The Columbia Paper

Above is a rendering of the 77-unit housing proposal from the Galvan Foundation for the west side of North Front Street in Hudson. Image contributed

HUDSON—The Galvan Foundation seeks “to give people what they’ve been asking for: affordable housing anywhere in any part of the City of Hudson,” said Dan Kent, vice president of initiatives for that organization, in a phone interview June 15.

Construction projects underway in Hudson include continuing work on 356 Union Street, Hudson for affordable apartments. This is part of the foundation’s Housing Initiative announced March 2018. Of the 10 Galvan buildings in the initiative, the other nine already have tenants, Mr. Kent said.

(Late last week Galvan announced another project—the construction of a new location for The Starting Place, Coarc’s daycare center for children with special needs. The center will occupy part of the Galvan Armory at North 5th and State Streets, which is also the site of the Hudson Area Library. The Starting Place will include a playground. The program currently uses a former Coarc building. See sidebar below.) Read more…

HUDSON-Apartment openings, emergency grant use, Hudson’s Affordable Housing Strategic Initiative and elevators are all topics that received attention at the Hudson Housing Authority (HHA) meeting June 10. The HHA runs the 135-unit, income-restricted Bliss complex in Hudson and a Section 8 program for housing elsewhere in that city. This report is based on an audio recording of the meeting.

Twenty-five Bliss apartments are currently empty, but all should be ready to rent by September, reported HHA Executive Director Tim Mattice. Three of them have always been vacant and used for purposes such as storage, but HHA has “decided to rent them out.” The others went “off line” because of damage their last occupants caused, Mr. Mattice said. Of the 25 units, HHA has already rehabilitated seven for $140,000. It will get an additional $117,000 for apartment rehabilitation as one reward for converting to RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration) status earlier this year.

Addressing another matter, Mr. Mattice announced, “We have not have one case of Covid-19 in our building. This is great.” He attributed the good news to the hard work of staff, saying, “I’m drafting a long term Covid emergency plan. Maintenance and administrative staff will continue to wear face masks,” he said, and employees will be taking the temperature of people who come into the building seeking to lease a unit. Read more…

KINDERHOOK—The Ichabod Crane Board of Education announced this week that Assistant Superintendent Suzanne Guntlow would become the new superintendent of the district starting this summer.

At a June 23 meeting, held online on Zoom, Board President Matthew Nelson also announced that board member Regina Rose had resigned from the board. After a short discussion at the meeting, the board decided to appoint Tammy Crawford to the open seat, a one-year position. Ms. Crawford is currently finishing her first-term on the board. She ran for reelection this June but lost her seat by 11 votes. There were three open seats on the board and Ms. Crawford was the fourth highest vote-getter.

Board Vice-President John Antalek suggested the board appoint Ms. Crawford. He said the board has done that in the past. Board member Elizabeth Phillips also supported the idea of appointing Ms. Crawford, saying it would benefit the board to have someone who was not new to everything on the board. Read more…