fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Clearwater lays off half of staff; could face closure

by Frances Marion Platt
April 10, 2020
in General News
3
Clearwater lays off half of staff; could face closure
Schools up and down the Hudson Valley send children on environmental education field trips aboard the Clearwater. (Photo by Alan Thomas)

Among the many entities hard-hit financially by the COVID-19 pandemic are small regional not-for-profit organizations, which tend to operate on lean budgets even in the best of times. For some, the blow from the economy’s screeching to a halt may prove to be one from which the group simply cannot recover. Teetering on the brink of such disaster right now is the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the organization founded by Pete Seeger in the late 1960s to raise public awareness about the ecosystems of the Hudson estuary and the pollution threatening them, by means of building a replica of a historic sailing vessel.

Every year that does not feature fine weather for its biggest annual fundraising event, the two-day outdoor music festival known as the Great Hudson River Revival, is a year that Clearwater must tighten its belt and cut back on spending. That was the case in 2019, when the festival came hard on the heels of a week of heavy rain. Moreover, according to Manna Jo Greene, environmental action director for the organization, “expenses were high” for last year’s festival, partly due to the fact that musical acts are no longer as willing to perform for less than their going rate to support Clearwater’s mission as they had been back in the days when Peter and Toshi Seeger were the Revival’s main organizers. With ticket sales low during the final week before the event and at the gate, the organization sustained a loss of $190,000 from running the festival. “We still had debts from last year” coming into 2020, Greene said.

Normally, cash flow for Clearwater picks up again with the spring sailing season, when schools up and down the Hudson Valley send children on environmental education field trips, both in the Classroom of the Waves aboard the sloop itself and onshore via its Tideline Program. During the summer, tickets are sold for public sails. But 2020 started far enough into the red that it was decided to scale down the Revival this June, using only a small southern portion of Croton Point Park instead of the entire park, for what was termed “a unique and intimate event for 529 attendees” in a February announcement to members.

Then COVID-19 hit, and not only was this planned mini-Revival off the table, but the spring sailing and education programs as well. A marathon of emergency meetings got underway, with the knowledge that a decision had to made quickly, and putting the beloved sloop in mothballs the least appealing alternative. “This is the most dire circumstance. Unless we turned this around, we weren’t going to make the next payroll,” Greene related.

So last Friday, March 27, the group released an announcement stating, “Clearwater may be faced with closure. To try and fend off that scenario, we are drastically reducing our operations immediately. This includes letting go of more than half of our staff, including several office staff and much of the sloop’s crew. The remaining team will focus on maintaining the sloop, our membership and pursuing any and all options for financial relief and stabilization for a more sustainable organization.” The grim news segued into a passionate plea for donations: “We can save this organization. But if we are to weather this storm, it will only be with your help.”

It certainly wasn’t the first urgent funding appeal issued by the organization over the years, and Greene said that there were mixed feelings about whether there was any hope, given the tremors going through the region’s economy right now, that enough money might be raised in a short time even to give the laid-off or furloughed staff two weeks’ notice. But early reactions to the call for help have been heartening, she reported. “I’m much more encouraged than I was early in the week. The response has been phenomenal — especially at a time when people are so worried about losing their own jobs, or having family members or themselves directly impacted by the virus.” Clearwater executive director Greg Williams concurred: “Given how much everyone has struggled, we were overwhelmed with the response that we got. It has far exceeded our expectations.”

Even if donations pour in at a brisk pace, the organization is by no means out of the woods. “We acknowledge publicly that Clearwater remains in a financially delicate position,” said Williams. Greene herself, who is nearing her 20th anniversary coordinating Clearwater’s environmental advocacy work, has offered to forgo her own salary for the time being — “if it’s legal” — in order not to halt the organization’s progress on such issues as the proposed expansion of the Danskammer power plant and the creation of a regional “roadmap” to reverse climate change. “I am thinking of retiring sometime, but I need a six-month overlap with the person who’s going to replace me. Otherwise it would jeopardize my legacy, the institutional memory that I carry,” she said. “With the Trump administration rolling back environmental regulations, there has never been a more important time for environmental advocacy,” Williams added.

As of presstime, the organization’s future still remained in doubt, but an outpouring of public support was clearly beginning to manifest. “We definitely have to downsize, but maybe we won’t have to go into hibernation,” said Greene. “It shows how beloved Clearwater is, how appreciated and how supported. People do not want Clearwater not to function. If something’s alive, even if it’s ailing, there’s hope.”

To make a donation to help keep the sloop and its programs afloat, visit https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=clearwater&id=12.

Thank you for reading Hudson Valley One. We rely on your support to continue providing local, substantive news. Please check out our subscription options to keep local journalism alive in the Hudson Valley.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Ulster won’t issue permits for campgrounds, resorts or children’s camps during pandemic

Next Post

Woodstock forbids rentals of less than two weeks during pandemic

Frances Marion Platt

Frances Marion Platt has been a feature writer (and copyeditor) for Ulster Publishing since 1994, under both her own name and the nom de plume Zhemyna Jurate. Her reporting beats include Gardiner and Rosendale, the arts and a bit of local history. In 2011 she took up Syd M’s mantle as film reviewer for Alm@nac Weekly, and she hopes to return to doing more of that as HV1 recovers from the shock of COVID-19. A Queens native, Platt moved to New Paltz in 1971 to earn a BA in English and minor in Linguistics at SUNY. Her first writing/editing gig was with the Ulster County Artist magazine. In the 1980s she was assistant editor of The Independent Film and Video Monthly for five years, attended Heartwood Owner/Builder School, designed and built a timberframe house in Gardiner. Her son Evan Pallor was born in 1995. Alternating with her journalism career, she spent many years doing development work – mainly grantwriting – for a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including six years at Scenic Hudson. She currently lives in Kingston.

Related Posts

Groundbreaking at the McKinstry Bridge in Gardiner
General News

Groundbreaking at the McKinstry Bridge in Gardiner

May 24, 2022
Eating order executed in New Paltz
General News

Eating order executed in New Paltz

May 22, 2022
Jeff Collins is the new president of Woodstock Library Board
General News

Despite Collins’ arrest, Library Board votes to keep its president

May 20, 2022
Assault charges, unlawful use of equipment roil the West Hurley Fire District
General News

New Paltz Firehouse space to be put on market

May 20, 2022
Movie Nights on Bannerman Island
General News

State supports support groups

May 19, 2022
Leaders gather at New Paltz Firehouse to endorse Climate Act Scoping Plan
Environment

Leaders gather at New Paltz Firehouse to endorse Climate Act Scoping Plan

May 16, 2022
Next Post
Ulster comptroller says Airbnb could be paying bed tax; Legislature chair blames the state

Woodstock forbids rentals of less than two weeks during pandemic

Please login to join discussion

Trending News

  • Local therapists provide uninterrupted free care to foster-care kids 2.7k views
  • Eating order executed in New Paltz 1.1k views
  • Uproar in New Paltz over plan to abandon green electricity 872 views
  • Village of Saugerties planners hold public hearing for Dragon Inn 651 views
  • Hapag Kainan in Highland offers Filipino culinary delights 602 views







Latest HV1 Podcast

Weather

Kingston
◉
64°
Partly Cloudy
5:27am8:18pm EDT
Feels like: 64°F
Wind: 4mph ENE
Humidity: 47%
Pressure: 30.31"Hg
UV index: 6
WedThuFri
77/50°F
73/61°F
81/64°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Ulster County COVID-19 Active Cases

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In

© 2022 Ulster Publishing