Is This Really What Hudson Needs Or Wants Right Now?

I recall that it was in the winter of 2015 that Hudson City Hall (or just DPW) made the brilliant decision to turn the basketball courts at Oakdale Park into an ice skating rink as an alternative to skating on the lake, which had become prohibited by the city.  I remember walking past the "rink" one not-so-cold day that winter and seeing wet plastic sheets all over the courts.  It was hard not to laugh.  The city had lined the walls of the courts with plastic, flooded the "rink" with water, and hoped that the water would remain to freeze and offer hours of skating enjoyment for us all.  But the water leaked out and the cold weather never came.  I remember thinking at the time, "Can you do anything more dumb and wasteful?"  8 years later, I think the answer is YES.

At last month's Informal Common Council meeting, a woman with the company BIG TOWEL pitched her company's service of providing the city with 2 mobile saunas on the beach at Oakdale this fall and winter.  I guess the council eventually voted in favor of the proposal, because one of the saunas was installed on the beach on Sunday afternoon.

According to the BIG TOWEL presentation, the saunas' hours of operation will be from 8am - 7pm Friday thru Monday.  The saunas can hold 6 people at a time, and $25 will get you an hour and 45 minutes of hot air.  You have to pre-book your sauna visit, and, according to the presenter, "you won't be able to control who is there with you" in the sauna.  Sounds great, I'd love to pay $25 to sit in a steamy cramped sweat box with possibly a creep or two, especially when it's dark outside.  Sign me up!

The saunas will be heated by wood stoves attached to the outside of the saunas.  What I envision is a lot of wood being burned unnecessarily, empty saunas, few people interested in paying for a sauna in a strange location with half naked (and possibly creepy and smelly) strangers, and the attendants at the saunas sitting or standing around thinking "Where is everybody?" and "Whose idea was this?" 

Don't get me wrong, I loves me a sauna, and I hope this idea is a huge success.  But this seems to be yet another horrible idea for something to do at Oakdale, possibly worse than the skating rink idea 8 years ago.

While all this is going on, none of the 17 lights in the City Hall Municipal Parking Lot have turned off for over a year, and the most ideally located picnic table at Oakdale didn't get a coat of paint this year, as it has needed so badly for well over a year.  It's so encouraging to see our Common Council and City Hall working as hard as they do to make life better for everyone in Hudson.

Why would anyone want to sit at this table?
It's like the city doesn't want anyone to sit at it!