[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Columbia County plans for the old Wal Mart in Greenport's new use as a home for couty agencies, as seen on the Gossips of Rivertown website."][/caption]Both Francesca Olsen of the Register-Star and Carole Osterink of Gossips of Rivertown have stories on the early morning February 16 meeting of the Columbia County Capital Resource Corporation where the CRC selected New York City-based Urbahn Associates to complete Part 1 of its space needs assessment/efficiency study regarding county office space, including a proposal to move county services, including the Department of Social Services, from the City of Hudson to the old Wal-Mart building in Greenport. The CRC’s $78,000 pending contract with Urbahn will result in a professional analysis of Columbia County’s space needs, including which county departments are interdependent and therefore must be located together and a comparison of two to three different office space options. It will also pointedly include an analysis of the former Walmart property on Fairview Avenue in Greenport and its feasibility for multi-departmental office space.


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The study is expected to be completed May 1, although CRC Executive Director/County Commissioner of Planning and Economic Development Ken Flood said the contract depends on “being able to secure financing from the Board of Supervisors.”
For Olsen's cut and dried account of what happened at the meeting, click here.
For Osterink's more in-depth analysis of what's at stake, click here.