What Does Another $200 or $300 Matter?

Any contractor who digs up a sidewalk or street in the City of Hudson must first be issued a Street Permit from the Department of Public Works.  The permit is important for a number of reasons.  It allows the city to know where contractors and utilities are digging, why they are digging and how big a hold they will be digging.  DPW charges the contractors a fee of anywhere from $200 to $500 for a Street Permit (and on the rare occasion, even more).  This money is primarily used to cover the expense of DPW having to repave the hole once the work is done.  The contractor covers their hole with a rough patch when they are finished, but DPW eventually comes along and tears that patch out to make a "permanent" patch.

The DPW Street Permit serves another really important function:  It keeps the city from being sued should a contractor or utility do something stupid and cause an accident, like, say, rupture a gas line and cause an explosion, or break a water main pipe.  It's called a "hold harmless agreement," and allowing any contractor or utility to work without one is really, really, supremely unwise.  According to the permit itself, failure to comply with the terms of a Street Permit can get a "contractor's operating permit suspended within the City of Hudson."  As far as I know, there is no such thing as an "operating permit" at DPW.

Just over a month ago, on June 21st, I noticed a contractor digging up the 200 block of Long Alley, from one side of the alley to the other, just west of 3rd Street.  The alley was blocked to traffic, and the excavation had to do with work going on in the backyard of an adjacent State Street property.  My sense was that the contractor, likely Bob Talham, Inc. of Troy, did not apply for a permit from DPW to dig in the alley, so I FOILed for any DPW permits allowing them to do so.  Either a permit was issued, or one was not.

It appears that a DPW Street Permit was not issued to the contractor that excavated Long Alley on June 21st.  This is the FOIL response I got from the City Clerk:  "As per DPW Supt Perry, there are no documents responsive to this request."

The unpermitted contractor filled their hole, covered it with gravel, and left.   One month later, the stones are still there (such a joy to drive and ride over!), with many scattered around, waiting to be removed by DPW so that the missing asphalt can be properly patched.  Of course, the contractor who dug up the alley won't be paying for that work.  The taxpayers of the City of Hudson will be paying for it. 

One wonders if DPW Superintendent Robert Perry cares who pays for it.