Members of the Bloomingburg Restoration Foundation shared artifacts and photos of past events in making their case for keeping control of the town-owned Dutch Reformed Church on Bloomingburg's Main Street.

They recently learned they will have to compete for the $1 per-year lease that had been automatically renewed for nearly 45 years.

"They're now trying to force us out," said the foundation's new president, Margaret O'Hara.

This past summer, the BRF petitioned successfully for an election to block the town of Mamakating from selling the property to an out-of-town congregation in need of a place to hold services.

The vote count was 550 to 31 in favor of forcing the town to keep the property.

BRF members said that because of the village-wide buzz created by their campaign to block the sale, they have begun recruiting new, energetic members to plan the future of the church -- which has been operated as a museum and events center.

"That's how I found out. I was going to put my programs somewhere else," said new BRF member Randy Rasmussen, who founded the production company Catskill Pictures, "and when I found out [about the BRF's efforts], I thought, 'you know what? I'm immediately signing up for the cause."

Rasmussen has been working on an interactive game in which visitors are challenged to find certain historic sites in the village.

"They have ties to this community," O'Hara said of the newer members. "They want to save this building, and they want to let the BRF continue their mission."

They have a battle ahead that might be as important as was the campaign to block the public sale of the church.

While town officials are no longer able to sell the church, they can choose who to lease the building to.

"That building is the eyesore of the town," Town Supervisor Bill Herrmann said when reached by phone last Tuesday. "We are trying to promote tourism in the town, and that certainly doesn't reflect what this town should look like."

Herrmann maintained that the BRF has fallen behind on repairs and maintenance of the building, and might be in hole that is now too deep.

Herrmann helped create a citizen's advisory panel to figure out costs and time associated with restoring the building, and then decide who would be in charge of it.

"The Bloomingburg Restoration Foundation will certainly be able to make a presentation," Herrmann said, "as will anyone else that has any anticipated use for that building."

Then the panel is going to recommend to the town board who should assume oversight of the property.

BRF members said they felt slighted, since the BRF was first to clean up and make use of the building 45 years ago.

"I would really like some answers as to why we are being persecuted like this," BRF member Linda Helms said.

The members at the church on Wednesday did eventually say they would meet with the town board to pitch a comprehensive plan for the property.

Town Councilman Graham Vest, who is helping to oversee the panel, said on Wednesday that the panel will likely begin hearing presentations this October and that they look forward to hearing from the BRF.

"We want to meet all the groups," Vest said over the phone on Wednesday afternoon, "with the first one being the BRF."