade at the youth center.
- Programming is similar to last year, including the art class, which the director said has been especially good for the youngest kids.
- The difference this year is that registration is online through a new platform, for kindergarten through 12th grade. Registration is rolling, and staff are helping families who have questions or lack internet access.
- The department took after-school sign-ups for the first time at the Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood's 12th annual block party.
- Camp closed with a beach party: a little over 90 kids, bike games, beach games, a talent show, food and tug of war, in a hole the Department of Public Works dug for the occasion. Lola Roberts attended. In the banner contest, on a comic-book theme, everyone won and everyone got ice pops.
- Soccer begins September 12 and runs through the end of October, with games on Saturdays at the high school and practice once a week, scheduled around volunteer coaches. Skills and drills for kindergarten through second grade, game play for third through sixth. Basketball follows; the director called the department's basketball league a feeder for the high school Bluehawks. Volunteers are needed for both.
The director read out the registration web address, but the captions garbled it, so it is not reproduced here. The department said it is also reachable through the city website, Facebook and Instagram.
Budget Season: "Trim the Fat," Possibly Personnel
Asked about staffing, the director said the department is in a good spot but expects to cut.
Key points
- Given budget season and the city's financial state, the department needs to come in at a number close to last year's budget, which the director said will take some creativity.
- That may mean cutting some personnel. He said the department wants to do it without sacrificing supervision of the youth, hopes to bring back a majority of the staff, and will act as a reference for anyone it cannot keep.
- He called it a routine exercise and said the department has had honest conversations internally about it.
Three Weeks With No Programming
Merante asked what the department offered kids between the end of camp on August 14 and the start of school, and Morris followed up hard.
Key points
- Merante, calling himself old school, said that when school is out, programs should happen. The director said no program ran in that window beyond the Sunday community days, which are adult use of the gym. Staff shut down Oakdale, sorted what campers left behind, took down the sheds, inventoried supplies and geared up the center for the school year.
- Morris asked why programming stops when schools are out, which she said is not new, and what six or seven full-time staff do for eight hours a day over three weeks with no children present.
- The director said the routine is not new, but this year full-time staff also worked on what he called a pretty hefty set of Freedom of Information Law requests and on reporting. He said the window between a six-week camp and 10 months of after-school is when staff take vacation.
- Morris said that as a manager she would never have allowed her entire team to take off for two weeks and shut down operations, and that vacations as the reason for no programming is not, to her, an acceptable answer. A member objected that she had asked what staff were doing, gotten an answer, and was now asking a different question.
- Merante said he is not pushing back on the answer but wants at least something two nights a week when school is out, open club, movie nights, basketball or a bike ride, and satellite programs, for example a Friday night at Bliss Towers. Members noted soccer sign-ups and community events were also happening.
- A member suggested the department track attendance, not just predict it, so it can come back at budget time with numbers to justify more staff. The director said that is the lens the department is taking into this budget season.
No decision. Merante asked for a schedule that keeps something running for kids when school is out; the director said the department can revisit it for next year, mindful of the budget.
Next Summer: Camp Without the Playground
The director said next summer will look different because the Oakdale Park playground will be under renovation during camp.
Key points
- The youngest campers normally use the playground; next summer that will not be an option, so all three age groups may end up on the parking lot side of the campus, and the department may repurpose the parking lot as an extension of the playground.
- Merante raised satellite sites, the way the city once had playgrounds on every corner, and members named spots that used to have them, including the high-rise, Academy Hill by the cemetery, and Promenade Hill, which was just upgraded. The director said the block party site is one hub with a playground he has considered.
- A member asked whether the Columbia County Fair has an outreach program for kids or seniors. The director said not that he knows of, but he has a colleague there and will ask.
At its August 25 meeting the Common Council voted 11-0 to accept state grants for the roughly $1.2 million Oakdale Park playground rebuild presented by Friends of Hudson Youth, with construction to start in spring 2027.
Public Comment: The Dock and a Piece of Wood
A resident named Bill asked about damage to the Oakdale floating dock and a hazard by the lake outlet, and Merante cut the exchange short.
Key points
- The director said someone threw large stones at the dock, cracking it; the damage has since been repaired in place and the dock is fully functional.
- Bill said last winter was the first time in his 12 years in Hudson that the dock stayed in the water, and asked whether that would happen again. The director said the department will remove it this winter. Bill asked repeatedly why it was not removed last year; Merante said the department is moving forward and did not have the director answer.
- Bill described a long piece of wood at the shoreline near the street, at the lake outlet, that has sat behind cones for a year and a half to two years. The director said the section near the bleachers will be addressed when the playground renovation happens, as a joint effort under grant and city funding.
- When Bill pressed on who would do the work, Merante said Bill's three minutes were over and that the area is part of the Oakdale repairs coming in spring.
- The committee adjourned.
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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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