ALTAMONT — Christine Marshall and William Aylward will be the only two candidates running for the two available village board seats on March 20.
"Jim put together that team," said Trustee Harvey Vlahos of Mayor James Gaughan. According to long-time incumbent Aylward, Gaughan paired him with Marshall, who is new to politics, to run on the Concerned Citizens ticket together. "He let the both of us know that we might be approachable to each other," Marshall said.
Vlahos, who has often been at odds with the rest of the board, will not be on the ballot in March although his term will be up. But, he said this week, "There’s always the possibility of a write-in campaign."

A couple of things led to his decision not to seek re-election, Vlahos said; among them, the money. In the last village election, in 2005, when there were four candidates for mayor, including both Vlahos and Gaughan, three candidates spent under $1,000 on their campaigns while Gaughan spent over $7,000 on his. For this year’s uncontested trustee election, Marshall has raised $1,355 so far, according to her first financial statement filed at Village Hall. She hadn’t been expecting to run unopposed when she started collecting money, she said.
"That really is affecting the quality and character of the village," Vlahos said of the precedent Gaughan set for campaign spending and his use of a public-relations firm. "Why do you need that kind of money to run in a one-square-mile village with 1,700 people"" Vlahos asked.

Marshall, who is running with Aylward, is using the same firm that Gaughan used during his campaign for mayor two years ago, Communications Services.
The other contributing factor to his decision to give up his seat on the village board is the time that it takes, Vlahos said. Business at The Altamont Manor, which he operates, promises to pick up this year, he said, and the time it takes to research everything that comes before the board is demanding. Of the trustee post, he said, "It’s not for people who just want to march in parades"; there’s a lot of work that has to be done.
Often being the only dissenter on the board has been wearing, too, he said. "I think that the board really does need an independent person," he said, adding, "Or four, to be perfectly blunt."

Vlahos was the sole dissenter when the board adopted a lengthy operating manual for the police department; he pointed out that the manual was more appropriate for a larger department than Altamont has. Most recently, he was the only board member to push for endorsing a precinct-counted paper ballot optical scan voting machine as the machine that Albany County should choose in order to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.
The deadline for submitting a petition to run for trustee in the March 20 election has passed, but Vlahos said that he is considering a write-in campaign. "It’s not pie in the sky," he said. "It is very doable."