Dear Common Council "President" Margaret Morris!

I'm sorry to bother you, Margaret, but I have just a few important questions that I feel require answers from you, an elected city official who owns a Hudson property that abuts two sidewalks.  The issues I bring your way, as I can only assume you will agree, are central to Hudson's public infrastructure, well-being (fiscal and otherwise), and future prosperity and success.  For reasons that I cannot understand, you appear to be ignoring these critical issues.  Thus, the questions for you.

For how many more months will the wooden pallet be leaning against your fence for all the world to walk past and see?  Would you be okay if every property owner in town were so sloppy and inconsiderate?  Isn't the message you're sending out to the world that you don't care what Hudson looks like or how messy it is?  Who are you hoping removes that pallet from your property, Margaret?  Or do you not care if it ever gets removed from public view?  What is the pallet there for?  Who is it there for?  The eyes of passers-by, to enhance the beauty of downtown Hudson?

(I took the picture of your pallet on September 14th, at least 2 weeks after I first noticed it in the same spot.)

ALSO

Were you overjoyed to recently learn that the Public Works Board chose the portion of South 5th Street sidewalk along the entire east side of your property (from Union to Cherry Alley) to be replaced? Or did you immediately tell the PWB to find a truly dangerous, hazard-filled sidewalk that has been in need replacement for years or decades, unlike your sidewalk on South 5th? (You were made aware sometime in the past few months that your sidewalk is "slated for replacement" this month by the PWB, weren't you? You noticed the white spray paint that showed up on your sidewalk a few weeks ago, didn't you? You aren't just now learning about the PWB's decision from me, are you?)

Did you point out to the PWB -- or did they point out to you -- where the absolute worst tripping hazard is on your sidewalk, the one that got their attention?

Have you ever had the good fortune over the past several years to try not to fall on your chin while walking along the 150 feet or so of so-called sidewalk on the odd side of the 500 block of State Street just west of 6th Street, where I have witnessed three people fall in the past few years?  Have you ever walked there once since moving to Hudson?  Do you suppose any of the members of the PWB have ever walked there?  The answer to that last question has got to be NO, don't you agree, Margaret?  It's a long pedestrian nightmare deathtrap!  And they chose your safe sidewalk over it?  Even a blind person knows there's no comparison between the two.  Especially a blind person!

Does it make one bit of sense to you that the people at the PWB consider your sidewalk on 5th Street to be more dangerous than this portion of sidewalk that can only be considered an obscenity that has been ignored by the city for far too long?  How about one block east on State, just west of 7th Street?  How does that portion of so-called sidewalk compare to yours?  Is there any comparison to speak of?  Aren't they in completely different, incomparable leagues of condition and safeness?  You don't really feel that your 5th Street sidewalk is one of the worst of the worst most dangerous sidewalks in the city, as the PWB has concluded, do you?  Whether or not you ever find yourself walking in the 500 or 600 block of State Street, are you glad that your sidewalk is being replaced while those two portions of obviously dangerous sidewalks in front of a few properties will have to wait to be replaced, possibly for several years while people continue to fall on them and try their best not to?  Has anyone ever fallen to the concrete (or asphalt) alongside your property that you are aware of, perhaps three or more pedestrians in the past few years?

How does your half block of sidewalk compare with Galvan's half directly to the north, between the alley and Warren?  Is there any comparison?  If so, in what way?  Has your half of the sidewalk ever been the cause of a lawsuit or two as a result of one incident involving a pedestrian falling to the ground, which Galvan's sidewalk was and which included the city attorney in at least one of those two lawsuits?

For how long has the sidewalk alongside your property been dangerous and in need of replacement, Margaret?  And if it has been dangerous, non-ADA-compliant, and in need of replacement for years, why didn't you replace it yourself years ago?  Were you waiting for the Public Works Board to hire a paving contractor to get the work done for you, and for city taxpayers to foot the bill for you, which looks like the plan the PWB is moving forward with this month?  Or did your sidewalk become full of tripping hazards this year that no one can find or trip over, just in time for the SID people to notice its awful condition and its dire need of replacement with, of course, the help of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds?  Do you agree with the PWB's assessment that replacing the sidewalk on the west side of South 5th between Union and Cherry Alley -- regardless of who owns the property it abuts -- is a wise use of money and resources and that it must be replaced?  Do you agree with the PWB's assessment that your sidewalk is one of the six worst, most dangerous, and non-ADA-compliant sidewalks in the entire city that will be part of the PWB's first effort with their SID project? If you were a member of the PWB, perhaps living in the 500 block of State Street, would you have agreed with the other members that the entire 120-foot length of sidewalk along the east side of 458 Union is one of the city's most deplorable and dangerous sidewalks that has been in dire need of replacement for years?

Are you as beffuddled and concerned as I am that the PWB chose to replace the entire sidewalk on the west side of South 5th from Warren to Union (comprising Galvan's sidewalk and your sidewalk), while ignoring perhaps the worst sidewalk tripping hazard on all of Warren Street, right around the corner from 5th Street, abutting the front of that same Galvan property?  Is there anything as dangerous and impossible to avoid as that few feet of missing sidewalk to be found, walked on, or tripped over along the sidewalk that abuts the side of your property, Margaret?

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why the Public Works Board chose the southern portion of the South 5th sidewalk alongside 458 Union Street, can you?  It doesn't help that the PWB members never publicly justified choosing that sidewalk over so many other sidewalks that actually need replacing, does it?   We may never know why they chose your sidewalk, will we?  Did anyone from the PWB justify to you why they chose the sidewalk alongside your house?  Did anyone from the PWB speak with you about your sidewalk, which they concluded to be one of the most dangerous in the entire city?

If you don't have the ability to correct what is clearly a mistake made by the PWB before it is too late, who does?  Anyone outside the PWB?  The mayor, whose aide is a PWB member?  Do you speak to mayor Ferris at all?

Will Hudson be a safer, more walkable city after your sidewalk is replaced? 

Last question for you, Margaret, I promise.  How much in taxpayer SID funds will be spent on replacing your relatively safe sidewalk that I can't find any walking hazards on?

This "sidewalk" -- with a 6-inch drop at 6th & Rope -- 
was initially chosen by the PWB as one of the city's 
worst 8 sidewalks to be replaced, then nixed due 
to "issues that cannot not be resolved this year." 
Can you imagine?