To the Editor:

I am supporting Simon Litten and James Sullivan in the upcoming village board election because I believe it is important that we have trustees who listen to the community.

I attended the zoning-change hearing in December where the majority of the people who spoke and wrote were opposed to the rezone and were effectively ignored by the two current board members who are running for re-election. There were two petitions presented at that meeting; the one opposed to the rezone had close to 200 signatures and the one in favor had just 30.

I would like to see Stewart’s modernized and expanded but I believe this could be done in the current footprint. Stewart’s should have been asked to come back with alternative plans.

Some residents expressed support for the rezone based on increased sales tax from Stewart’s that would decrease their property tax. This is a false assumption since sales-tax revenue distribution is dependent upon population of a community and not by sales tax collected. By tearing down a residential building, you will actually decrease the sales tax revenue.

I have known Simon Litton for over 40 years and I know that he has the well being of the village at heart. I also know he will support our comprehensive plan. He has said hard-working village residents produced and the village board accepted a far-sighted roadmap for the future.

Only 72 people voted in the last village election. If you care about the future of our village, please make sure you vote for Simon Litten and James Sullivan on March 19.

Anne Linendoll

Altamont

Editor’s note: Three petitions dealing with the rezone were submitted to the village.

The first two petitions were signed by a total of 303 people (at least 75 were not Altamont residents) in favor of the rezone. One of these petitions, with about 270 signatures, says that it supports a zoning change but does not say that the zoning change would be for 107-109 Helderberg Ave.; the second petition, with about 30 signatures, says explicitly that it supports the rezone of 107-109 Helderberg Ave.

The third petition was signed by 186 people (fewer than five were not Altamont residents), and says that it is against the rezone of  107-109 Helderberg Ave.

Anne Linendoll stressed that the board, at the meeting when the rezone vote was held, had seen just two petitions — the one against the rezone with 186 signatures and the one for the rezone with 30 signatures.