Hudson School District tells public: Have a seat

by JEANETTE WOLFBERG

HUDSON–Old auditorium seats, new staff, softball and baseball were topics highlighted at Hudson City School District Board of Education meeting July 17.

The auditorium of Montgomery C. Smith Elementary School (MCS) is getting new seats this summer, and the district is offering 60 to 70 of the old seats to the public. At first, the district tried auctioning off all of the more than 500 seats. But the call for bidders got only one response, and the bidder looked at the seats and decided against buying them.

The old seats had to be removed quickly in order for the new seats to be installed in time for the new school year. But first Superintendent Maria L. Suttmeier suggested “getting to the people who have a spiritual connection” to the old seats and the board discussed how to reach these people. Read more…

Hillsdale funds town website makeover

by LORNA CHEROT LITTLEWAY

HILLSDALE–Town Supervisor Peter Cipkowski provided an email summary of business at the regular July 10 Town Board meeting. It is edited here.

The Hillsdale town website will be getting an upgrade. The board accepted a bid of $6,782 from TownWeb, specialists in municipality website design. The company will completely overhaul the site and provide mobile responsiveness as well as automatic technical and security updates. Read more…

Hudson Housing Authority nixes new construction plan

by JEANETTE WOLFBERG

HUDSON–“The project as presented is not going to be built,” Alan Weaver, Chair of the Hudson Housing Authority (HHA) Board of Commissioners, announced as he canceled the board’s July 10 meeting due to a lack of quorum.

He said the board would issue request for proposals (RFP) “to potential partners for a new project,” and that the new project is not yet definite enough to reveal.

The project as initially presented included two four-story residential units, with retail space across State Street from Bliss Tower. The new buildings together would have contained 73 income-restricted apartments, with the maximum income allowed in one new building higher than that allowed in Bliss. The HHA owns both the Bliss complex and the land on which the new buildings were planned. Read more…

Chatham hears zoning plan support from front-line officials

by EMILIA TEASDALE

CHATHAM–The Town Board held a regular meeting last week where they discussed Crellin Park and signed a lease agreement with the Village of Chatham to continue using the upstairs of the Tracy Memorial/Village Hall as the town courtroom and court offices.

The proposed new zoning law was also mentioned at the beginning of the July 18 meeting. Resident David Levow read a statement to the board about the July 8 question and answer meeting on the proposed law the board held at the Tri-Village Firehouse. In his statement he said, “I was troubled by the responses of the town planner to some of questions posed by the audience.” He said that he did not expect Town Planner Nan Stolzenburg to have every answer “at her fingertips” but he said, “some members of the audience seemed better prepared than she was.”

He asked the board to consider whether Ms. Stolzenburg has “outlived her usefulness” to the town. Read more…

Years of work bring old mills back to life

by KATE MOSTACCIO

Lumber was only one of the products produced at the water-driven mill in Claverack, It dates from the mid 1700s. Photo by Kate Mostaccio

CLAVERACK–Stephen Formel has owned two shipping companies. He now spends his winters aboard his boat, returning when the weather improves in the spring. And he’s spent the last 29 years working at restoring a historic water-powered mill on county Route 11.

The common thread: water.

Mr. Formel, a former Taconic Hills Board of Education member and one of 15 children, grew up in the Berkshires. He worked with his father in the family construction company in Puerto Rico before striking out on his own and starting a cargo shipping company. Read more…