That sound you heard coming from Klinkhart Hall?
It might have been the champagne popping.
Friday, the Village of Sharon Springs learned it’s been awarded a $1 million grant from Round XIV of the Regional Economic Development Council on behalf of the non-profit Klinkhart Hall Arts Center.
The grant, written by Executive Director Marc-Anthony Polizzi, will be used to help make Klinkhart Hall handicapped-accessible, something KHAC President Maureen Lodes said will make them eligible for additional grants.
The $1 million brings the total grants awarded to KHAC to about $2.5 million, most of them in reimburseable or matching grants.
The total cost of the phased project is estimated at $6 million, but because their plans are in place, they’re shovel-ready, Ms. Lodes said; bids for Phase 1 will go out in the first quarter of 2025, when the work’s also expected to begin.
“This is a really good day,” Ms. Lodes said. “There’s so much in the works now for Sharon Springs…Chalybeate Park, Hoshino, the American has new owners. A few more years and we’re going to be in very good shape here.”
Even before Friday’s news, Ms. Lodes said they were planning to bid the roof, windows, and façade this spring.
The REDC grant will allow them to add an elevator and the required mechanicals to the bid list; the elevator is critical to opening up the second floor to events, she said.
“It’s been a lot of Catch-22,” she said. “We have events like the Poetry and Dance Festivals—but no place to hold them because without an elevator, we can’t hold them in our own building. The elevator will change all of that.”
Built in about 1885 as the Klinkhart Hall Opera House, Klinkhart Hall was also home to Smalley’s Theater and a Masonic Hall.
Ms. Lodes, along with the late Doug Plummer and his husband, Garth Roberts, brought it in 2006 with plans to bring arts and theater events together under one roof while also creating space for public galleries and public event space.
The KHAC lobby will be named in memory of Mr. Plummer, also Village of Sharon Springs’ mayor, who died in December 2023.
Ms. Lodes is optimistic they’ll be able to begin hosting their own events in 2026.
She’s also convinced seeing the long-anticipated renovations get underway will jumpstart interest in their plans and maybe even donations.
“Now the work begins,” Ms. Lodes said.
Other arts-related REDC funding announced Friday includes $100,000 for the Uptown Theatre for Creative Arts in Oneida for auditorium revitalizations.
In Cooperstown, the Cooperstown Food Pantry was awarded $100,000 so it can move and expand; In Oneonta, the Future for Oneonta Foundation received $100,000 for a splash pad at Wilber Park.
The Village of Fort Plain was awarded $1.5 million for sewer line replacement.