HUDSON — A small alliance of Hudson architects and other professionals will offer a proposal to the Common Council on Tuesday for a private-public partnership to renovate 7th Street Park.
The group, Friends of the Public Square, consists of lawyer Dorothy Heyl, a former Historic Hudson Board member and the wife of Common Council President Thomas DePietro; Hudson- and Copenhagen-based architect Walter Chatham; and landscape architect Dale Schafer of Wagner Hogson, a firm based in Hudson and Burlington, Vermont.
The group describes the park as a public square and it was at one time treated as such, Heyl said.
The public area used to have a statue of Venus, the goddess of love, atop its fountain, according to the group’s presentation, which they will display Tuesday night.
The statue was removed from the fountain in the 1970s as part of a beautification program by the Kiwanis Club.
The signs refer to the fountain, Department of Public Works Superintendent Robert Perry said.
"The fountain pump is high voltage and is neither properly grounded nor meets current codes and regulations to ensure people will not be electrified by touching the water in the fountain," he said.
At the planned presentation Tuesday evening, the group members will talk about the history of the park, the purpose of a public square, the park’s current condition and potential improvements.
Possible short-term renovations include removing the fences from around the fountain, removing the kiosk and bollards — short, thick posts commonly found on the deck of a ship or on a wharf — in the park, pruning the trees and bushes and improving park seating, according to the group.
Possible long-term steps could include lighting, landscaping, fountain and pavement improvements.
Ideally, the group would first remove unnecessary elements in the park and then add better ones, Heyl said.
The biggest priority is community input, Heyl emphasized. The group has no specific plans in place at this time.
“What we would like to do is establish a public-private partnership between our group and the city of Hudson such that we would be responsible for reclaiming the park, taking back the park from the sad condition that it has fallen into,” Heyl said.
Friends of the Public Square would raise funds through grants and private foundations to improve 7th Street Park, she said. The city would not pay for the improvements.
Friends of Hudson Youth and the Hudson Parks Conservancy, in Hudson, and the Central Park Conservancy, in New York City, are examples of private-public partnerships, Heyl said.
The Olana State Historic Site in Greenport and the High Line in New York City are supported by private-public partnerships, she said.
The presentation scheduled for Tuesday is the first step toward reaching a formal agreement, Heyl said.
The group is looking for a green light from the city to begin a partnership, she said. It will seek approval from the council and Mayor Kamal Johnson.
“We’re really nobody until we get into an agreement with the city,” Heyl said.
Heyl, Chatham and Schafer are not alone in imagining the park’s future.
A Facebook group called Friends of the 7th Street Park, created by Heyl in August 2020, has 169 members who share their thoughts about the past and future of the park.
The Common Council meeting is 7 p.m. Tuesday.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been corrected to reflect more accurate information with regard to the fence and the high-voltage sign. We apologize for the error.