Virginia Martin will no longer be the Columbia County democratic elections commissioner after her reappointment was voted down by both Democrats and Republicans on the Columbia County Board of Supervisors last night. The vote follows November’s elections, which were marked by confusion and repeated delays in posting official vote counts. Read the full story by…
In Brief – Thousands of votes cast for two Ulster County Democrats were mistakenly tallied on third-party lines instead of the Democratic line. The error did not cause the final count for the candidates to be changed — each vote went to the correct candidate, but on the wrong party line. The error, which affected…
The City of Hudson, which has been out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act since it was signed into law almost 30 years ago, is being forced to make municipal buildings and the city’s sidewalks accessible to those with disabilities after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The Hudson Common…
In Brief- Ulster County is taking legal action against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), contending the Hudson River has not been sufficiently cleaned of carcinogens spewed from old General Electric (GE) plants. The county joins Dutchess County in supporting a lawsuit brought by New York against the EPA after the federal agency issued a…
A Columbia County committee charged with optimizing the county’s health services met May 20th and discussed a controversial topic – whether the county’s Mental Health Clinic, which had been losing money for years, should be privatized to save money. Members of the Human Services Productivity Committee previously discussed offering the clinic to Columbia Memorial Hospital…
Researchers in Dutchess County studying two ways of killing ticks received $100,000 in state public health discretionary funds after their funding was cut in this year’s budget. The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies launched the five-year Tick Project in 2016, but the $200,000 it received from the state did not make it into the 2019-2020…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Other Hudson Valley 