Ulster town officials are picking up the pieces of a traditionally robust set of summer offerings after the departure last month of councilman Rocco Secreto, who was the engine that drove the Town of Ulster’s Recreation Committee for over a decade.
“With the retirement of Rocco it’s now fallen upon me to work with this,” said councilman Clayton Van Kleeck during a town board meeting held on Thursday, March 6.
Van Kleeck was specifically referring to the town’s annual summer camp, which he said has run at a deficit to the town.
“I have a concern that in looking at last the last three years … the camp fees have been in no way offset the cost of doing it,” he said, adding that he didn’t yet have specific figures. “It’s been an expense to the town every year … It’s always been an expense to the town.”
Fees for the 2024 summer camp program were $350 for the first resident camper and $150 for each additional sibling. Out-of-town campers cost $450 for the first camper and $200 for each additional sibling. The camp, held at Robert Post Park, was designed for a maximum of 65 campers between the ages of 6-12, and ran for seven weeks, from July 1 through August 23.
But the camp as it’s been run in the past may not be possible this year. Part of that stems from new state summer camp regulations.
“There are continuing and significant multi-page regulations ,,, regarding summer camps which we’re reviewing to make sure that if we do this that we stay within those regulations,” said Van Kleeck, citing the need for the camp director to have a four-year bachelor’s degree and 24 weeks of administrative or supervising experience with camps.
Van Kleeck said he’d asked the town’s insurance company whether the new regulations impact coverage and has yet to hear back. While town officials determine whether they can run their own summer camp, Van Kleeck said he’d reached out to the City of Kingston’s Parks and Recreation Department about the possibility of a cooperative camp, something Secreto considered a few years ago.
“We’re also looking at some nonprofit organizations in the community to see if they were interested possibly being a subcontractor,” he said.
While registration ordinarily opens for the town’s summer camp on April 1, Van Kleeck said he doesn’t expect to have a recommendation for what summer 2025 will look like until the April 17th meeting of the town board.
“(I want to) bring back to you, the board, all that I found with recommendations and options of what we can do,” Van Kleeck said. “But I can tell you right now that I do not think that it will be feasible for us to run the typical summer youth program that we were running as we were running it. What we’re trying to do the best we can to make sure that the children in our community have an option.”
Van Kleeck said he realized he had big shoes to fill on the town’s recreation committee.
“I admit that I’m not the most recreational centered man in this community,” Van Kleeck said. “But I will do my best to work with the team to do Rocky proud as far as making sure we get this done right.”
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