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County move to Wal-Mart space to be studied
Jan 27, 2011 9:28 am
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Plans for Greenport Wal-Mart conversion to Columbia County offices as seen on The Gossips of Rivertown website."]
[/caption]The future of Columbia County offices, and where they'll end up, is the subject of two blog stories online today that focus on a new Request for Proposals to study the issue that's gone out from county administrators in the past week. Matthew Frederick of Hudson Urbanism reports how, "Two months ago, the Department of Social Services floated a proposal to move most of its operations, currently housed in four separate buildings in Hudson, to an empty Wal-Mart building on Fairview Avenue. The proposal was widely criticized, although perhaps not as much as an earlier proposal to move social services to the Ockawamick School in Claverack. More recently, the county issued a Request for Proposals to attract a qualified firm to formally study its spatial needs and recommend how and where county offices (save for those legally mandated to remain in Hudson) ultimately ought to live." Carole Osterink also reports, in her Gossips of Rivertown, how the Columbia County Capital Resource Corporation (CRC) recently issued a Request for Proposals for "Space Needs Assessment, Programming and Design Criteria Services." "This latest move doesn't mean the Wal-Mart plan is off the table," Osterink writes, quoting the RFP's statement that "The CRC has been investigating one such proposal of purchasing a vacant Wal-Mart store located in the Town of Greenport for a location for consolidated offices. It is expected that this would be an alternative that would be part of this project."
[/caption]The future of Columbia County offices, and where they'll end up, is the subject of two blog stories online today that focus on a new Request for Proposals to study the issue that's gone out from county administrators in the past week. Matthew Frederick of Hudson Urbanism reports how, "Two months ago, the Department of Social Services floated a proposal to move most of its operations, currently housed in four separate buildings in Hudson, to an empty Wal-Mart building on Fairview Avenue. The proposal was widely criticized, although perhaps not as much as an earlier proposal to move social services to the Ockawamick School in Claverack. More recently, the county issued a Request for Proposals to attract a qualified firm to formally study its spatial needs and recommend how and where county offices (save for those legally mandated to remain in Hudson) ultimately ought to live." Carole Osterink also reports, in her Gossips of Rivertown, how the Columbia County Capital Resource Corporation (CRC) recently issued a Request for Proposals for "Space Needs Assessment, Programming and Design Criteria Services." "This latest move doesn't mean the Wal-Mart plan is off the table," Osterink writes, quoting the RFP's statement that "The CRC has been investigating one such proposal of purchasing a vacant Wal-Mart store located in the Town of Greenport for a location for consolidated offices. It is expected that this would be an alternative that would be part of this project."