RENSSELAERVILLE — Now that the town of Rensselaerville has the authority to dole out money from its Kuhar Endowment Fund after a long delay, it has to solve the problem of letting local not-for-profits know (again) that the money is available to be applied for. 

Town board member Brian Wood told his colleagues at their May 22 meeting that the Tri-Village Fire Department, of which he’s a part, was caught unawares when a deadline to apply for funding came and went. 

Wood said he was surprised when he looked at the list of applicants this year — for a share of $40,000 — after the May 15 deadline, and didn’t see Tri-Village, so he reached out to leadership there and was told, “We don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

The department had successfully applied for an allocation last year but the fund got frozen when the town learned it needed to clear a series of bureaucratic hurdles with the state, a process that only recently finished. 

“It was well over a year before we got [the money],” Wood said.

Dolce suggested this was not an isolated incident, as the list of applicants primarily showed a strong response from the Rensselaerville hamlet, but not other areas of the town. 

Information about the availability of funding and the application process, he said, was only getting to a “select few.” 

Dolce said the blame lies with the town because, even though the fund is overseen by a volunteer committee, the committee’s job is merely to review the applications and the town is the one with the resources to publicize the process. 

“The first year was bad, the second year was bad, so now going forward we’ve got to clean up,” Dolce said. 

For the applications due this year, the town posted information on its website, having decided not to send out physical mail. 

Wood suggested creating a database of not-for-profit leaders in the town who can be notified each year about application dates. 

The challenge connects to the broader issue for the town of getting the word out to residents.

“I had a conversation with [Town Clerk Victoria Kraker] about starting a newsletter again, but that takes manpower,” Dolce said.

Wood added that he doubts people read newsletters, especially if they’re only going on the town website. 

“I don’t even know when I’ve looked at the town website,” he said. “People just don’t look at it.” 

No formal decisions were made at the meeting, but members seemed to agree that a combination of posting the information to social media channels as well as sending a physical postcard to previous award recipients, and/or core institutions such as fire departments, cemeteries, and parks, was a reasonable approach. 

“Whatever you guys decide to do, I’m not going to throw a hissy fit because I know that as much as $1,000 would help the Tri-Village Fire Department, they’re not going to go out of business if they don’t get $1,000,” Wood said.