ALTAMONT — James Gaughan’s final village board meeting as mayor was a lovefest. Employees, trustees, and citizens all lauded Gaughan, who is retiring after 12 years.

“I will dearly miss you,” said Trustee Kerry Dineen through tears at the close of Tuesday’s meeting. “You have brought this village further in 12 years — I’ve been here 40 years — than it has ever come...I don’t know if anybody can live up to what you’ve done.”

Dineen will be succeeding Gaughan as mayor; she is uncontested in the March 21 election. A more formal farewell gathering will take place on April 9 at 1 p.m., Dineen said.

Trustee Dean Whalen said that Gaughan “sucked me into this vortex” and, when those on the board “didn’t have a clue,” the man in the middle — Gaughan always sat at the center of the board’s long table — would figure it out.

Whalen, an architect, and Dineen, a school music teacher, had run on the same slate as Gaughan, who had retired from a career with the State Education Department. As newcomers to village government, they ousted the incumbents in the hotly contested 2005 village elections. Issues at the time included a police force that some villagers felt was excessive, an overtaxed public water system, and a lack of planning for the future.

Trustee Nicholas Fahrenkopf said Tuesday night that, when he first expressed interest in being on the board, the mayor gave him an inch-thick binder of newspaper clips. “I gave him all the Altamont Enterprise clippings of life in the early days,” the mayor said after the meeting.

Fahrenkopf said he didn’t know if he would have recognized Altamont before.

“It’s been a pleasure working with you,” said Altamont Police Chief Todd Pucci to the mayor.

Marijo Dougherty, the curator for the village’s archives and museum, reported on the progress of the Museum in the Streets project where a score or more of historic sites in Altamont have been selected. Each will have a tablet outside telling visitors, in both English and Spanish, about the history of the place, which is being researched by the mayor’s spouse, Keith Lee. Ron Ginsburg is taking photographs.

The museum may be up and running by July, said Dougherty, and a teaching guide is planned, too.

She said Altamont’s Museum in the Streets was the first in upstate New York and called it “a legacy the mayor is leaving us.” She credited Gaughan with both the idea and the fundraising for the project. “If it weren’t for this mayor, we wouldn’t be having it,” said Dougherty, concluding, “Thank you for this gift.”

Dougherty’s husband, Norman Bauman, stepped to the microphone next. “We will all miss him,” he said of the mayor. “My wife and I used to live in Schenectady, God help us. We were politically active; it went nowhere.”

When the couple moved to Altamont 12 years ago, he said, “We knew absolutely no one.” Bauman described seeing a man at the counter in Hungerford’s Market. “He was fashionably dressed, good-looking, at peace with himself...He made us feel so comfortable, right then and there.”

Bauman went on to laud Gaughan’s accomplishments as mayor, from extending the village’s sidewalks to increasing summer activities.

Gaughan, in turn, thanked the citizens in the gallery for their support and participation. “It’s because of you we’ve done well,” he said. “Your feedback made it better.”

The meeting ended with applause from the score of citizens in the gallery.

No parade

Three leaders of Altamont’s veterans groups — Tim Hagerott, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post; Jim Gaige, commander of the American Legion post; and Dennis Cyr, junior vice of the VFW — told the board there will be no Memorial Day parade in Altamont this year.

“Our numbers are dwindling,” Hagerott told the board, and the veterans groups had troubling getting people to put in the time and effort to organize a parade.

The groups will still sponsor a gathering to honor veterans on the village green. “We’ll open the post for a meet and greet after the ceremony in Orsini Park,” said Hagerott.

“I’m glad that will stay,” said Gaughan of the ceremony where typically speeches are made from the park’s gazebo, taps are played, and a wreath is placed on the war monument in Orsini Park.

In recent years, Hagerott said, a lot more fire departments than veterans were involved in the parade. The focus should really be on veterans, he said.

The date will remain the same, the weekend before Memorial Day.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Learned that villagers who are not registered can do so on Saturday, March 11, to vote in the March 21 election. Polls at Village Hall will be open from noon to 9 p.m. on Election Day;

— Received a report from fire Chief Paul Miller that four calls were answered in February: two false alarms at 150 Wormer Rd., one alarm at Building 28 in the Northeastern Industrial Park; and one faulty switch on the furnace in a Main Street home;

— Heard from Jeffrey Moller, the superintendent of public works, “We’re just about done with spring meter reading.” He also cautioned residents not the throw yard waste into the village’s creeks. “That’s a no-no,” he said.

Moller reported that steel used to fashion lecterns for the Museum in the Streets project ended up costing about half of what was budgeted. Gaughan said the extra money may be used for pamphlets;

— Authorized Gaughan to sign a software proposal from Williamson Law to allow the village to accept credit cards and echeck payments for water, sewer, and tax bills. The initial cost for the software programs is $745; there is then an annual cost of $240. Card holders will pay the service fee for using the payment options.

“It’s a convenience appreciated by customers,” said Gaughan, adding, “Although Guilderland does this, we are charging less for the service”;

— Approved the Altamont Fire Department’s participation in the St. Baldick’s parade from Crossgates Mall to the Westmere Fire Department on March 26, part of a fundraising effort to help children with cancer; and

— Scheduled the village’s annual re-organizational meeting for April 4 at 7 p.m. and also set a budget public hearing prior to the budget’s adoption on April 4 at 7 p.m. A budget workshop will be held on March 21 at 6 p.m. with a second workshop, if needed, on March 28, also at 6 p.m. All of these meetings will be held in the village hall.