Jeanette Wolfberg is reporting for The Columbia Paper the Hudson Common Council at its meeting last month endorsed the application by the Hudson Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society for a grant from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for the purpose of preparing the lighthouse for the construction necessary to keep it standing. Sue Senecah of the society explained the lighthouse was built in 1874 on 200 wooden pilings, packed with mud and protected by large boulders called rip rap. However, since that time the wakes of large sailing vessels have “sucked” boulders away, threatening the pilings with oxidation. To keep the lighthouse standing, the society's plan calls for protecting the pilings with new boulders, repacking them with mud and building a metal “protective curtain” around the lighthouse’s base. But first potential issues with soil and asbestos must be dealt with and permits obtained. The preliminary work will cost about $630,000. The grant the society is applying for will cover $500,000 of that total. If the grant funding is received soon, Senecah said, the project could be shovel-ready in 2023. Additional support would become necessary for the main construction, which could take a few years. Senecah said, people are discovering the lighthouse and have used it for a variety of events, from birthdays, and weddings to part of an opera. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.