Tue, March 18, 2025 S (S) by Amanda (A)
A: Okay, I am here with S on this lovely Tuesday afternoon sitting in the sunshine, and I am going to ask you some questions and you just tell me whatever comes to mind. Our aim is to find out what people value about our town and what they think could make it even better. So I will ask you what is important to you about this town? What do you love the most? What do you value the most here?
S: I suppose the community that we have here is the most valuable asset, I guess I would say, in town. The people who live here, the causes that we get together to support within the town.
A: And what do you think could make our town even better? Like where do you see room for making Rosendale more wonderful than it already is?
S: Somebody recently mentioned a free table, a free swap table would be a very cool thing in the rec center. The town board has meetings and the planning board has meetings and the zoning board has meetings and I wonder if there might be just a general town meeting, not necessarily the board, once a quarter or once a month, something like that.
A: Oh, that’s interesting. Tell me more about that. What are your thoughts?
S: That’s all I got. I’m kind of getting a, what’s the show? Gilmore Girls vibe, where the whole town would get together and just kind of chat about stuff.
A: That sounds really fun, like just a town get together, just like a little social thing, you know, get to know each other.
S: Yeah, maybe monthly is a little bit much, but even quarterly or twice a year, where it’s just a town party at the rec center.
A: I love it. I love it.
S: We’re kind of doing that with game night and everything that they’re doing at the rec center is very cool, and that’s a wonderful thing to offer. The residents here and even residents outside of Rosendale, but a town party would be cool.
A: And to piggyback on that, another question that we ask people is what do you hope to see here in the future?
S: Definitely better safety on the streets and the sidewalks, on Main Street, James Street, the intersections by Stewarts and that would be great to have.
A: By safety, what do you mean?
S: Speeding is a problem. Crosswalks would be great, better sidewalks so people can walk without having to constantly look at their feet knowing that the ground beneath them is level. A: A: What are your hopes here for the future? What do you wish that you could see here for the future?
S: That would be one like general safety on the roads and sidewalks. I think we should get the economic development commission or committee going again because we have a lot of food places, we have a lot of restaurants, but we don’t have a lot of anchor stores like a gift shop. Maybe not weekly, but a flea market? In Willow Kiln, where the farmers market is, every Saturday during the season would be cool to get together.
A: I love that idea. Someone actually mentioned that a while back by the Bell Tower area, between the Bell Tower and the Big Cheese, they mentioned possibly closing off that passageway and having some vendors up there, just throwing ideas out. I love that though. I think there’s a lot of room for that in town because I think there’s a lot of people who come here and walk around and I think people could make money and get rid of stuff. I know they have one in High Falls.
S: They have that’s weekly during the season and it draws a lot of people. People will stay in doors no longer and support the businesses that are here.
A: In Willow Kiln Park is nice. You can just go back there and hang out. I love that. Do you have anything else to add? Anything else?
S: I do not.
A: Well, thank you so much for your great ideas. Some of them nobody else has mentioned. And some a lot of people mention like the street safety.
S: It’s a big one. Everybody’s concerned about it. Indeed.
A: Yeah. Thank you so much.
S: You’re welcome.
S: Thanks for asking my opinion on these things.
A: You are welcome.
