FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 28, 2009

BOTTOM LINE: Community Workshop Wednesday
Information sharing, community questions and Plan D are on the agenda

HUDSON -- The BOTTOM LINE will host an informational workshop 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, June 3, on the current plan to move the Columbia County Department of Social Services away from Hudson to Claverack. The workshop will present new information and clarify ongoing issues in an effort to aid members of the community to better understand the impact this decision will have on their lives. The meeting will take place in the all-purpose room at Shiloh Baptist Church, 14 Warren Street, Hudson.

Several alternatives emerged both before, and since county lawmakers purchased the former Ockawamick School (Route 217 in Claverack) for $1.5 million, and then formulated the "Ockawamick Plan," to move 15 county departments outside of Hudson, the county seat. First there was Plan B, then C. The Bottom Line would like to continue the discussion with the presentation of another option -- Plan D.

Plan D is the most economical suggestion thus far, and calls for maintaining the primary DSS office at its current location on Railroad Avenue. This option includes the construction of a new addition to the existing building, and office reorganization, along with a healthy dose of efficient space management. Plan D would cost an estimated $3 million. The pros and cons of this idea will be part of the discussion on Wednesday.

The Bottom Line wants to continue to hear from the public. Come and share your thoughts on the plan that will relocate DSS six miles into the countryside, next door to a country club. While the location may be appealing to the individuals that constitute the county Board of Supervisors, it is not a place easily accessible to mothers with children, the disabled and the elderly, those who are mandated to visit the office on a regular basis.

County human services, along with a network of supporting professionals and organizations, are located within Hudson and must remain in place. The Columbia County Courthouse, Columbia Memorial Hospital and many law offices serve the same clientele. And because public transportation does not exist, basic accessibility to services is the issue.

What's more, with this decision, the county leadership signaled its intention to dismantle the county seat. The relocation of DSS is just one part of the scheme, but it is arguably the most destructive because it will require massive busing of Hudson and Greenport residents (more than 60 percent of all DSS clients reside in the 12534 zip code).

"We are not convinced that 'busing people' is an idea that is prudent for a number of reasons," said Linda Mussmann. "Mainly because it will further stigmatize people already having a hard time. It's a cruel decision and wrong."

"The idea is wrong on a practical level. While the location may have been suitable for a school of the late 20th century it is totally inappropriate for a human services building in the 21st, a time when we must cut down on fuel consumption," Mussmann said.

"Our elected officials -- Art Baer, Doug McGivney, Phil Williams, Linda Scheer and Roy Brown, in particular -- are making bad choices. The decision to expand outside the city is foolish because this is a time when we should be developing the ways and means of using small cities to be thrifty and sensible," Mussmann said.

Join us Wednesday night to learn more about how this plan will impact our community, and to voice your opinion. Be informed, write or call your elected officials. Tell your chosen representatives what you think about this plan to destroy the centralized delivery of human services.

"Stop the sprawl y'all!"

Join us 6 p.m., Wednesday (June 3) at Shiloh Baptist Church,14 Warren Street, Hudson.

About the Bottom Line:
Founded in 2001, the Bottom Line Party focuses on issues that effect the health, safety and economic well-being of all Hudson residents, but especially for the working class and poor.

In the news

Opponents of DSS, Pine Haven moves ask supes to re-evaluate
by John Mason
Register-Star
May 14, 2009

COLUMBIA COUNTY — Although the Board of Supervisors went about its usual tasks at Wednesday’s full board meeting, creating and filling positions, distributing mortgage taxes, awarding contracts and making proclamations, their bubble was pierced by the buzz on the sidewalk outside, in the seats on the periphery of the chamber, in end-of-the-meeting remarks by discontented supervisors and in the hallway after the meeting.

The buzz was about Ockawamick, as it has been for 14 months, and Pine Haven, as it has been for four months. The supervisors’ plan is to move the Department of Social Services from Hudson to the former Ockawamick School in Claverack, six miles outside the county seat. And they are studying a proposal to move the Pine Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center from Philmont to Kinderhook.

On the State Street sidewalk outside the front door, about 40 people held signs that said things like “Keep Pine Haven in Philmont,” “Keep DSS in Hudson,” and “What about us.”

