SamPratt.com

(Parenthetical remarks)

For your Monday morning, here’s an applecartload of local bits, pieces, odds, ends, fact, rumor and surmise... (I probably could get way more hits by doling these out one-by-one over the next two weeks instead, but why tease?) 

• Rural Intelligence is rumored to be going on a hiatus (and if so, will be much missed);

• Über-restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten and mega-hotelier Ian Schrager are each said to sniffing around Hudson real estate (in particular waterfront real estate); 

• In other food-and-hospitality news, the Fillis recently opened a spacious lounge/seating area in the back of their Claverack market to complement their growing pizza business (but I’ll be taking advantage of it mostly for morning coffee);

• Meanwhile, Café Le Perche in the 200 block of Hudson has obtained its liquor license, and will start to stay open until 8 pm weekdays, 10 pm or later on weekends (and is looking for some good evening help);

• Back in Claverack, the Won Dharma meditation/retreat center is holding an open house on September 4th from 3:30-5:30 pm for local residents (and curiosity-seekers);

• Over to Chatham... Former Charleston owner/chef Carole Clark will have an opening of her new “totems and vessels” at Solaqua on August 27th from 1-5 pm (in a raw industrial space which she says most will love, but some will find alarming);

• In Taghkanic, Moyra Botta is hosting the 2nd annual Columbia County garden party to benefit the AIDS Council of Northeastern New York, with tickets starting at $75-per-head (which is worth it just to gawk at her Phifer-designed house, pictured above, while also supporting a worthy cause);

• The Sunday Farmer’s Market in Philmont is a hidden gem which will remain open through mid-October (hidden, at least, if you don’t normally pass through Philmont on a Sunday morning);

• A fourth Bourne sequel, The Bourne Legacy, is said to be coming to shoot scenes in Columbia County, allegedly in “an old mansion close to Hudson” (but it may not star Matt Damon, so don’t rush off to look for him eating pastry on Warren Street);

• Work has resumed on the old Schroeder's site on Green Street (evidently to make way for yet another beer store);

• Tuesday is the deadline for independent nominating petitions for candidates running on their own lines (and it will be telling whether Linda Mussmann actually files Bottom Line petitions for Mayor, as was done for Geeta Cheddie and John Musall last week);

• The only two Hallenbeck for Mayor signs spotted thus far are on (A) the candidate's own house and (B) an old car parked in front of a defunct store on Fairview Avenue... in Greenport;

• Peter Jung’s Gifford’s Grave project to restore the family gravesite of one of the Hudson River School’s leading lights, is now complete (but will wait to hold a celebratory ceremony in 2012);

• MarthaStewart.com has a link to a visitor’s Tumblr post about their “dreamy weekend getaway to Hudson” (at the new Hudson Merchant House on Front Street);

• More photos of the Hudson Merchant House can be found at Laura Murphy’s SmugMug site, (which also features some fun pics of starlings and pigeons bathing in a large puddle on the roof of her 600 block building);

• Some ATMs in Hudson reportedly ran out of cash during the weekend of the NADA art fair at the Basilica Hudson (but as best as anyone can tell, most of it went to food, not art).

Ends & Odds

1. A Claverack firefighter brought the above image to this site’s attention: a satellite view of the Mohawk and Hudson Valleys. (The Mohawk runs vertically, the Hudson horizontally, with Albany near the top center of the image about 1/3 of the way down.)


2. Alan Chartock bids farewell to the glossy regional lifestyle magazine Berkshire Living, which is closing, and offers some thoughts on the state of the publishing industry at his blog.


3. Hudson Democratic alderman nominee Tim Rodgers is rumored to be withdrawing from the 1st Ward race, and considering other options, with ward resident David Marston likely to enter it.


4. Tortillaville, the popular tacqueria and gathering spot in Hudson’s 300 block will be reopening for the season on Memorial Day weekend.


5. Photographer Peter Donohoe is exhibiting his photographs of barns and farmsteads at the new Vanderbilt House in Philmont, and holding a reception on Thursday the 26th from 4–6 pm.


6. In anticipation of their upcoming Media issue, the Columbia County quarterly Our Town held an afternoon-long photoshoot last Sunday with Johannes Courtens and area media figures (media defined very broadly here) from author Bill Kennedy to comic Tom Davis. The issue is being guest edited by former Esquire scribe and noted songwriter Jake Brackman; Harper’s/GQ writer Dave Gargill is tackling the state of NYC publishing; and Yours Truly will have a long piece about the state of local media.

Time on his hands

In a Register-Star opinion piece last Winter, Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera dodged questions about the Waterfront by saying he does “not have the time” to discuss such issues in detail.

A more recent article in the same paper sheds some light on what Scalera does have time for... Namely, going out to Philmont to make special pleadings on behalf of a local property owner.

According to this June 18th report by Francesca Olsen, Philmont officials recently discussed alleged problems with The Mill on Summit Street, which is owned by Eleanor Ambos and subject to a stop work order from the Village:

“According to Philmont Mayor Clarence ‘Skip’ Speed, the building is more than 100 years old and has three floors and no sprinkler system. There’s only one entrance, with no fire exit or additional way out, which presents a fire hazard.

“The stop-work order, he said, actually prevents Ambos from having work done on the building. ‘We’re trying to figure out a way she can legally work on that building without getting in trouble,’ he said.”

But despite building inspector stating Dennis Callahan stating that “Nobody can be in this building. It’s just unsafe,” a member of the audience at the Village board meeting variously claimed that people are “staying at,” “going into” and “running a business in there.”

(Olsen cited as an example a blog post about a “Dance Meditation Summer Movement Monastery” scheduled to take place in part at the Mill in June. Similarly, this announcement appears to be for a wedding which took place there in 2008.)

Enter Scalera—the Mayor without enough time on his hands.

Speed was asked by the audience “why Hudson Mayor Richard Scalera had visited Philmont to discuss the building.” The article elaborates:

Scalera told the Register-Star he went to Philmont on behalf of Ambos to meet with Callahan, Speed and representatives from the engineering firm Crawford and Associates, who are involved in the building’s remediation.

“(Ambos) is having a difficult time understanding the code process on what she can do to turn that into a place for public assembly,” he said.

Scalera said he met with the Philmont officials to ask if they can help Ambos along with the permit process “so she can have public assembly out there.” [...] “This is just to benefit Philmont and Elanor [sic] Ambos to put the mill to good use,” Scalera said.

In 1998-1999, Scalera as Mayor pushed for (and obtained) a large HUD grant to assist Ambos with the purchase and renovation of the Pocketbook Factory in Hudson.  Ambos did in fact work to stabilize the building, but stopped far short of the grant’s purposes to create artist loft space, affordable housing and a HeadStart office. When Scalera’s hand-picked successor Cappy Pierro lost his bid for Mayor to Kenny Cranna, Hudson development officials became more serious about enforcing the terms of the grant—at which point Ambos returned the funds rather than follow the plan.

During another of Scalera’s off-terms in the political wilderness, it was often rumored that he was managing property for Ambos, who also owns the former Allen Street School and Elks Club buildings in Hudson, both of them seemingly unused.

Now, unless Ambos has some business before the City of Hudson or one of its agencies controlled by the Mayor, it may not be an issue if Scalera wants to moonlight for her or anyone else. But it does beg the question: How much of Scalera’s time is consumed by work outside City Hall? And for whom?