To the Editor:

Both the article about the Crounse House [“Doctor Crounse House saviors defeated”] and the letter from Paul Scilipoti [“Where there is a will, there is a way”] last week  mentioned $25,000 in state funds earmarked for the Crounse House’s roof being spent elsewhere.

Could you provide more information about the source of the funds and the time frame? As a recent resident, I ask those to whom this is all old news to bear with me as I catch up.

My understanding is that a grant written for a specific purpose must be used for that purpose or the funds are to be returned. Perhaps the grant was much broader in scope. If so, I would like to know what other choices were discussed.

In either instance, I’d like to know where the money went and who made the decisions. I think that information should have been included in the article.

Joann McCormick

Voorheesville

Editor’s note: As reported earlier then-mayor of Altamont James Gaughan and the village trustees decided in November 2015 to re-roof the Crounse House, to prevent it from further deterioration, using money from the village’s general fund, which would be recouped through a legislative grant obtained by Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy.

The town had been promised a grant for $175,000 to help with a number of projects in Guilderland, including repairs at the town-owned historic Schoolcraft House at 2299 Western Ave.; funding for the building of a new Tawasentha Park pool house to replace the one lost to fire in June 2015; and construction of a gazebo at the McKownville Reservoir Park, said town grant writer Donald Csaposs; of that amount, $25,000 was earmarked for the Crounse House roof.

Then, in January 2016, Gaughan announced that the estimated costs of re-roofing had gone up because asbestos had been discovered in the roof. The town board had gotten an estimate from the engineering firm Barton & Loguidice of almost $39,000 that would cover re-roofing, asbestos remediation, and some necessary structural stabilization but that would leave the village with a deficit of at least $13,000.

Csaposs then received approval from the New York State Dormitory Authority to repurpose the $25,000, applying it to other projects that are included within the $175,000 total grant funding, he said.