“Let’s stop the secret upstairs meetings,” intoned Al Wassenhove through a bullhorn. “Let’s have the facts, folks. Keep DSS in Hudson. Give [Hudson Mayor Rick] Scalera a seat at the table.”

Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce led choruses of “It’s a Long Way to Ockawamick.”

“Who sold this piece of asbestos laden junk to us?” asked Ockawamick move opponent Dan Udell of Taghkanic. “Who unloaded this on us? What were the terms and conditions? We were never told. It was a solution without a problem. It was never discussed.”

“It’s a totally inhuman thing to do this to people who are so helpless and need so much support to get on a bus,” said Mary Udell. “People with health problems, sight problems, elderly — it’s inhuman. The supervisors want to hollow out Hudson. This hurts the economy of Hudson and the people who are in need, when it’s supposed to help them.”

Pine Haven employee Ruth Taylor said she was there to keep Pine Haven county owned and operated.

If the move to Kinderhook happens, she said, “more than likely they’ll privatize certain departments — laundry, housekeeping and kitchen.”

Lorraine Decker, a 23-year employee of the home, said she didn’t know if long-time employees of the home would be able to travel the distance to the proposed new location.

Home employee Martha Hoyt said, “The care’s wonderful, the people are wonderful, the ambulance response time is tremendous.”

She said she didn’t understand why Kinderhook would need two skilled nursing facilities, Pine Haven and Barnwell.

Where were the supervisors while the people were out on the streets? Supervisor Tom Dias, R-Ancram, and a few Hudson supervisors were out talking to them. The rest were apparently in ill-lit rooms.

At the end of the board meeting, when supervisors are usually visibly anxious to adjourn, Supervisor Ed Cross, D-Hudson2, rose to address his peers.

“I walked into the Democratic caucus,” he said. “The lights were out.” He noticed the same thing in the Republicans’ caucus, he said.

“We’re a team,” Cross said. “If something’s wrong and someone sees, it’s up to them to tell it. I said months ago the purchase was wrong. We tried to squeeze DSS in there, make it fit. Why do we need to put it there so quickly? Are we afraid the building will turn to a pumpkin?”

He referred the supervisors to a list of questions he had placed on their desks.

“Look at them, in your solitude,” he said. “Talk to your constituents. We are a team. We’re supposed to be working together. We’re not doing that.”

The questions cover such issues as financing, public referendum, cost of the transportation plan, maintenance costs, DSS procedures and a host of others.

Supervisor William C. Hughes, D-Hudson4, rose next.

He said he and other Hudson supervisors had been criticized for making comments on Ockawamick.

“We wanted you to understand the depths of this decision,” he said. Both the Ockawamick and Pine Haven projects, Hughes said, need to have both cost analyses and humanistic analyses done.

Outside in the hallway, bed-and-breakfast owner Mary Koch accosted her supervisor, Republican James Keegan, over the Ockawamick plan.

He told her the plan will benefit Claverack because it gets two acres for a town hall, if built within the first 10 years.

Koch said this would come at the cost of hardships for the DSS clients who would have to travel to Claverack.

“What about the people in New Lebanon?” Keegan asked. “It doesn’t work out good when you don’t have a car and can’t get to Hudson.”

Claudia Bruce said 60 percent of the people using services are in the Hudson area, and Linda Mussman said people from the outlying towns who drive to DSS would rather come to Hudson to shop at the same time.

Koch said the plan would weaken Hudson, and that it was a bad time for a plan that increases gasoline consumption.

“We should be spending less money on oil,” she said.

“This was a good building that was going to go to waste,” Keegan said. “Now it’s a viable, working building.”

“It’s a mistake,” said Meg Cashen of Claverack. “You’ll be so sorry if you do it. It’s so unfair to the recipients.”

Keegan said people who were very close to him had had two deaf children. The mother never drove a car in her life, but got to DSS by bus.

“I’m not immune to this,” he said.

Mussmann asked what the difference was between taking the prison out of Hudson — an issue that unified almost all local leaders in their opposition to it — and taking DSS out of Hudson.

Koch argued that the Health Department and DSS should be located near each other because of the overlap in their clienteles.

“We’re all willing to work and try to help rationally get this idea to work,” Mussmann said. “But the doors were shut the minute the idea was floated.” She recalled that 29 people spoke against it at the only public hearing on the topic, with no supporters.

