HUDSON — The Hudson Common Council’s Properties Ad Hoc Committee is exploring the idea of selling at least one of its residential properties that is in disrepair.
The committee said at its meeting Wednesday that the city owns two houses — one at the cemetery and one near the water treatment plant off North Second Street — both of which have deteriorated over time.
Hudson Common Council President Thomas DePietro said selling the cemetery house has been considered in the past for extra revenue, but the other house is also a potential sale option.
“The last time I went up to the water treatment one, I think I mentioned this before, there was a burst pipe during it being empty, the period it was empty. It’s pretty much destroyed much of the kitchen, so that would have to be addressed,” he said.
First Ward Alderwoman Jane Trombley said the house isn’t necessarily needed by the city any longer.
“Unless somebody can come up with a compelling reason to keep it, I’m not sure why we keep it,” Trombley said.
Trombley said the idea of the city renting homes or apartments is not appealing.
“I think I would be very opposed to that,” Trombley said.
The city managing tenants traverses difficult territory, DePietro cautioned.
“I think the consensus has been — and I may be wrong — that the city should not be a landlord. It’s one thing to [do] land leases where we’re just allowing someone else to do what they do on their property and it provides income and we have no everyday responsibility, but being actually engaged landlords, the type you’re going to have to deal with — just think about the extra bureaucracy it creates. Who’s going to tend to those apartments?” DePietro said.
The cemetery house also has office space for the cemetery office, DePietro said, which would need to find a new space in the event the building is sold. Because the cemetery house has tenants, selling would be more difficult, but the house near the water treatment plant is vacant, so the committee said it would focus first on the vacant home.
“I think that this committee should take the low-hanging fruit, as it were, and look to what steps perhaps ultimately lead to the disposition of that property,” Trombley said of the water treatment plant house.
The committee decided to look into conducting surveys, title searches and appraisals of the properties as well as title searches for three other city-owned properties on Warren Street. The committee agreed it would be more cost-efficient to do multiple properties at once.
“It’s going to take months to do it, but I would just think that if we started down that road, if we come up with a better idea, it can be altered. But I think that takes steps to advance the idea of selling property, and if we did anything with it would have to be surveyed, and the boundaries would have to be set. So this is just a preliminary assessment of the building and the land,” Trombley said.
DePietro said the committee would ask the council for the funds to conduct the title searches for all five buildings as a next step.
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