Tucked behind the Rosendale Community Center is a smaller building which houses its youth program. Inside there are a few pool tables, some couches and tables, and a spot for playing video games. The program is due to be featured in an upcoming issue of the free youth magazine Good Life Journal, and the article's author, 12-year-old Nick Plumeri, was asked recently to imagine a youth center at the former Rosendale Elementary School.

Plumeri, a resident of High Falls, first looked at Marbletown's offerings for kids and found them lacking. "They only do trips," he said, "it wasn't a place to go."

According to Marbletown Supervisor Michael Warren, the town's youth program has atrophied because of the simple fact that there aren't enough children to support it anymore.

The Rosendale program, with an after-school drop-in center, was much more appealing to Plumeri.

"I do summer camp here, and decided that this was a good hangout place for after school," he added.

Assistant Director Erik VanGaasbeek said that while Rosendale's program isn't at risk in the same way, attendance has declined. He said that the center logged 6,850 visitors in 2012, down about 1,000 from the previous year, and far short of a peak of over 10,000. Also in 2012, the town pool was unable to open due to serious structural problems; fund raising efforts to repair and reopen the pool are ongoing.

Deborah Coyte, Plumeri's mother, said that her son spends time at the youth program in the local community center nearly every day, and she feels it has benefited him by allowing him to spend time with friends. In addition to socializing, he landed the gig writing about the program (the money from which will go towards the Kindle he's saving for) and captured the monthly pool championship once, earning his name a place on the wall.

After the Rosendale school was closed, district officials entered into talks with supervisors of the towns of Rosendale, Marbletown, and Rochester to potentially take the building over. The idea of a combined youth program, which could utilize the existing gymnasium, is appealing to town leaders, who speak about the prospect in glowing terms. School board members, however, have been mum on the process, and negotiations appear to have bogged down.

Plumeri attended Rosendale when he was younger, and thinks the building is well-suited for the idea.

"It has plenty of room, a playground, and a large field," he said. However, "There would be lots of changes," he added. "I'm not sure if I could get used to that."