fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Rosendale Pool Fund within $100K of goal; demolition to begin shortly

by Frances Marion Platt
April 14, 2016
in General News
0

rosendale pool HZTAfter two years of furious fundraising, the end is in sight for all those Rosendalers and folks from surrounding communities who really miss the Town Pool at the Rosendale Recreation Center on Route 32. “The present status is that we will be starting demolition for the pool this season,” reports Town of Rosendale recreation director Tara Burke. “We’re about $100,000 short of the $1.2 million that we need.”

The old pool, which dated back to the 1940s, was closed in 2012 because its gunite liner was crumbling, and it has not reopened since. Public demand that it be repaired or replaced was immediate, loud and clear. So town officials retained an engineering firm to study the extent of the problem and estimate the cost.

“We were told two years ago that it would be a $1.2 million project, and we all hit the floor,” Burke recalls. “There’s about 3,000 taxpaying residents in this town. The pool is open to everyone from all of Ulster County; it’s not a club. But it’s the residents of Rosendale that the burden lies on. We knew we wanted our pool. We also knew that we weren’t going to bond for the full amount. We’re middle-class people; that’s too much to ask.”

At that point, says Burke, “It became a fundraising and grantwriting project. The town supervisor, Jeanne Walsh, hand-wrote the grants. The first year she tried for a $500,000 grant from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and just missed it by one.” Feedback on the failed application from the state agency suggested that Walsh would be able to up the point score on her next try by emphasizing the economic development benefits of integrating a refurbished pool into plans to position Rosendale as a heritage tourism destination.

“We’re becoming a tremendous tourist resource right now, what with the trestle, the pool, the bus stop, the bike shop, the 1850 House, the Rosendale Theatre, bed-and-breakfasts, the rail trail, Joppenberg Mountain, hiking…Jeanne was able to tie all that in as the economic development component of the grant. So in the second year, 2013, we went right to the top.”

That half-million-dollar Office of Parks grant was the largest chunk going toward the $1.1 million already raised. The next-largest came from the $188,000 pricetag of the old Rosendale Town Hall building on Main Street, which was recently sold after the decision was made to move the town offices to the new Rondout Municipal Center in Cottekill: the former Rosendale Elementary School building. A $50,000 grant awarded to the town years ago by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission to replace the roof of the former Recreation Center was “shelved,” says Burke, when Rosendale decided to demolish the old building and replace it altogether. The monies allocated for that grant will now be applied toward the pool replacement project: “They saved it for us until we figured out something else that we could do with it.”

The annual town budget has been allocating money into a capital reserve fund that can be applied toward the pool project. Another $10,000 grant was donated by the Bruderhof in 2013, and the union of teachers displaced by the closing of the Rosendale Elementary School made a gift of some of their leftover contingency fund. And the Rosendale Pickle Festival designated the Pool Fund as the recipient of $5,000 out of its ticket sales last year.

Most of the rest of the money has been raised through “numerous little fundraisers” adding up to $21,257 in 2012 and $25,581 in 2013, according to Burke. She cites a firewood raffle, hot chocolate sales at the Frozendale festival, a concert called Rosenstock, a dance party, the Pool Fund’s table at the Rosendale Street Festival and an IndieGoGo donation page as some of the “lot of little things that added up.” A series of quarterly concerts for seniors at the Rec Center by “a wonderful duo from Brooklyn who have taken the project under their wing, the Elderly Brothers,” has raised more than $2,000.

Most recently, the Rosendale Theatre organized a Jazzfest weekend that brought in $500 in business sponsorships, in addition to ticket sales as yet uncounted as of presstime. And on July 4, Hudson River Valley Resorts opened Williams Lake to the public for a weekend summer swim program, all of whose proceeds will be dedicated to the Pool Fund. “For $10 per person you can swim all day,” says Burke.

Though another $100,00 remains to be raised, the town now feels confident enough that it can make its goal that work will soon begin on clearing the site for a new pool. “We’re now into contractor Request for Proposals mode, so we can get demolition started,” Burke reports. “I can’t guarantee anything, but our goal is to see water in that pool for 2015.”

So, future Rosendale Town Pool patron, have you made your contribution yet? You can donate online by visiting the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley website at www.dfhvny.org/give/yourlocalcommunity and selecting the Rosendale Pool Fund from the menu. Or you can mail a check to the Community Foundations, with “Rosendale Pool Fund” written on the “For” line, to Community Foundations/Rosendale Pool Fund, P.O. Box 3046, Kingston NY 12402. For $100 you can honor a loved one with memorial brick at the renovated pool site, inscribed with a message of up to 16 characters on three lines.

Tags: rosendaleRosendale Recreation CenterTown of Rosendale
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

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

Kingston Land Trust launches fundraising campaign for “teeny Yosemite”
General News

City folks learn kinda slow

April 22, 2025
Daytime raccoon sightings spark concern among Saugerties residents
General News

Daytime raccoon sightings spark concern among Saugerties residents

March 31, 2025
Proposed cannabis dispensary at Zero Place triggers traffic study
Community

Zero Place in New Paltz transformed into condominiums, sparking concerns for affordable housing board

April 17, 2025
Local LGBTQ+ advocates rally to oppose passport freeze
Community

Local LGBTQ+ advocates rally to oppose passport freeze

February 18, 2025
A cold Valentine’s Day message for bus passengers in New Paltz
Community

A cold Valentine’s Day message for bus passengers in New Paltz

February 15, 2025
Letter: Cyclists, pedestrians at risk
Community

Henry W. DuBois bike path closed in New Paltz  

January 15, 2025
Next Post

Lego movie and free lunch

Weather

Kingston, NY
55°
Cloudy
5:22 am8:24 pm EDT
Feels like: 55°F
Wind: 1mph NW
Humidity: 87%
Pressure: 30.14"Hg
UV index: 0
FriSatSun
79°F / 57°F
66°F / 48°F
66°F / 46°F
Kingston, NY climate ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • 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
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing