We recently posted that the organization that operates the Hudson River sloop Clearwater was in serious financial trouble and had canceled its yearly music festival. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that the executive director, Peter Gross, has resigned, citing “significant differences between his and the organization’s vision to the path to building a stronger future for Clearwater and dealing with the organization’s long-standing financial and structural challenges.”

The good news is that donations are up. Anne Osborn, president of the organization’s board of directors, said the Clearwater organization is continuing with a plan to hold fundraising concerts throughout the year. The first concert, held Sunday in Rosendale, raised $12,000. Additionally, $5,000 in donations poured in between the Jan. 20 financial disclosures and the resignation of Gross on Wednesday. That donation figure is now nearly $13,000 and $15,000 in white oak has been donated for the sloop.

The replica Hudson River sloop Clearwater was built in 1968 by a group led by folk singer and activist Pete Seeger in the hopes of drawing attention to the problem of pollution of the Hudson River by bringing people down to the river to sail.  The Clearwater organization has gained national recognition for its activism starting in the 1970s to force a clean-up of the PCB contamination caused by industrial manufacturing by General Electric and other companies on the river’s edge.

The Clearwater is currently undergoing an $850,000 restoration. The state is covering $340,000 of that cost, with the Clearwater organization covering the rest.