The Washington Street Lot Fia$co Continues -- The Fun Begin$

That's Robert Perry on the left, leading a tour of
 the mess he created for the engineering
 firm he was forced to hire by the NYSDEC

DPW Superintendent Robert Perry was seen this morning in the Washington Street lot with two employees of the land engineering firm Delaware Engineering of Albany.  In case you haven't read any of my articles on the subject of the mudslide and ensuing work DPW has had to do in the lot, the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation is forcing Mr. Perry to clean up the mess he created in the nearby stream and wetland by allowing far too much dumping of fill and debris in the lot last year. 

Mr. Perry seemed in a rush to leave the lot when he saw me nearby, but one of the Delaware employees was happy to answer a few questions I had for him.  He told me that his company had been hired by the City of Hudson to "survey the site."  He was not aware of what the issues were, only that he thought it had something to do with a pipe under the lot.  He also told me that either DPW or his firm will hire a contractor to do the actual dirty work when the scope of that work is determined.  A few hours later, I saw the same person doing survey work in the new, extended portion of the Washington Street lot which slopes down to the Oakdale parking lot. 

The extent of the work and amount of money that will be needed to satisfy DEC's demands is difficult to say, and Robert Perry probably doesn't even know yet.  First (or second, really, after Delaware is paid), he has to hire a company to fix the mess he created.  A mess that never should have happened.  One thing is for sure -- soon there will be a whole lot of digging up and removing of the fill and debris that was dumped there last year.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Perry failed to mention one word of what is going on at the Washington lot during his monthly DPW report at Monday's Council meeting.  No one from the Council asked him about it, and no one from the public was allowed to ask him about it.  It's as if the over dumping, the mudslide, DPW's work digging out the pipe, DEC's visit and demands, and other ensuing trouble never happened.  Mr. Perry hopes to keep it that way, no doubt.

Stay tuned for more updates soon!