Our Bumbling City Hall, Unable To Pay Attention To The Important Details

We are paying Colarusso nearly one million dollars to replace a problematic Civil War-era stone sewer that, until last year, our $117,000 DPW Superintendent claimed to not be aware of.  It took at least one homeowner on Union Street with a regularly flooding basement to get Mr. Perry to discover the ancient sewer right under his feet.  There is at least one manhole cover, and possibly a few, leading to the ancient sewer that should have been replaced decades ago.  One of those covers is on the sidewalk of Union Street.  For Mr. Perry to claim that he was completely unaware of the sewer is a bit hard to swallow and more than a bit concerning.

Meanwhile, across the city in Oakdale Park, our largest and wildest public park, similar nonsense has been right under City Hall's nose for decades.  It took the erosion of a popular walking trail (and shortcut to and from the city) to shine a light on a City Hall that is, once again, unable or unwilling to pay attention to the important details.  Funny how water has the ability to get the attention of people in charge.

As readers may be well aware, as of a few weeks ago, walking on a portion of the hiking trail surrounding Oakdale Lake is no longer permitted.  In fact, the shortcut trail from the end of Spring Street to the DSS driveway (part of which is part of the loop trail surrounding Oakdale Lake) is also no longer accessible if one is to obey the many NO TRESSPASSING signs there now.  All of this, if you can believe it, came as a complete surprise to everyone at City Hall, including the mayor and the person whose department is in charge of maintaining the park, Youth Department Director Liz York.  It came as a surprise to me as well, the person who got in touch with the right person at National Grid to inform them of the dangerous and ugly situation along the trail that, it turns out, no one should ever have been walking on in the first place.

Inaccurate maps - DO NOT FOLLOW! May land you in jail!

How in the dark was the city regarding who owned what behind Oakdale Lake?  How about completely in the dark?  Consider this:  the park's trail map shows the "Oakdale Park Boundary" line for the back of the park.  That line, however, is actually National Grid's property line.  National Grid, not the city, owns what is to the west of that line! That line parallels the trail about 40 or 50 feet to the east of the trail, about halfway to the train tracks, and cuts through the two ponds.  Except that the actual city property line is located ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRAIL, closer to Oakdale Lake.  Much closer to the lake! 

  "Walking Trails," including some that no one should
 have been walking on and that are now covered in 
NO TRESPASSING signs.

The red line is the trail, the dotted line in the middle through 
the ponds is the "Oakdale Park Boundary."  Except it is not.

Will the Youth Department have to dispose of 
this map and create a new one?

In other words, the city created a trail map to encourage hikers to spend time on National Grid property while claiming it was city property.  All you have to do is spend two minutes on the County Real Property Tax online map to see that the portion of the Oakdale hiking trail that runs along the ponds is not city property and IT NEVER HAS BEEN.  The trail is part of a very old railroad bed that National Grid bought decades ago (from CSX, possibly) and under which they installed a natural gas pipeline.

Above is a screenshot from the Columbia County tax map of the area behind Oakdale Lake.  The DSS parking lot is on the left, the eastern portion of Oakdale Lake is at the top, the two turtle ponds are in the center, the functioning CSX railroad line is at the bottom, and you can see the trail from the DSS driveway headed north through the woods toward the ponds (where it continues on to Spring Street, which is off the map to the right).  That trail, and much of the ponds, are contained in a long and wide parcel that is owned by Mohawk Niagara (aka, National Grid), not the City of Hudson.  It's all right there in plain sight!  But since National Grid never marked their property, no one ever knew.  And since people have been walking back there for decades, utilizing the trails and enjoying the area, everyone, INCLUDING THOSE AT CITY HALL, seems to have just assumed it was city property or that whoever did own it did not care that people were back there.  No one from City Hall did their homework and the city even made it clear on the trail maps that all of the loop trail surrounding the lake was well within city property!  (At least they got the boundary lines correct, if not the ownership!).

Several years ago, when Nick Zachos was the director at the Youth Department, a large tree fell across the trail not far from Spring Street (and near the washed-out section).  The downed tree remained for at least a year before I asked Nick when someone from the city was going to remove it.  He told me that that portion of the trail was not owned by the City of Hudson and that there was nothing he could do about it.  Nick did not know who owned that portion of the trail, nor did he seem to care who owned it.  Of course, Nick was implying that the portion of the trail that runs along the ponds, is part of the loop around the lake, and which the city maintains and uses for summer camp, was city property.  And, of course, he too was completely wrong.  Our current Youth director told me that "the county" owned the portion of trail that got washed out a few months ago.

Last Saturday, one of HUDseen's trusted sources let me know that National Grid was busy repairing the washed-out area of the trail.  Sure enough, when I checked the following day, the gaping hole had been filled in with stones and fill, and tracks were visible along the trail where the machinery had travelled to get to and from the site.  Small colored flags and spray paint were everywhere along the entire trail, likely indicating where the gas pipe can be found below.  There is now no doubt who owns that property back there and that anyone following the city's trail map might just land themselves in jail for trespassing on National Grid property.  Such a pleasant and encouraging thought!

Hole filled and repaired.  Signs remain.

My source was told by one of the National Grid workers that he had been on that trail 15 years ago doing the same work to repair an eroded portion of the trail -- at or near the same exact spot!  The worker also said that he had been told by higher ups that National Grid was going to be having "a meeting" with our mayor about "coming to an agreement" to open the trail back up to the public (how much of the trail, I do not know).  A few days ago, I noticed Liz York's personal vehicle parked in the City Hall parking lot.  I have no doubt that she was inside City Hall sitting down with at least one person from National Grid, the mayor and likely City Attorney Andy Howard to discuss the trail situation and how to get rid of the NO TRESSPASSING signs preventing everyone from simply walking the entire loop trail around Oakdale Lake.  You know, just like the trail map encourages anyone and everyone to do (and everyone should be able to do).

Headed east, where the city-owned portion of
the loop trail meets the NG-owned portion.
(pond in the background, which is on NG property)

There is a glimmer of hope that some sort of normalcy will be returned to the trail around Oakdale, but this never should have happened in the first place.  This is what we get when a number of issues come to a head:  National Grid is not a good neighbor, they fail to maintain or even look at their own property, and those in charge at City Hall can't or won't talk to one another and can't or won't read a tax map!  Voila, a complete shitshow!  This was not a result of my doing, not matter what anyone may have said about me on fucking Facebook.  I didn't read a word of it and I urge readers to STAY AWAY FROM FACEBOOK AT ALL TIMES!  Get outside instead!  Our brains need the outdoors -- the quiet outdoors, free of concrete, cars, yellow signs, yellow caution tape and spray-painted trails.  Plus, you just might find something that should have been fixed decades ago by someone getting paid over $100,000 dollars a year with no excuse not to be aware of it!

Whose trail is it?