“All agency people,” Keegan said.

Bruce and Mussmann disputed this contention.

“Have one more public hearing,” Koch pleaded. “See what the people have to say.”

“2011 is coming upon us,” Keegan said, referring to the end of DSS’s lease with Tony Concra at 25 Railroad Ave., Hudson.

“You can’t rent it one more year?” Mussmann asked. “Give us a little more time.”

“Contractor costs are going up as you’re talking,” Keegan said.

“Hudson is a center of need,” Cross said. “A group that gets burnt out of this. Hudson will get burnt. This is all scripted for us poor folk to get out of town.”

20 questions for the CC Board of Supervisors

1. Was an appraisal done of the Ockawamick property before it was purchased?
2. How will this project be financed? And who will finance it?
3. Will there be a public referendum to approve the financing?
4. How much will the debt service cost the taxpayers of Columbia County?
5. What is the initial cost of creating a transportation plan? What will the financial impact be over a 10-year period? A 20-year period?
6. How much of the transportation plan is federally reimbursable?
7. Who’s on the short list for the bus contracts?
8. What will it cost to maintain the new county campus?
9. Will the health club and cafeteria be self-sustaining enterprises? Will those facilities be open to the public?
10. Will child care be available at Ockawamick for client families?
11. What does DSS currently spend on transportation, Medicaid reimbursable or not?
12. What is the projected cost to create a communications infrastructure at Ockawamick? Is there broadband service available in Claverack or Philmont, and at what cost? How much money will it take to network that campus with the remaining county departments in Hudson?
13. How many other counties in the state of New York maintain their primary human services office outside the county seat in a rural location, away from the majority of benefit recipients?
14. Under the law, can the present Board of Supervisors encumber a future Board of Supervisors (and the taxpayers) with this kind of decision without voter approval?
15. What happens during a routine DSS intake interview? What must potential recipients do to qualify for benefits?
16. How long does the average DSS appointment take?
17. How much time does a DSS worker now spend transporting clients to home, or other locations?
18. How much does it cost the county to transport a DSS client from Hillsdale to Hudson today? How much will it cost the county to transport that same client to Ockawamick?
19. Why didn’t the DSS commissioner participate in the County Workspace Evaluation Sub-Committee interview and survey process that was required for every other department head? If the commissioner did participate, where is the survey?
20. Did your vote on the Ockawamick Plan reflect the consensus of your constituents? Did you solicit their opinions before each vote)? What percentage of your electorate thought this was a good idea?

Plan 'B'

...In a Feb. 2 meeting at the Hudson Fire Station, citizens discussed 'Plan B,' an alternative to the Ockawamick idea.

Under Plan B a three-story, 38,000-square-foot building would be erected to house DSS on the northwestern corner of Fourth and Columbia streets. Across Fourth Street from that would be built a three-story parking garage with a 200-car capacity.

Behind the site of this new DSS building, across Long Alley, a new parking lot that would hold 60 vehicles is already being built.

Mayor Richard Scalera said the building would cost about $7.5 million and the garage would be $3.6 million, making a total of about $11 million, which he said is a $4 million savings compared to the $15 million Ockawamick is predicted to cost after renovation....

Supes vote on DSS move tonight
Department slated for Ockawamick
by John Mason
Register-Star
Mar. 11, 2009

(Click on images to enlarge)

Letter to the editor

Register-Star
Published Mar. 25, 2009
To the Editor:

The Columbia County Board of Supervisors vote and decision to move the Department of Social Services out of the City of Hudson and to Ockawamick School in rural Claverack is not only the wrong decision, but it is extremely disappointing and outrageous. As one community-based organization director said, "This decision is going to outlast every elected official's term of office..this is a bad legacy."

To add insult to injury, several Supervisors who voted in favor of the decision had the audacity to say that "they listened to the people at the public hearings, the letters and all the other comments that people raised concerning the issues, the concerns for clients and workers." If that is the case, then how is it that they could come to this decision when every single person who spoke at the public hearing at the Hudson Middle School voiced their opposition to moving this agency out of Hudson? We can't recall any letter to the editor that thought this was a good idea. n addition, several human service agencies that provide regular services to DSS recipients have indicated the importance of keeping DSS in Hudson since many recipients require the services of multiple county and non-profit organizations.

