RENSSELAERVILLE — The Rensselaerville Town Board is looking in earnest into the possibility of creating a memorial park on 53 acres of town-owned land on Kenyon Road that was formerly a landfill. 

Supervisor John Dolce — who tentatively brought the idea forward in May — told the town board at its June meeting that he had looked into the potential cost and found that it was “not going to be a huge expense.” 

The park would memorialize Jeffrey Bogue, an out-of-towner with family in the area who, to the town’s surprise, left Rensselaerville $830,000 upon his death in 2020.

Dolce mentioned that there’s “a grant out there” for new parks that could net the town $15,000, but, without a solid concept for what the park would actually be yet, it’s unclear how much of the total cost that would cover. 

“This is way ahead,” he said of the grant. “We have to decide if we need another park, or we want another park, to memorialize [Bogue].” 

Dolce said the land is currently vacant and will be “for a very long time” otherwise. 

Board member Randall Bates, formerly the highway superintendent, said it was a “scenic site” but that there would be “some reclamation work to be done.” He pointed out that more than half the parcel is wooded, “but I could see it being used as a park if we knew better what we wanted to do with it.” 

Bates also said that it could become vulnerable to vandalism, littering, or loiterers since it’s “quite isolated,” but reiterated that these are things that would be addressed during the conceptualization of the project, again highlighting its potential. 

“[The property] is only going to become overgrown and less productive,” he said. 

Board member Edward VanAuken told Dolce he’d “have to think about it a bit more,” while board member Peter Sommerville simply said, “I’m in.” 

The fifth board member, Deputy Supervisor Brian Wood, was absent. 

Dolce said he would continue consulting with local figures and outside businesses in the meantime, explaining that once a decision is made, turning the land into a park “wouldn’t be a big to-do.”

Attorney William Ryan explained that, to create the park legally, the town would pass a resolution subject to a 30-day window for a permissive referendum, unless the money involved were to come from surplus funds, in which case the resolution would take effect immediately.