The Village of Walden summer camp program is one of the most widely praised initiatives of its kind in the area, and the Village Board held a prolonged discussion during a recent meeting on the long-term financial outlook of the program. During the meeting, the board voted to raise fees for campers taking part in the program this summer.

The board agreed to raise the cost of attending the six-week half-day camp program to $60 for village residents (up from $50 last year), $75 for Town of Montgomery residents (up from $60 in 2018) and $100 for non-residents (up from $75 last year). After the approved increases, the program will be short $40,000 this year. Village Manager John Revella noted during the meeting that Walden would have to raise fees for the program $90 across the board for the initiative to break even this year. “I don’t think that’s reasonable,” he told the board.

Svarczkopf contends that the village is undercharging residents for the camp program in comparison to the average cost of child care. “I don’t think we should be losing money on this,” he said during the meeting. “I think we need to figure out how to break even. We don’t need to make money on this, but I think we need to find a way to break even. The costs are only going to go up year after year. I understand that this is a service we provide to the community, but $60 to be able to drop my kid off for six weeks for four hours a day? I would pay $60 a day to drop my kid off. I think that’s so far under value. I understand that going from $60 to $150 is a crazy thing to do in a year, but I think we need to start looking at two to three years from now, that difference being zero and how do we get there?”

Revella noted that the town isn’t exactly losing money on the camp, as tax dollars were being utilized on the program. “These increases now are, in some cases, 20 percent increases now from last year to this year,” he replied. “It’s trying to take small bites so that we don’t hurt people who can’t afford it.”

Walden Mayor Susan Rumbold wants to ensure moving forward that the camp is reasonably priced for all who want to attend. “Everybody knows that these are tough economic times, and we’re trying to keep the programs affordable so that as many kids as possible can participate in them,” she said. “This is a service we provide to the village. We’ve done it for years and years and it gives the kids a safe haven and a fun time for the number of weeks that we run it. The parents of most of these children are taxpayers in the village who support a number of other programs throughout the village. So it makes sense to support a program that takes care of our children.”

Trustee John Ramos pointed out during the board session that local families heavily rely on the camp during the heart of the summer season. “Summer camp is a critical point for child care for a good portion of the families in the Village of Walden,” he told the board. “It allows Mom and Dad to go to work on a full-time basis. In the school year, we send them to school, and it’s comforting to know that for six or seven hours they’re in school. The increase kind of hurts the pocketbook of the families. If we increase it to the point where they can’t afford it, then there’s no school clothes at the end of the year, they can’t budget for school lunch money, etc. What I’m trying to say is the summer camp fees with 390-plus kids going there is a savior for some families that are allowed to go to work.”

Trustee Brian Sebring added that he didn’t want the camp fees to rise sharply. “When my kids were growing up this was a great program for them,” he said during the meeting. “It kept them busy. I agree that we shouldn’t let this program run in too much of a debt, but you don’t want to hurt the family that has three or four kids and they depend on this program in the summer. You can’t overprice them because they’re the ones that really need it.”

Svarczkopf, the sole board member to vote against the increases, suggested a sliding scale of payment for the camp could be utilized to balance the camp budget. “I’m okay with giving even more scholarships to kids who can’t afford it, but there are people I’m sure that are bringing their kids to this program that can afford way more than $60 for six weeks of camp,” he told the board. Revella replied that it might be difficult to structure things that way. “There are some, but then there’s the problem of trying to find scholarships for those who can’t (afford the program),” he said.

The March 5 meeting included a presentation from Tri-County Community Partnership President Annette Kahrs on the Hope Not Handcuffs program, which aims to help residents struggling with drug addiction by allowing the non-profit organization’s reps to establish a presence in local police departments to find treatment for addicts who voluntarily reach out for help.

Walden Police Chief Jeff Holmes endorsed the concept of the department utilizing the program, but the board did not take action on the matter Tuesday, placing the item on the board’s March 26 agenda in order to give Village Attorney Dave Donovan time to investigate the legal side of the issue. The program would not cost the village any money, as the Hope Not Handcuffs volunteers would just need a space in the police department.

During the meeting, the board voted unanimously to preserve a piece of Walden’s history, as the board decided to salvage as much of the bluestone that will be torn up during the Ulster Avenue sidewalk project as possible. The village will ask the project’s contractor to save as much of the stone as they can during their labor.

The material will then be stored and potentially used at a later date for future projects. “We could use it in some of the parks if we wanted to, we could lay some of the stone there,” Rumbold said. “The fact is it’s old and it’s part of the history of the village. You want to try to salvage as much as you can and save it for further use in the village. That’s basically what the concern is. We want to keep as much as we can to possibly utilize in other areas of the village.”