Liberty Gets $2.365 Million for Its Park & Pools. What About Fallsburg?

Dear Friends and Neighbors

A recent announcement in the Sullivan County Democrat is very newsworthy. On July 21, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Assemblymember Paula Elaine Kay visited the Town of Liberty’s Summer Camp at Hanofee Park and announced $2.365 million in state funding for the Town.

Liberty will receive: 
$1 million to renovate the basketball court and dock; 
$1 million to improve the swimming pool, pickleball courts and tennis courts;
$250,000 to update the kiddie pool; 
$100,000 to purchase a bus to transport children to and from summer camp; 
$15,000 for basketball hoops and scholarships for children in the program. 

Simply put, $1.25 million of the funding will go toward Liberty’s swimming facilities, in addition to substantial funding for other recreational improvements. This raises a very reasonable question for residents of the Town of Fallsburg: What about us?

Fallsburg Has a Park. Fallsburg Has a Pool. Fallsburg Has Needs.
The Town of Fallsburg operates Mountaindale Park, a municipal recreational facility that includes a pool, camping, a pavilion, restrooms, parking, and other amenities. The Town’s own website identifies the pool as one of the park’s features. But the condition and future of that pool have been a recurring concern for Fallsburg residents. The pool is an older facility and now is closed without warning. The questions are: How much work does it need? What will that work cost? Where is the money going to come from? 

Before the Town can make a responsible decision about the pool’s future, it makes sense to know exactly what it is dealing with. The pool has been neglected by successive administrations. Not one administration has made the Moutaindale Pool a priority, preferring to treat it as a wayward stepchild. No substantial proactive upgrades have been made for years. Only minimal maintenance has been provided. Publicity has been lax. The sign at the entrance does not even mention “Pool.” It is imperative that actual professional pool specialists be brought in to examine the facility to provide an idea of the needed work and its potential cost. Can it be repaired or must it be replaced? Once that assessment is done, another question immediately follows: What is the Town’s plan for paying for it? 

The Money Is Out There
New York State has recognized that communities across the state need better access to swimming facilities and has created programs specifically intended to help municipalities improve them. One important program is NY SWIMS: New York Statewide Investment in More Swimming.  NY SWIMS includes a matching capital grant program designed to acquire, design, construct, rehabilitate or improve swimming facilities in underserved communities. The state’s current parks planning documents specifically describe NY SWIMS as including capital investment in municipal pools in high-need areas.

There are other opportunities as well. New York State’s Municipal Parks and Recreation Grant program provides funding for improvements to municipally owned recreational facilities, including swimming facilities. The state’s Environmental Protection Fund also provides grants for the planning, development and improvement of municipal parks and recreation facilities. These programs are competitive, and they come with requirements. Some require matching funds. Others require engineering information, project plans and cost estimates. That makes timing especially important. The better a community understands its needs and prepares its plans, the better positioned it will be when appropriate funding opportunities becomes available.

So Where Do We Stand?
This is where it is reasonable for residents to become curious. 

1. What opportunities has Fallsburg explored for Mountaindale Park and Pool?

2. Has NY SWIMS been considered for the pool?

3. Has the Town applied for other state or federal park and recreation funding?

4. If applications were made, what were the results?

5. Most importantly, who is looking for these opportunities and helping the Town prepare applications? 

Grant funding is now a specialized field. Finding the right programs, understanding their requirements, developing a competitive proposal, coordinating engineering and financial information and meeting deadlines can require considerable time and expertise. This raises a larger question. Does the Town have the professional grant-writing and grant-development resources it needs to take full advantage of the opportunities that are available?  If it does not, then why not.

What can Fallsburg do from this point forward? 
There are a few more questions worth asking.

1. Which public official in the Town of Fallsburg is responsible for identifying grants that could pay for needed improvements to our parks and recreational facilities?

2. Is there a public official whose job actively monitors state and federal grant opportunities to pay for public park improvements?

3. Does the Town have a professional grant writer or contract with an outside specialist to identify and prepare grant applications?

Finding grants is not simply a matter of hearing that a grant exists and filling out an application. A competitive capital grant can require planning, engineering, cost estimates, matching funds, documentation and a clearly defined project. Someone has to be looking for the opportunities before the deadline arrives. And someone has to be sure that Fallsburg is positioned to compete for them.

An Opportunity to Think Bigger
Liberty’s $2.365 million announcement is an excellent reminder that significant state investment in local recreational facilities is possible. It also gives us an opportunity to look at our own park with fresh eyes. Mountaindale Park and its pool is a community asset. If we want these facilities to remain part of Fallsburg’s future, this is the moment to look beyond simply maintaining what we have and begin thinking about what we want. This means understanding the condition of the pool. It means understanding the costs. It means identifying available funding. And it means making sure that someone is actively looking for opportunities to bring outside resources into our community. There is no reason to assume that Fallsburg cannot compete for funding. Liberty’s success can serve as inspiration. Mountaindale Park and Pool are not someone else’s responsibility. It belongs to the residents of Fallsburg. If we want to preserve and improve it for the next generation, we need a plan to repair what is broken. We need a plan to find the money to fix it.

We Need to Know the Plan
A professional competent and comprehensive examination and estimate for the upgrade of Mountaindale Pool should give the Town a clear understanding of what the facility needs and what those repairs or replacement might cost. This is the beginning, not the end of the process. If the Town learns that substantial capital investment is necessary, then the next step should be to identify every possible source of outside funding. We cannot just proclaim “we don’t have the money.” We must look everywhere we can, apply for every appropriate grant, ask our state representatives for assistance, and exhaust every reasonable source of outside funding.” Residents should expect this approach as the minimum standard for Fallsburg.

Fallsburg's Future is a community network of concerned Fallsburg residents established in January 2016. Its Mission is to help guide the urban development of the town of Fallsburg and its five hamlets, to promote its sustainable economic development, protect the fragile beauty of its natural habitats and enhance the opportunities and quality of life for all its residents and visitors. We hope to curb the suburban sprawl that is threatening to overwhelm the town’s physical infrastructure and destroy the natural beauty that the area depends on for its future development. See us on Facebook and our website Fallsburgsfuture.com.