Hats Off!

     I want the outstanding citizens, who make up the Planning Board of Hudson, to know that I am sleeping much better now.  After attending their March 28 meeting, I am relieved to know that no one will be able to come into Hudson and plow through an agenda without restraint.

     When I arrived at March 28 Planning Board meeting, it was only a few minutes before it was to start.  I had been encouraged to attend by Mr. Cole.  (I still do not quite understand why W/S wants him to withdraw from the board’s workings with RiverPlace.  Glad to know they have no legal right to even ask for that!)  I saw a couple of the “suits” from Massachusetts snickering and laughing before the meeting and over-heard one of them say, “at least they didn’t bring candles to this meeting.  You should have been at that meeting!”  They sat down with smug faces and secure postures as I sat down in the same row.

     I want to personally thank Mr. Maddox for rejecting the RiverPlace 45 minute to one hour PowerPoint presentation.  I started to feel a lot more secure when you informed their lawyer that you had no interest in a slick promotional presentation and saw it as a complete waste of time.

     I want to also thank Ms. McGrath for letting it be known, that much of the submitted analysis, they had before them, was incomplete.  That you have many causes for alarm with this project and the road structure was just one of them.  However, that road configuration remains a big concern.

     I thank Mr. Carroll for repeatedly bring up concerns about their long term intent with regard to the RiverPlace project.  That would include all three phases.

     I also extend my thanks to Mr. Hall for keeping the meeting on track and reducing the concerns to one single factor that would have to be answered for the board’s satisfaction (that is the road configuration) and then reminding W/S that there would be many other things along the way to be answered.  You let W/S know that you were going nowhere on this project until then.

     I also want to thank Mr. Barnes.  You lent a level of civility and courtesy that shows exactly why you are Chairman of the Planning Board.  I thank you for letting those men know that they were not to come to your next meeting without the necessary filing, documentation and information, in the required time frame, that had been requested and was required by law.  Those men were not sitting up so straight then and they were writing a lot of things down on their yellow note pads.

     But, my confidence and pleasure of being a citizen of Hudson, was heightened and secured when Mr. Maddox let those arrogant men know that they had insulted the citizens of Hudson and assumed some faulty conclusions (if not illegal) in thinking they could ram the RiverPlace project down the throats of the strong, intelligent, knowledgeable and proud citizens that sit on our Planning Board and populate our town.

     My hats off to each and every one of you that sit on that board.  You have made this one citizen of Hudson very proud to be associated with each one of you.

Arlene Campbell - Hudson