The Hudson City Common Council has received a letter from the former St. Lawrence Cement, now known as Holcim, that the cement company has no plans to sell its waterfront dock property any time soon, despite a resolution passed on the council's part earlier this month to seek purchase of the property. Both the Register-Star and Gossips of Rivertown have reports on the matter arising at a Common Council legal committee Wednesday night, January 26, when Alderwoman Ellen Thurston, D-Hudson3, revealed the letter from Holcim’s corporate attorney to City Attorney Cheryl Roberts. At January’s informal meeting a few weeks ago, Alderwoman Sarah Sterling, D-Hudson1, introduced a resolution which would authorize Mayor Rick Scalera to negotiate with Holcim for the purchase of the company’s waterfront property, based largely on Holcim's grieving of a $4.5 million tax assessment it had received on its deep water port at the city’s riverfront, with City Attorney John Connor calling the company's belief that the dock is actually worth $1.5 million "bogus."

Holcim's attorney wrote that the port property is the “primary means by which aggregate is shipped from the quarry to its customers by O&G Industries, who is currently operating on the property.” It is for this reason, Smith wrote, that it is not likely Holcim would consider selling the port property and the quarry property separately. Separately, the Holcim attorney wrote that the company looked forward to “a continuing and productive dialogue” with the city concerning the draft Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, which is currently in the hands of the Department of State for review and is expected to be passed in the not-so-distant future.