No other county in New York State has its main social services office located outside of the County seat. Nassau County once proposed a similar proposition to move its Department of Social Services outside of the county seat. Because of public outcry and further review of the impact on the recipients, the plan was abandoned. You put the services where the majority of people being served live and where other support services are located.

After the public outcry when the plan to buy the Ockawamick School was first announced and it was suggested that DSS be moved there, the Board of Supervisors back stepped. It claimed it hadn't made any final decisions as to the move. A County Workspace Evaluation Subcommittee was created and over the next few months, supposedly it evaluated all county agencies' needs and even distributed a survey to all agency heads to fill out and submit. So why are the DSS survey results one of only two agencies (the other being the County District Attorney's Office) not published on the County website? We would be very interested in seeing the responses to the questions. Repeated requests for this information have been ignored. The public has a right to see the responses.

What is on the website is interesting-and telling. In the February 18 Subcommittee minutes, Chairman Baer said, responding to a question regarding satellite office for Department of Social Services in Hudson, stated it would be "just an intake office for people that could not make it to Ockawamick or need to be seen in Hudson on an emergency basis." It was added that "all administration, major support services and case workers would be located at Ockawamick." Later in that same meeting, a Supervisor asked how many clients need services of multiple County Departments. The response he received, "That information is not available." That's not true-if you look at the responses received from other agency heads, many of them mention the overlap with DSS clients. The information is available. The Subcommittee just didn't ask for it. It's clear from these responses that the satellite office is in no way intended to be a fully functioning office. Kudos to Supervisors Betty Young, Bart Delaney and William Hughes, Jr. for calling into question the adequateness of the satellite office. One of them described this office truly what it is-"a political band-aid that would do nothing for the clients." We also appreciate the other Supervisors who voted against this resolution.

From the get-go, the impact on people receiving county social services never appeared to be a real concern of many on the Board. The original weighted criteria the Board assigned in evaluating the DSS move last summer was flawed from the beginning and was primarily focused on cost and convenience to the County and its employees and very little weight was given on the impact that this move would have on the users of these services. What we have witnessed over the last few months, when the Board supposedly looked objectively at all agencies and their appropriateness to move to Ockawamick, was a sham. Once the County bought the building, DSS's fate was sealed.

And now we have "déja vu all over again" when we see Chairman Baer's statement that "nothing has been decided and no concrete numbers are in from the developer" of the proposed Pine Haven move to Valatie. Let's not hope so-but then again, how do we really know?

Sincerely,
Meg and Katy Cashen
Claverack

Plan 'B' -- The People's Plan

...In a Feb. 2 meeting at the Hudson Fire Station, citizens discussed 'Plan B,' an alternative to the Ockawamick idea.

Under Plan B a three-story, 38,000-square-foot building would be erected to house DSS on the northwestern corner of Fourth and Columbia streets. Across Fourth Street from that would be built a three-story parking garage with a 200-car capacity.

Behind the site of this new DSS building, across Long Alley, a new parking lot that would hold 60 vehicles is already being built.

Mayor Richard Scalera said the building would cost about $7.5 million and the garage would be $3.6 million, making a total of about $11 million, which he said is a $4 million savings compared to the $15 million Ockawamick is predicted to cost after renovation....

Supes vote on DSS move tonight
Department slated for Ockawamick
by John Mason
Register-Star
Mar. 11, 2009

(Click on images to enlarge)

In the news

Residents opposed to DSS move continue to push for 'Plan B'
by Jamie Larson
Register-Star
Apr. 15, 2009

HUDSON — Concerned Hudson citizens and officials came together Tuesday night to discuss their opposition to the Columbia County Board of Supervisors’ plan to move the Department of Social Services from Hudson to the old Ockawamick school in Claverack. Meeting at the First Presbyterian Church on Warren Street in Hudson, the group listened as Mayor Richard Scalera broke down the details of his “Plan B,” which would see the department remain in Hudson under the roof of a newly constructed 40,000-square-foot building on the corner of Columbia and Fourth streets with a three-story parking garage.

