In the spring of 1999, an election year in Hudson, a controversy arose which mobilized the community, some would say polarized it, and whose echos persist years later. My own role in the controversy is documented here in a brief address to Common Council and a post mortem letter to the editor of the local newspaper some months later.

The Americlean controversy persists. I would like to recommend one solution and state my reasons. Common Council should revisit the question once more in view of two earlier votes it has taken.

Vote #1. Mayor Scalera, with the best of motives but with bad information and advice, persuaded the Council to support a HUD application for funds to loan to Americlean. The application was premature; very little accurate information existed about the company, despite the best efforts of the mayor's staff and consultants. The mayor promised the Council a chance to reconsider the company once the HUD grant was safely submitted.

At first the problem was that the public would not tolerate the processing of "perc" in the city. After a public meeting with a company official, two things happened: Perc was withdrawn from consideration (the good news); and upon further investigation, the company proved to be defective in numerous respects (the bad news). An accurate picture of Americlean emerged only through diligent inquiries by the press and the public, with no help from the mayor's staff or consultants.

Vote #2. The mayor obtained approval from Common Council to notify HUD that perc was no longer in the picture, and stated his intention to wait for two things to happen: for Americlean to think things over, and for HUD to review the altered grant application. If Americlean backed out but the grant was awarded, the mayor said that another undisclosed substitute project would be put forth. One hopes it will have been researched more carefully.

It is my opinion that with or without perc, Americlean has proven itself to be a company we would not want to have operate in Hudson. It is also my opinion that the mayor and other HUD/Americlean advocates have a tiger by the tail, and wish they could figure out a way to let go. Common Council can help them.

I urge the Common Council to recognize the folly of proceeding with this matter, and to adopt a resolution requesting the mayor to do the following:

1. Withdraw the HUD application from consideration, and notify Americlean of this action; and

2. Investigate the source of the incomplete and misleading advice on which he relied at the outset of this entire matter, and take any corrective action that might be indicated.

I thank the Council for its attention.

To The Editor:

There is often a disconnection between ideas and power. People with ideas do not have very much power, and sadly, people with power are short on ideas. Witness the aftermath of the defeat of Americlean. The winners of that contest have turned up the heat under another handy target, exercising their power if not their ideas, while the proposed Americlean site remains idle, empty, undesired, with no apparent future use.

I have an idea, and anyone with the power to pursue it is welcome to it. It might even help to heal this wounded community. A while ago I heard a report on NPR about a small factory somewhere west of here, in a state whose name begins with an "I". For the last several years, this factory has been forced to operate three shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is still unable to keep up with the demand for its product. It is a Yo Yo factory. There is apparently a revival in the popularity of the Yo Yo, and the manufacturing process is very low-tech. People have to put the parts together and attach the string by hand, test each one, and package them for shipment.

A certain former mayoral advisor has argued passionately that the proposed Americlean site was by history and by law intended to be an industrial site, and yet the people rightly refused to permit an inexperienced group to build a poison factory there. My idea is to put a Yo Yo factory there instead. It could be attractively designed, with brilliant fluorescant colors (reds, yellows, greens, blues), perhaps even shaped like a giant Yo Yo. There would be all the tax and employment advantages everyone wants, with none of the environmentally risky activities of the previous project. It could even be viewed as an asset, rather than a liability, for the nearby riverfront recreational area we all desire.

A business plan for the Hudson Yo Yo factory should emphasize the healing aspects of such an activity. Certain promotional models could even bear the likenesses of the mayor and common council on one side of a Yo Yo, with photographs of Friends of Hudson on the other side. This is one place where it would be okay to be on opposite sides. These particular Hudson Yo Yos would be a great hit as a souvenir for antique shoppers and other tourists. Open air competitions at the riverfront could determine the Yo Yo King and Yo Yo Queen within different age brackets. Imagine the honor in being chosen as the "Yo Yo Ma of the Hudson Valley." The possibilities for generating good will as well as profitability are nearly endless.

I hope those with power, i.e. wealth, will seriously consider this idea as a way of replacing rancor with joy, and bridging the gap that lately divides us. Let us all once again learn to "walk the dog" and "go to sleep" in style, for a happy, healthy, and prosperous community.

Charles E. Hallenbeck

Hudson