Hugh Reynolds: Face to face

The Ford brothers – Ed and Bob. (Photo: Phyllis McCabe)

Ford echo

Kingston historian Edwin Ford, who was given a grand reception at Kingston City Hall last Saturday afternoon upon the dedication of a lunette in council chambers in his honor, has after 30 years in office developed a sense of historic irony.

Ford, 96, wasn’t yet city historian when he led the fight by Friends of Historic Kingston to save the city hall from threatened demolition in the mid-1970s. Abandoned in early 1972 for new digs on Garraghan Drive in Rondout, the building was left to the elements before being restored over a two-year period ending in May 2000.

While former mayor T.R. Gallo can take almost full credit for restoring the building, it was his father, the late alderman-at-large T. Robert Gallo, and two Democratic mayors, Ray Garraghan and Frank Koenig, who led the fight to abandon the building and relocate to Rondout.

Koenig, now deceased, and Garraghan hoped that building a new city hall in Rondout would attract development to an area leveled by urban renewal. It was an expensive gamble, probably at least $10 million in costs between building a new city hall and restoring the old one, that didn’t pay off.

“It was the right choice at the time,” said Koenig shortly after the dedication of the refurbished building.

And speaking of having it both ways, Mayor Shayne Gallo, the late alderman-at-large’s older son, displayed a photo at Saturday’s event of Ed Ford leading a rally in front of the old city hall, leading some perhaps to conclude that the elder Gallo and Ford were on the same side.

Ford and friends were urging voters to approve a $500,000 matching state grant. The grant had been secured by freshman assemblyman Maurice Hinchey to restore the building three years after city government went downtown. Hinchey did his best, even bringing Assembly speaker Stanley Steingut to Kingston for a photo op on the front steps of old City Hall. But with city officials, including T. Robert Gallo, leading the opposition, the referendum failed.

Ed Ford didn’t give up. His decades-long efforts have now been rewarded with a permanent display at the city hall he ultimately helped save.

Ford, who can be a tough, determined advocate, is nonetheless a treasure to those who know him, in part for his wry, self-effacing sense of humor.

“I came in here this afternoon and couldn’t find a seat, which was nice,” he said of the more than 200 well-wishers who turned out to honor him at city hall on a lovely late summer afternoon. “I kept looking around for a throne to sit on.”

Ford gave effusive praise to his “baby brother” Bob Ford (not the guy who shot Jesse James), 92, who donated $5,000 (toward the $15,000 cost of the lunette restoration), and some 70 other donors, adding, “Next time, Bob, buy me a Toyota.”

A Ford in a Toyota? Get it?

All aboard

City and county officials were conspicuous in their absence at one of the biggest tourist events in recent memory, the running of Thomas the Tank Engine train ride along Catskill Mountain Railroad tracks from Kingston to Hurley the last two weekends. According to CMRR officials, more than 11,000 persons bought tickets at $19 a pop, with another $40,000 sold in souvenirs the first weekend alone. For some local families, 19 bucks each for a short train ride might be a stretch, but isn’t that what tourism is all about, attracting disposable income? Too bad the city didn’t cash in with tours of local sites. At least they didn’t park a DPW truck across the tracks.

Next up: the even more popular Polar Express in December, with, railroaders say, a 4,700-ticket advance sale.

After that, if County Executive Mike Hein prevails, the tracks will be torn up to make way for a rail-trail.