A detailed discussion of the DSS issue was lead by political activist and co-owner of Time and Space Limited Linda Mussmann and the mayor, and saw residents from Hudson, Claverack and elsewhere raising their voices and even singing in opposition to the move. The meeting was also attended by many Hudson politicians, as well of Supervisor Thomas Dias, R-Ancram, who voted in favor of the Ockawamick move, and said he was there with an open mind but feels it is probably too late to consider new options.

Scalera said these are frustrating times for Hudson and the citizens who want to keep DSS in the city. He says that instead of giving Hudson officials a seat at the table to discuss options to keep DSS in the county seat, he and others have been shut out. Scalera was put on a county sub-committee to evaluate options for the move early on in the process, but says when he was told that none of those options included keeping the office in Hudson, he left, not wanting to be a part of any body that wouldn’t entertain a Hudson location.

According to the mayor, Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer asked Scalera to “do his homework” on a Hudson plan that would work. While Scalera now has that plan he feels the county had its mind made up on the move and it didn’t matter what he said. “No way it’s my responsibility,” the mayor said, “The county should have done their diligence. We’re talking about fairness.”

Baer says, contrary to Scalera’s assertion, he has evaluated Plan B and it doesn’t hold water. He says the structure Scalera proposes is a “vanilla building,” just a shell, and its cost will increase once they start building and realize what additional supplies they need.

Scalera says this isn’t so. He says while the county got its supply and square-footage numbers for Ockawamick out of an architectural digest, he got his straight from contractors based on materials they use. He also said he thinks the supervisors are underestimating the cost of Ockawamick’s remediation, as it has a number of serious issues including asbestos and oil contamination in the well.

The Ockawamick plan is slated to cost the county $16.7 million, plus the cost of a bus to shuttle Hudson residents to the old school and a possible satellite office in Hudson. The specifics of the transportation plan and satellite have not been finalized.

The cost of plan B breaks down like this, according to Scalera: Developers estimate the DSS building will cost $175 per square-foot — that’s $7 million for the 40,000-square-foot building. The 200-lot garage will cost $3.4 million. The mayor estimates land acquisition to cost $600,000, bringing the total to $11 million. Scalera says this sounds like a lot of money, because it is, but it is less than the current plan. Also it is his belief that the shuttle bus plan will cost the county $6,046,000 over 35 years, taking inflation into account, and his plan would save all that extra money.

Scalera also took exception to a statement made by Baer last week to the Register-Star, when the chairman said if his constituents were in Hudson, and he were up for re-election this year, he would probably be saying the same things as the mayor. “Chairman,” Scalera said, “if you lived in Hudson you’d have a better understanding of what it means to struggle.”

Though tempers have flared numerous times around the issue, officials stressed they wanted to make Plan B as available to the supervisors as possible. After Tuesday night’s meeting the mayor said he was encouraged by Dias' presence at the meeting and hopes that others will follow. Dias said he never considered Plan B when he voted for the move because it “wasn’t on the menu,” saying had it been, he would have looked at the numbers. Scalera said that Dias, who has only been a supervisor a year and a half, didn’t see it because Plan B was deliberately omitted from consideration because the county had already purchased Ockawamick and needed to find something to do with it.

Those opposed to the plan say taking such a vital office — DSS — which services the most needy members of society, six miles out of the area with the most need is a mistake. Residents are concerned about the stress that shuttle buses would put on citizens who use the office almost every day. Around 60 percent of people who use the DSS office are from Hudson and Greenport. “[Baer] called [Ockawamick] the geographic heart of the county,” Scalera said, “it makes no sense when Hudson is the demographic heart of the county.”

Residents and officials then spoke for more than an hour about what they could realistically do to change supervisors’ minds about DSS. Many applauded Dias for his willingness to appear, even if his mind wasn’t changed and called for residents to pound on the doors of their supervisors to demand they at least listen to Plan B. They put a particular emphasis on reaching out to Claverack politicians, to secure opposition at both ends of the move. Claverack citizens in attendance all said that they don’t want the office there either and that they are going to fight to keep it out as hard as Hudson will fight to keep it in.

Attendees were also treated to a puppet show by TSL co-owner Claudia Bruce, which comically depicted the plight of Plan B as it was rejected by the Board of Supervisors. In the quick show, Baer was depicted as a blue chair and Supervisor Doug McGivney, D-Kinderhook, was portrayed as a rat.