Amtrak has agreed to meet with town supervisors from Columbia and Dutchess counties about the rail service’s plans to limit access to the Hudson River. The town leaders will discuss potential plans to erect barriers along sections of its rail line on the east side of the Hudson to keep those trying to access the…
Nature is always within walking distance in the Hudson Valley, and sometimes, even biophiles like me overlook an adventurous opportunity a stone’s throw away. I’m not being literal there. You could not throw a stone from my driveway and hit Claverack Creek. BUT, you COULD hit it with the aid of certain medieval projectile weapons,…
Hudson Common Council President Tom DePietro can be seen grabbing a man from behind and shoving him against a wall outside an April 24 city meeting in a recording obtained by The Other Hudson Valley. The incident occurred mid-way through a raucous special Common Council meeting called to discuss Mayor Rick Rector’s vetoing of Council…
By Roger Hannigan Gilson with additional reporting by Sam Pratt Last week, The Other Hudson Valley published, then retracted, a report about a State Police search of the Stockport home of Jeffery Yeh. A May 14th warrant enabled police to remove multiple computers, phones and other electronic devices from the home. In an interview last…
Hudson’s Tourism Board heard three presentations Friday from marketing companies hoping to become Hudson’s ‘branding consultant.’ The Tourism Board is tasked with marketing the city of 6,200 using funds garnered from the city’s lodging tax, which levels a 4 percent tax on traditional hotels and short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs. The board has seen pushback…
Hudson police are investigating an altercation between Common Council President Thomas DePietro and another man outside last Wednesday’s chaotic Common Council meeting. Hudson Police Chief Ed Moore confirmed the investigation Monday morning. The special meeting was held in the Hudson Area Library to discuss the Common Council’s response to Mayor Rick Rector’s veto of their…
I usually go home for Easter, but the ancient Price is Right spinner the pope uses to decide when the holiday falls landed on the 21st this year, also the birthday of my girlfriend, Jody. She wanted to combine the two celebrations and have an Easter egg hunt. But we couldn’t just have an ORDINARY…
The Hudson Common Council voted again to throw out the city’s preliminary assessments during a meeting rife with insults, angry interruptions, gavel-banging, and a physical confrontation between a former and a current Common Council member. The resolution is the same as the legislation passed by the Common Council last week, but with a section specifically…
UPDATE: After a Common Council meeting at 5 p.m. today that included yelling, gavel-banging, and a violent confrontation between a common council member and a citizen, Hudson has passed another resolution concerning the reevaluation. Read about it here. Hudson’s property reassessments, which will influence how much individual property owners will pay in taxes in the…
I perused the nuts aisle in New Paltz’s Mobil On-The-Go while mentally flipping through potential titles for the adventure I was about to embark on. “Walking the Razor’s Edge” seemed a little bombastic, I thought while squinting at the nutrition facts on a bag of Planters. Plus it was too close to the W. Somerset…
I’ve always really enjoyed dancing. Wait, that’s not true. If I delve TRULY far back, the first time I remember dancing was at camp the summer before fifth grade with a girl much larger than me. This wasn’t exactly UNUSUAL at that age, what with girls hitting puberty earlier, but my friends at the time…
New York cut a million-dollar investment to battle Lyme and other tick-borne diseases to zero in the new budget passed last week. The funding aided numerous projects, including researching infected ticks in schoolyards, education and outreach programs, and studying environmentally sound ways of eradicating ticks in Hudson Valley neighborhoods. Lyme infected almost 10,000 people in…
Congressman Antonio Delgado introduced a bill Monday to make a form of Medicare available to all Americans, fulfilling assertions on the campaign trail he would address what he has repeatedly called the “health care crisis.” The bill would provide the “public option” of Medicare X, which would use existing Medicare physician networks but would keep…
Last week, Hudson’s Common Council narrowly voted in favor of a resolution endorsing five state measures aimed at extending rent stabilization to Upstate New York. The non-binding resolution was meant to symbolically support the measures and to start a conversation about rent stabilization to address the city’s lack of affordable housing. The average rent in…
“Alright,” I muttered with deep concentration. “Everyone keep their eyes peeled.” It was the third time Morgan, Ellen and I had driven down Peekamoose Road in Olivebridge looking for the DEC trailhead sign for Ashokan High Point, slowly passing residences while staring out the car windows like we were devising a burglary. Oh, we had…
Plans to protect the New York City Harbor from another Hurricane Sandy by constructing onshore barriers and giant seawalls reached a milestone in February as the government released the last report before a plan is selected. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), along with New York and New Jersey are considering six different options,…
I trotted down from the Harrier Hill parking lot and into a broad field filled with sunlight, a few early-spring birds, and a distinct lack of shotgun blasts. I was on my way to the Stockport-Greenport Trail, a ridiculously underutilized path stretching from Harrier Hill Park to the Greenport Conservation Area outside Hudson in Columbia…
First Ward Alderman Rob Bujan laid out his plans for Hudson after announcing on social media Monday he is running for Common Council President. Over the course of an hour-and-a-half interview in his Warren Street home, Bujan discussed tourism, affordable housing, Airbnbs and how to better communicate with city residents. Bujan is up against incumbent…
I had seen the building boasting the world’s largest kaleidoscope on many drives through the Catskills, cropping up along Route 28 in Mt. Tremper between the idiosyncratic motels and restaurants perched on cliff-faces. “WORLD’S LARGEST KALEIDOSCOPE,” the lettering bellowed, with an arrow helpfully pointing to a silo emerging from the structure. The building was asking…
One theme resonated more heavily than others at the Climate and Community Protection Act hearing in New Paltz Friday: 2050 wasn’t soon enough. Many of the 38 activists, local elected officials and environmental advocates who spoke at the three-and-a-half-hour hearing said the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA), a state bill aiming to reduce greenhouse…
