'New era on Hudson' is coming

Center will be a research hub

By Dan Shapley
Poughkeepsie Journal

 

Darryl Bautista/Poughkeepsie Journal Dennings Point in Beacon, at center below the bridge, is the state's pick for the location of the Rivers and Estuaries Center on the Hudson. The photo was taken Saturday from Storm King Mountain in Orange County.

Lee Ferris/Poughkeepsie Journal Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson, points out details of the proposed Rivers and Estuaries Center on the Hudson site on a map to Gov. George Pataki and others attending a press conference Monday announcing Beacon will be the future home of the center. At right is Beacon Mayor Clara Lou Gould.

Lee Ferris/Poughkeepsie Journal City of Beacon Mayor Clara Lou Gould, center, talks with Gov. George Pataki during a press conference. Congresswoman Sue Kelly is in the background.

BEACON -- Two generations ago, a group of residents banded together to fight plans to build a huge hydroelectric plant on Storm King Mountain that would be fueled by the Hudson's waters.

Since then, the Hudson River has been at the center of the modern environmental movement, its advocates fighting precedent-setting battles to preserve scenic beauty and the environmental integrity of what has been called America's First River.

Monday, Storm King Mountain rose in the background as Gov. George Pataki announced a project for Beacon's shores he said would define environmental issues on the Hudson River for generations to come.

The day before Earth Day, Pataki took advantage of a landscape of symbols, even shedding the requisite business suit for blue jeans, an open collar and a fleece vest.

The Rivers and Estuaries Center on the Hudson will be a scientific research institution located at Dennings Point in Beacon and dedicated to the study of the Hudson and other rivers and estuaries, as well as the education of Hudson Valley residents and students from around the world.

John Cronin, former Riverkeeper and spokesman for the Rivers and Estuaries Center project, called it a ''new era on the Hudson'' when fighting polluters will shift to gaining knowledge and teaching it to those who live and govern in the Hudson watershed.

''For decades, the big concern was the pipes and the pollution,'' Cronin said. ''Now we have to evolve. ... The challenge isn't one of individual factories, it's the millions of toilets, it's the millions of cars, it's the millions of people.''

The center's main campus will sit on a peninsula overlooking the mouth of the Fishkill Creek, the castle on Bannerman Island and monumental Storm King at the northern edge of the Hudson Highlands.

Using found structures

The shell of an old paper clip factory on the state park at Dennings Point will be reclaimed for the project. The research center will showcase energy efficiency and clean-energy technologies.

The center also represents the vitality the state sees in burgeoning Beacon, one of many old industrial cities on the Hudson that has struggled to regain its identity. Now, its downtown is growing busier, the Dia arts museum is set to open next month, and the environmental group Scenic Hudson plans to develop a strip of waterfront.

''Beacon is going to be a symbol of the resurgence of the older communities on the Hudson,'' Pataki said.

Synergistic greens

Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson, praised Beacon's ''green economic future'' built on arts, science and recreation.

''To say that I'm delighted,'' Beacon Mayor Clara Lou Gould said, ''is the understatement of the century.''

An ''ambitious and optimistic'' schedule calls for construction to begin in a year, and finish in 2006, Pataki said. The state has gathered $25.75 million for the project, and hopes to double that within a year, Cronin said.

That would still be well below the $132 million construction budget estimated in a now-outdated 2001 strategic plan.

While there is widespread support for the project in the environmental and scientific communities, there is concern about funding at a time when the state faces huge deficits and other environmental programs face cuts.

''It's nice to name these programs without funding. Without a real commitment to address the issues, there is a mixed message,'' said Bruce Carpenter, executive director of New York Rivers United, an advocacy group for rivers. ''Certainly in these times of budget crises and the Department of Environmental Conservation losing staff across the state, we certainly see that our rivers are at risk. The ability to deal with the everyday problems is becoming harder and harder.''

Cronin said the $132 million figure no longer holds because construction time has been condensed, the old factory will be reclaimed and two satellite sites will be incorporated -- the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy and Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, Rockland County.

Those two universities are already collaborating on a $1 million research project called the Hudson Riverscope, which will use new technology to monitor the Hudson River in real time.

Also in question are the number of employees who will work out of the main Beacon campus -- once estimated at 500 -- as well as the operating budget, which was estimated at $63 million.

A new strategic plan will be drafted.

Beacon was one of a dozen communities -- including Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh and Kingston -- that were finalists for the center, which promises prestige and an economic lift with hundreds of jobs.

''We picture scientists from around the world coming to Beacon,'' Pataki said.

Beacon offered a unique blend of attributes -- in addition to its coming of age -- that was a match for the center, officials said. Among them:

Economy: Dennings Point, a 64-acre undeveloped state park, came free. And the Dyson Foundation and Dutchess County Legislature together kicked in $5.75 million.

Geography: It is about midway up the tidal river. Dutchess, Orange and Putnam counties are all nearby. And Beacon has easy access to many forms of transportation.

Ecology: The Fishkill, Quassaick and Moodna Creeks are nearby, as are striped bass spawning grounds and the northern edge of the Hudson Highlands. The satellite sites offer access to two very different ecological points in the river.

''There was a tremendous attitude in Dutchess County,'' said Michael DiTullo, executive director of Mid-Hudson Pattern For Progress and a member of the committee that chose Beacon for the Rivers and Estuaries Center.

He looked back to the building of Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill for the Hudson Valley Renegades, a minor league baseball team in the Class A New York-Penn League.

''Before that, Dutchess County had a reputation of kind of hanging low in the weeds about a lot of these things,'' DiTullo said.

He said the Dyson Foundation's $5 million pledge, and the county's $750,000 pledge, meant less as dollar amounts than they did as symbols.

''We didn't put this project out on eBay,'' DiTullo said. ''It wasn't an auction.''

Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus echoed many who said the project should help the entire Hudson Valley. ''We like to think of Dutchess County as the hub of the Hudson,'' he said.

Ultimately, Cronin, Pataki and others talked about the project in terms of the legacy it represents for future generations -- those who may not remember the time 40 years ago before Storm King was protected, when the Hudson was still considered little more than an open sewer.

''Forty years later, it's not enough just to try to stop projects. It's important to have a vision for the 21st century,'' Scenic Hudson's Sullivan said. ''This Hudson rivers and estuaries center will give tools that helped launch the environmental movement so kids of the future can be great stewards.''

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