To the Editor:

History should absolutely define the village’s future!

Since Keith Lee is the author of the “Images of America, Altamont” book, I was rather surprised about his position that history should not define the village’s future [Letters to the Editor, The Altamont enterprise, Feb. 28, 2019, “Our history should not define the village’s future”]. I think history should absolutely define the village’s future, especially our architectural history and heritage!

When discussing the upcoming election and the candidates in general, he implores them “not to craft their outreach on the 'return to old, bucolic Altamont theme.’"  At that point, I became aware that a lot of the commentary involved words and phrases that were devoid of significant meaning and were really not very useful.

Just what does “old, bucolic Altamont” really mean?  Does it mean living in an architectural gem with character that elicits elegance? Does it mean living in a village where children can play safely and walk to school? Does it mean beautiful tree-lined streets?

If so, count me in. This is our history and heritage, and we should preserve it and use it to design our unique approach to the future.

Another comment that begs the question, what does that really mean is, “The board needs to be forward-thinking and ever adapting to changing conditions.”

Keith talks about the evolution of infrastructure such as sewer facilities and “being dragged kicking and screaming” into compliance. I don't think there is a single resident who would want to go back to the days of outhouses.

But does “forward thinking” mean voting for spot zoning so that a lovely 1900 house can be torn down for a bigger parking lot? Like the song says, “You don't know what you’ve got till it’s gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Does “forward thinking” mean disregarding the village’s comprehensive plan where literally the whole village agreed on where the residential area should be defined and the central business district should be? The comprehensive plan lays out a blueprint for what “forward thinking” should be and quite frankly trustees [Michelle] Ganance and [Nicholas] Fahrenkopf  either didn’t comprehend the plan or chose to ignore it.

And just because it hasn’t been updated as it should have been, that doesn’t mean that it has a “use by” date and we can throw it out when making decisions. The default setting is: Keep it in effect — keep the intent in effect — until it can be updated with full village participation, not by a few members of the board.  

After reading Keith’s letter I got out his wonderful book and began looking at it from a then-and-now, “forward-thinking” perspective.

When looking at the remaining buildings that were in the central business district then and now, one gets a very clear vision of how history can indeed define the future.

The before and current images of buildings such as the paint store/recently antique store, the Enterprise/now printing shop, Re-Nue Spa, Spinning Room, Veronica’s, Home Front, Fredendal’s, the train station/library etc., demonstrate how the buildings of the past have defined our present, and will continue going into the future.

Virtually every building in the village has been something different than its current use.  

When Albany’s magnificent Union Station was in danger of being torn down, Norstar Bank bought it and converted it into its corporate headquarters. I was fortunate to be able to direct and produce a half-hour documentary on the conversion that was distributed to the stations of the PBS network.

While doing the research and script, I became aware of a concept that was rapidly gaining prominence — adaptive reuse. It was forward thinking that used the past to define the future. And that’s what Altamont should do to preserve our character both for the commercial district and the residential district.    

The homes in the core of the village have maintained their exterior elegance and beauty while undergoing interior renovations, such as baths, additions, electricity, etc. Rather than tearing down classic Victorian houses, we should engage in adaptive reuse.

When I was actively participating in the formulation of the comprehensive plan, first as a village trustee and then as a private citizen, I coined a phrase that sums up the sentiment of the past defining the future.

In Altamont, we have modern broadband internet in Victorian homes. Candidates Simon Litten and James Sullivan share that vision for the future and I urge residents to vote for them for trustee.

Harvey Vlahos

Altamont