Public Spaces Initiative March Board Update

Public Spaces Initiative March Board Update

Mission To develop and facilitate the creation of public park, art, and community spaces throughout the Village of Red Hook

Public Meetings are held the 4th Saturday of each month at 10 am, in person at the Village Hall unless otherwise noted (email the PSI chair Ash Bradley-Rickard for the meeting location). The fourth meeting of the year was held at 10am on Saturday May 4[th] at Village Hall.

Key Topics

• Seed Library : The seed library is currently hosted at the Red Hook Community Center

  - Work is underway with the Community Center leadership to relocate the library from the basement to a more prominent location 
  
  - Concurrent with the planned move will be a redesign of the library as well as installing new signage which will be donated by a local artist 
  
  - Ideally the move will be completed by the June 15[th] “Hello Blooms” event at the RHCC 
  

• Abraham’s Park : As part of the ongoing redesign visioning, work is underway to produce a survey that will capture public input from Village residents and also other park users

  - The PSI has reached out to Bard College to initiate conversations on a possible collaboration for a studio art program outdoor exhibit 
  

• Pollinator Pathway : The Village of Red Hook page is live at https://www.pollinator-

  • pathway.org/towns/red-hook

    • Developing a brochure highlighting the benefits of pollinator gardens and highlighting current gardens is under consideration

    • The PSI would like to work on designing a pollinator garden for the front of Village Hall in conjunction with planning for possible entryway upgrades

• Upcoming Events

• Apple Blossom Day, May 11: PSI members will be tabling to share pollinator garden information, provide garden advice, and distribute seeds

• Historic Red Hook “Then & Now” event, June 1[st] 11am – 4pm at the Elmendorph Inn. This year’s event is themed “Farms, Food, and Families which is congruent with the PSI’s mission. The PSI will be tabling at the event. Prior to the event PSI volunteers will clean up the Elmendorph’s pollinator garden.

• Hello Blooms, June 15[th] , 11:30am – 2:30pm will be held in partnership with RHCC. Activities will include a plant give-away, informational tables, painting and pot decorating for kids, music, and a tours of the Community Center pollinator garden and seed library. Activities will be outdoors, weather permitting, or inside the Community Center in the event of rain.

• Oct 19[th] – Pumpkins in the Park Event

Planning Update

On Tuesday April 30[th] Mayor Smythe and Trustee Appenzeller had a Zoom meeting with Bonnie Franson with Nelson Pope and Voorhis (NPV), the firm working with the Village to support the planning for the Village Gateway (Cookingham East) project. The meeting was a productive working session to review a preliminary draft of NPV’s land use and zoning study. NPV will incorporate feedback from the meeting and continue augmenting the report with the goal of having a draft for an in-person meeting with the full project task force.